Traveling with Twins: Samoset Resort

Morning @ Samoset

The location was the Samoset Resort in Rockport Maine, a mid-coast town two hours north of Portland and about ten hours from our place in Delaware.  The season? The cold one. Samoset is 70% a summer resort. It’s open only on weekends during the winter, but it maximizes its ski lodge feel for the three days of the week it’s open. We happened to be staying over New Years so it’s lobby Christmas tree and lights were still on display making us all want to celebrate Christmas all over again.  Plus, it It was a long weekend so we really enjoyed the five days we were there.

Rockport

The hotel restaurant was top notch, with excellent gourmet pizza and our favorite- a roasted pear salad. In case you wanted to get your swole-on before the wedding they have a full-sized weight room and lots of cardio equipment, where you can work off the craft beers and cheese plates from the hotel bar or to just look good in a sleeveless dress.

The one downside is I feel the resort is missing a light fare restaurant but I suppose during the summer they have a bit more options. We brought a ton of food for the kids and more for us keep us eating somewhat somewhat healthy.  You’re only a five minutes drive from good grub.

Milo was a tad over the cutoff weight and we were ecstatic when they let it slide.  He always gets positive attention as he has movie star good looks and doesn’t bark. The positive side of it being winter was he had access to all the grounds. During the summer most of the area between the hotel and bay would be golf greens. In January it is brown and frozen or white and snow covered which gave us plenty of space for Frisbee and football and he met some of the area well-fed foxes he happened upon. 

Since he was well-behaved he was allowed in all the common areas excluding the restaurant and fitness area. When it was 10 degrees out that was helpful not having to leave him the room all day while we explored.

We had an issue leaving, John and Julian did not want to leave.  They loved the long hallways and jumping on beds  It’s not secret, kids love hotels. They would have been happy if those were the only kid friendly amenities, but with an indoor pool (outdoor in the summer as well), a massive playground and an ice skating rink there was more than enough to fill a day.  

Ice Skating on premises

However that was not all they have. They have a ballroom converted into a play room with padded everything, board games, video consoles and a ping pong table. Over the five days the kids enjoyed their time with dozens of new friends and we got a kick out of watching them.

At night the hotel left out marshmallows and sticks to roast either inside in one of their fireplaces or in one of the fire pits they had situated outdoors.

Samoset Resort is five minutes from downtown Rockland and Rockport.  Depending on weather both are terrific walk-able towns.  We mostly drove through Rockport with a quick visit to Andre the Seal but spent a day in Rockland.

Fisherman at the Farnsworth

First things first.  It’s Maine so getting a Lobster Roll was the main objective. We hit up the Brass Compass Cafe and weren’t disappointed.  I mean these people beat Bobby Flay so of course it was good. The Chowder was darn tasty as well.  We had the kids in tow so we hit up Planet Toys and spent a good hour in there.  

Morning Tea

The kids fell asleep in the car so one of us got to check out the Farnsworth Art Museum while the other hung out in the car.  The Farnswoth had an astounding number of Andrew Wyeth art for a small museum, not to mention N.C. and Jamie’s Wyeth’s work as well.  This was a fantastic museum with several rotating exhibits, as well has a world class toy train village.  A must see if you are in the area and into Wyeth’s work as much as we are.  

We hit up the Waterworks Restaurant on Friday night.  Excellent Pub Food and a decent beer selection.  It was loud, which suits us perfectly with a long day behind us and the kids getting a bit curious by the end.  

We also had breakfast at the Offshore Restaurant our first morning. We ended up being the only ones in the restaurant so the kids ran around and loved the myriad of Christmas collectibles they had everywhere.  The broccoli omelette cheesy and good.

We recommend the Samoset with kids or without. They get extra points for being very accommodating. They even shipped a package to us at home that arrived after we had already left.