Day 18 - 23 ... Clean Eating Away is Hard!

Hi All,

So - I'm back!  We just spent a fantastic weekend in Northeast Harbor, Maine - to surprise my Dad for his 70th Birthday.  I'll share some pictures with you (of course!) and some details of the weekend.  However I'll start off by saying that I had a plan going into this trip to continue to eat clean.  Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans... 

Eating clean does require a lot of planning and preparation.  When you don't have your own kitchen or a fridge to have your meals in - it is hard to eat 100% clean.  When every meal is out...and when you're in a place where there is many different dishes that you want to try, it is hard to eat clean.  

I ate as clean as I could when I could.  That's all I have to say about that! 

I'm not going to bore you with a day by day rundown of everything we did, ate, saw etc...  Just some highlights!

We were up on the 18th at the crack of dawn...well, before dawn actually to fly into Portland.  

Hello Portland!

We landed at 9am, and the first thing we did was ask the guy at the car rental counter where to eat breakfast. 

So this is where we went!  The Bayside American Cafe.  A really cute breakfast/brunch place that I would highly recommend!!   It was meal 1 on vacation and I went with Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict.  Yup - not entirely clean.  I will say - I didn't eat the English muffin.  I had a crab cake and one egg - and left the 3 potato hash alone. 

We then set out on the 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive up to Mount Desert Island and our home for the next few days - The Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor.   This was the view from our room...

After some lunch at the Inn (who is known for their Popovers... Yes, I ate Popovers with butter and Jam!  I also had an amazing Lobster Stew and a spinach and tomato quiche and didn't eat the crust!), and a much needed nap - We did some exploring.  We drove around and discovered Seal Cove and a beach that we took our selfie on.

And as the sun was setting on Seal Cove, we decided to drive into the town of Northeast Harbor for some dinner.  It was about 7pm - and the town had already rolled up its sidewalks!  All the stores were closed and there was a bar open and one other restaurant.  We headed back to Seal Cove and had a nice meal at a place called the Lighthouse - it wasn't a lighthouse nor was it on the water, but it was a good meal.

Then back to the Inn for a gorgeous full moon rise!

Bad thing about early to bed - is early to rise!  I was up at 5:15am the next morning...whether it was just because we went to bed at 10:30 the night before, or just sheer excitement as everyone was arriving on this day - and the Surprise would happen that night...  But here I am not happy to be up, watching the sun rise!

The colors in the sky were beautiful - I really don't think the camera on my phone did it any justice!

While I never really saw the "sun" rise - the changing of the sky and the boats getting the light shined on them was beautiful.  Dave and I then got up, had breakfast at the Inn (eggs and fruit!  Completely clean!!) and went into Bar Harbor to walk around, sight see, shop and of course, eat!

Day of the Surprise Selfie

I was given the name of a restaurant to try the Lobster Roll... the Side Street Cafe.  We went - we ate the Lobster Roll (and some Lobster Mac and Cheese!) and I will say - it was the BEST Lobster Roll I have ever had.  Absolutely the Best.  So good, that when we went into Bar Harbor the next day ... we went back and brought about 25 people with us!!

That night, the surprise went off with out a hitch - My father walked into a room filled with 30 of his family and closest friends to celebrate him for the weekend.  It was quite moving to witness... and quite exciting to know we had really pulled off the surprise!  8 months of planning for that moment was absolutely priceless!

The next day was a gorgeous one again!  We lucked out with the weather!!  We had hired a trolley to take the entire group on a tour of Bar Harbor and Arcadia National Park and had a wonderful time... Just look at these views from the top of Cadillac Mountain!!

And the rocky coast line by Thunder Hole...(the sea was calm, so we didn't hear the 'thunder')

We celebrated my Dad's birthday that night with a good old fashioned Lobster Bake!  More Popovers (yum!) but then it was all clean with Lobster and Mussels and Clams.  I was too full to even think about touching a potato or the corn!   I did have a small piece of amazing Birthday Cake though...and a taste of the best Blueberry Pie! 

The next day we were supposed to go on a whale watching tour - however the Foggy Maine weather had other plans for us!  

So instead of seeing Whales, we went back into Bar Harbor to do some shopping, eating and lots and lots of walking!  Some of the Family at Stewman's in Bar Harbor where we had lunch (yup, I got the Crab Cake again!).

Poor Julia behind the Pole!

And Fog will not stop my nieces and nephews from playing in the heated pool either!  The adults sat on the deck to watch them - and eat more Popovers! 

Our Departure day was even foggier - and this time Rainy.  I think Northeast Harbor was sad to see us go!  We were sad to leave, but believe me - we will be back...  and next time - the pups will come with us!  The Inn allows dogs and it is such a dog friendly area... I think that is one of the reasons why we fell in love with it!

So we leave the rain and fog of Mount Desert Island and drive back to Portland, where it was gorgeous and sunny!  We had lunch at a wonderful restaurant on the waterfront Boone's Fish House (yummy Haddock stuffed with Scallops and Lobster!) and then even had time to visit Portland Head Light.

It was such an amazing trip.  Other than missing the Whale Watching - not one thing went wrong or was spoiled.  Everyone had an amazing time.  This will go down in my book as one of the best trips ever.  Every single meal was delicious.  Every single event was fun and filled with lots of laughs and good times. 

It was good to get home and back to my babies.  It was also good to get home and back on the clean track.  You really do feel a difference when you are eating clean and then you don't eat clean.  Your body feels it, your energy level feels it...  I am very happy that I didn't go to hell with myself and eat everything that I wanted, clean be damned.   I am proud that under the circumstances, I ate about 80% clean every day.  There were some challenges (like those darn Popovers!!) but all in all - I'd say I was relatively successful.

But now that I'm home... and the challenge end is in sight - it's 100% clean from here on out!

Until Next Time...

EAT (Popovers!! lol)