Newslette 7  - Boothbay Harbour

We just loved this beautiful place.  Lee & Shayne’s neighbors had told us about it, they love it and spend many holidays there, thank you to Donna & John for all their advice, maps and information, it was so helpful knowing where to go and where to get best lobster etc.  I had heard from others how pretty Maine is, and as it was within driving distance is why we decided to visit, well we were not disappointed.  We decided that in ‘the fall’ it would certainly be worth visiting again.  A quiet maritime village, full of restaurants, antique and gift shops, art galleries lots of flower pots, window boxes of pretty flowering plants, lovely friendly, chatty people, boats and lovely scenery.  There is also a lot of boat building, maintenance and repairs in the area as well as lobster and commercial fishing and tourism.  The whole rugged coastline of Maine has dozens of beautiful lighthouses, some you can stay in.

Next day we went down town, parked in a Municipal car park for $7 for the day, an envelope honesty system, seemed to work well.  The town has a trolley bus with open sides which runs around the town and across the other side of the harbor, no charge, but a box for donations (that is the driver’s pay for the day), Sarah our driver and commentator was terrific, telling us of some of the history and pointing out various landmarks, stopped to pick up people along the way, great ride.  We then walked across the 1000ft  footbridge which connects the east and west sides of the inner harbor, for lunch.  On the footbridge is a lovely tiny old cottage, which was known as the bridge tender’s house, with cedar shingles, actually it is for sale, but was where the guy who originally built the footbridge in 1902  lived, he charged a toll, then when he had recouped his costs, gave it all back to the people.  It has a trapdoor in the floor of the kitchen, believe it was used during prohibition for smuggling rum!!  The cutest little place, how nice it would be to live there, at least in the summer, not sure about the winter when they get snow though!! 

We had lunch at Lobster Dock, recommended by Donna and John for having the best lobster rolls, well sitting out on the deck in the sun, under an umbrella with a lobster roll and a bottle of Corona was ‘heaven’, yes superb.  Did some more walking around the town, little streets and buildings in all sorts of corners, no straight roads here, so quaint, clean, quiet, friendly and pretty is how I would describe it.  Went back to our resort for a rest and a brandy, a surprising shower of rain, a bit cooler was most welcome then we decided prior to dinner we would go for a drive to one of the Islands, Southport, got there via a swing bridge, what a pleasant surprise, we meandered through lovely trees along country roads taking a road to the wharf, amazing, water was so still, beautiful reflections, a number of very small islands, where either people reside or you can rent a house for holidays.  We met a few people on the wharf who we chatted to, they all seemed to come from different States, so interesting and they of course were interested to hear where we came from.  A lady, almost our age, had just rowed into the wharf, we thought she must have lived on one of the islands but she had a house nearby and as she had spent all day in her office had just come out to have a relaxing row around, how nice.  They pointed out one of the islands where Margaret Hamilton used to live, she was the actress who played ‘The wicked witch of the west’ in the movie ‘Wizard of Oz’, her son now owns it.  Always interesting the stories different people have to tell.  We spent some time at the wharf just admiring the views, absolutely gorgeous, so pleased we drove around here, we just don’t have the time to see everything.  Dinner, yes lovely seafood again, had trouble deciding where to eat.

Next morning it was raining when we left the resort, we visited a shop that sells all types of art and craft from locals, beautiful things, there seem to be lots of Artisans in the area, we bought a couple of pictures among other things.  We left and headed south again passing through the historic town of Bath, ‘City of Ships’.  Our next stop was at the Androscoggin Swing Bridge at Brunswick, it had stopped raining, so we could walk the bridge and enjoy the water and the lovely bird, may have been a type of Heron on the riverbank.  Next stop was Freeport, the home of the LL Bean store, a huge store of outdoor equipment, clothing etc, set with lovely gardens and lawns, even an area where they teach you how to fly fish also another home store, lots and lots of outlet shops and an outlet shopping mall here also. 

Our next stop was the lovely old city of Portland, large wharf area, some beautifully refurbished buildings,, shops etc, had lunch at ‘Rosie’s Restaurant & Pub’ on a nice old cobbled street, a couple of funny signs in the Pub and again a nice seafood meal, sorry you must all be sick of hearing that!!  On to Wells Beach and Ogunquit, a beautiful holiday beach town, we had been told to walk ‘The Marginal Way’ a lovely walk along a cliff top, overlooking the water with resorts all along the other side, people on lounges on the lawns just taking in the views, this place was really beautiful also. 

Further south to Marlborough, again out of Boston for our stay for the night.  Here we finally found accommodation for the night at a beautiful Boutique Hotel at Sudbury, I must admit we had trouble finding it, backwards and forwards, no one told us it was a different suburb to put into the GPS, however very nice and we could walk to a lovely restaurant ‘Bullfinch’ they have cookery classes here, painting evenings with drinks in the bar on other nights, very entrepreneurial, a lady in the cookery class came out and offered to take our photo for us, people are just so lovely and friendly and helpful.