Alan Ilagan

Our final full day in Ogunquit began with a continuation of the good food at Five-O. This is the first year (as far as I know) when they’ve offered breakfast, so we gave it a shot. Happily, the breakfast was just as tasty as the dinner – my streak of overindulgence was unabated as I sampled the lobster benedict, while Andy enjoyed his waffles and fresh strawberries with pure Maine maple syrup.

We did a little walking and shopping in the village, pausing at one of our favorite stores – Spoiled Rotten – which is one of the best places to find a gift for anyone left behind at home. While we were there, one customer backed into a table of glass jar candles, sending one smashing onto the floor. The owners were more than kind about it, saying not to bother with paying for it, and that it happened all the time. (If I were the customer who did that, I’d have bought three candles just to make up for the clean-up, but this guy was content to offer a brief apology.) The guys who run the store are always ready with a smile and a laugh, and set all their customers at ease, even if you’re not buying anything (or smashing things to pieces).

Andy went back to the room for an afternoon siesta while I wrote and read a little in front of the Village Market. The day was perfectly sunny, with a light breeze; we would have gone to the beach if we hadn’t seen the long parade of beach-going folks, but since it looked to be crowded with tourists (and their kids) we kept away. (I’m not a sit-on-the-beach kind of guy anyway, unless there’s an umbrella covered bar, which there wasn’t.)

For dinner we headed down to Katie’s Cafe on Shore Road, a destination for their over-the-top lobster mac and cheese with truffle oil – which is pretty much my culinary trifecta (and future arterial downfall). We arrived early and sat at the bar for a cocktail and conversation with one of the owners.

After being seated on the late-afternoon-sun-filled front porch, we checked out the menu and I decided that after a weekend of stuffing myself, the lobster mac and cheese was just too much, so I settled for a lobster ravioli instead, which was the best move I’ve made in a while.

Andy got the scallops with fiddleheads.

We both cleaned our plates, and since I had been so good about the mac and cheese, I got the raspberry dessert you see here.

Nothing makes me happier than having dessert.

Unless it’s having dessert with my husband.

After dinner, we stopped briefly on the Marginal Way – the light in the afternoon was completely different from the light of the morning, and the slant of the sun made the colors of the shore much richer. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to walk the whole length, as we had a movie to catch.

The movie at the Leavitt Theater was Sex and the City 2, which I had been excited about seeing, despite some savagely unkind reviews. I’m sad to say I enjoyed the historical theater and the popcorn better than the movie (yes, I got popcorn after all that – it’s a movie for God’s sake.) I didn’t hate it, but it was even emptier than I thought it would be. Perhaps saddest of all, I wasn’t that impressed with the fashion (nothing could ever come close to the wedding couture sequence of the first film) and without the fashion, what is the point? (Carrie’s “crown” for the gay wedding was dismal at best, and she completely ruined that otherwise-promising lavender and tan full-skirted dress with that ridiculous “J’Adore Dior” t-shirt. I love Dior too (especially with Galliano at the creative helm) but I would never wear a t-shirt proclaiming such. But enough about the movie, if it’s mindless fluff you’re after, go see it.  

Crossing the street back to the main drag, we saw that Bread and Roses was still open, so for one final time Andy went in and got his coffee and dessert. When we leave Ogunquit after our Fall visits, it is with sadness and regret – on those October days it feels like we’re putting the town to rest for the winter, and starting the long, gray trudge towards a Spring that feels so far away. When we depart now, we leave with the hope of a summer laid out before us, and an Autumn trip before we say goodbye for the year.

(The best ending, if you’ve enjoyed the journey, is “To Be Continued”, and since one of my favorite musicals is at the Ogunquit Playhouse in August (Sunset Boulevard – for sentimental reasons, not musical theater genius), I’ve already informed Andy that we will be making a summer visit earlier than planned.)

That makes this act of leaving nothing more than a promise to return.

Until then, the parade of blooms goes on and on and on…