Monday, May 28, 2012

A Day of Sightseeing

Shel and I had originally planned on going sightseeing on Saturday, since the weather report was great for the whole weekend; but then the weather report seemed to show Saturday might be iffy, we were missing my cousin's daughter's graduation party and we could use a day to chill first.  So we decided we would do our sightseeing on Sunday and that decision was rewarded with perfect weather -- in Maine that means sunny, in the high 70s and very little humidity.
We wanted to get out and enjoy the outdoors and also be able to take our furry, four-legged friend with us.  So we chose to go to Fort Knox, Maine, to look around the fort and also for me to ride up to the observation tower of the new Penobscot Narrows cable stay bridge near Bucksport.
Observation deck at the top of one of the towers holding up the new bridge

Todd and me at the entrance to Fort Knox

The photos taken from the tower were taken by yours truly, the rest were taken by Shel, who got tired of taking photos.  So I have none to share with you from the second half of our trip, which was to take her around some of the cute coastal towns I'd been working in lately, show her some of the great views of Penobscot Bay and visit Holbrook Island Sanctuary, a small state park in Brooksville, ME.  I do agree though, how many photos of the beautiful coast of Maine can you share without getting boring.
All three of us had a very good time, one of the highlights being to grab lunch at a little seasonal stand called Bagaduce Lunch, which is located on the town line between Penobscot and Brooksville, overlooking an inlet of Penobscot Bay that becomes a little river separating the two towns.  I do wish we had snapped a shot there.  I had the obligatory and expensive (10 bucks) lobster roll and Shel had the haddock sandwich, which was basically a whole haddock between two buns.  Great stuff!
If you would like to see the remainder of the photos we took and I encourage you to do so, you can see them at the following link.  They include photos I took from the observation tower and those that Shel took of the fort and the area around the bridge, including this one:
Old and new bridges, looking from Fort Knox toward Verona Island
Oh, the Maine Park Service has this little booklet that's free that has a page for every state park, where you can add your attendance stamp.  We crossed off two this day and plan on trying to visit many of the others.  Maybe we'll share more photos later.  Please let me know in the comments if you cannot access the rest of the photos.  They're at Facebook but my account is open.  You should be able to see them.

5 comments:

Karen said...

Great story and pictures. I have to get the State park booklet, justin would love that! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

It looks beautiful out there. Thanks for sharing these photos.

Greg DeBeck said...

Been to Holbrook Island Sanctuary quite a few times for hiking....nice area. Bagaduce diner is a good place to eat - when I was living in Penobscot, we used to eat there once in awhile, and my oldest daughter, Brandi, worked there one summer. Don't know if you know it but the falls there going under the bridge are reversing. The water changes direction according to whether the tide is coming in or going out, and it's QUITE a change. A favorite spot for competitive kayakers to do stunts in the water. Next time you're in this area sightseeing, I highly recommend Stonington over on Deer Isle, or Castine on the other side of Penobscot.

Shel said...

The weather was perfect, the views spectacular and the company better than both... great blog, Zeb. I am looking forward to completing the book.

Zebster said...

I look forward to working on it with you, Shel. Greg, I did know that about the "falls" at that bridge. Isn't that also the case with that "sunken" bridge on Rte 176 (175?) in So Blue Hill or Blue Hill Falls?