FAMILY FALL TRIP TO MAINE

 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21^ST

My family decided last year that we should come together to visit Maine, and Acadia National Park this year. We timed it to follow my photography trip to Maine. This was to be an enjoyable time to visit, hike, and travel back to some of our old stomping grounds. George and I had met and married in Castine, Maine.
We had all arrived the evening before, so this morning we were off to Bar Harbor for five days. We had breakfast at Guidi’s in Westbrook before heading North to Bar Harbor.

Our next stop was Camden, Maine, for a visit to Camden Hills State Park. When standing on top of Mt. Battie one gets a wonderful view of Penobscot Bay and the fall colors this time of year.

A VIEW OF PENOBSCOT BAY

CAMDEN HARBOR

FALL ATOP MT. BATTIE

 The family had not seen the Penobscot Narrows Bridge which we also stopped to view. This bridge replaced the Waldo-Hancock Bridge which had done wonderful service for many years. It had been discovered in 2003 that the cables were badly corroded and it was urgent to build a new bridge. This bridge is only one of three similar bridges in the United States ( (the others being Zakim Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, and Veterans Glass City Bridge in Toledo, Ohio.
 It has a observatory atop of one of the towers, and is the highest bridge observatory in the world.

PENOBSCOT NARROWS BRIDGE

THE NEW AND THE OLD

THE NEW AND OLD FROM BUCKSPORT, ME

Our next stop was in Castine, Maine which is where George and I met. We have many fond memories of this town. I called the town home from 1956 to 1963 when I went off to teach in Stamford, Connecticut. We did a “drive by” of the Maine Maritime Academy, The Manor, Dyce’s Head Lighthouse,

DYCE'S HEAD LIGHT

LOOKING OUT TO SEA

Trinity Chapel,

 “The Berth on the Bagaduce", my late parent's home, and the Cemetery. 

At Dyce’s Head Lighthouse we walked down to the shore below the light and an ocean view.

BELOW DYCE'S HEAD LIGHT

 

DYCE'S HEAD LIGHT

At Trinity Chapel we re-enacted our departure from the Chapel after our wedding. 

52 YEARS, AND GOING STRONG

JUST AS HAPPY 52 YEARS LATER

At the “Berth of the Bagaduce” we met the current owner and learned that after my parents passed away, it was sold and eventually gutted and rebuilt as a two story home built on the original foundation.

We then visited the Castine Cemetery where my parents had been buried. We spent some time cleaning off the gravestones and decided to return with brushes to do a more thorough job on our return to Portland.

Our final stop in Castine was downtown at The Compass Rose, a small independent bookstore and café. Here we bought a book on Castine written by a long time resident that George used to work with, and I had known  at Maine Maritime Academy. There were a couple of other souvenir purchases here.

We finally made it to Bar Harbor and settled into the Belle Isle Motel. Our stomachs were soon crying for some dinner which we found at Helen’s back in Ellsworth. Lobster rolls were on the menu.

ENJOYING A GOOD LAUGH

THE JOKE MEISTER

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22^ND

This was the beginning of the family fun at Acadia National Park. We fueled up with a hearty breakfast at 2 CATS before heading for Jordan Pond and a wonderful hike around the Pond. The trail is 3.2 miles in length and is quite close to the shore of the Pond. The trail gets more difficult as one turns South along the West side of the  Pond as you scramble over some boulders, and then have to watch your footing among the fir roots that one has to negotiate. Then there is an extensive part of the trail along “bog walks” which are long boards elevated over a boggy area  used to protect the fragile plant life due to the wet terrain. After the hike we enjoyed our lunch on the shore of the pond near where we had started.

LOOKING ACROSS JORDAN POND

LUNCH STOP VIEW TOWARD THE BUBBLES

Afterwards we did some grocery shopping and visited the Park Visitor Center. As I knew of a place to get fresh lobster at a nearby roadside location (See previous Blog) we were off to get  the  treat of whole lobster dinners. Regrettably this was their last day of the season, and by the time we got there they were out of whole lobster!! We settled on generously packed lobster rolls for all. The girls and Justin had two each! This finished off the inventory. We practically closed the establishment down. For desert we ordered a whole blueberry pie to be consumed back at our Motel. Yumm!!

The Motel had a tradition of having an outdoor fire in the evening for our pleasure. We enjoyed the fellowship here as we shared the day's experiences with other guests.