Bar Harbor at night

Bar Harbor Inn

Yacht anchored in Frenchman Bay

Dining

REALLY BIG yacht anchored in the harbor

This is Egg Rock Lighthouse.  Consort and I thought it would
be much brighter.  It is about four miles offshore.

We drove out to Sand Beach hoping to get a better
photo of the lighthouses at night.  It was a
very bright night

You know you're in Maine when even the clouds are shaped like lobsters!

Sand Beach, Acadia National Park
We happened upon an astronomer giving a lecture on the
night sky and what we were seeing.  Great information!

The beauty of the night sky

Lofty Lonely Lodestars

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse
Lubec, Maine

Yesterday consort and I drove about two hours north to Lubec, Maine, the easternmost point of the United States.  We took the scenic route, which was most enjoyable, as we were not pulling the fifth wheel.  West Quoddy Head Lighthouse is the most unusual and out-of-the-way lighthouse we've seen.  As we walked from the parking lot to the lighthouse, I received a text on my phone welcoming me to Canada.  The phone also automatically switched to Atlantic Daylight Time.  Behind the above pictured lightkeeper's house, you see the ocean.  There's a slightly different color at the horizon line of the ocean which is actually Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada.  Behind the island is Nova Scotia.  The US border with Canada remains closed.  On September 24, the brain trust, a/k/a the governments of both countries, will decide whether to reopen the border.

The picture of the solitary lighthouse surrounded by water is the Lubec Channel Light Station, a working lighthouse.  It is one of three remaining sparkplug lighthouses in Maine, built in 1890.  In 2006, the lighthouse was deemed unnecessary and offered at no cost to various entities, including federal, state, and local agencies; nonprofit corporations, and educational organizations.  No one was interested in taking over this "wedding cake" style lighthouse.  As a result, the lighthouse was sold via online auction.  The winning bid, for $46,000, was placed by the owner of Artisan Restoration Group in New York City.

We are camped just outside of Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island.  Desert is pronounced dessert, the locals say, because the island is such a treat.  So now you're in the know.  We are on the northeastern side of the island.  Today we drove around the island to the southwestern tip to view Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was built in 1858 and is still in use today.

Above photo:  Upper left, apples are in season!  Upper right, stacks of rocks on the shoreline.  I asked someone if there was a purpose for the stacks, you know, are they playing a game of nature's Jenga, or what?  The response was so simple, it made me laugh:  Because they're there.  The two pics on the bottom are of the leaves that are just beginning to change colors.  I have been pretty excited about these turning leaves until I realized that these couple of dozen colored leaves represent a microscopic percentage of the billions and billions of leaves here in Maine.   With any luck, we'll be surrounded by colorful fall foliage as we leave Maine and travel through New England.

Hard to believe, but these are the only two pictures I have, so far, of Bar Harbor.  We have only been into the city once, but hope to spend another day touring while we're here.  The picture of the "house" is Bar Harbor Inn which faces Frenchman Bay.  The opposing picture is a view of Frenchman Bay.

Kayaking in Bass Harbor

Bangor, Maine

Building wall art in downtown Bangor

A few days ago, consort and I left Portland and drove 182 miles north and east to Bar Harbor, Maine.  We arrived late Tuesday afternoon and spent the majority of the day getting set up and tending the livestock.  During the drive, an "idiot light" appeared on the F350 dashboard indicating the need for a new fuel filter.  There were no choices for automotive diesel repairs in our immediate vicinity, so we ended up booking an appointment in Bangor for 8 am on Wednesday.  Bangor is about an hour's drive from our campsite at Bar Harbor Campground.  Our plans included a trip to Bangor, though not quite such an early trip, so it all worked out just fine.

The maine reason for visiting Bangor?  Bangor is the home of author Stephen King, Maine's most famous celebrity and one of our favorite authors. 

This is the home of Stephen King and his wife, author Tabitha King.  It is where Mr. King wrote the majority of his books.  The Kings no longer live in the house, but do retain ownership of the property.  About a year ago, the couple received approval from the Bangor City Council to rezone their blood-red Victorian Mansion for use as a nonprofit.  The Kings own two houses behind the ornate bats-and-gargoyles wrought iron fence.  The guest house will be used as a writer's retreat while the home the family lived in will be used to house personal archives of the authors maintained by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.  

The Kings' personal home

Writer's retreat

If you're a reader of Mr. King's work, you'll know Derry, Maine, features prominently in many of his works of fiction.  After a little research, we located a list of places in and around Bangor that were the inspiration for different settings in his books.  There are also places in Bangor that have been featured in movie adaptations of King's books.  We had a really good time chasing down the different locations; it was a lot like a scavenger hunt.



The first stop in our hunt for spooky locales was the Mount Hope Cemetery.  Mount Hope Cemetery was featured in the movie Pet Sematary based on a book of the same name.

