Lobsters and lighthouses

When Margie Sandles asked us to join her on a trip through Maine, we decided a fun goal would be to search out the best lobster in the area and see as many lighthouses as we could find.

In mid-September, I set out on an adventure with Sandles and Irene Malone from Newport Beach and Pat Bengfort from Costa Mesa. We had all become friends from a water aerobics class.

One of our first stops was to shop. In Freeport, Maine, is an outlet center with a well known L.L. Bean outlet store.

We decided to try mostly the local restaurants during this trip, so on our way to Island Falls, we stopped at Shirley’s Restaurant for dinner. It’s a small place frequented by locals with good homemade food and friendly people.

Island Falls is a small town of less than 1,000 people. It is an area of many lakes and rolling hills. We were there just before the full fall foliage, but the previews of bright fall colors were beautiful.

In the morning we had breakfast at Tiffany’s in Island Falls. This quaint restaurant was the lower floor of an old Cape Cod-style house.

We drove into Canada to visit Kings Landing in New Brunswick, a village replicating life in Canada in the mid-1800s. On our return we drove over the world’s longest covered bridge. It is 1,282-feet long. We then found out that Malone, our skillful driver, is not at all fond of bridges. We asked her to please not close her eyes as she drove through!

After four days of northern sightseeing, we headed south for our next stop -- Ellsworth, Maine, with a population of about 6,000 people. Here we really indulged our love of lobster with authentic Maine shore dinners, lobster rolls and a few clams and mussels on the side.

We took several boat tours along the rocky coast to see some of the old lighthouses. We saw three: the Indian Island Light, the Curtis Island Light and Bass Light.

One of the high points here was a trip through Acadia National Park, a beautiful area with mountain and ocean scenery. We drove up to Cadillac Mountain, which is 1,520-feet high, the highest point on the U.S. eastern seaboard.

Throughout our trip, we stayed in places with indoor pools in order to keep up with our water workouts. With all that lobster, we needed it!

* ANN O’CONNELL is a Corona del Mar resident.