Don’t miss this outdoor experience: an ice bar and 40 different pies!

DSCN4426It’s a brilliant idea, linking the eating of pie to donations to a food bank.  Rockland’s annual Pies on Parade is an event that Linda and I try to never miss. It’s scheduled for Sunday, January 31, 2016, from 1 to 4 pm.

The two previous weekends, you’ve also got good reason to visit Rockland, because the Samoset Resort will be featuring it’s amazing and beautiful ice bar. We love any excuse to visit the Samoset, and the ice bar is an especially good one. They start with 50,000 pounds of ice and carve that into a spectacular setting just outside their indoor bar and restaurant, overlooking the ocean.

10524362_10205722505332269_9189363782524377958_nThe Samoset is called a resort for good reason, including the spa, swimming pool, sauna, exercise room, indoor kid’s playground, wonderful restaurant, and this time of year an outdoor ice rink and campfires with s’mores, plus a general manager, Connie Russell, who is Mr. Hospitality. Open only on weekends in the winter, the Samoset offers special packages that make this the preferred go-to winter escape.

We don our warmest clothing for the ice-bar experience, get our drinks, and sit on large ice chairs draped with fur, enjoying the spectacular moonlight dancing across the ocean. It’s a unique and special outdoor experience that you ought not to miss.

Pies on Parade

Pies on Parade MikeJust imagine: 25 businesses offering samples of 40 different pies. Well, you don’t have to imagine this, because that’s what Pies on Parade offers. In my mind, I justify all that indulgent eating by walking from business to business. Schooner Bay Taxi does offer free transportation at designated stops, but if you are able to walk, all the places are within easy walking distance.

The Food network designated Rockland “Pie Town USA” and this event sells out quickly, so I encourage you to reserve your tickets now. You can do that by calling 207-596-6611, or ordering those tickets by emailing info@historicinnsofrockland.com. More information is also available at the Historic Inns of Rockland website, (www.historicinnsofrockland.com).

Tickets cost $30, which provides 3 meals a day for a family of 4 for 5 days. As Marti Mayne of Maynely Marketing, who promotes the project, says, “Since all proceeds from Pies on Parade are donated to the AIO Food Pantry, you can feel good knowing your day of pie-enjoyment will provide 60 meals to hungry families on Maine’s midcoast.”

Pies on Parade InnsA wide range of amazing pies are served here, including Shepherd’s Pie, pizza, seafood pies, sweet pies, and YES! Whoopy pies. You won’t want to miss the now-famous Key LimeRock Pie at the LimeRock Inn and the traditional berry pies at the Berry Manor Inn. And for those who are focused on healthy eating, you’ll find sugar-free and lavender yogurt pies and pies made with healthy olive oil.

I have a strategy for this event, which includes beginning at the Berry Manor Inn to make sure I do so before getting full. My goal has always been to try the pies at all 25 businesses and last year I got to 14 of them, an all-time record.

Marti encourages you to make a weekend of this. “After all, friends don’t let friends drive under the influence of pie!” she notes. You can book a Pies on Parade package at the Historic Inns website and take advantage of pie-add-ons offering an amazing array of opportunities from two personal pies baked for you, to a $50 midcoast money voucher for dinner on Saturday at a choice of many area restaurants, to two tickets to a Bay Chamber concert and pie tasting at Granite Inn on Saturday afternoon, and lots more.

If you really want to whet your appetite, check out the Pies on Parade video (http://youtu.be/BfCeg9f4z8o). We’ll see you there!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.