In the movie, Gage Creed, a character from the novel, is killed in an auto accident.  Mount Hope is where he was buried.  In every Stephen King book that is made into a movie, Mr. King has a cameo role.  In this movie, King played the minister officiating the funeral.

Mount Hope Cemetery is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States.  The oldest is St. Luke's in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In addition to being a film location, Mount Hope is the resting place for a former vice-president, Hannibal Hamlin, and Public Enemy #1, Al Brady



Pictured above:  Upper left, a row of babies in a family plot; upper right, interesting how the graves made their way up the hill; bottom left, just thought it was unusual; bottom right, we were impressed with the pebble walkway.

It is interesting that on older headstones, after the date of death, the deceased's age is listed.  For example, on the headstone of David Leighton, it says that he died June 1, 1854.  It then says, AE. 80 yrs. 6 mos. & 22 dys.

Both consort and I find the sculptures in cemeteries intriguing.  This particular sculpture was designed by Vernon Shaffer of Beloit, Wisconsin, to commemorate fallen Civil War soldiers.  The memorial features a bronze sculpture of a faceless angel carrying a wounded soldier.  The sculpture sets atop a marble slab that bears the inscription, "Not painlessly doth God recast and mould anew the nation."  The line is from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, Luther's Hymn.  The inscription seems as relevant today as it did in 1861.

The picture of the yellow house is from the movie, Pet Sematary.  It is where the character, Gage Creed, lived.  Pet Sematary is one of the spookiest books of Stephen King's I've ever read.  The house and the "children at play" sign are two things that I remember vividly.

After leaving the cemetery, we stopped off at the Bangor Waterworks plant.  The building dates back to 1875 and was featured in the movie, Graveyard Shift.  The original work by King was a short story that was published in his Night Shift collection of stories. 

The story is about an old textile mill whose underground tunnels served as home to an army of giant rats that caused all sorts of trouble.  Today, the main building has been turned into low income housing -- minus the rats.

One of King's most popular books is, It.  For those of you who have read It, or seen the movie, you'll immediately recognize Pennywise the clown.  *shudder*  I have just a few pictures of places that were prominently featured in the book.

This is the storm drain where King says Pennywise the clown lived.  This is where Georgie Denborough met Pennywise for the first time and met with his untimely death.  The drain looks nothing like the drain in the movie; but in the book, King describes the drain as located at the corner of Jackson and Union Street.  This is the drain.  If you look closely, you can just make out the white face of Pennywise the clown. 

This is the Thomas Hill Standpipe.  It has been said that Stephen King wrote the book It while seated on a bench at this site.  If that is the case, I hope he brought a seat cushion; It is a really long book.  The standpipe is where Stanley Uris first meets Pennywise.  Back here in reality, the standpipe is still in use today storing almost two million gallons of water for the thirsty citizens of Bangor.

And this, of course, is Paul Bunyan.  He is 31 feet tall and very intimidating in real life.  In the book, It, the statue comes to life and chases Richie Tozier.  Oh, the horror!

And that was the end of our literary tour of Bangor.  We drove back to the campsite and had some lunch, then headed into Bar Harbor for a short walking tour, but that's a different story for another day.

Built to serve

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde, Maine

The rocky ledge runs far into the sea, and on its outer point, some miles away, the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, a pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.   ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We are leaving the Portland area in a few days and have been working out our travel plans.  There are lighthouses all along the coast that we would still like to see, but we also want to spend time in both Bar Harbor and Bangor.  To work out the logistics, we decided to take a daytrip today to see the lighthouses in and around Rockland, Maine, about two hours north of Portland.

This is Owls Head Lighthouse.  It is located in Owls Head State Park outside of Owls Head, Maine.  The city got its name not from an extraordinarily large amount of owls that inhabit the area, but because the promontory the lighthouse sets atop looks like an owl's head when seen from the water.  The lighthouse sets at the top of an 80-foot bluff overlooking Penobscot Bay.  The lighthouse is 30-feet tall and was built in 1825.  

Left, another view of the lighthouse; bottom right, view of Penobscot Bay;
top right, the grave of Spot, the lighthouse dog.

The small picture is of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.  The lighthouse sets nearly a mile out in the ocean.  To reach the lighthouse, one must walk 4,364 feet over stacked granite stones.  A total of 768,774 tons of stone went into this breakwater.  The plan for the breakwater was approved in 1890 and completed in 1899.  After a few severe storms, it was determined the height of the breakwater needed to be increased.  A four-foot-high cap was added in 1901.

Consort and I, and the wee mangy mongrels, walked the 7/8ths of a mile to reach the lighthouse.  It was an easy walk compared with the breakwater at Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.  At Spring Point Ledge, there were pretty large gaps between the stones.  At Rockland Breakwater, the stones were pushed tightly together.  The breakwater at Spring Point Ledge is 900 feet long; Rockland Breakwater is nearly five times longer.

