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teddogI'm not feeling well, so photos are going to have to wait.
We woke up the morning of the Sunday to discover that the nice little town of South Bristol was completely covered in fog. I was kinda curious what coast fog was like, but I wasn't expecting it to be as thick as it was. At points, it was far to see more than a foot beyond the car.
Still, we decided to go adventuring and traveled down to Pemaquid Point, where there is a lighthouse and a small museum. Along the way, we past a road with a sign claiming there was a Jam Stand on it. You see, it's not uncommon to see signs for local business, but they're almost always for antique stores. Jams are different. Out of insanity, we headed down, AND DID NOT FIND THE JAM STAND.
So we continued onto the Point. The coast here is all rock, unlike any rocky shore I've seen before and I lived up north - I know my rough shores. What set this one apart, aside from signs warning about seals on the rocks, was the type of rock. It's a mix of granite and what looks like it was once molten rock that ended down into the water and cooled. You have to wonder about what series of events created that piece of the coast.
There were also sea gulls that much, much bigger than the ones in Toronto. Lots of wild flowers, including some wild roses that Steff noticed.
We explored the museum; mostly artifacts from the area's shipping and fishing history. The old folks running it were nice, but wanted us to explore various tourist traps around town. Uh, NO. By that time we were freezing and after a brief chat, Steff and I realized that neither one of us had packed an sweaters. We're geniuses, you know.
Thankfully, Damariscotta wasn't too far away, so we hiked it back up there to visit Reny's, a local discount chain in Maine. The store had this nice, "discount before Walmart" feel to it. That said, their selection of women's sweathers sucked, so we went for the guys sweaters instead. >:)
Damariscotta, being slightly touristy, has a lot of little stores, so we poked around for a bit. The local bookstore didn't have any Star Trek books. Oh yes, we looked! You better believe we did. It did have books by a certain stuck up someone in fandom. Her author bio was one of the biggest pieces of bullshit I've read since college. "Traveled the world with her family and a trunk of books!" WHAT? We also took in the local gift shops. There were some cute things there and I regret not buying anything there. Next time, and there will be a next time.
We headed back to the Harbourside for lunch and I ordered too much food again. The place was really hopping for a Sunday afternoon and we got to listen in on some political conversation.
As for what we did next, I don't really remember. I know we poked around the island some more and went down to Christmas Cove, and I think that we might have almost fallen asleep at some point, but eventually Steff decided that she wanted to know how much time and effort it took to send a lobster to Ohio.
We went back to the "downtown" and visited Osier's Wharf. Osier is, of course, Dave Osier, a very charming fisherman that Steff was quite smitten with. We originally only showed up to price how much packing a lobster as a carry-on would cost, but he let us go down on the docks to look up close at his fishing boats. Our timing was lucky, because right around then was the time that several local fishermen were coming in with their lobster catches for the day.
Dave gave us a crash course in lobsters, everything from how to tell the males from the females, the different in hard shell and soft shell, how the lobsters are stored and sold and why lobsters in the supermarkets look so lifeless. Recently caught lobsters FIGHT BACK. Really eyeopening and sorta one of those strange moments were you ponder your luck in actually being able to see what real life is like out on the coast. We also talked about Canadian healthcare and Niagara Falls while Steff and him talked more about his trade.
It was getting late and the fog was starting to roll in, so we went over to the Harbourside and found it closed. Not too annoyed, we drove 10 minutes or so to another place to grab dinner... and it closed as we were walking up to it. All of Damariscotta was closed.
Apparently, Maine closes early on Sundays.
We roamed, looking for something decently cheap and open, the latter part being the most important! Our travels took us down towards Boothbay Harbour.
There was a gas station outside of Boothbay that sold subs and this was as good of a dinner as any, so we picked up some and decided to travel down to Boothday Harbour to find a nice place to pack and eat.
Instead, we found a massive tourist trap.
That's what the Harbour is, for the most part. Lots of trinket and t-shirt stores and overpriced places to eat. Very surreal compared to the quiet pace of South Bristol. Even late on a Sunday, the place had a very ethereal quality to it. It wasn't really scuzzy like some tourist traps - it was actually kept up really well - but it didn't feel real. All of the inns and stores pushed together on a picturesque landscape...
Sorta the type of place I'd like, although this one weirded me out. On the other hand, the town was a popular place to host boat tours and I grabbed a few flyers for schooner tours, just in case we wanted to go back in the morning.
After wandering the downtown for a bit, we piled back into the car and traveled to a parking lot, where we ate our subs under the watchful eye of an ugly fisherman statue.
Boothbay Harbour is a strange, strange place.
We headed home, plotting random fandom crack as Steff dodged the frogs that hopped across the damp roads.
Next time, Day Four (Monday the 15th): On the Sea and On the Beach!
