Living Our Dream

Boothbay Harbor

Topsham, ME - Events of Sunday, August 25, 2013

From the botanical gardens, we headed into Boothbay Harbor. Not only did we want to have a look around, but it was mid-afternoon, and we were hungry.

Boothbay was first settled in the early 1600s as an English fishing camp. It was later abandoned, but was re-settled in 1730 and incorporated as Townsend in 1764. It was renamed Boothbay in 1842 for the hamlet of Boothby in England.

Boothbay Harbor continued to grow. By the 1880s, it had a fish oil company, an ice company, a cannery, a fertilizer manufacturer and two marine railways. The harbor itself could provide shelter for up to 500 vessels in bad weather.

In 1889, the harbor area was incorporated as a separate community known as Boothbay Harbor. During WWII, Boothbay Harbor had a small shipyard that built minesweepers for the U.S. Navy.

Today, the Boothbay Harbor region is a thriving summer tourist area. It is especially popular as a yachting destination.

Our friends, Janice and Dave, had taken a day trip to Boothbay from Bar Harbor a while back. They ate at the Lobster Dock, which they recommended, so that's where we ended up.

Lobster Dock Restaurant

The Lobster Dock has a variety of sandwiches starting as low as $6, and there are dinners that range from about $15 to $27 (surf 'n' turf). There are also à la carte seafood items (clams, mussels, fish, crab cakes) available. We split a lobster roll ($16), a pint of fried clam strips ($9) and an order of sweet potato fries ($6).

Paul at the Lobster Dock

The lobster rolls are available warm with butter or cold with mayo. We had already had a lobster roll with mayo, so this time we tried butter. It was yummy, but some of the lobster pieces were a little chewy. The clams were good, too, but nothing can compare to the Ipswich Clambake Company.

The lobster Dock is located right along the harbor, and we could watch the boats come and go from our table.

View from our table at the Lobster Dock

Watching boats come and go in the harbor from the Lobster Dock

The Lobster Dock is located on the less-crowded, eastern side of the harbor. We could see lots of activity going on over on the western side, so we hopped in the car and headed over to the western side after lupper to check it out. As is typical in a small tourist town like this, parking was hard to come by. There were a couple of pay lots, and there were also a good bit of free, on-street parking; but it took a little looking to find one of the free spaces that was empty. We drove around a little bit and found one a little out of the way near the Tugboat Inn.

Tugboat Inn in Boothbay Harbor

We walked the main street lined with quaint (but pricey) shops.

Tourist area in Boothbay Harbor

While walking the streets of Boothbay Harbor, we came across a nicely restored Triumph TR3. Paul had one of these cars when he was in college. The TR3 was produced by Standard-Triumph in England from 1955 to 1962. Paul's was a '57. The TR3 produced from 1955 to late 1957 had a narrower grill and no exterior door handles.

Triumph TR3

As we walked down near the waterfront, we saw three labs chasing tennis balls into the water. The owner had a gun that she pumped up with air to shoot the balls. One of the dogs (the one looking the wrong way) never seemed to be able to get a ball.

Dogs chasing tennis balls

Sailboat in Boothbay Harbor

From the waterfront, we headed back to the car and drove back to Topsham Fairgrounds where we relaxed with an evening of TV. We had more sightseeing planned for the next day. Stay tuned.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Topsham, ME - Events of sunday, August 25, 2013

One of the things we wanted to be sure to see in this area was the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. As our regular readers know, we love to visit botanical gardens, and the online reviews said this was a good one. It is located about 45 minutes from Topsham in Boothbay, ME. We headed there on Sunday morning.

The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has only been open since 2007, but planning began all the way back in 1991 when a group of enthusiastic gardeners decided Maine needed a botanical garden. In 1996, the organization bought 136 acres of land along the Back River near Boothbay. An additional 120 acres of land was acquired through a gift from another organization.

After paying our admission fee of $12 each for seniors ($14 for younger adults), we headed out to the gardens. There is a central, landscaped garden area with a couple of miles of trails extending through woods and wetlands.

We started with the large lawn area right outside the visitor center where there was an interesting kinetic sculpture called "Wind Orchid" that looked like its branches were waving in the breeze. As the sculpture rotated, the way the arms were curved created an optical illusion that made it look like the arms were flexing.

Kinetic sculpture "Wind Orchid"

Also along the lawn was a row of colorful Adirondack chairs.

Margery trying out one of the Adirondack chairs

As we worked our way around the flower beds surrounding the lawn, we were soon struck by the remarkable combinations of colors and textures.

