Today began with heavy rain and an irritating pain in Rich’s back. We figured it would be mostly a rest day. Our plan was to pick up a quick breakfast from A Slice of Eden on our way to the farmer’s market, where we would buy our goat cheese and see what else they might have of interest.

It poured twice, very heavy brief showers, on our way to the bakery … which we found out too late is closed on Sundays. Bummer! It was almost time for the market, so we walked there and purchased our cheese (7 tubs!) and a few jars of local organic jam. I was hoping to find the awesome kalamata olive and fig goat cheese I bought last year, but the vendor (Yellow Birch Farm) wasn’t present this time.

Still hungry and looking for coffee and tea, we ended up back at a very busy Morning Glory yet again. Rich got his usual bagel with veggie cream cheese and I got a sticky bun. We also bought some thumbprint cookies again to enjoy during the day.

We came back to our room to enjoy our light breakfast and decide whether we wanted to go anywhere for the day. Turns out the weather was iffy enough to keep us close to town (although it actually didn’t rain again for the rest of the day). After wandering through the art show at the Village Green and in and out of a few junk shops, we sat at the waterfront for quite a long time just talking. We eventually made our way back toward our room, slowly, deciding along the way to stop for another round of coffee and tea (matcha for me this time) at a very busy Coffee Hound. Both drinks were enjoyable and they warmed us up as we sipped them on our way back along Cottage Street.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, maybe 2 hours, working on photos and benchmark recoveries. The sun finally came out.

We finally made it to Red Sky for supper, and it was worth the wait! Our reservation was for 5:30, opening time, but we wanted to arrive early in Southwest Harbor to do a bit of cheese shopping. We ended up buying some wine for my mother and some Lamb Chopper and Raschera for us at Sawyer’s Specialties, the wine & cheese shop, and the sharp cheddar for my mother (and some crackers) at Sawyer’s Market across the street.

Dinner was fantastic! We asked for a quiet table to avoid the potential for noise from a large group that arrived in a van from a Bar Harbor retirement community. We were given a nice table in the corner near the entranceway, which actually worked out really well. We were as far as possible away from the loudmouths, who turned out to not be too bad anyway (there were just a few loud outbursts once the booze hit).

The “amuse bouche” was a salmon mousse served with thin toasts. Then we shared Red Sky’s excellent bread with creamy fresh butter. Our appetizers were the small cheese plate (blue, soft goat, and New England cheddar with sliced California dried apricots, dried cherries, and homemade sesame crackers) and a salad of spicy mesclun greens dressed with a sweet ginger sesame sauce.

Our entrees were swordfish (for Rich) with a black bean and corn salsa, and the tagliatelle for me with roasted tomato basil sauce, summer squash and tomatoes, and shaved parmesan. Everything was so delicious! And after all that we had a tiny bit of room left for dessert. Rich was intrigued by “James’s Gingerbread” which is on the menu every year. We decided to try it, thinking it would be a tiny little square anyway. Two huge wedges came out on the plate! It was fantastic, though, not too sweet or rich and very spicy with lots of fresh ginger inside, and slightly toasted on the edges. We ate almost all of it! And Rich thought he didn’t like gingerbread …