We woke up the morning of the Sunday to discover that the nice little town of South Bristol was completely covered in fog. I was kinda curious what coast fog was like, but I wasn't expecting it to be as thick as it was. At points, it was far to see more than a foot beyond the car.
Still, we decided to go adventuring and traveled down to Pemaquid Point, where there is a lighthouse and a small museum. Along the way, we past a road with a sign claiming there was a Jam Stand on it. You see, it's not uncommon to see signs for local business, but they're almost always for antique stores. Jams are different. Out of insanity, we headed down, AND DID NOT FIND THE JAM STAND.
So we continued onto the Point. The coast here is all rock, unlike any rocky shore I've seen before and I lived up north - I know my rough shores. What set this one apart, aside from signs warning about seals on the rocks, was the type of rock. It's a mix of granite and what looks like it was once molten rock that ended down into the water and cooled. You have to wonder about what series of events created that piece of the coast.
There were also sea gulls that much, much bigger than the ones in Toronto. Lots of wild flowers, including some wild roses that Steff noticed.
We explored the museum; mostly artifacts from the area's shipping and fishing history. The old folks running it were nice, but wanted us to explore various tourist traps around town. Uh, NO. By that time we were freezing and after a brief chat, Steff and I realized that neither one of us had packed an sweaters. We're geniuses, you know.
Thankfully, Damariscotta wasn't too far away, so we hiked it back up there to visit Reny's, a local discount chain in Maine. The store had this nice, "discount before Walmart" feel to it. That said, their selection of women's sweathers sucked, so we went for the guys sweaters instead. >:)
Damariscotta, being slightly touristy, has a lot of little stores, so we poked around for a bit. The local bookstore didn't have any Star Trek books. Oh yes, we looked! You better believe we did. It did have books by a certain stuck up someone in fandom. Her author bio was one of the biggest pieces of bullshit I've read since college. "Traveled the world with her family and a trunk of books!" WHAT? We also took in the local gift shops. There were some cute things there and I regret not buying anything there. Next time, and there will be a next time.
We headed back to the Harbourside for lunch and I ordered too much food again. The place was really hopping for a Sunday afternoon and we got to listen in on some political conversation.
As for what we did next, I don't really remember. I know we poked around the island some more and went down to Christmas Cove, and I think that we might have almost fallen asleep at some point, but eventually Steff decided that she wanted to know how much time and effort it took to send a lobster to Ohio.
We went back to the "downtown" and visited Osier's Wharf. Osier is, of course, Dave Osier, a very charming fisherman that Steff was quite smitten with. We originally only showed up to price how much packing a lobster as a carry-on would cost, but he let us go down on the docks to look up close at his fishing boats. Our timing was lucky, because right around then was the time that several local fishermen were coming in with their lobster catches for the day.
Dave gave us a crash course in lobsters, everything from how to tell the males from the females, the different in hard shell and soft shell, how the lobsters are stored and sold and why lobsters in the supermarkets look so lifeless. Recently caught lobsters FIGHT BACK. Really eyeopening and sorta one of those strange moments were you ponder your luck in actually being able to see what real life is like out on the coast. We also talked about Canadian healthcare and Niagara Falls while Steff and him talked more about his trade.
It was getting late and the fog was starting to roll in, so we went over to the Harbourside and found it closed. Not too annoyed, we drove 10 minutes or so to another place to grab dinner... and it closed as we were walking up to it. All of Damariscotta was closed.
Apparently, Maine closes early on Sundays.
We roamed, looking for something decently cheap and open, the latter part being the most important! Our travels took us down towards Boothbay Harbour.
There was a gas station outside of Boothbay that sold subs and this was as good of a dinner as any, so we picked up some and decided to travel down to Boothday Harbour to find a nice place to pack and eat.
Instead, we found a massive tourist trap.
That's what the Harbour is, for the most part. Lots of trinket and t-shirt stores and overpriced places to eat. Very surreal compared to the quiet pace of South Bristol. Even late on a Sunday, the place had a very ethereal quality to it. It wasn't really scuzzy like some tourist traps - it was actually kept up really well - but it didn't feel real. All of the inns and stores pushed together on a picturesque landscape...
Sorta the type of place I'd like, although this one weirded me out. On the other hand, the town was a popular place to host boat tours and I grabbed a few flyers for schooner tours, just in case we wanted to go back in the morning.
After wandering the downtown for a bit, we piled back into the car and traveled to a parking lot, where we ate our subs under the watchful eye of an ugly fisherman statue.
Boothbay Harbour is a strange, strange place.
We headed home, plotting random fandom crack as Steff dodged the frogs that hopped across the damp roads.
Next time, Day Four (Monday the 15th): On the Sea and On the Beach!
