Freeport, Maine

June 11-13, 2016

Lighthouses

Our new campground was only about 80 miles away so we were set-up and out to explore by early afternoon. We headed south, basically to where we’d left off, near Cape Elizabeth. This ended up being a three lighthouse afternoon. Portland Head Light was the first light completed after the founding of the U.S. and was first operated in 1791. It affords a nice view of Casco Bay and the Ram’s Head Lighthouse that sits in it.

Portland Head Light with Ram’s Head Light in the harbor.

                Jane at Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light

Two Lights Lighthouse marks the entrance to Casco Bay. Its name notwithstanding, only one lighthouse is there now. We were struck by the rocks on the beach and how much they looked like wood.

                Two-Lights

                 Rocks, not petrified trees

Soup for Supper

We decided that the crab cakes we’d picked up at the farmers’ market would be delicious with some hot soup. On the way back to the campground, we passed a restaurant whose sign said take-out was available. $30 later we had a bowl of lobster stew and a bowl of seafood chowder. Absolutely delicious but the price shocked us. It turns out the restaurant was Linda (as in L.L.) Bean’s Maine Kitchen. I think we assumed that lobster stew and seafood chowder would be priced like conch chowder in Florida. They aren’t. Of course, conch chowder doesn’t have three-inch pieces of claw meat in it, either.

Maine Maritime Museum

Tuesday found us in Bath at the Maine Maritime Museum, the site of a 19th century shipyard where some of the largest wooden schooners were constructed. Several original buildings show the various processes of building a large ship. We were impressed with a sculpture representing the 6-masted Wyoming, perhaps the largest sailing ship built in the United States.

Painting of the Wyoming fully rigged

That’s Jane, standing just at the stern support of the Wyoming sculpture.

This car is part of a special lobster exhibit at the Museum.

From the Maritime Museum, we could see just upriver to the Bath Iron Works where modern U.S. Navy destroyers are under construction.

Monhegan Island

Monhegan Island was quite a change of pace Wednesday. We took a boat from New Harbor to the island, 9 miles off the coast. It’s home to a handful of year-round residents and a host summer visitors including artists. We enjoyed a couple of hikes across the island, seeing some of the tallest cliffs on the Maine coast.  On the ferry back to the mainland, we saw a harbor seal and a minke whale (sorry, no whale photo).

Lobster boat ready to set its traps.

Monhegan Island:  Cliffs and sea

Monhegan Island:  Cliffs and sea

                More cliffs and sea on Monhegan Island.  It didn’t get old.

Dave and Jane on Monhegan Island.

                Dave scouting for a photo on Monhegan Island.

Monhegan Inn

                Monhegan Island Light

Harbor seal

Harbor seal

That evening Jane got a special treat: A trip to Sam’s Club in Scarborough where she picked up her new Canon camera. Not too surprisingly, the one that had slipped out of her pocket in December and sloshed around in the saltwater accumulated in the bottom of an airboat wasn’t working reliably.

Mt. Apatite

The following day, we drove the coach to a Fleetwood-authorized dealer in the Auburn/Lewiston area to have the passenger seat repaired. While the work was being done, we explored a nearby TripAdvisor favorite: Mt. Apatite. It’s an abandoned feldspar quarry now managed by the U.S. Geological Service. Visitors are allowed to rock hound, and we were happy to find a couple of nice pieces of mica and quartz. Dave used a primitive tool (another rock), the loosen some garnets. We were almost sorry that the coach repair was completed quickly!

                Multi-topped tree at Mt. Apatite

Jane tried out the zoom on her new camera on this photo of a frog at Mt. Apatite

On Mt. Apatite

                Garnets

Eartha

With the coach installed once again at the campground, we stopped by Garmin (it acquired DeLorme’) and took a couple of snapshots in front of Eartha, a 1:1,000,000 globe.

                Jane in front of Eartha

Eartha

Wolfe’s Neck Woods

Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park is between Casco Bay and the Harraseeket River.  Maine’s state parks are more expensive than Florida’s ($3 per carload, typically) but we didn’t begrudge a penny of the $12 admission.  We enjoyed a wonderful rock through evergreen forests and a marsh and along a rocky shoreline.  More cypripedium orchids!

Casco Bay

Harraseeket River

                Cypripedium acuale

Cypripedium acaule