Interesting combinations of colors and textures

More delightful colors and textures

Yet another combination of color and texture

In addition to many annuals, most of which bloom continuously for the entire growing season, they also used many long-blooming perennials like brown eyed Susans and echinacea. In addition to the more common purple and off-white echinacea (examples of which are shown at the very top of this post), they had plain red, fuzzy white and fuzzy red echinacea as shown in the photo below.

Plain red, fuzzy white and fuzzy red echinacea

From the perennial garden just off the central lawn, we took the path that headed down through the Haney Hillside Garden. Even without the use of flowers, they again created an interesting tapestry of colors and textures using ferns, shrubs, trees and rocks.

Haney Hillside Garden

The path then continued down the hill toward the river. There are numerous, interesting sculptures scattered throughout the gardens, and there are several of them along the wooded path to the river. One was a translucent glass globe called "Chiseled Orb" that seemed to glow as the sun hit it in the small clearing.

Glass globe sculpture

Along the river is a meditation garden with a basin that was carved from a solid rock. The outside of the rock was left natural, and the top edge was carved with shapes of waves. Parts of the waves were polished to a high gloss, which made them look like they were wet. The top edge created an interesting transition from the surface of the water to the natural stone on the outside.

Basin carved from a solid rock

Shoreland Trail continued along the river where there was a metal sculpture of a pine cone.

Pine cone sculpture

From Shoreland Path, we could catch glimpses of the water and of the opposite shore.

View of the Back River along the wooded path

At the eastern end of Shoreland Path is the rhododendron garden. There were no rhododendrons blooming, but there was an attractive, man-made waterfall...

Margery and Paul at the waterfall in the rhododendron garden

...and a sculpture of a giant dragonfly.

Dragonfly sculpture

From the waterfall, we headed back up the hillside to the main garden area. On the eastern side of the central lawn is the Alfond Children's Garden, which opened in 2010. At the entrance were three large rocks carved to look like whales.

One of three whales at the entrance to the children's garden

Flower-lined walkway in the children's garden

Cottages in the children's garden

Whimsical arch at the entrance to the greenhouse in the children's garden

We continued on our way to the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses. This garden opened in 2009.

Entrance to the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses

In the Garden of the Five Senses was a pool with a splashing fountain.

Pool and fountain in the Lerner Garden

View of the pool in the Lerner Garden from the opposite side

Another pond in the Lerner Garden

Frog and dragonfly at the pond

Also in the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses were several vertical walls of plants that illustrated more color and texture combinations. Some were foliage plants, and some were combinations of foliage and flowers.

Texture wall in the Lerner Garden

We enjoyed our visit to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens very much. The landscape areas were nicely laid out, and the plants were well labeled. We especially liked the way they used such a variety of plants of different colors and textures. Although it was late in the growing season, the gardens were loaded with plenty of flowers in bloom. The composite photo below shows just a few of them.

Some of the many colorful blooms at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

It was getting late by the time we were finished at the garden, and we were getting hungry. Look for our next post to see what we did about it.

Bar Harbor to Topsham, ME

Topsham, ME - Events of Thursday, August 22 to Friday, August 23, 2013

Our drive on Thursday morning was a little less than three hours to the southwest to Topsham, ME where we stayed at Topsham Fairgrounds. The camping at Topsham Fairgrounds is not widely publicized. There is only a brief mention of it on the website with a phone number to call for information. We found out about it from Darrell and Judy, our friends from Rainbow Plantation who are originally from Maine. Darrell and Judy found out about it from their friends, Mike and Peggy, who still live in Topsham. We were looking forward to meeting Mike and Peggy while we were here, and when we did meet with them later, they educated us on the proper pronunciation of Topsham. It is pronounced TOPS-um as though it were spelled with without the "h."

Like most fairgrounds, the camping area is nothing fancy. There is no Wi-Fi and no cable, and the electric hookups are 20/30 amps. There is a dusty, dirt road through the campground, and the sites are mostly grass.

The website indicates they have sites without hookups and sites with water and electric only in addition to about 20 sites with full-hookups, but we only saw the full-hookup sites. The sites are very close together - so close that you probably wouldn't be able to extend your awning if someone were parked right next to you on your door side. However, since the campground is not widely publicized, the likelihood of having someone next door when there is not an event going on at the fairgrounds is very low. There was only one other RV in the whole campground when we arrived. There were reserved signs on two other sites, and those signs were spaced several sites apart so they weren't too close to each other or to the RV that was already there. We picked a site at the far end.

