The Famous Four's 'Two Weeks in New England' - Episode 3 - 'In the Main, we've Mainly loved Maine, but now we no longer Remain!'

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Today we said our fond farewells to the beautiful city of Boston; we have seen and done so much and we are very sad to be moving on, but as the saying goes, 'Time waits for no Man' and we have an itinerary to follow! But as the Bee Gees sang in their massive number one of 1968, 'I feel I'm going back to Massachusetts' and hopefully we might well do some day. Before we leave, Steve and I had an important task to perform, namely to pick up our rental car from the airport. When we originally booked the car (through Rental Cars.Com), we could have collected the vehicle from downtown, but for some reason the price was significantly higher, so we went for an airport pick up and even doing so a few days after our flight had arrived, this was definitely the right option, especially with our hotel being relatively close to the airport. We picked up the subway for one last time, travelling the 6 stations to the airport stop, where there was a very efficient shuttle bus taking passengers to the Rental Car Centre (2 minutes), in addition to the various terminals for those catching flights. The RCC is massive, but there were probably only two others collecting cars in the whole building, in addition to ourselves, so off we trotted to the SIXT counter and after a relatively quick process (and, of course, handing over more money for adding Steve to the permitted drivers, adding a SatNav, which we needed as our phones weren't playing ball and also paying for an E-Z Pass for the road tolls, (allowing us to sail through the toll plazas, without having to stop), we were off to the garage to collect our very nice BMW X3, upgraded for 'free' from the Mazda CX-5 that we had originally booked. It took us a little while to figure out all the bells and whistles on the car (including the SatNav!), but we were then on our way for the 15 minute drive back to hotel (with a couple of unplanned detours!) where we grabbed a bit of breakfast, collected Mandy, Lily and our luggage and checked out, all before 9.00 am.

We were driving one hundred miles or so to Portland, the main conurbation of Maine (the state capital is Augusta), for a one night stopover on our journey further up the Maine coast and whilst the journey was relatively short, we were planning a couple of stops in Salem (the site of the infamous witch trials in 1692/93) and then a place called Cape Elizabeth, a few miles short of Portland to see the iconic Portland Head Lighthouse. If we followed the Interstate, we could probably be in Portland in under two hours, but we didn't want to waste the opportunity to see a couple of sights on the way.

We decided to visit Salem partly because it was on the way out of Boston and was only 20 miles north of the city, but also because it had such a well known, if somewhat gruesome history. The Salem witch trials in 1692 and 1693 were an exercise in religious persecution, family feuds and mass hysteria (imported from Europe, where tens of thousands (of mainly women) were accused of witchcraft, very often for the most spurious of reasons), which resulted in over 200 people being accused of witchcraft, (often as an act of spite against a friend or neighbour), with 19 being sentenced to death and another 6 dying in jail. The incident was dramatised in the 1953 Arthur Miller play, The Crucible, now classed as a classic piece of American dramatic art.

We got to Salem very quickly and parked up in a multi-storey car park, the name of which (Witch City Mall!) should have given us a clue as to the town's current approach to the subject! For a place that had been fanatical about stamping out 'perceived witchcraft' 330 years ago, it now seems to be totally obsessed with every aspect of the dark arts! Unsurprisingly I guess, the town's tourism industry is dominated by one subject and one subject alone, namely............witchcraft!! There are walking tours showing the keys points of interest associated with the trials, various museums associated with the events (including a waxworks!), numerous psychics, tarot card readers, spiritualists and other such mumbo jumbo and every other shop seemed to be offering products linked to the trials/witchcraft in every conceivable way, however tenuous!

To be honest, it all felt a little bit tacky and exploitative, especially the so-called memorial (to the accused) which we walked to and after searching high and low, it turned out to be nothing more than a modern stone wall, with no obvious link to the event that I could find! However, on a more positive note, to me the most interesting sight was the former home of Judge Jonathan Corwin (now known as 'the witch house'!), one of the judges at the trials and the last surviving piece of history linked to the trials, albeit significantly restored, I hasten to add. There were also some very nice buildings from more recent times (the 1800s), including the town hall, the East India Marine Hall and the Salem Five Cents Savings Bank, a bank (now called Salem Five) founded in 1855 to support the poorest members of the community and whose original name was based on the fact that a new customer only needed a nickel to open an account.

