KITSCH in KITTERY? NO IT'S YORK

It was a perfect bicycling day in Southern Maine.  I headed out at 10am and didn't return for six and a half hours.  I was in JOY JOY.  Now I am in SORE SORE.  NEW SORE but with NEW SUMMER ALE to ease the pain.  I will sleep very well tonight.  I earned my pastrami sandwich and beer.

 

What fun! I cycled up the coast before the crowds came out to enjoy this slendorific New England day.  It was in the mid 70's  with a light breeze.  It was a SUN-DAY before the official beginning of summer. By 12:30 I was as far north as I wanted to ride for my first really long day out exploring this year. I made a loop and headed back south.  Soon families started arriving all along the coastline to play in the surf and sand, sunbathe and eat beach food.  They arrived right around the time that I needed to refuel.  I was hungry.  I had thought about refueling by the light house or by the harbor but I wanted a place less yupped up and more family retro.  And then I saw it - YORK'S WILD KINGDOM - ZOO AND FUN PARK.  I had to go in and savor the place.

Can I call the place KITSCH in KITTERY?  No, it is in YORK.  Can I call it RETRO?  No, I think I should call it ORIGINAL and AUTHENTIC.  It doesn't look as if they have changed anything since the 60's.  It is perfect.  Mini golf, arcade, toss games, the big gorilla robot over the jungle house, the rides, the go carts, the house of mirrors and more, it is all there PLUS a ZOO.  Maine really is VACATIONLAND. And I am sure that the kids enjoy it just as much as kids did in the 60's.  In fact, some of those 60's kids were there today.

 

 

OK - so instead of a lobster roll at a restaurant by the shore I opted for a stop at the FUN PARK to eat a good old fashioned cheese burger, order of fries and fountain root beer ($6), and absorb the family Americana vibes of Maine.  A NEW DO with an OLD theme.  It was just the fuel that I needed to pedal back to Kittery against the wind. 

And the pastrami sandwich?  My host and the dogs were out for a run when I returned so I exchanged my bike for my car and headed out looking for a grocery store to buy something for all of us to eat for dinner.  I couldn't find a supermarket.  In fact, I didn't see one all day while cycling.  I don't think big supermarkets exist in Southern Maine.  Finally, rather than wasting gas hunting I stopped at a CITGO station on RT 236 that had groceries and pizza and PASTRAMI and beer.  Whew.  I don't know Maine.  I am not from here.  I wasn't sure if I had to go to a state package store to buy ale.  But this is not New Hampshire.  It is just NEW to me.  My one stop shopping at CITGO got me a six pack of beer and a large pastrami take home sandwich to share.  It was just perfect.

So how about you?  Did you discover a NEW place this weekend?  Did you DO something NEW?  How about tasting a NEW BREW?  :0)