I recently wrote about how I go about finding the best AirBNB unit for a trip, when planning to visit Portland. Well, that trip finally came around this past weekend, so that I could run the Maine Marathon.
Start and finish of the Maine Marathon in Portland
Sidenote – the Maine Marathon is a great race. Super friendly people, beautiful course, and we lucked out with some great weather. My race wasn’t great because I’ve dealt with recent injuries and my summer training wasn’t great, but I now have state #14 in the books! The race has a half marathon option as well as a relay option if you aren’t up for a full marathon. Perhaps I’ll drum up the energy to write a proper race report on my running blog.
While the purpose was to travel to Portland for the marathon, our AirBNB unit ended up being in Brunswick, about 30 minutes to the north. I personally don’t mind the extra driving and find that I can save money by staying a bit further away.
While I’m sure Portland is also great with nice things to see and do, staying in Brunswick was a great decision. We were within easy walking distance to Maine St, with its many shops and restaurants.
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Before I go any further, I do need to admit that I’m sometimes a terrible blogger. While I took what seems to be hundreds of photos at a few of the scenic places we visited, I don’t have a single photo of any of the food we ate, or of the town of Brunswick itself. Now that I’ve scolded myself, I’ll do better next time!
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When we arrived on Friday night, we didn’t feel like going out to eat in a restaurant, and in fact were not even that hungry after eating a big meal on the road. Even though our AirBNB didn’t have a kitchen, it was nicely set up for eating in, with nice plates and cups and silverware. So we took food out from an Italian restaurant in town with the Best. Name. Ever. – The Great Impasta. We ordered up a lasagna, which came with salad and bread, and it was more than enough for the both of us.
The bridge from Brunswick to Topsham
On Saturday we started out early with a walk down Maine St and across the bridge to Topsham to eat breakfast at Blueberries. Caroline had one of the specials, eggs with corned beef hash, and I had an egg wrap and a piece of french toast, which is a homemade cinnamon swirl bread dipped in a vanilla cinnamon custard. Everything was delicious. The menu was extremely varied, with pancakes, tacos, a rice bowl, and breakfast skillets. If we lived in Brunswick, Blueberries would definitely be in regular rotation.
Bowdoin Mill Island is the home to Blueberries restaurant
Next, we discovered a neighborhood yard sale across the street from our AirBNB (and there was a second bonus yard sale happening next door!). At the first sale, Caroline picked up four juice glasses with a floral design, a periwinkle Pfaltzgraff bowl, and two deep green bowls made right in Maine.
At the neighboring house, we added some elephant-print material (Caroline can’t sew but she’s lobbying a friend to make some pillow covers for her) and a journal.
Awesome yard sale haul, all for less than $5!
I was intrigued by a local sight called Giant’s Stairs, which is located on Bailey Island and about a half hour from where we were staying. We drove over there late in the morning, and while the parking area was pretty limited, we were able to find a spot.
Giant’s Stairs is located in a place called McIntosh Lot Preserve, which is a quarter mile walking path along a set of spectacular rocks just off the water. The actual stairs are a set of giant rocks that look like steps leading down into the water, and are identified by a marker that was presented to the town in 1910.
The Giant’s Stairs, leading down into the water
After walking around the Preserve area, we got back in the car and drove to Land’s End, the literal end of the road/land at the south of Bailey Island. Land’s End consists of a small beach and a bunch of rocks with great views of the water and other islands, a statue dedicated to local fisherman, as well as a big souvenir shop, not to be confused with the clothing company called Lands’ End, which is based in Wisconsin.
The view from Lands’ End
In the afternoon we went to Portland to pick up my race number, attend a meetup for the 50 states marathon club, and get a pasta dinner. We had some time to kill and went for a drive to another rocky shore area, this one called Two Lights, because at one time there were 2 lighthouses.
Currently only one is in operation, called Cape Elizabeth Light, and that is the one pictured at the top of the page. We were unable to find the other lighthouse, although it is apparently still standing.
View to the water from Cape Elizabeth – rocks, water and clouds
While I was at the marathon on Sunday, Caroline went into the neighborhood stores, including the weekend flea market and some antique shops, and picked up three pieces of vintage jewelry and a scarf (made in Italy!).
More great items, this time from local flea markets and antique shops
Sunday was spent recovering from the marathon, but we also had a great dinner on Sunday night, at Sea Dog Brewing Company, also on Bowdoin Mill island (where we had breakfast at Blueberries on Saturday). The restaurant is housed inside the original Bowdoin Mill, which was built in 1868!
We decided to sit outside on the patio, which had a magnificent view of the Androscoggin River on one side (pictured below), and the bridge between Brunswick and Topsham on the other.
I tried their signature Irish drink, the Sea Dog Stout, a very dark beer, and had a great burger. Caroline opted for the fish and chips, and we also had their pretzel appetizer with a cheese sauce, which was outstanding.
Beautiful view from the Sea Dog patio
The final enjoyment we had over the weekend was at Frosty’s Donuts, a local Brunswick tradition. The original location was in Brunswick and they have since expanded to a few additional Maine locations. I ended up getting donuts over there three times! You can excuse me for that because I ran a marathon 🙂
Generally my favorite donuts are ones with maple, and Frosty’s did not disappoint. They had a maple frosted cake donut as well as a maple frosted blueberry donut. But you have to get there early in the morning to get their evidently very popular maple raised donut (which I did on Sunday early before the marathon) and it was amazing. They open at 4am, and on the days we went in there after 8am, the maple raised was already gone!
My only regret on the trip was discovering after our 6 hour drive home that the Billy Joel Channel had returned to Sirius XM – would have liked to have passed a few of the driving hours with those great tunes!
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We almost got to cross a travel destination off of our 100 dreams list! #74 is Bar Harbor. While we didn’t quite get there, Brunswick is the gateway to mid-coast Maine, and only about 2.5 hours from Bar Harbor.
Caroline and I will certainly be back to Maine to discover more of the coast, and to get to Bar Harbor. Have you been to Maine? What do you recommend?
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
Wish you would have clicked some photos of the delicious food you age there. We love tempting ourselves with food pictures. The giant’s stairs looks like they are leading you towards heaven. Can you recommend a quiet place in Maine to read a book while sipping good coffee and spending a lazy afternoon?
It’s been so long, over 4.5 years, and that was our only trip so far, so I unfortunately don’t have any other recommendations. But it is fun to just explore!