I suspect that Salem is an absolute blast on and around Halloween and if you are in to all things spooky, then this is definitely the place for you. But for me, although I am glad we paid it a visit to recall an important event in America's history, it didn't really float my boat, although having said that, with only a couple of hours in town, we almost certainly didn't do it justice.

As we moved on, Steve took over the driving and we headed up to Cape Elizabeth, and boy what a time he chose to take over! We hadn't long been on the Interstate, when the heavens opened and it was another storm of biblical proportions! The rain was torrential and at its height lasted for an hour or more, with the wipers going at full pelt and still struggling to cope. I did suggest that we could pull over at a rest area for a while, but the sky looked so dark and threatening that we had no idea how long we might be stopped for and so we ploughed on. It was only after a couple of minor aqua-planing moments that had just made Steve think about changing his mind, that the rain eased and we could all relax a bit. It was during this storm that we passed into the next State of our trip, namely the State of Maine; actually that's not quite true, because there is a tiny part of New Hampshire which squeezes out to the coast between Massachusetts and Maine, but in the deluge, I think we missed it!

Maine is the largest state in New England, but is the least populated at only 44 people per square mile, compared to over 900 people per square mile in Massachusetts. As I said, we are headed to Portland, the most populated town in the State, but with a population of under 70,000 it's only about half as big again as Leighton Buzzard. Maine borders only one other US State, namely New Hampshire and stretches all the way up to Canada, bordering the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. It is one of the most rural states in the US (measured by the percentage of the population not residing in urban areas), and is known for its' very rugged coastline and seafaring tradition and outdoor way of life. This lifestyle is reflected in the slogans I noticed on various road signs as we entered Maine, such as:

'Worth a visit, worth a lifetime!'

'The way life should be'

and

'Making all things possible'

With such a rugged coastline, lighthouses are a very iconic feature throughout the coastal regions of Maine and before reaching Portland, we were heading for one such lighthouse, in the small town of Cape Elizabeth (5 or six miles south of Portland), a lighthouse called Portland Head, and the oldest such lighthouse in the USA, dating back to 1791. It sits on a head of land at one side of the entrance to Casco Bay (the main shipping channel into the harbour of Portland, from the Atlantic Ocean), with Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse sitting on the other side of the bay. We arrived early afternoon and mercifully, the rain had stopped and whilst it was still very cloudy, we were able to get some decent shots. When approaching the building from the car park you get a good view of both Portland Head and Ram Island Ledge lighthouses together, but for the best view of Portland Head walk a little way along the footpath (easily missed) running due north of the lighthouse and then look back; an excellent view, even in the dull conditions.

After spending the best part of an hour at Cape Elizabeth, we set off for Portland and our hotel, the La Quinta by Wyndham, a Premier Inn-like facility at the west end of town. The rooms were perfectly adequate for one night and once again, breakfast was included, which was a bit of a bonus, bearing in mind that dinner that night turned out to be pretty expensive! We decided to eat down on the waterfront, and after driving there from our hotel, we realised that car parking was a serious problem; there was metered parking on the road, which we couldn't access because payment was only via an App that wasn't downloadable on our phones. So instead we pulled into one of the small parking lots along the edge of the waterfront, which we thought was the safest option. Well, safe it may have been, but at $22 for two hours, it was a bit of a rip off, to say the least! Finding a restaurant with available space to fit us in during our two hour slot was the next challenge, but we eventually managed to get a space in the lounge of a very nice (but very pricey) Italian, with the four of us nestled around a very low level coffee table. We shared a couple of main meals, plus a dessert and then legged it back to the car park, in time before we incurred another $7 charge! And then back to our hotel and an early night!

The following day, we were heading further north up the coast to a place called Mount Desert Island and the main reason for our trip this far north in Maine and that is the Acadia National Park, a park that I had heard a lot about and really wanted to visit. The main town on the island is Bar Harbour, but getting accommodation there was both very difficult this time of year and extremely expensive, so I had booked a place in Northeast Harbour on the diagonally opposite side of the island (but only about 20 minutes drive from Bar Harbour). The hotel was called The Kimball Terrace Inn and the direct route from Portland was about 165 miles and would take about 3 hours. However, we were planning a slightly shorter, but less direct route, with the last 80 miles or so tracking the coast and off we went up the I95 towards Augusta (no, not that one!), before cutting off of the Interstate and heading east towards Rockland, before reaching our first planned stop (a few miles later), the beautiful town of Camden.

