HAERR TRIPPIN'

From Maine to Massachusetts

The last two days in Maine were weathery and diverse. From breakfast in a quaint harbor town, to camping in an apple orchard, with our visit concluding at an apple fair.

Boothbay Harbor, Maine began as part of an indigenous Wabanaki (Abenaki) seasonal fishing and clam-gathering territory. Its deep, natural harbor has shaped a rich maritime history spanning European settlement, the age of wooden sailing ships, and its evolution into a premier coastal resort. It is certainly a place we would love to return to with better weather and more time.

Pen pal Kim LOVES Boothbay which is why we detoured here. Her recommendation for Mama D's was right on. Cozy and delicious.

We ducked into the Historical Society to get out the blustery weather and to learn a little local history.

The current exhibit, The U.S. Navy in the Boothbay Region, invited us to "Step back in time and uncover the stories of local shipbuilders during wartimes in the Boothbay region. Explore the era of “iron men in wooden ships” through the collection of historic photographs, detailed scale models and stories of shipbuilding during World War I & II. Images from the American Revolution to the World Wars and the NATO years are on display. The exhibit highlights the contributions of five local shipyards and the hundreds of workers who came from all over to work there." This was a very extensive history lesson. This little town has a great deal to be proud of. Wow.

I can just imagine it in glorious sunshine... One day!

Our home for the night was Thompson’s Orchard. My job, while traveling, it to find future fun. When I learned there was going to be an Artisans & Apples Fair in New Glouchester, I called and asked the owner, Mike, if we could camp on his property. He didn't hesitate to say yes, and what a sweet spot to all "home for the night".

"Thompson's: Generations of Harvest From Our Family to Yours Since 1906. Discover Maine’s finest orchard experience, offering fresh apples, homemade treats, and family-friendly events."

This is the view that ended our Friday.

And this is what we awoke to on Saturday.

The 6th annual Artisans & Apples Fall Fair fills Thompson's Orchard on Saturday and Sunday, October 17–18, 2026, opening at 9am Saturday and closing at 3pm Sunday. More than 50 Maine vendors set up among the fall foliage, with food trucks, pick-your-own apples, face painting, tarot readings, permanent jewelry, tractor rides, live music and fresh baked goods.

Speaking of baked goods. Oh my goodness. These donuts are the best thing I've eaten in a very long time. In the early 1980s, a donut room was added onto the cider mill. Thompson’s donuts quickly became a customer favorite and local staple, with many regulars stopping by for a coffee and donut each autumn morning (I am lucky I don't live nearby). Today, the donut room produces over 12,000 dozen donuts each year and offers a variety of flavors. A cider donut expert named this the favorite Maine cider donut; a perfect balance of flavor, texture, and cozy fall tradition. I wholeheartedly agree. Yum.

The variety of creativeness was exceptional. After devouring our round rings of amazement, we meandered through the vendor tents, delighting in the wonders.

Bob, at Prospect Mtn Furniture makes lovely wooden items. His birdhouse is going home with us.

The hospitality of the Thompsons, and the delightfulness of all we met, was the perfect end to our time in Maine.

Moving on! We have only been in MA once and that was 30 years ago. We're excited to explore.

Concord is our home for the night and the first stop was at this fantastic building. The residents of Concord and their guests dedicated the Concord Free Public Library on Wednesday, October 1, 1873 with literary giant Ralph Waldo Emerson delivering the dedication address. The library was founded through the generosity and vision of William Munroe, a Concord native who made a fortune in dry goods and textiles and, after retirement, developed a desire to use his accumulated wealth to benefit the town where he had been born and raised.

Munroe purchased the land, worked with the Town to widen Main Street, and provided funds to construct the Library building. Thanks to Munroe’s gift, the Concord Free Public Library Corporation, a charitable organization funded solely through private philanthropy, was chartered to form and maintain the new public library in Concord. The Corporation worked in collaboration with the Town of Concord to fund and operate the Library, a partnership that still exists today. I want to live in this library.

