Saturday, July 15, 2006
Trip to Maine
The trip to Boothbay Harbor in Maine was great. (Thanks, Grammie!)
We can't praise the place we stayed enough: the Topside Inn was restful, beautifully appointed, possesed the best view in town, and offered a fantastic breakfast every day (and great cookies about 3PM, too). Go, book, stay, and be happy: www.topsideinn.com.
The view from the front steps of the Topside Inn.
We took a harbor tour the first afternoon. Like "Gilligan's Island," we started out in blazing sun and the clouds rolled in as soon as we slipped out of the harbor.
Heading out to sea.
The town itself isn't yet completely tourism-dependent: there's a lobsterman's co-op on the waterfront between two hotels, and the state aquarium has a note taped to its front door offering cash to fishermen who bring in ugly specimens like wolf fish for display. (Plus, we both touched a shark, and I also touch a sea urchin and a star fish. Yay, science!)
Overlooking the harbor in a white Catholic church which the guide on our harbor tour claimed is one of the most-photographed in the state. The Mrs. captured a lovely view of it after sundown:
Evening across the harbor from the church.
We went on a nature hike one morning. The mosquitos bit me through my metal watch band: yikes!
Fortuntely, the welts disappeared quickly.
Oddly, there's a shipyard at the foot of the hill where we were staying, and they were in the process of overhauling a beautiful old ship. We found out it had been built for the 1960s movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" (its stern still bore the name in great letters) and later was used for the Pirates of the Carribean movies. So we had a huge pirate ship sort of dominating our view:
Yes, we missed the kids and called them every night.
Would we go back? Maybe: there's not that much to do there (t-shirt shops, art galleries, kayak rentals, lobster meals, and...a fudge shop that uses 5-gal. buckets of Fluff!) besides walk and read and eat. But we had a marvelous time and are very glad we went. Profound thanks to our baby-sitter, Grammie E!
We can't praise the place we stayed enough: the Topside Inn was restful, beautifully appointed, possesed the best view in town, and offered a fantastic breakfast every day (and great cookies about 3PM, too). Go, book, stay, and be happy: www.topsideinn.com.
The view from the front steps of the Topside Inn.We took a harbor tour the first afternoon. Like "Gilligan's Island," we started out in blazing sun and the clouds rolled in as soon as we slipped out of the harbor.
Heading out to sea.The town itself isn't yet completely tourism-dependent: there's a lobsterman's co-op on the waterfront between two hotels, and the state aquarium has a note taped to its front door offering cash to fishermen who bring in ugly specimens like wolf fish for display. (Plus, we both touched a shark, and I also touch a sea urchin and a star fish. Yay, science!)
Overlooking the harbor in a white Catholic church which the guide on our harbor tour claimed is one of the most-photographed in the state. The Mrs. captured a lovely view of it after sundown:
Evening across the harbor from the church.We went on a nature hike one morning. The mosquitos bit me through my metal watch band: yikes!
Fortuntely, the welts disappeared quickly.Oddly, there's a shipyard at the foot of the hill where we were staying, and they were in the process of overhauling a beautiful old ship. We found out it had been built for the 1960s movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" (its stern still bore the name in great letters) and later was used for the Pirates of the Carribean movies. So we had a huge pirate ship sort of dominating our view:
Yes, we missed the kids and called them every night.
Would we go back? Maybe: there's not that much to do there (t-shirt shops, art galleries, kayak rentals, lobster meals, and...a fudge shop that uses 5-gal. buckets of Fluff!) besides walk and read and eat. But we had a marvelous time and are very glad we went. Profound thanks to our baby-sitter, Grammie E!