Unlike the North London version, this Camden is a lovely coastal town with plenty of wealth (if the yachts in the harbour are anything to go by!), with lots of nice independent shops & restaurants. Camden is a great place to stop and we spent a lovely couple of hours here (including coffee and a gingerbread and ice cream dessert!) before moving on to our ultimate destination at Northeast Harbour, tracking the mighty Penobscot River for a chunk of the way, and crossing the river at one point over the impressive Penobscot Narrows River Bridge (called the Verona Bridge) and apologies for cheating here, but I have used a stock library image of the bridge, because getting our own photo was simply too difficult.

The Kimball Terrace Inn is more motel than hotel and is a bit dated to be honest, but the rooms were very spacious and comfortable and the property was ideally situated in the harbour, with a sea view (sort of!); more importantly, we were also very close to one of the main entrances to the park. First things first on arrival, we headed to the nearby Nor'Easter pub and restaurant for a couple of beers to wind down after our journey; incidentally, Steve and I have been drinking a beer so far on this trip, called Patina Pale Ale, brewed by the Austin Street Brewery in Portland and very good it is too! We didn't fancy going too far for dinner tonight, so we also ate in the Nor'Easter a little later, but we couldn't be too late because they stop serving at eight!!

Day two on Mount Desert Island, was what we were here for, namely our visit to the National Park. But before we set off, breakfast was the order of the day and we found a lovely diner in Northeast Harbour village called Colonel's and shared blueberry pancakes, bacon and lashings of maple syrup; a perfect set up for the day. Entrance to the park costs $35 for a vehicle (and passengers) pass, together with a further $6 to book a slot to take a vehicle up Summit Road to the top of Mount Cadillac and, of course (!), I booked both of these online before we left home.

We decided to go to Bar Harbour first and check out one of the most well-known towns in Maine and it really is well worth visiting. The setting is beautiful, with the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, with lots of quaint shops, hotels and eateries in between. Walking north down Main Street reaches the waterfront and the views really are stunning, with numerous islands out in the bay, reminding us a little of Halong Bay off the coast of Vietnam; I did say 'a little!'. There is s Shore Path heading east along the coast, which is well worth taking, with more cracking views, although we cut back up to the town centre before going the whole length of the path.

After spending an hour or so in Bar Harbour, we decided that it was time to hit the park and we were so lucky with the beautiful sunny weather, especially with Hurricane Lee due to hit the area tomorrow - more of that later! Mount Desert Island has a human history dating back over 10,000 years with the Native American Wabanaki people, but was designated a National Park in 1919, then called Lafayette, before being renamed Acadia in 1929, after the area of North Eastern America originally occupied by France and at that time, called Acardie. Acadia has a 27 mile loop road (mostly one way) that circles the park and from which you are able access all the major points of interest, with lots of scenic view points as you go round. The main sights include:


• Jordan Pond - more of a massive lake, than any pond!
• Sand Beach - a lovely, isolated sandy beach, with crashing breakers!
• Wild Gardens of Acadia - quite small, but designed to give a snapshot of the flora and fauna of the park.
• Otter Point and Otter Cliffs - great views of the sea crashing on to a rocky outcrop, but nothing to do with otters!!
• Thunder Hole - a large cavern in the rocky cliff, which booms like thunder when the sea crashes in; I've seen something similar at Boscastle in Devon, but still impressive


Inevitably, in one day, we only scratched the surface of what Acadia has to offer, but the main sight we wanted to see was at the top of Mount Cadillac, not especially high at just over 1500 feet, but still the tallest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the US. As I mentioned earlier, we had to have a pass to drive up the Summit Road and this gives you a time to enter, with this designed to manage the flow of traffic at the summit. We had a 2.30 pm slot, although a Ranger told us that we could enter up to 30 minutes beforehand, but no later than 10 minutes after; despite the management of numbers, there is no actual limit on how long you can stay at the top. We arrived at 2.00 pm and once I managed to find the pass on my phone (!), we sailed through and took the 10 minute drive to the summit (not in the least bit scary by the way).

