Lighthouses and Lobster

Since my last post we didn't make it very far. We ended up staying 2 nights in the East Hartford Cabela's so Ian could work on the solar panels and then we had to head to Hudson Massachusetts to go to AltE Solar to pick up some other parts.
We entered Maine and went to visit  the Cape Neddick Lighthouse but there was no room to park our rig so I snapped a pic

and we headed out again and happened to see a

 It was the first we've had since leaving on April 17th so we HAD to stop and have a large double double :)

Then it was on towards LL Bean to have a look.

The store is so big that it is the size of a small mall, has it's own postal code and has been opened 24/7 since 1951! It was huge but I am not sure it warrents staying open 24/7. Surely they don't get that much business at 3:00 in the morning!

We heard about a boondocking spot here at LL Bean but that area has since been developed. When I asked the staff at LL Bean about parking for the night I was told you can "unofficially" stay at their RV parking lot down the road by the LL Bean Outlet.

"You aren't supposed to but people do it and we don't tow you"

is what I was told. There were others parked there but we decided to backtrack a bit and head to the Cabela's at Scarborough. We knew we could stay there with no troubles and the thought of being asked to move in the middle of the night, packing the girls into their car seats, and searching for somewhere else to go didn't sound like fun. Before leaving though we had a look around LL Bean. The girls had fun playing in the kids section and we managed to leave without a single thing :)

The next morning we headed out on the Coastal Highway (1) and made a stop at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse is apparently the most visited lighthouse in Maine. There is no admission to pay to go into the light house (or the fishermans museum) but there is a $2 fee per adult to park and yes there was room to park our rig. (we googled it this time before driving over to it)

We enjoyed touring the lighthouse and some time playing on the rocks before and after the tour.

I loved the layers of these rocks

If there is a puddle to be found...Aayla will find it!

In the fishermens museum their was a room filled with
scrapbooks about fishing and some
 books for the girls to read too.

And Sierra was so excited to be able to go into the lighthouse but Aayla was too little so I sat out with her while Sierra and daddy went up. It was very steep and very tight at the top.

We left here in search of lobster :) and a place to stay for the night, passing through some little fishing villages.

We stopped and bought some lobster

and then headed to the Walmart in Ellsworth for the night. We had a lot of company here

and not just all the RV's...the mosquitos here were the worst I have ever encountered. As it started to get dark they swarmed you the instant you opened the door.

We now know it takes an hour to boil water so only buy the lobster if you are ready to cook it right away! We were told to get our guys in the water within an hour. They were out for 1 1/2 hours but were both still moving so we cooked them up as soon as the water would let us.

Sierra also learned a hard lesson tonight. Meat comes from animals. She was devistated that we cooked her little friends.

 She cried and cried. We had to have a little talk about pigs are bacon, hamburgers are cows, chicken is real chickens etc. I think we might have created a vegetarian this night! Sierra says, "No I like meat! I like meat sandwiches, I just don't eat cows and pigs and chickens and lobsters. The animals should live and be with their families".

 Our cooked lobsters

 Which were not nearly as enjoyable as they should have been. It's really hard to enjoy a lobster when someone (Sierra) is holding onto their claws, petting them and saying, "I'm sorry my mom cooked you. I am sorry you can't be with your family. I'm sorry you are dead. I am sorry my mom just ripped off your leg, I am sorry my mom is going to eat you...Mom he wants to go back to his family...you can't eat him"!!! and then bursts out in more tears...poor girl I felt so bad.

 Lesson to be learned... do not let your child see a live lobster, even for only 2 minutes, if you plan on cooking them and eating them because 2 minutes is apparently all it takes to become a pet!