"Since its dedication in 1873, the Concord Free Public Library has proudly opened its doors to provide a warm, inviting place to explore, think, and gather in the heart of Concord. It serves as the thriving cultural core of the community. The Library is the embodiment of treasured Concord values - culture, diversity, and civic discourse. It is the great equalizer - free, open, and accessible to all. The Library continues to reimagine itself for future generations, seeking to preserve its beloved spaces and cherished collections, while responding to the changing needs of the community in its newly expanded facilities."

Dinner was in history which isn't hard to do here. The structure dates back to around 1828 (often associated with the early commercial growth of the area). It was built as part of a wave of commercial development by the Mill Dam Company, which began reshaping downtown Concord starting in 1826 after an old mill pond and earthen/beaver dam area were removed. Interestingly, the building was officially surveyed by local transcendentalist and surveyor Henry David Thoreau in 1853.

It's surprising how much this quaint village has going on. We popped into the Umbrella Arts Center for On Being Human: Mosaic Meditations, an art exhibition by artist Cynthia Fisher.

Ms. Fisher, an artist with a background in wildlife biology, uses fine art mosaics to explore themes of nature and humanity. The textured works use materials like vitreous glass and broken pottery to prompt questions about human impact on the natural world, our responsibility to the planet, and the connection between people and their environment.

There is much to love about this town. For instance, have you ever wondered where a street's name is derived from? Well I have. Hubbard St. is name for Ebenezer Hubbard (1782-1871) whose bequest financed the Minute Man statue which I will discuss sometime in the next few days. So dang cool.

🎵These are a few of my favorite things.🎵

To find ourselves at dusk exploring the South Burying Ground, Concord's second-oldest burial site, was pretty surreal and perfect. While only about 1/2 acre, it contains roughly 230 to 300 closely packed gravestones arranged in ragged rows facing southwest. It was established in the late 17th century (around 1697 for the earliest recorded burial/headstone) to accommodate residents living on the south side and remained active through the mid-19th century.

What's unbelievable is how legible the headstones are. This one is 263 years old and reads, "Memento mori. Here lies buried the Body of CAPT. JOSEPH BARRETT Son of Deacon Humphry and Mrs. Mary Barrett who died the 4th Day of April, Anno Dom. One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty three (1763), in the Eighty fifth Year of His Age. The Captain was an early colonial resident, landowner, and militia figure here. Wow.

While strolling about, we found that this wonderful building, 51 Walden, will be the site of a musical event tomorrow. We purchased tickets for the matinee. Concord is truly special. We have so much to discover here in Concord, the birthplace of the American Revolution and a major hub for 19th-century American literature and philosophy. We're excited to explore it more thoroughly!

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Bar Harbor: Lobsters & So Much More

Because the day was so exceptional, we parked at the Ferry lot and walked into town. There we were welcomed to Bar Harbor's Museum in the Streets historic walking tour.

"This program features 26 placards and photographs throughout town. You can start at any point to explore our town's history, all by foot. You can also find our 20 newer panels added in 2019 on either side of town." It was a scavenger hunt of knowledge and we loved it.

The Village Perimeter portion of the walking tour touched on the past lives, estates, business interests and politics of many of the town's prominent summer residents. They had a profound effect on American industry, the formation of Acadia National Park, the town of Bar Harbor, The Jackson Laboratory, Kebo Valley Golf Course and other local treasures.

Plaque #1 intrigued me. It reads, "Mary Roberts Rinehart first came to Bar Harbor in 1935 and bought Farview (now the Wonder View Inn) in 1937. She was a well known mystery writer. Her most popular book, Circular Staircase, sold over 800,000 copies. She wrote 60 novels including The Yellow Room, The Wall, and the Burned Chair, which featured Bar Harbor as a back drop. In 1947 her chef, who had been with her for 25 years, tried to murder her but his gun misfired twice. Minutes later a second attempt failed with a carving knife as the chauffeur and gardener disarmed him. The next morning word was received that he had hung himself in jail. The estate burned down in the Great Fire of '47. Mary Roberts Rinehart died of a final heart attack in 1958."

