Vacation Part 2

We took two day trips while we were in Maine. Papa and Grandma came with us to Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory (atop the Penobscot Narrows Bridge).

Here's the Younger overlooking the town of Bucksport from the Fort grounds:

Inside the Fort:


I neglected to take many pictures because we had a "tour time" for the observatory and felt a little rushed. As it turned out all you do is show up at the observatory and an attendant puts you on the elevator and tells you a few facts about the bridge, so it's not like we would have missed our chance if we were 15 minutes later.

Below are two views of the bridge - one from below and one from the observatory. You will see that there are actually two bridges - the old bridge is on the left and will be taken down when the state gets around to it. The new one is "cable-stayed bridge" (which I had never heard of) and on this particular bridge the cables run down the middle with traffic on either side. The observatory at the top is the highest public bridge observatory in the world.




Our second day trip was down to Freeport to visit LL Bean and a Stamping Store that I found online, as well as to see a friend in Topsham. It rained the day that we planned to go and we figured that it would be great since Freeport is a walking town so it should be empty, right? So we headed out and planned to go south and work our way up - off to the stamp store. We couldn't find it. I later learned from another stamp store owner that the one in Freeport had been out of business for 2 years. OK, then off to Bean. First the Clearance Store which was a ZOO. If they were giving away stuff I still wouldn't have stood in the checkout line. So we'll head to the Retail Store. Wrong again. The entire town was nearly gridlock and we couldn't find a parking space within a mile of Bean. So we promised the kids that we would either return another day or stop on our way home.

So we drove 15 minutes or so up to Topsham to visit our former Interim Pastor at his new church, and on the way back home stopped for milkshakes and a quick trip in to a Goodwill Store where I bought Montel Williams' recent book about his experience with MS. He writes likes he speaks - intense and repetitive, but interesting, with lots of expert opinions backing him up.

Anyway - more later