Our site at Topsham Fairgrounds

View of the only other RV that was at the far end when we arrived

Because the campground isn't very crowded when there is no event going on at the fairgrounds, it is also fairly quiet. There is a football field located near the end where our site was. Is was used for practice several times while we were there; but practice ended at dusk, and it wasn't very noisy at all. There is local traffic noise during the day, but it quiets down at night.

We decided to stay at Topsham because it was centrally located to several things we wanted to see and because it was reasonably priced - a refreshing change from most of the rest of New England. A full hookup site at Topsham Fairgrounds is $25 a night or $75 a week.

We contacted Darrell and Judy's friends, Mike and Peggy, on Friday morning, and they suggested we get together later that afternoon for lupper. In the meantime, we took a drive later on Friday morning to the neighboring town of Brunswick just to check it out. We happened to find a farmers' market, so we stopped. There was a good variety of produce, jams and jellies, a few crafts and even live lobsters.

Farmers' market in Brunswick

Freeway was with us, and he enjoyed the opportunity to get out and check out the new smells. As usual, he left some of his own. Plastic bags - don't leave home without them.

Freeway at the farmers' market

This part of Maine's coast is made up of a series of long, narrow peninsulas and skinny islands that were created by the glacier during the Ice Age. The long, narrow bays and inlets between the peninsulas and islands are the location of many, many harbors and marinas. Harpswell is a small town on the peninsula almost due south of Brunswick, so we decided to take a drive to check out some of the coastal scenery.

One of the many bays and inlets we saw on our drive to Harpswell

Although there are some pleasure boats mixed in, the majority of the boats we saw were commercial fishing and lobster boats.

Lobster boat

We drove all the way down the peninsula and back. On the other side of Casco Bay from Harpswell is a shorter peninsula and two long, narrow islands - Orr's Island and Bailey Island. Since it was still relatively early, we decided to take the road down the other side of the bay. At the end of Bailey Island was a souvenir shop called Lands End (not to be confused with the mail-order clothing company). We stopped to check it out, but didn't buy anything.

Lands End souvenir shop

Also at the end of Bailey Island is a statue of a lobster fisherman placed as a memorial to all Maine fisherman.

Statue of lobster fisherman at the end of Bailey Island

We could also see Halfway Rock Light offshore. That place looks desolate even in summer.

Halfway Rock Light

On our way back, we stopped for a photo of a picturesque shack near one of the many inlets. The back wall of the shack was gone, and the remaining walls were propped up with boards. Stacks of lobster traps sat on the dock beside the shack, and buoys were piled in front and were hanging on the walls.

Picturesque shack along one of the many inlets

We got back to the motor home and relaxed a while before meeting Mike and Peggy for lupper. They suggested Len's Fish & Chips in nearby Brunswick.

Len's Fish and Chips

Len's has lots of seafood on the menu to choose from, and prices were fairly reasonable. Margery got fried scallops and Paul got fish and chips. We shared so we could each have a taste of both entrees. We both also got a cup of clam chowder.

Margery, Paul, Mike and Peggy

The food was good, and it was great spending time with Mike and Peggy to get to know them. After lupper, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. We did our weekly cleaning chores and relaxed the rest of the day Saturday. By Sunday, we were ready for more sightseeing, so stay tuned.

Farewell Visit to Acadia and Bar Harbor

Topsham, ME - Events of Wednesday, August 21, 2013

On Wednesday, which was our last day in the area, we took another drive around the loop road in Acadia National Park. We didn't have any particular destination in mind; but as we said before, everything looks different at different times of the day and at different levels of the tide, so we just wanted one last look at some of the beautiful scenes of the rocky coast in Acadia National Park.

Our first stop was at Sand beach, which is one of the most popular locations in the entire park. As usual, it was very crowded; but after making three very slow passes around the main parking lot, we finally found a space.

As crowded as the beach was the first time we were there, it looked even more crowded now because the first time we were there was near low tide. This time, it was near high tide, so a similar number of people were on a smaller beach.

Sand Beach near high tide

The beach is crowded, but the water isn't because the water temperature is only around 50ºF. All you could hear were little girls screeching with each wave.

No swimmers in view because of the cold water

From the far end of Sand Beach you can see a hill called The Beehive.

The Behive as seen from Sand Beach

There is a trail that goes to the top of The Beehive, and we could see hikers up there.

Hikers climbing to the summit of The Beehive

As we left Sand Beach, we stopped to admire the view south toward Otter Cliff.

Otter Cliff in the distance from Sand Beach

We drove along the loop road a little farther and found another parking space, so we stopped and walked along Ocean Path for a short distance and took several side excursions out onto the rocks to sit and watch the waves and to take photos.

