Day Seven – This Little Light of Mine

June 27, 2016 – Lights and Flowers

We’ve agreed to get up early and get a quick start;  but we both get up even earlier than we’d planned.  Even with stretching and showers and everything we’re able to go down to breakfast before eight and are on the road by nine.

Today we’re going to the Pemaquid Point Light House in Bristol, then to the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay.  Our trusty Waze lady guides us through some tiny little roads and towns and we are delivered safely at The Light.  As soon as Marilyn catches sight of the crashing waves her day is made! 

The rocks look intimidating but we soon get the hang of climbing on their slanting surfaces and learn to avoid the wet and slippery places.  The endless opportunities for catching the perfect splash and crash could keep us here forever! 

We’ve about decided that it’s time to go back up and check out the light itself.  The tide seems to be coming in and the water is getting closer!  As we make our way up a lady stops us and shows us that we can see the reflection of the lighthouse in the puddle.  Apparently this is an iconic photo!  She says it’s on the cover of every Maine calendar!  We’d have never known!  She says that she and her husband came out yesterday and she thought she had to get up higher for the shot, so she was on her husband’s shoulders!  Today she figured out that you have to get down lower and now she’s a happy camper and sharing the joy!

Before climbing the light we go into the Fishermen’s Museum where a charming older man tells us all about the light itself and some of its history.  There is a twenty-eight pound lobster on display and he says the record one weighed forty-four pounds and was caught in Nova Scotia.  He tells us that the rubber bands on lobsters’ claws are to keep them feed eating each other!  And that the rubber bands are often called Down Eastern wedding bands!

He tells us about otter crawls that are used to catch fish and lobsters and shows us the difference between how big the light bulb in the light looks and actually is.

After the museum it’s time to climb the light.  Only five people can go up there at a time and the volunteer gives us some history while we wait for our turn. We’ve been kind of dreading the climb after going up the three hundred plus steps at the Pensacola Light.  Turns out that since we are already forty feet about MSL we only have to climb thirty steps up a circular staircase, and seven up a ladder!  So easy!  We get to see the actual light and the amazing view.

Back down, we check out the small art museum, filled with local artists’ work, and the learning center, and head back up the coast.  We’d thought the light would only be worth an hour or so, but we’ve spent over three and now we’re hungry!  Luckily we’ve got a big jug of cashews in the back seat!  The gardens close at five and we want to get our money’s worth, of course!

The little two-lane roads lead through beautiful forests and there is little traffic, so the drive is easy and lovely and before long we’re at the Coast Maine Botanical Gardens.  It covers two hundred and seventy acres and was begun in 1991.

What an overwhelming collection of beautiful plants!  There are lots of flowering trees and plants and even a small labyrinth that you are encouraged to walk barefooted! Every curve in the path reveals more treasurers and interspersed are sculptures by June LaCombe.  Oh, and there’s a gift shop!

Our energy gives out right around closing time and we head back to Brunswick.  Along the way we ask Trip Advisor about restaurants and wind up at the Bangkok Garden Restaurant in Ft. Andross.  That turns out to be an old building that now contains restaurants, shops and even an AM radio station!  We had planned to go to the Frontier Café, which was supposed to be open on Mondays, but isn’t.  It’s located there, too.

Yummy dinner!  I had Mee Ka Tee, which turns out to be coconut curry (rice) noodles with ground chicken and bean sprouts, scallions, cilantro, shredded cabbage and mint and lime juice in a coconut, curry sauce.  The bowl is huge and I can’t even finish it!  Marilyn has panang curry with fried tofu.  And we have hot tea, which is delicious.  When we ask our server what it is, she says it’s just called Thai tea powder and I realize that it tastes familiar because I usually have it as iced tea!

After dinner decide to drive down Maine Street, which is supposed to be super quaint and small-town New England.  It is all of that;  but mostly it is restaurants and we probably won't spend any time here.  I do want to get some photos of First Parish Church,  UCC congregation that has been around since 1717 and was the spiritual home to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

we stop by the room and pick up our dirty laundry.  There’s a laundromat right down the street and we bring our computers so time flies.  On the way home we stop by Hannaford and I pick up some anti-itch cream.  I’m still scratching the insect bites from last week and I seem to attract new ones daily!  I’m just so sweet, I guess!

Back home I grab a cup of hot chocolate and we head upstairs and to bed.