My Life as a Maine Innkeeper: July 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

Hot, Humid and Happy

Well it has been hot and humid here in Maine which is a bit unusual since this type of weather usually doesn't last this long. Despite this weather, I have been happy -lots of guests fussing over me and long afternoons of being lazy under the pine tree on the patio. This is our busy time of year, beginning in July and through the end of October so Amy and Mark are in the thick of it but enjoying the new people passing through and the guests who return year after year. We just had a nice young couple return for their second anniversary after spending their honeymoon here! A nice sweet deal for returning guests is the 10% off Amy and Mark give them on the room rate. My patio has been busy with guests enjoying tea in the afternoons and sitting out in the evenings when it cools down to listen to the quietness and relax after dinner at one of Bath's great restaurants. Our B&B is truly a relaxing getaway whether you are staying for one night or for a week - a nice calm port in the middle of the vacation whirlwind.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Happy Anniversary

The three of us cannot believe it - it has been 5 years to the day since we opened the doors of the Benjamin F. Packard House Bed and Breakfast. From those frantic six weeks we had to get the place ready to open with buying furniture, bedding, decorating and planning to our first guests (I'll never forget them Amy let them bring their little dog in for the night) to updating bathrooms and other off season projects and finally to all the great guests who have graced our doorstep in the last five years - it has been wonderful. Besides the business, living in Bath has just enhanced the last 5 years. This is a fabulous "little city" to live in. Our neighbors and friends are great, the downtown is vibrant and there is always something happening. This weekend is the big Heritage Days Celebration with a craft fair, chowder/chili cook off, boat parade, carnival, live music and, my favorite, the 4th of July parade. Amy and Mark usually take me along and I am quite the hit with parade watchers - maybe someday they will actually ask me to be in the parade! Of course, there will be fireworks too - but I stay home for those. You could say I am not a fan of the fireworks. So Happy Anniversay to us and to all our past guests, our family and great friends who have supported us and helped make this all possible.

Our Journey to Bath

Before Amy and Mark ever even thought about making me a part of their family, they were thinking about being innkeepers. About a year and a half after they adopted me, they left me in Erie, PA and took a trip to explore possible towns in New England to open their new business. While I patiently waited at home with a dog sitter, they journeyed to Bath ME, their first stop on the trip. It was December of 2004 so it was cold and raining in Maine but they fell in love with the town and the people they met. Driving to the next town in New Hampshire in a snow storm, they knew in their hearts that Bath was going to be our new home. They went ahead and looked at the other places as planned, but Bath was it. In February of 2005, they left me once again to look at a house on the market in Bath. It had been a B&B but had gone to a private home for the past couple years. Well, lucky us, they loved the house and put in a bid. It was so exciting when the realtor called us in Erie to say the Benjamin F. Packard House was ours! Things started moving quickly then. Packing up the house in Erie, making long distance arrangements for licenses, sprinkler systems and all the things that go with opening a new business. On May 14th, they packed the car and this time took me along too. We closed on the house on May 16th and in six hectic weeks, opened the new Benjamin F. Packard House B&B! My life as a bed and breakfast dog had begun.