The List of Left-Behinds

With all of the experiences we've had here, I think sometimes a list will give a better impression of the innkeeper's lot than anything else.  I'm giving it a try today.


As you may know, the lodging industry standard is to NOT contact people about found items in guest rooms.  Lawsuits related to extramarital affairs and other "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole" situations are to blame.  Sometimes that's a fun thing--look what we get if they don't call! Others it's just something we have to deal with.  Here's our current top ten list of things left in people's rooms after checkout:


10) large bottle of expensive cologne (airline regulations, perhaps?)


9) freshly pressed XXXL men's shirt from a room that housed two petite ladies


8) pens and comparable "gimmes" from other hotels


7) collection of seashells from the beach


6) gallon-sized ziplock bag full of makeup


5) tightie whities (The answer is briefs, folks. Unless people are abandoning them here and switching to boxers...)


4) garment bag full of dresses


3) unopened bottle of champagne


2) daily devotional book in our housekeeping tip envelope


     and the All-Time Champ?


1) a fist-sized rock with a piece of checkered fabric carefully glued to the surface

Fauna

A discovery that has reminded me of all our animal encounters in Maine inspired me to write today.  Yes, seeing a moose is right up there with visiting the Grand Canyon our bucket list.  No, it wasn't a moose (though one of our guests recently reported a sighting).

Just outside our bedroom window is an occupied robin's nest!  The fuzziest little guys are getting fattened up in there.  While we have seen robins at our erstwhile homes, we've had plenty of first encounters here, too.  Even ignoring marine life, we'll certainly never forget the group of wild turkeys that crossed the road and disappeared into the woods without a trace.  In our own yard we've seen a beautiful red fox as well as a frequent visitor we call the "attack duck".  He really likes to hang out in our bushes but gets scared when you come close.  The first attack duck sighting was really an unidentified object flying straight at my head.

We've even found the oreo cows in Kennebunkport!  I often see Belted Galloways on my way to the grocery store, just past the shipbuilding school.  Because there's obviously a shipbuilding school in my neighborhood.  I enjoy passing the pastoral scene.  Oh, look, ponies!  What a sweet vegetable garden!  Hey, it's a goat!  What a cute goat.  And it's standing right next to a man with an axe...  I almost craned my neck beyond safe driving limits to see what happened next, but some will be happy to learn that I discovered the goat safe and sound the next week.

To New Englanders this all may sound silly--just as being excited about kangaroos makes little sense to those Aussies who routinely shoot at them--but encountering wildlife or even domesticated animals outside of our personal norm is a great perk of moving to another region.  

Still Here

We realize we've gone a bit underground these past few months, and we keep getting pokes and prods from folks who would like to see a new post.  First of all, thanks for caring!

Here's a quick overall update on the experiment, and we promise to get back to the 'fun stuff' post-haste.

Well, we're still here and still feeling like we're on the busiest and best vacation of our lives.  Southern Maine is blooming.  It's really waking up for the season, and we've loved witnessing it.  We've met some awesome people from all over the states as well as foreign cities including Montreal, Edinburgh, and Perth.  We've met all kinds of area business people, too:  cab drivers, shop owners, restaurateurs, housekeepers, fishing charter... ers?, and other innkeepers.  In addition to new friends, we've played host to a couple of old ones.  And we're about to have the official first parent visit, so stay tuned ;)

So far the 24/7 job hasn't pulled us under, though the summer will be the true test.  Our favorite tasks have probably been renovating our new Tasting Room (you can glimpse some of the original hardwood floors below!) and developing new recipes for breakfast dishes and afternoon cookies.