Not up until 0800hrs this morning probably something to do with the triple drinks we drank before bedtime last night!

So the weather is better today still overcast but at least no rain so we have decided to take a walk into the town of Freeport after breakfast and if nothing else purchase a map.

The buffet breakfast was nice enough especially given it was free maybe that has to do with the name of the place, who knows. Anne of course ate loads, me very little. Well that's my interpretation of breakfast, Anne's is slightly different, I will let you good readers decide:
Anne, bowl of fruit, pancake, maple syrup, two rashers of bacon and scrambled egg.
Me, bowl of cereal, two pancakes with maple syrup, two slices of toast.

The winner is me, much healthier and just less to eat. Please put your votes on Facebook.

Anyway once I'd managed to prise Anne away from the food we wandered towards town. On leaving the hotel I was amazed to see ( pointed out by Anne) the most beautiful McDonalds you could wish to find. It was a White painted wooden structure with muted signage and just looked like one of the local typical colonial houses. Not a brash, gory looking modern structure we have in the UK. We continued into town and became aware of the quality of shops in Freeport, Oakley, Gap, Body Shop, Clarks, Tommy Helfiger, Van Heusten to name but a few. Not your typical UK high Street by any means. Luckily I spotted my favourite place, Starbucks which we visited and enjoyed a drink and free wireless Internet. Now it was Anne's turn to spot a shop she liked, not surprisingly it had to do with food and was in fact a chocolate shop. We entered, me thinking a couple of minutes browsing, a small purchase and out. Not a chance, you'd think I'd know by now but for some reason i always expect the quick exit. Anyway we actually spent so long in there that the staff have invited us to their Christmas Party ( I kid you not). Luckily for me the items Anne wanted to purchase were only available as a special order so she was unable to buy them. In the end we managed to leave and only buy a couple of bags of sweets for a cheap price. So other than the fact a substantial part of my life passed away in there it was a cheap visit.

We had by this time purchased a map of the New England area so made our way back to the hotel lounge to study it and decide where to go for the rest of the day.

We had just got ourselves seated in the lounge when a young lady, her mother and the hotel florist arrived to discuss flowers for the wedding rehearsal. Now I'm not sure if a wedding rehearsal here in the good old US of A means the same as it does in the UK, I hope not. I have never heard so much debate over flowers in my life, colours, type, height, availability and god knows what else. And if this was all for a rehearsal god help the actual wedding. What must the cost be? I was breaking out into a cold sweat just at the thought of it and it had nothing to do with me!! Eventually they left but not before the father of the bride arrived, the groom and email details had been exchanged with promises to keep in touch over the summer as it was important to know what flowers were doing well and what weren't. There was also some discussion about fertility or was it fertiliser, not sure now but I do remember the father of the bride saying something about not using too much. This may have been directed towards his prospective son in law!!

After this interesting botanical interlude we decided to go for a drive and see where we ended up. Anne was excited to be able to put her new map to use and we set off with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Where we were going to and what we would find no one knew. It was like the starship enterprise going off on it's mission to explore new worlds and find new civilisations, an adventure was possible of biblical proportions. As it turned out we ended up at the Maritime museum at Bath. Okay maybe not the adventure we could have had but not a bad place to end up. Entry to the place was upon payment having been met by an effivecent lady who although her job seemed to be to advise us on how to navigate around the museum, which to be fair was much bigger than it looked from the front ( I could use the phrase huge but I've over used that recently so won't although it was) she took it upon herself once she found out we were from the UK to tell us where to go to eat tomorrow, something about the best lobster bun in Maine. It is apparently on our route so we will give it a try. She also asked if we'd had lunch, we hadn't so she suggested we go to the Even Keel Cafe for a bite to eat and pointed us the right direction. Now I am about to go off on one here as I expected, and rightly so I feel, that by using the word cafe it would be an inside sit down sort of establishment. No it was a shack and I have photographic evidence to support my claim. It had never seen a cafe, I've seen bigger hot dog stall in the UK. If I'd been at home I'd have had them done under the Trades Description Act.

We did eat at this establishment and surprisingly it was fish soup stuff we had, actually not too bad although Anne thought it a little greasy!