Paul photographing more of the rocky coast

What Paul was photographing

Looking across Newport Cove toward Great Head

Janice and Dave had been checking out the bridges along the carriage roads, and they gave us a tip on a particularly picturesque one that had parking right by the bridge. Duck Brook Bridge was completed in 1929, and is interesting because it has both triple arches and turrets.

Margery in one of the turrets on Duck Brook Bridge

Margery at Duck Brook Bridge

Lowbush blueberries grow wild all over the area. Like so many other places in Acadia, there are lots of blueberry bushes at Duck Brook Bridge, but few blueberries. Late summer is blueberry season in Maine, but most of the bushes we have seen have been picked clean. However, we have seen one or two berries here and there like the one shown in the photo below.

Wild blueberry

Maine is well known for its wild blueberries and there are stands along the roads that sell them by the pint and by the quart. Wild blueberries are small - only about ¼ inch in diameter, and they have a more delicate flavor than the large, highbush blueberries that are commonly available.

As we said, we saw very few blueberries in the wild, so we stopped at a roadside stand and bought a pint early in our stay. Margery made a delicious blueberry sauce that we had on pancakes. The pancakes were delicious. We then tried some of the blueberry sauce that we had left from the pancakes on vanilla ice cream, and we liked the blueberries that way even better. We liked it so much, that we ended up buying two more quarts of blueberries during our stay.

Paul has been wanting to get some real, good New England clam chowder (or chowdah as the locals call it). The restaurants on Mount Desert Island in general and in Bar Harbor in particular cater to tourists and are on the expensive side, but Margery found a little tavern in Bar Harbor called the Thirsty Whale that got rave reviews for its chowder, so we headed there after we left Duck Brook Bridge.

We found a parking space on a side street not too far from the restaurant. It was low tide the first time we walked Shore Path, and we were curious to see the views at high tide. Since it was a short time after high tide when we got to Bar Harbor on this stop, we decided to walk part of Shore Path before we ate.

This time, not only did the view of Bald Porcupine Island have more water in the foreground, there were also a lot more boats moored in the harbor.

Bald Porcupine Island at high tide

Bald Porcupine Island several days prior at low tide

The water was all the way up to Balance Rock.

Balance Rock at high tide

Balance Rock several days prior at low tide

From Balance Rock, we retraced our steps to the beginning of Shore Path then made our way 3 or 4-blocks to the Thirsty Whale.

Thirsty Whale

Sandwiches and burgers range in price from about $6 to $9 and include one side. We each had one of their specials that included a fried haddock sandwich and a cup of clam chowder for $10.

Paul with his clam chowder and fish sandwich

The fish sandwich was good, but the coating could have a bit crispier. The chowder, however, was outstanding. It was loaded with clams and had lots of flavor. No wonder their chowder gets such good reviews.

After our lupper, we drove back to the motor home. Even though it was late afternoon, we squeezed in a few pre-departure chores after which we headed over to Janice and Dave's motor home to say our goodbyes before heading out the following morning. We'll tell you where we went in our next post.

Carriage Roads Revisited

Trenton, ME - Events of Monday, August 19, 2013

We saw some of the carriage roads of Acadia when we went on our ranger-led walk the week before. The walk also features a couple of the stone bridges that were built over the ravines and streams. However, since no two of the 17 bridges are the same, we were curious to see at least a couple more. The bridge that we were the most intrigued by was Cobblestone Bridge, which was the first bridge Rockefeller built. As the name suggests, Cobblestone Bridge is built mainly from cobblestones rather than from cut granite.

Although it would have been faster to get to Cobblestone Bridge by going down the western, two-way section of the loop road through the park, we decided to go down the eastern, one-way side of the loop for two reasons. First, the one-way section goes along the shore, which is more scenic; and two, we missed Schooner Head Overlook when we drove the loop road the previous Thursday. The turnoff for the overlook is about 50 feet before the entrance booths for the park. We were busy following the sign that said, "Pass holders use right lane" because we would be using our America the Beautiful Pass. Therefore, we missed the left turn to the overlook. Once we had passed it, we couldn't go back because that part of the loop is one way.

This time, we made the turn, parked and headed down the short trail to the rocks below for a better look at Schooner Head. Freeway was with us, and he made the trek, too.

Freeway on the trail to Schooner Head Overlook

View of Schooner Head (right) from the overlook

The dark spot at the left of the photo above is a cave. We happened to be at the overlook with people who had been there before, and they said you can walk into the cave at low tide or kayak in at high tide. The depth of the cave extends back to about the tree line to the left.