About three-fourths of the way out to the lighthouse, waves began washing over the breakwater stones.  Consort and I were not sure whether this was normal and thought maybe the tide was coming in.  We were nearly to the lighthouse and so decided to continue to wade through the water to reach our destination.  We were amused by the novelty of the situation.  If it was the tide coming in, it continued to come in as we spent time perusing the lighthouse.  As we walked back to the shore, there were places where the water washing over the breakwater was about a foot deep.  The short video clip should give you a visual of what we encountered.

The walk out to the lighthouse

 

Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse in the harbor of Rockland, Maine

Marshall Point Lighthouse,  Port Clyde, Maine, built 1832

Marshall Point Lighthouse was featured in the movie Forrest Gump.  Tom Hanks, who played the main character Forrest, concludes his cross-country run at Marshall Point Lighthouse.  

There was a little kid with his dad at the lighthouse waiting for a photo op.  He was about ten years old and had a large collection of Funko POP! movie characters.  He brought his Forrest Gump character on the family vacay and insisted they stop at the lighthouse for a picture.  He was an interesting little guy.

There was another ten-year-old boy who kept me company as I walked out the breakwater to the Rockland lighthouse.  We had an in-depth discussion about Minecraft, Fortnite, and the new Mario Brothers only for Nintendo Switch.  Sighhh, I really miss my grandsons!

Marshall Point Lighthouse

More beautiful houses

The rocks! They're beautiful!  We've decided they are granite

Seagulls and cormorants

Notes from the day.

*We did not stop for seafood today.  I thought it best to give consort a break from all the strange foods I've insisted he try.  

*We saw quite a few signs advertising, "Lawn Sales."  No yard sales, no garage sales.  New Englanders take care of business on the lawn.

*Most of the streets going through downtown business areas in these towns and cities are named Maine Street.  Love!

*We saw a sign placed at an intersection while we were waiting at a stoplight.  It was advertising a bean supper the Odd Fellows were hosting in one of the towns we drove through.  What made the sign so unusual was that it said the bean supper would be a drive-thru supper.  I think that gives a whole new meaning to the expression, Gas and Go.

The King and I

I have decided to pull this book from the shelf and keep it handy while we visit Bangor next week just in case Stephen King should come out of his house for a chat. 

Hips and Ships

 and five four lighthouses

Portland Head Light, completed and first lit in 1791.
It is the oldest lighthouse in Maine.
If you look closely, you'll notice the beacon is lit.

We first stopped at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth.  There are actually three lighthouses in the park.  The lighthouse pictured above is commonly referred to as the Cape Elizabeth Light.  It is a working lighthouse.  There is another, not pictured, that is no longer in service.  Both of the lighthouses are on private property with no public access.

The third lighthouse standing in the water is abandoned, and that's all the information I could find about it.  Update:  The lighthouse is Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse.  It is no longer in service.  When the light station was taken out of service, it was offered at no cost to federal, state, and local agencies; nonprofit corporations, and educational organizations.  There were no takers.  It was then auctioned off in 2008 for $186,000.  The owner is a native Mainer.  The photo on the right is patio dining at The Lobster Shack.  We opted to hold out for fried clams later in the day.

Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse

Views of the shoreline

We drove a little farther down the coast to Fort Williams State Park where the Portland Head Light is located (also pictured above).  As the oldest lighthouse in Maine, it is listed on the National Historic Registry.  It is still in service today.

The two most common sights in Portland are the ships in the harbor and the rosehips at the shoreline.  The two most common scents in this area are the pine trees and salty sea air.

I am completely mesmerized by the coastline.

Pictures that pose questions.  We see the rock on the left all over the shore.  To me, it looks like petrified wood, but consort disagrees.  Yesterday we saw veins within the rock formations.  Does anyone know what type of rocks these are?

And the house...  Neither consort nor I have ever seen inverted windows on a house.  These windows are similar to bay windows, but instead of bowing out of the house, they are framed inward.  Have you ever seen this type of window before?

We ended our day with a search for the best fried clams we could find.  After a bit of research, we drove about 15 miles to Yarmouth to have fried clams at Day's Crabmeat & Lobster.  They were sold out.  We drove back into Portland to Susan's Fish & Chips.  Susan was all out of clams, too.  We then drove back to Scarborough and headed to Ken's Place where there were fried clams galore.  Consort is not a big fan of seafood, but he agreed to try the clams.  After a few bites, he decided the clams were pretty good.  Unfortunately, about two hours later, he changed his mind and spent the next three hours in the water closet paying homage to the porcelain throne.  I don't believe he intends to try anymore seafood.  Ever.