To the lighthouse

  

After our sail on Penobscot bay, we did a bit of souvenir shopping for the offspring, had lunch, and now had the afternoon to explore. I have been fascinated by lighthouses and their history for a long time now, and there are many on the coast of Maine, so of course we must see at least one before leaving.



In Rockland, where we visited the lighthouse museum, there is also the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. It stands out in Rockland Harbor and as the name implies, is on a breakwater. A very long breakwater, which you must walk if you intend to see the lighthouse up close.

 
The breakwater is 7/8 of  a mile long, which, when I type it here, does not sound like very much. When you are actually trying to walk along it however, the reality is much different. Normal walking (the kind where you just stroll along without a thought) is a bit difficult as the rocks used to build the breakwater have just big enough spaces between them, that you must continually watch where you are stepping to avoid any twisted ankles or such.

 

It may be that my difficulties were just a symptom of my having short legs, as Rob did not seem to be having quite the same trouble. At any rate, it took much longer to get there than going the same distance on smooth ground. I think this lady was having the same trouble walking as I.



The walk was well worth it, as the views of the harbor, both from the breakwater and from the top of the light were beautiful. It was another gorgeous fall day, lots of sailboats out, Owl's Head Light Station in the distance, and the lobster trap buoys decorating the water.

 

The lighthouse is mostly unfinished inside, although a lot of restoration work has been done. You can walk up to the light via an outside stair, and to the second floor inside. Their winters must be brutal as this plaque makes vividly clear.

            

                               

 

There were a lot of boats in the harbor besides the sailboats. I watched to see who would win as this ferry and sailboat looked to be converging on the same point. No collision took place as the ferry asserted it's right-of-way, and the sailboat kept itself in check. So you see, size does count in some situations! And this fishing boat, with one of the crew unconcernedly resting on the stern, speeding past  in the late afternoon. Must have been a rough day.

 

                                                               

After traversing the breakwater again back to shore, we headed up the street to our car and just happened to spot a wedding taking place in a back yard. And I couldn't resist one last photo of another of the beautiful cedar shake houses that are so prevalent here.

                                                                       


                           

We had our last lobster dinner of the trip in the Landings Restaurant, where you can eat outside right on the water. In the morning we start the trip back home, but on the way we will stop off in Massachusetts to see two friends, fellow curtainladies, for lunch.
                                                                                     
         

Rain in Maine and lobster BLT's

Well, really, has it been over two months since I posted the last installment about our Maine trip? Work and tax season do get in the way of blogging. Or maybe I am just trying to make the trip last longer. At any rate, our second day in Maine was forecast for rain, at least in the morning, so we put off the sailing until Saturday and did a little exploring in Rockland and Belfast.

 

Rockland has a lighthouse museum, (and I think some of my five readers know that I love lighthouses), so our thought was, what better place to go when it's raining. I think we must have gotten there soon after opening as we were the only patrons when we arrived. The docent was a friendly sort and upon finding out we are from Michigan, she immediately told me that we have the most lighthouses of all the states. Which I wasn't surprised to hear, but I wouldn't have said it myself, not knowing for sure if it was true. My head is full of useless trivia, but that little fact was not one of them. Ah, but it is now.



   

We spent a wonderful couple of hours perusing all the lighthouse artifacts, the Fresnel lenses, and the miscellaneous histories of lighthouses and lifesaving stations. The histories of the life saving crews are especially arresting when you read  about the conditions that they necessarily had to work in and the primitive (to our modern thinking) equipment they used. I was a bit surprised to see an old picture of the Charlevoix lifesaving station, which is very near our home, and I believe still in use by the Coast Guard. Funny that I had to go to Maine to find this out.

 

On our way out, we did our bit to support the museum by buying a couple of books and a linen calendar towel in the gift shop. I still remember my grandmother sending one of these to Mom each year; after the year was up, it would be put to use drying dishes, linen being the best thing for that job. So you could say that was a bit of a sentimental purchase. Or just an impulse buy. It does look nice in my kitchen though.



The museum is housed in the same building as the Chamber of Commerce.  We spoke to the lady manning the desk about eating establishments, it being lunchtime. She gave us a few recommendations, but one sounded irresistable, The Brass Compass.  According to her, the owner had competed in a throw down with Bobby Flay and won the contest, with her signature lobster BLT. Well, how could we not go check that out. Plus it was only a block away, so we just walked over.





There was a big banner out front proclaiming her victory over Mr. Flay, so of course it was crowded, with people lined up in the cramped entry way waiting for a table. Finally the owner walked over to one large table (obviously full of people she knew, and they were done with their meal) and nicely kicked them out as she had paying customers lined up waiting to buy lunch! It being a large table, and just the two of us, the waitress asked if we minded sharing with the two behind us in line. Not a problem, so down we all sat, happy to be that much closer to lunch. Rob ordered the sandwich (of course he did, it has bacon on it) and I got the crab cakes. Well you can't have lobster every meal. I tried the sandwich and it was pretty amazing, but truthfully I liked the crab cakes better.

   

After this fine meal, we drove back up the coast, or down east as they say there, to Belfast. There were some carvings there that a friend had photographed on her trip there that I wanted to see. It is an old town, being settled before the Revolutionary War so it has many architecturally interesting buildings, a photographer's paradise! We wandered in and out of some of the shops, but mainly just walked around. With me taking pics of course.

 

   

A lady stopped to talk while I was photographing one building, she noticed that the top of the building had a celtic cross, and told me all about a celtic cross in a gift shop down the street that I just had to see. We did walk down there, and the shop did have some interesting items for sale, but the best thing was this chair situated near the front door for those not so interested in the interesting items for sale.

 

    

We had eaten our dinner in Belfast the night before so we headed back south towards the inn, stopping in Camden for supper at Cappy's, where Rob and the waiter had a fine time discussing the merits of the myriad beers served there. Attempting to eat a light dinner, we both ordered the clam chowder. It was delicious and unbelievably filling, but we persevered and ordered the Maine blueberry pie. Now if you have ever tasted my mother's blueberry (or huckleberry as we have always mistakenly called it) pie, you would understand that the bar is set pretty high for me when it comes to that dish, and sadly, this restaurant's pie did not measure up. So I left somewhat disappointed, but really, it was never a fair contest.

   

Tomorrow... we go sailing.