All along our walk we discovered hidden signs of what once was. Bowling Green was a historic Gilded Age summer estate, designed by architect Paul Hunt for Mrs. Hunt Slater (the daughter of famous painter William Morris Hunt). The historic "cottage" was unfortunately destroyed in the devastating Great Bar Harbor Fire of 1947. Some history... On Friday, October 17, 1947, at 4 p.m., the fire department received a call from Mrs. Gilbert who reported smoke rising from a cranberry bog between her home and the dump. No one knows what started the fire. It could have been cranberry pickers smoking cigarettes in the bog. Or perhaps it was sunlight shining through a piece of broken glass in the dump that acted like an incendiary magnifying glass. Whatever the cause, once ignited, the fire smoldered underground. From this quiet beginning arose an inferno that burned nearly half of the eastern side of Mount Desert Island, for almost a month, and made international news.

It destroyed 67 (of 220) grand summer estates along "Millionaires' Row," 170 permanent year-round homes, five historic hotels, and parts of the Jackson Laboratory. Bar Harbor was changed by the fire. Most of the permanent residents rebuilt their homes, but many of the grand summer cottages were not replaced. In fact, many of the seasonal families never returned. The estates on Millionaires' Row have been replaced by motels that house the ever-increasing tourist population. But the fire alone cannot be blamed for ending the island’s once-grand "cottage era." The opulent lifestyle had already been suffering from the effects of the newly invented income tax and the Depression. The destructive flames merely provided a final blow.

Some of the gilded age was on display. WOW.

We lucked out when we arrived at the Bar Island Trailhead. The 0.5-mile gravel land bridge is only exposed for about 1.5 hours before and 1.5 hours after low tide (roughly a 3-hour window total). We couldn't walk the entire way as the tide was coming in but what fun to experience a little of it.

I had to go to Sherman's Bookstore, the oldest bookstore in Maine. Founded in 1886 by William Henry "Bill" Sherman as a printing press, stationery, and office supply shop in downtown. I couldn't leave without getting one of Mary Roberts Rinehart's books (the first Museum in the Streets plaque we read).

The Circular Staircase (1908) pioneered what became known as the "had I but known" school of mystery writing, which often feature female protagonists and narrators who foreshadow impending danger and plot developments by reflecting on what they might have done differently. Rinehart employed this formula in many of her later works, and it inspired dozens of subsequent stories. The novel was adapted for the screen twice: as a silent film in 1915, and for the television series Climax! in 1956. Its best known adaptation was as the play The Bat, which became a major Broadway hit and inspired a number of later works, including several adaptations of its own. I have never heard of her. I'm excited for this introduction.

We were drawn to Balance Rock, a famous gravity-defying glacial erratic boulder left behind by receding ice sheets over 10,000 years ago. Geologists estimate the rock originated roughly 40 miles northwest near the Lucerne and Bangor areas, possessing a completely different stone composition than the local coastal ledge it rests upon. Cool stuff is found everywhere.

I don't know what this guy was all about but he was willing to pose for a photo which made me quite happy. Now I really am in Maine.

A must was a tour on the Lulu Lobster Boat. How could we resist, "Take a ride aboard our traditional, Downeast-style lobster boat, Lulu! Learn all about Maine lobsters and how we catch them. Keep an eye out for seals and other wildlife while taking in all the amazing sights that Bar Harbor has to offer."

Our tour guide, Galen, was knowledgeable, thorough, and hysterical. We learned so much but the basic gist of it all is that "Fishermen bait rectangular wire-mesh traps with oily fish like herring or pogy. Traps are connected to a surface buoy by a weighted line and dropped to the seafloor in waters ranging from 15 to 1,000 feet deep. Lobsters smell the bait, crawl inside the trap through a netted funnel, and become contained."

