Marked the end of summer this past weekend with the traditional visit to Common Ground Country Fair. TL;DR: hippie-farmer vibes remain immaculate, ate not too much of many different tasty things, walked a lot more than I should have, and still love bucolic rural and eclectic mid-coast Maine.

Drove up Thursday via dinner at new-to-us Fish and Whistle in Biddeford, purveyor of Gulf of Maine-caught seafood. I'd wanted to try the squidwich but they had halibut fish & chips on special. We shared and I got to have both, as well as a starter roasted oyster. It was all excellent (fantastic fry job, I'm even willing to eat the chips) and the blueberry-buttermilk soft-serve made a nice finish. I look forward to future visits.

Got to Waterville early enough to unwind before sleeping. Friday started with excellent lattes from new-to-us Borderlands Coffee and the traditional bucolic backroads drive around the worst of the Fair traffic. Got parked way down the south lot which meant a long uphill walk just to get to the "10 minutes of wooded bliss" trail to the gate. I decided to try it instead of taking a shuttle and it turned out okay instead of last year's impossible.

First order of business was picking up a pre-ordered Fair T-shirt without buying too many others. Over the course of the next several hours I mostly wandered around snacking and enjoying the vibe instead of attending specific sessions. I did catch some of the History of Draft Horse Breeds in the US talk and was amused by equine shenanigans in the ring. Shires are large and this one was thunderously playful.

Tasty (organic) foods eaten included a bialy, a hand pie (enhanced by a toum shot from Dreamer Food), oysters on the half-shell, fried shiitake, and (Island Cow) ice cream (of course). Items bought included only one more T-shirt, a lightweight hoodie, seed garlic, and artisanal gochugaru. The switchel I had on the way out was much better than gatorade.

It was warm and very sunny and I was glad of my extra-shady desert hat; I'd rather look extra-dorky than sunburnt. Footsore on the other hand... I overdid the walking by a lot and took the shuttle back to parking; frotz kindly picked me up at the stop. Perhaps I'll be wiser next year and you can stop sniggering now.

Overnighted in Rockland after a fabulous fried chicken sammy (and tikka masala tots) supper followed by more ice cream (ars longa, vita herring est and it was still officially summer) in an adequate hotel that needs more plumbing reno. I paid the expected price for my ambulatory folly: a self-reinforcing cycle of poor sleep and vicious leg cramps.

Spent the next leisurely morning enjoying lattes and light brekkie at Cafe Grazie and revisiting the southern boardwalk part of the Rockland Harbor Trail for some gentle walking (enough to stretch things out after a crampy night). It was much cooler but Newty's was open (and hoping to continue into October, weather permitting). An affogato hit the spot before it was time to move on.

C wanted to hit Micucci's in Portland before they closed at 5 so we made a fairly direct drive there, stopping only at J&J Jamaican Grocery in Warren for house-made pattie takeaway for later (curried goat ftw) and a farewell to summer coconut limeade from Cafe Creme.

Once done shopping we ordered Peng's pizza for pick-up, figuring we'd eat it at home. However they got slammed with orders and are currently short-handed, so the ready time kept getting later. Decided to eat there once it was ready and went for a walk while waiting; given traffic signal timing I can see why jaywalking is local custom. We worked up an appetite and it turns out their excellent pizza is spectacular fresh from the oven. Got some much-needed salad too, A++, would dine-in again. Added amusement: people at the next table were discussing favorite pizza places and mentioned one in the Suburbs of Despair. I'm skeptical but may check it out, for Science! Just not for a while.

Then it was home to cranky cats who mostly forgave us after also getting fed and then provided with bedwarmers. A less-chilly night was had by all.

And just in case we were still hungry, we met up with friends at Tasty Dumplings on Sunday, a dinner we'd all been trying to make happen for weeks. It was good to see folks and eat (all of 3, for me) eponymously tasty dumplings, an excellent way to spend the last full day of summer.