Destination...Bangor, Maine.

So we took a couple of days in July to re-group from all our travels and to explore our local metropolis of Bangor. A couple of facts for you: Bangor is the third largest city in Maine with a population of 31,473 in the year 2000. Bangor is also the home to horror and science fiction author Stephen King.

Anyway, we've discovered our favorite place to go for drinks is a restaurant/bar called the Red Martini. There is a great used bookstore downtown called Lippincott Books. The best bread I've ever eaten came from the Monks Bakery (really run by monks...which causes for weird hours and impromptu closings due to mission trips to south america and other foreign countries). The bread is called bauernbrot, an authentic German sourdough bread. Another great find is across the river from Bangor in a town called Brewer, it is the Eagles Nest restaurant. It looks like a tiny house precariously perched above the Penobscot River. They have the best lobster rolls we've ever eaten (and this summer we've had quite a few!). In addition to that, we've found two restaurants worth mentioning: Opus and Cafe Nouveau.

On the 25th of July we experienced the Bangor State Fair! And what an experience it was...

This is us on the SEA DRAGON! So we noticed that the Bangor Fair brings a lot of interesting people out of the woodwork...and we didn't stay too long. But we did get to enjoy the Sea Dragon and a Dough Boy (fried dough...there's nothing better). And after a beautiful sunset:

We went to dinner and a movie! That was about it for our time in the big city before we headed right back out into the Maine wilderness...