The views from the top were breathtaking and as usual, photos simply don't do it justice. There was a very nicely designed pathway system which effectively did a 360 degree loop of the summit and giving stunning views in every direction (Mandy & Lily decided not to walk the whole way, leaving Steve & I to complete the loop), The views included Bar Harbour one way, North East Harbour the other way, all of the numerous islands out to sea and also east as far as the eye could see, back towards the UK. I found this a magical experience, especially in the sunny weather and the National Park was everything I hoped it would be. It would have been great to have had enough time to walk one of the hiking trails or indeed explore the network of carriage trails that criss cross the park and which are designed for any form of non-motorised transport, including walking, but maybe another time!!

After our full day at the park, we decided to return to Bar Harbour for dinner and found a neat place called Route 66, which is awash with memorabillia of all shapes and sizes and after a decent meal, we strolled back to our car, but not before taking in a beautiful evening sky and as it turned out, a sky that proved the old myth of 'Red Sky at Night, Shepherd's Delight' to be exactly that, 'a myth' and total baloney!! But before I get to that, we drove back to our hotel, grabbed a coffee each, picked up a boxed set of Yahtzee from the communal lounge and decamped to Steve & Lily's room for coffee, wine, some chocolate and serious competition! As it happens, Mandy has only ever played Yahtzee once before and couldn't actually remember the rules, but you've guessed it.......she won the game by a country mile!!

While we were playing the game, we did notice that the wind was getting up outside and somewhat annoyingly, was whistling through a gap in Steve & Lily's balcony doors, which wouldn't shut properly on one side. I mentioned Hurricane Lee earlier in this post and we had been keeping an eye on the progress of the storm for the last couple of days, bearing in mind that all the forecasts were predicting that it was likely to have a serious impact on the New England coast, particularly around Bar Harbour!!!! In fact, we had noticed that many of the Bar Harbour shops had notices up saying they would be closed tomorrow and one or two had closed up early and were boarding up their windows. In addition, the National Park was going to be closed tomorrow and we were so lucky that we spent the day there today in perfect weather.

All the forecasts, had suggested that the worst of the wind and rain would hit us around midday on Saturday and our plan was to leave at around eight in the morning and head off to New Hampshire, leaving 'Lee' behind us and even with the wind picking up as we were playing Yahtzee this evening, we trotted off to bed, safe in the knowledge that we had a good plan for the morning. Well, as they say, the best laid plans and all that! I will save the traumas of our version of the film 'Twister' until the next entry, but two things I would say now. Firstly, we are all absolutely safe and sound and in our next stop in New Hampshire and secondly........so much for Shepherds being delighted at a night-time Red Sky!!

We have absolutely loved Maine (mostly) and can highly recommend its' spectacular coastlines, beautiful towns amazing scenery and generally laid back approach to life. As one of those road signs said, perhaps it is, indeed, 'The way life should be'!

Finally, today’s Countdown Conundrum is:

I CHEER LAUREN

And the clue is:

The eye has it!

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Photos

Revere Beach
The deserted beach on the day we left!

Salem 1
The memorial ‘wall’!

Salem 2
The Witch House and former home of Judge Corwin.

Salem 3
The town hall.

Salem 4
The Salem Five Cent Savings Bank.

Salem 5
The East India Marine Hall.

Cape Elizabeth 1
The two lighthouses together.

Cape Elizabeth 2
A view from the other direction…..

Cape Elizabeth 3
………..and another.

Camden 1
A view from the bottom of a waterfall into the harbour……..

Camden 2
……..and one from the top of the waterfall.

Camden 3
Some of the floating wealth……

Camden 4
……..and some more!

Camden 5
A view looking into the mountains.

Verona Bridge 1
How the bridge over the Penobscot river should have looked if we had managed a decent photo!

Kimball Terrace
The view into Northeast Harbour from our balcony.

Bar Harbour 1
Looking from the waterfront…..

Bar Harbour 2
…….another view from the waterfront.

Bar Harbour 3
A view of the ‘Halong Bay’ islands from the Shore Path.

Bar Harbour 4
The centre of town….

Bar Harbour 5
Some of the shops.