We just got back from a wonderful trip to Maine with Val and her husband Steve!

The seed for this trip was planted when I asked Val if she wanted to go to New Hampshire to run a race being announced by Ali from the Ali on the Run podcast. Then it became “we should bring our husbands too and explore the area!” Then we realized Ali would understandably not be announcing any races there but decided we should still go. When I mentioned that on the blog Kiersten said “if you’re going to be in New Hampshire you might as well come to Maine too!” And I was like, duh, Steven and I have been talking about how we want to visit Maine for YEARS. Like, since college. 20 years ago. F-o-r-e-v-e-r. So we pivoted to a Maine trip with maybe a day trip to New Hampshire. And I’m so glad we did!

Val, Steve, and I booked this trip when we were together in August, and I threw a few ideas and restaurants on our travel spreadsheet shortly after, then was a super slacker when it came to planning anything. Oops. When we left Sunday morning, I knew we’d figure it out when we were all together (and Steve was so complimentary of all the planning I did. I appreciate that, because I felt like I did so little!).

Ugh, also, when we left Sunday morning, I had a slightly scratchy throat. It came out of nowhere (well, that’s not true – it came from SOMETHING, I just mean I didn’t have any symptoms before Sunday morning). I tried to think positively that it was just from the switch to cooler weather, but nope, by the time I went to bed Sunday night, my voice was all weird and my face was draining. Wah.

Why body, why? Why do you do this to me when I am finally on a vacation? (Answer: because my body is finally NOT in a constant stress state and sees an opportunity to get sick?)

Anyway. For the first few days of this trip I didn’t feel like my normal energetic travel version of Kim. But it got better by the third full day, thankfully.

So back to Sunday. Steven and I flew out of Chicago ORD in the late morning and arrived in Portland, Maine in the early afternoon. It looked charming and quaint just flying in! I was excited to see it on the ground.

We picked up our rental car and went to the downtown Portland area to kill some time before we picked up Val and Steve. It was nice to get the lay of the land before they got in, since we did most of the driving and navigating.

After they arrived (and Steven and Steve met for the first time!) we got a few things from the grocery store, then went back down to the downtown/port area to walk around and get dinner. Val and Steve had been to Portland on an upper east coast trip they did in May and knew a bit about the shops and history of the area, which was fun (since, see above, I had done no research).

At one point, we walked down a harbor and a local said “What do you call a deer with no eyes?” We asked what, and he responded “No I deer” but with the accent it sounded like “idear” and we all thought it was hilarious.

We went to The Green Elephant, an Asian Vegetarian Restaurant for dinner. We got some appetizers, noodle dishes for our main course, and tried the pumpkin tapioca. Everything was pretty good, but I was fading fast at that point (I hadn’t taken any cold medicine since I thought it was just a tickle in my throat).

Then we headed to our Airbnb in Standish (<– definitely click that link to see how beautiful it is!). When I research Airbnbs I’m all about the ambiance/aesthetic of it, and the amount of bathrooms and bedrooms. This Airbnb did NOT dissapoint. It was a cute little home in the woods that looked exactly like the listing photos and we all loved it! I love when I’ve found a great Airbnb because I’ve picked out some real stinkers!

We hung out a bit in the Airbnb but didn’t stay up super late because we’d all had a long day, especially Val and Steve because they had a connecting flight to get to Portland from Denver. Oh! But Steven and I did watch an episode of Silo, since the Airbnb had Apple+. He liked it, so we may have to get a month subscription to finish it up at home!