Traps include escape vents and biodegradable panels so small lobsters can crawl out and lost gear does not continue to trap marine life.

We also had the opportunity to see an egger (also called a "berried lobster"), a female lobster that carries fertilized eggs on the underside of her tail. An egger can carry anywhere from tens of thousands up to over 100,000 eggs at a time, depending on her size. She broods them on her swimmerets for roughly 9 to 12 months after a 9-to-12-month internal development period. In fisheries like Maine's, keeping an egg-bearing female is strictly illegal. To protect them permanently—even if they are caught later when they aren't currently carrying eggs—lobstermen apply a small V-notch to a specific tail flipper. Really interesting.

We learned about the difficulties these fishermen endure. Not to mention that the regional lobster population has fallen by roughly 34%, since 2018, in key grounds off Maine and Massachusetts, driven by both fishing pressure and warming ocean temperature.

We were all allowed to show these lobsters a little love.

The lobsters caught today were all thrown back but we were shown the entire process including banding. Claws are banded immediately after harvesting to prevent lobsters from injuring each other in crowded holding tanks and to protect handlers from powerful crushes. The stretched band is slipped over the closed claw and released so it fits tightly around the joint, keeping the claw shut. Experienced sternmen can band claws in a matter of seconds per lobster to minimize stress on the animal. Interestingly, lobsters are naturally aggressive and territorial. This step in the process prevents cannibalism. Without bands, they will fight and tear off each other's limbs in the boat's live well. Not pretty.

After our lobster lesson, we went sightseeing. I was excited to see this lighthouse. Most of the lighthouses in Maine are tall and stately, but Egg Rock Light is surprisingly squat and square, with the black nub of a light on top. The rocky outpost, which was also known for a time as Gull Island, was named for the proliferation of seabirds’ nests and eggs found there. It was built off the coast of Bar Harbor in 1875, and has been rebuilt numerous times, as its exposed location has left it vulnerable to fierce storms. Today, a boathouse, oil house and generator house still stand along with the lighthouse.

Back to back winter storms in January, 2024 combined to cause extensive damage along the entire Maine coast, including at a number of lighthouses. Egg Rock Light lost its seawall and suffered damage to the south and east sides of the lighthouse.

Captain Zack went out of his way to introduce us to Ironbound Island, the largest island in Frenchman Bay. Roughly 3 miles long by 2 miles wide, it features rugged granite cliffs, caves, and pocket beaches. Interestingly, it has been privately owned by the Blaney family since the early 1900s, after artist Dwight Blaney bought it as a summer retreat. Painter John Singer Sargent created works like On the Verandah on the island.

On the Verandah depicts Dwight Blaney, his wife Edith, and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret at the house.

Another guest of the Blaneys was John Leslie Breck (1860-99) His Cliffs, Ironbound Island looks just like a photograph. Breck, a friend of Monet, and part of the group of painters at Giverny, is considered to have been the first American Impressionist. I need to learn more about him!

I wish I would have see Cliffs before taking this tour. I would have tried to photograph better what Breck had painted. You can somewhat tell how close his work came to reality by this image. Wow.

By the end of the cruise, all the lobster boats were home.

This was my Google review, "From the moment I spoke with Tammy on the phone, to the informative (and humorous) greeting by Galen, we knew our time on Lulu was going to be exceptional. Captain Zack was professional and made us feel safe while sharing Bar Harbor's beauty from its water. We had no idea what to expect from this tour. We left completely delighted, much more knowledgeable about the life of a fisherman, and thoroughly entertained. Galen and Zack make a great team. Galen's playfulness made it all that much more fun. What an unforgettable experience." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

HAERR TRIPPIN'

From Maine to Massachusetts

Bar Harbor: Lobsters & So Much More

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