OOHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHH. Well it is the July post so I thought I'd start out with a bang. We went into Boothbay Harbor for fireworks on the 4th and they put on a nice show (yes, they shot more then one off). We had a good July, it started to warm up as the month went on and got a little more humid.
This is Fort Baldwin. It was built in 1912. Hard to believe that it is over a hundred years old and still in very nice condition This is one of the firing positions. It's built in three sections going up a large hill. There were about three or four gun mounts at each position with powder and shell storage in these buildings. At the top of the hill was the fire control tower which is the picture below. You have to remember that all of the trees you see weren't there when the fort was in use. We were able to climb up the tower for a birds eye view. Brutus and Ruby even went up.
Our daughter Krista came out for a visit and we showed her some of Maine. Here we are showing her a campfire. It took a while to get it going. I'm a little out of practice but it finally took off.
We all went on the schooner West Wind and cruised around the bay. It was a beautiful day for a cruise. The sun and the wind blowing our hair back. There was a family of three and us on the morning cruise so it was almost like a private tour. I've seen them go out with 20 to 25 people on board so this was great.
They asked for volunteers to help raise the main so Holly, being from a seafaring family, turned to and heaved and hoed. She did a fantastic job as you can tell by the picture below. Have you ever seen a better main sail?
You can see that we had some wind; we heeled over nicely and enjoyed the sail. A schooner cruise is so nice, no motor noise, just the sound of the wind in the sails and the water sliding by the hull and hanging on for dear life so you don't slide off the boat. Yup, it was a great time had by all. I even was able to get a shot of the Burnt Island Lighthouse.
Just a little heads up, if you come to visit we will take you to Pemequid Point Lighthouse (Holly's most favorite spot) and the Prison Store. The Maine State Prison has a very nice woodshop (so I'm told) and the residents there that have woodshop privileges make items and there's a store north of us where they sell the items. They do great work from cutting boards to ship models and furniture .
We sell fresh lobster or as they call them here, lobstah, and cook them for you. Holly and Krista wanted to try a whole fresh lobster so here they are, piping hot out of the pot. I don't eat lobster or crab so I just watched and gave them a hand when needed.
I'm not an expert but it seemed like a lot of work for the little bit of meat that came out of there. But you can see that they enjoyed the experience.
They have boat trips where you can go out on a working lobster boat and see how it's done. You can even help pull traps and take the lobster out and rebait the traps. Seems like a win win for the boat owner....people pay to go out on your boat and then help do the work, great idea.
We have a family of ducks in the pond behind us and they make the rounds of the park every day. Our place is the last stop on the way home and they clean up all the bird food that the birds knock on the ground. We've enjoyed watching them grow.
We also visited Fort Knox State Park. This fort was built between 1844 and 1869, It was the first fort in Maine built from granite blocks. It was built to protect the Penobscot River which was the route to Bangor. The history lesson is done. I thought it was the one with all the gold and was hoping they gave out samples after the tour. Duhhh, I was wrong. This is a very beautiful fort built high on the river banks and very well preserved. It had two cannon batteries outside the fort and several cannons inside.
This is a Rodman cannon inside the fort; very large and very powerful and I'll bet very noisy. Even though it was hot and humid we spent a lot of time wandering around outside and inside the fort. It's been interesting to see the number of old forts just in our area and the great condition they are in. It's also been interesting that hardly any of them saw any action in any of the wars they were built for.
This is the entrance for the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory. The bridge was opened in 2006. The one tower has an observation tower at the top and is the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. That's right, the world (it says so on the internet so it's gotta be true) at 420 feet. The elevator to the top is said to be the fastest and tallest one in Maine.The trip to the top is fast and the view is fantastic. I even enjoyed it although I have this thing about heights. I just stay back from the windows so I don't have to look down. I climb light houses too. Didn't ever say I enjoyed the climb but the views are unbelievable.
This is the view from the top looking towards the other tower. Like I said I don't enjoy heights but the views are worth the trip.
That's it for this month. We've enjoyed showing friends and family around and we've had more visitors here than at any of the other places we've stayed. Seems like everyone wants to visit Maine. Can't blame them...that's why we are here. See you all next month and boy do we have a whale of a tail for you....hint hint!
