Offbeat Eats

After a very pleasant hiking trip in Acadia National Park, we decided to have our celebration meal someplace that was on the way back towards NH and MA. We decided that Ellsworth, just outside of Acadia National Park. was a particular good spot to check out. Ellsworth started as a fishing site, then in the early history of our country grew into a major 19th-century lumber and shipbuilding powerhouse, before those industries started to shrink. Nowadays, Ellsworth is primarily situated as “The Gateway to Acadia National Park” and the “Downeast” region. Looking over the available options, we found a quirky one that sounded just up our alley: Josie’s Country Café, located inside Josie’s Country Store on Surry Road, just outside of downtown Ellsworth.

So, one of my former coworkers invited me to his wedding in Waikiki, and we decided it would be a good opportunity to go explore Oahu and its sights and cuisine. However, that means getting there from NH. There aren’t a lot of great ways to do that, with most every option involving either a long layover, multiple hops, or red-eye flights. Or a combination of these. Between that, and an actual snowstorm in Seattle (requiring us to wait almost an hour for what is apparently just the one deicing truck at SEA), we pulled into HNL at almost midnight. Luckily, we had known that our flight would be getting in relatively late, so that we decided that the easiest way to handle things would be to get a hotel room near the airport. However, the area around the airport is not exactly a culinary hotbed of activity (and, quite frankly, most anything else, unless you have access to the nearby military bases). And that entire area seems to be filled with former restaurants all boarded up. But amongst the few options available, we did find one gem of a place: Joe’s Grill Express.