Cave near Schooner Head

And yes, that is a house at Schooner Head.

House at Schooner Head

Freeway tries out rock scrambling

One of the things we love about the rocky coast of Maine is the the way the appearance changes. The light and shadows on the rocks are different at different times of the day. Even the colors change. The shore looks different at high tide than it does at low. This was the first time we had seen the shore, either at Schoodic Peninsula or at Mount Desert Island, near high tide. As we sat on the rocks watching the waves, two people in a kayak paddled by.

Kayakers at Schooner Head

A short time later, a lobster boat rounded Schooner Head. He was checking his traps, some of which were right below where we were sitting. We watched him snag the line with a pole, pull in the trap and open it. Sometimes, he would throw a lobster or two into a container, and sometimes he would throw one that was too small overboard. He would then refill the bait holder inside the trap, close the lid and drop the trap back into the water.

Checking lobster traps

From Schooner Head, we made our way around the loop to a spot close to where we could easily access the carriage road and parked. Paul had mapped out a two-mile, carriage road loop that would take us past two bridges - the Stanley Brook Bridge and the one we really wanted to see, Cobblestone Bridge.

The carriage roads where we were walking are not part of the national park. They are on private property, but the property owners have granted access to the public. Because it is private property, there are slightly different rules. Bicycles are not permitted in this area, which means we didn't have to watch out to make sure we didn't get run over. Many of the residents apparently own horses because we did have to watch out for horse manure on the road. Because bicycles aren't permitted and because the area is a little out of the way, these carriage roads aren't nearly as crowded as the ones in the national park. We saw only two other couples on our entire two-mile walk.

With few other people, the carriage road was nice and quiet. We enjoyed walking past moss-covered hillsides with no sounds but the crunching of gravel under our feet.

Moss-covered hillside along the carriage road

Freeway got to enjoy the walk as well. He left a little manure, too, which we picked up - unlike the horse owners.

Freeway on the carriage road

As we learned on the ranger-led walk, Rockefeller liked to provide nice views where possible.

View of a meadow and pond from a bend in the road

Stanley Brook Bridge was only about half a mile from where we started. This bridge has an interesting apex along each top rail.

Stanley Brook Bridge

Completed in 1933

The Stanley Brook Bridge has three arches - one for the road, one for the brook (right) and one for a foot path.

Triple arches on Stanley Brook Bridge

At Margery's behest, Paul reluctantly bought a trail map when we were at Sieur de Monts a few days prior. He's glad she insisted, because we would have easily gotten lost without it. The carriage roads twist and turn, and there are lots of intersections, so it is easy to get confused as to where you are. In addition to showing all the hiking trails, the map we bought also shows all the carriage roads along with distances between intersections and locations of all the numbered sign posts and all the bridges. It was $5 well spent.

It was about a mile from Stanley Brook Bridge to Cobblestone Bridge. As we said, this bridge is built primarily of cobblestones, including the underside, which gives it a completely different look and texture than the cut stones of the other bridges.

Cobblestone Bridge

Cobblestone Bridge

View of Cobblestone Bridge looking upstream

Paul photographing Cobblestone bridge from a footbridge upstream

Cobblestone Bridge looking downstream from the footbridge

As we walked the carriage roads, Paul took a fancy to the many mushrooms and toadstools growing in the woods.

Some of the many mushrooms and toadstools

Freeway was a real trooper. We didn't know if he would be able to make it the entire two-mile walk or not, and we were prepared to carry him part way if necessary; but he had no problem. All he needed was a little water every now and then, and he was good to go. We thought he would sleep the rest of the evening when we got back to the motor home; but he had rested up during our drive back, and he was ready to play by the time we got there.

We had again made plans to go to lupper with Janice and Dave. This time, it was Jordan's Snack Bar a few miles up the road in Ellsworth. We headed there shortly after we got back from our sightseeing.

Jordan's Snack Bar

Inside seating is available, but we choose one of the shady picnic tables outside.

Dave, Janice, Paul and Margery at Jordan's Snack Bar

Jordan's has, among many other things, great burgers, so that's what we all had. Each couple also got an order of Jordan's hand-cut onion rings. The burgers were delicious - nice and juicy, lots of flavor and lots of cheese on the cheeseburgers. The onion rings were great, too - sweet and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

We had a good time sitting and talking after we finished eating, and we eventually headed back to our respective RVs for the evening. Our remaining time in Bar Harbor is short, but we had more thing we wanted to do. We'll tell you about it in our next post.