Misty Maine and The Popovers

We spent the morning in the wing of a Penitentiary. It was actually a showroom, not of the incarcerated but of the fabulous wares they produce as part of a prison program. The woodworking skills were incredible and oddly, it felt sad they’d succumbed to whatever had them locked up rather than their obvious talents. The prison was built in 1823 at Thomaston and two years later started this working industrial program “Craftsmen Rebuilding Their Lives”.. and it was truly that.

From there we continued visiting the gorgeous old settlements along the Maine coastline. Rockland was full of lovely, grand old houses and a neat and tidy main street, as was Rockport. An idyllic small, historic coastal town, its Opera House dates to 1892. An evening at an equestrian yard Harvest Hosts was fun and a pleasant morning walking the very long causeway, not the plank, to Rockland Breakwater lighthouse. Started in 1881 it took 18 years to complete and ¾m tonnes of granite it’s 0.8 miles long. The lighthouse is in a state of disrepair now but ’twas fun watching the sailing boats avoid it.

Camden was a busier place with lively harbour, packed with a variety of boats, from schooners, to rowing boats to ‘gallons per mile’ rich folks cruisers. Camden and around caters to the Boston, NYC summer pursuits set. To see up close is wonderful, the workmanship, over 150 years old on some, is astounding. We noted with interest that the statue by the harbour was for The Great Rebellion, not The Civil War. We discovered in the town that we were seeing vintage and quirky cars as a result of ‘The Great Race’ that was in progress, it started in Kentucky and was finishing, after 13 states in Maine. Camden is smart, you kinda know there’s dollars there when even Sotheby’s sells ‘legacy properties’.

Belfast was fascinating, overnighting close by we spent most of the day there. A busy port town, there was lots going on. Art in the Park was drawing a crowd but it was the working shipyards, like its namesake, that was the most interesting. A fabulous harbourside walk took us past lots of dry dock boats. One, we looked up was Cangarda, wrapped but showing off its bow, was built in 1901 and has a lively history to say the least, stories in its bones I’d say. A church, originally dating to 1796 (current one 1818 with a clock from 1836) with a Paul Revere Bell was the first in Belfast and sits proudly in the suburbs where we couldn’t help taking pictures of peoples houses 🙂 We weren’t quite sure about the elephant in the room at the cinema, don’t sit behind it is all we can say!

Continuing on, we ventured skywards. At Penobscot Narrows Bridge we found ‘the worlds tallest public bridge observatory’… not sure how many there are in the world to beat but hey! From 128m up, thankfully there was a lift, we had panoramic views even if it was a grey day. The bridge is ‘cable stayed’ and spans 2120ft across the Penobscot River and they took a bite out of Mosquito Mountain for the granite.

Fort Knox is an immense, 124 acre site that never saw action and was never finished. It would be an imposing sight for attackers though, if it had. Built from granite, it was started in 1844, had $1m spent and abandoned in 1869. The Americans were worried that after the 1812 war, the defeated British would attack again and thus civil and structural engineers were employed to design a fortress like no other, lots of tunnels to wander, it was as impactful as it was solid. We are little concerned about the A&E service in the US though, maybe a reflection of what Trump would make Medicaid look like 😦

Canada Day 2024 (yeah we were in the US!) was thankfully a dry affair after the thunderstorms the night before. From our camping spot we cycled 3.5miles uphill for a deserved breakfast at Morning Moon cafe, meeting and chatting with a lawyer called ‘Sly’… he was really interesting and a local having a quiet coffee before we rudely interrupted. That area, Brooklyn, is really sweet and can get touristy but we appreciated the fact that old properties had been updated and preserved and repurposed, like the 3 floor french styled boat yard, rather than levelled with something modern built.

To work off the food we headed up Blue Hill which we’d been told was steep, and it was. We did find however ‘The Worlds Smallest Bookstore’ which had fab views to Acadia National Park. A gem of a place, it’s owned by Bill Henderson of “The Pushcart Prize” which is an annual edition of the best of the ‘small presses’ (shorts and poems of the self published) What a fabulous idea! We rode 50km around the peninsula that day, chased over bridges by cars, to a fabulous empty beach and an ice cream, bliss! A great place to watch the boats passing under the bridge to Deer Island and the Osprey in their nests before a campsite sunset.

Ellesworth, was a stop on our way to Acadia, we needed a break in the extreme heat (>30 deg C) we were experiencing. We had a wander around the town, enjoying being outside and the trees and found some wonderful gifts that we thought would suit our friends back home. Afterwards, we flaked out with an ice cream. The young man serving was interested in our views of the Euros football tournament, that was a first!

Acadia National Park, our 26th and last US National Park of the trip. It was difficult to book as across 4th July, so we feared it’d be busy and noisy but typically, there were plenty of no shows at the campground and it was quiet. A shame people book and don’t cancel so others can enjoy it. We couldn’t escape the massive luminous flags though and the resulting light pollution, nor the celebration attire! We met a great couple from Montreal and even though the weather was a tad unpredictable, had a super time, covering a lot of ground on the bikes. Acadia is an immersive experience and densely tree covered. Lots of “Carriage Roads”, which were built for horses to drag visitors around the park when it was designed, are now hiking and biking routes. A one way system roadway lends itself to great coastal views across the Atlantic and the craggy shorelines and occasional sandy beach.

An oddity for us is the delicacy of a ‘Popover Cream Tea’. A popover was very similar to a Yorkshire Pudding and probably it’s original legacy. We had to try them, with strawberry jam of course a pot of tea! Being 4th July, the gardens were open at Jordan Pond to cater for the numbers so we were soon away and exploring the lakes with their lily flowers in bloom and the quiet trails. Eventually, Bar Harbour, the focal point of the area for el tourismo’s was as expected. Lots of people on picnic rugs with their coolers in the sunshine enjoying the festivities.

The time in two different parts of Acadia NP provided lots of variety, in the weather too. At times really misty and other times, sunny. Away from the busier parts is ‘secondhomerville’ Northeast Harbour, the usual really but it did have a super mussel shell sculpture at the museum. The harbour itself was in a dense mist but inland there was none at the stunning Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden. Both wonderful and different and idea’s for our ‘blank canvas garden’ were flowing for us, or should I say our heads were buzzing?!.

The Schoodiac Woods part of Acadia was different. Very misty we headed out to see what we could see. A loop road and trails, there was no one around other than deer. We watched cormorants diving in the mist and could just about make out the lighthouses! Such rocky ledges and strong currents, the need for them on the whole coastline was plain to see, or not! The waves crashing against the Maine pink granite, fog horns sounding over a misty sea, it was pretty evocative. The rock has stripes of black magma running through, so unusual. Rockefeller Hall was a surprise, mock Tudor, the building was a military barracks built in 1935, during Shakespeare’s reign of England (kidding obvs) and paid for by Rocker Jr himself for secret naval radio operations.

The following day we headed to Calais…. the one at the border between USA and Canada. A stop for fuel before leaving the US left us giggling all the way to the border at it was so typical of our US experience with so many… a bloke see’s the number plate “My great grandfather would have been The Earl of Bury, if he hadn’t left for the US”……. goodbye America, see y’all again soon! (There is no Earl of Bury!)