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Published: September 15th 2006
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8/23/03
Finally got around to exploring the nearby village of Bethel. We pumped up the tires on our bikes tossed them in the back of the beast and headed into town. Bethel is 7 miles away from the campground on very pretty US route 2. You may wondering why we don't ride the bikes into Bethel. Some people ride their bikes on US 2. We don't feel that brave. It is a 2 lane highway (the only north/south highway bisecting Maine) and fairly level. No real hills or difficult areas. The problems are the logging trucks and semi trucks and monstrous RVs that whiz past you. The backwash can almost knock you off the road, especially as there is no designated bike lane. I don't know how some of these bike riders we see do it. Very much not safe, so we don't even try it. Anyway, back to the subject. We explored about 2/3rds of the town on the bikes. Saw many interesting things to see in a village of only 2000 population. An 18 hole golf course in the country club grounds, a street called Mill Hill Road (we did a double take on that one Molly), a
boarding school for rich high school kids (or rich parents anyway). The boarding school tuition is $30,000/year. Can you believe it? Another thing we found was a mental health sanatorium for more rich people, called the NIH Institute. During our driving around New England we have noticed quite a few places like these. Expensive mental health retreats and fancy boarding schools. We passed a boarding school last weekend located in a village of about 1000 population. You could tell there was a lot of money involved. The school buildings and sports fields were very well kept up. Lots of $$$$$$. I have read about these places in my novels but never actually seen them till now.
9/12/03
We took a trip to the coast. We had planned to go to the coast a my birthday present. My birthday is in late August (during the heavy tourist season) so we decided to wait until after the Labor Day weekend when the amount of tourists in Maine would be a lot less. We headed out to Boothbay Harbor to look at lighthouses and experience the harbor life. When we reached Boothbay we stopped in the Chamber of Commerce for some recommendations
about where to stay and eat. The office was staffed by an older lady who knew the region well and gave us some good pointers and maps. We got booked into a place called "Cap'n Fishs' Motel". It was right on the harbor and we had a room with a harbor view and a terrace. Not alot of harbor activity in the early morning though. Most of the boats moored near us were pleasure craft and a couple of small yachts which didn't go anywhere. There were a few lobstermen heading out but that was the extent of the early morning activity. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself. We got settled into the motel and took a walk into town. Looking for a lunch place and some entertainment. We were hoping to take an excursion cruise during our trip and we weren't disappointed. Along the pier there several places selling tickets for cruises. The whale watching cruise had already left for the day and the only other cruises we saw would take you out to the island areas where the harbor seals hang out. Thanks to going to San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf area numerous times we had already seen
enough seals to last us a lifetime. We gave up and started walking back to the restaurant we had picked out as our lunch spot when Mike saw a posted sign advertising a sailboat excursion. We immediately focused. It turned out to be a 2 masted wooden schooner (made completely of wood by the owners) about 60 feet long and the next cruise was in 90 minutes! Get us a ticket!!!!! We reserved out spot and headed for lunch. The restaurant was, of course, on the harbor and we were able to get a table on the roof with a great view of the harbor and a big electrical pole. I had a lobster chowder and Mike had chicken pesto on a bed of angel hair pasta. They also offered a Maine blueberry bread pudding for dessert but we didn't have enough time. We scampered back to our room to grab warmer clothes for the cruise and off we went. The schooner cruise was so great! We had always wanted to go on a sailboat and had talked about one day taking a windjammer cruise in the Caribbean where you are actually part of the crew. We got to the boat in time and climbed aboard. There were about 12 passengers and the boat was crewed by the couple who built her in their back yard. We used the motor to get out of the harbor and once we were past the populated area of the harbor they raised the sail and off we go!! Once the boat grabbed the wind we started tilting quite a bit. Now usually when Mike & I go out we always end up choosing the wrong side. Such as the slowest checkout aisle in the market or the slowest line for something. Well we hit the right one this time! We were sitting on the side of the ship that was above the water. The passengers on the other side were almost dragging their toes in the water. Very exciting an fun. Now we have a taste of sailing and don't think it will too much longer before we do it again. We are heading to Florida in a few months so we should have more opportunities for sailing. Hopefully, we may actually get to crew. We have dreams. The next day we headed out for some lighthouse looking. We went to a very old lighthouse on Pemaquid Point which had been there since the 1800s. We had a beautiful blue sky, striking white lighthouse and crashing surf. On the way back to Bethel we stopped at Bath Maine and visited the Maine Maritime Museum. Bath was known for it's shipyard in the 1800s and early 1900s. It built wooden schooners in sizes from 30 feet to a football field in length. We learned everything involved in building a wooden schooner.
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