The museum itself was quite interesting and we spent a couple of hours there wandering round looking at the exhibits. Eventually though we had to leave an wend our way back to Freeport, via a different route but as it happened a shorter one that surprised us by bring us out directly opposite the hotel causing me to panic, make a right turn and spend the next ten minutes trying to get back to the hotel. We made it and we arrived in time for the 'complimentary' afternoon tea. Some people reading this may be surprised that we didn't actually partake of the afternoon tea but those of you who witnessed my father nearly being killed by a mass of geriatrics whilst on a cruise in 1996 will understand why. The hotel is full of over 70's and I was not willing to put my life at risk for a sandwich and a cup of tea. As a result Anne and I were forced to make a strategic withdrawal to the bar and have a couple if alcoholic beverages to calm the nerves.

Turns out that today's barman is not only a soccer fan but a coach and ex professional player, he played one season in the Dutch 3rd Division. Nice to have someone to talk to about a proper sport and not rounders or gay rugby!!

So having finished a few drinks, Anne being on some champagne and blackcurrant drink, off back to the room to get ready for dinner. We'd decided to eat at the Tavern tonight rather than in the main dining room.

Dinner, well little did I know the show that was in store for me! Everything started off fine, nice friendly waitress, nice starters, me Brie and cranberry sauce Anne, an apple salad. Then the choice of the main course had arrived, again I'd gone for the easy option, pork in an apple and onion sauce with dauphinoise potato, not Anne, she'd chosen lobster clam bake!! Now to Anne's surprise this course started with a bowl of clam chowder, very nice and easy to eat, then the fun started. The waitress first delivered two bowls one with clarified butter ( to dip the chunks of lobster meat in) the second of water in which to rinse the clams before eating them ( as the waitress said they can be a little muddy)! Next a metal bucket arrived about the size of an ice bucket and from it with the skill and flourish of a second rate magician the waitress pulls out a set of what looked like nut crackers, a hand wipe and a plastic bib!! Anne's face was a picture to behold by this point, a mixture of concern, amazement and that old favourite 'why oh why did I choose this' ? The waitress then returns with the largest bowl ever seen by man, full of clams ( in their shells), dozens of them, on top of these is a 1.5lb lobster, still suited and booted together with one huge (there's that word again) corn on the cob. Now if Anne's face had previously been a picture I have no words to describe how it looked now. The waitress seeing clear signs from Anne that she was about to flee from the room screaming, stepped in and calmed the ship by explaining the procedure to be adopted when tackling something that looked like it had come from the set of an Alien film. To be fair Anne took on board the instructions ( business speak, work creeping in again) and commenced battle with the lobster. At one point I actually thought the lobster had the beating of her but she girded her loins and counter attacked forcing it to eventually capitulate and the trophy was attained (Anne ate the lobster meat). The clams were a different kettle of fish ( before anyone contacts me I know clams are nit fish it's a phrase okay?), their method of defence was more like the resistance movement in the 2nd World War, underhand and devious. The clams looked hideous, worse than mussels and had bits you had to pull off and discard before you ate them. Anne surrendered this battle without a fight, a hasty retreat was made after a quick diversionary attack on the corn in the cob. The whole episode was so funny and to see Anne face a challenge like that was brilliant, my impression now is that she has done the clam/lobster thing and that will be it fir the rest if the holiday, I'm not sure it is an experience she will get over soon. I will be keeping an eye on Anne for any signs of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or LWS (lobster war syndrome).

I thought that the merriment was over for the evening but that was until the witches of Eastwick entered the dining room. Three women with mobiles stuck permanently to their ears or texting. Now one of them looked like the dead one from Two Fat Ladies (sorry can't remember her name), although to be fair before she died and one of the others looked like waynetta! The third looked like no one other than herself I assume although given they looked like a covern of witches that had descended from Salem she may have actually looked different and the face and body we saw may have in fact not been her really. As we had finished our meal we were able to leave before any spell casting took place and I was possibly turned into one of those over large man eating shrimps from the other night.

To bed and a new day awaits tomorrow .