Another small port on the Maine coast. What is amazing is that each small “village” seems to have a charm and character that is uniquely their own. It is not simply a case of “if you have seen one, you have seen them all”.

 

The tour offered here was an afternoon at a local botanical garden so we had the morning free. What to do?  Spend the morning simply relaxing on the ship or….going shopping! We chose the latter because there would not be time in the afternoon after the tour and we certainly did not want people to tell us we missed something, so off we went after breakfast to explore the downtown area. Again we anchored off shore a short distance but it was only a 10 minute ride to the dock in town. The ship does a very good job of running the shuttle every half hour the entire day and with only 110 passengers it never became a problem of not being to leave or return when you wish.

Well, we made the right decision. The best shopping so far was in this little gem of a town, and I am not talking simply tee shirts. Two unique shops included a popcorn store that offered over 30 flavors of popcorn including jalapeño (we passed on the sample) but did take their card,  as they ship. The other store we have never seen is a Whoopie Pie Store. Honest to God! Again they offered dozens of different flavors and here we did try two tiny samples. They are made locally and were really fresh. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a franchise in your area coming soon.

Yvonne found a favorite sweater in a color she did not have; we found a new sign for our boat house and I added a local artist’s painted feather to my feather collection.

Back to the ship to unload our finds and to have lunch. Today the lunch menu offered a lobster BLT or a good old fashioned hamburger. Guess what everyone at our table ordered. After all you can only eat so much lobster. It tasted wonderful!

The only tour offered in this port was to the Coastal Maine Botanical
Gardens. I did not have high expectations. After all how could there possibly be a top notch botanical gardens in this little town In the middle of nowhere Maine? Well I was wrong. These gardens were started by a small group of local residents who mortgaged their homes to buy the land in 1991 on which it stands (they all got their money back and did not lose their homes). The gardens opened to the public in 2007 and now covers 270 acres with seven separate, beautiful flowering gardens and walking paths. They have come an amazing way and are recognized now as one of the top botanical gardens in the USA.  We are a bit early as most of the flowers are not yet in bloom, but you certainly could imagine what it looks like when in full bloom.

We have been alerted by the captain that there will be a change in our itinerary because of expected weather. A Nor’easter is expected and the captain was concerned that we might have been stuck in our next scheduled port of call, Portland, Maine. As a result we are bypassing it and will be stopping at another port further south where the weather is less likely to impact us, so we are now headed directly to Gloucester, Maine.

Of all things, the evening entertainment was BINGO, and the place was packed!  Yvonne was lucky enough to win a “coverall” game and selected a whale picture holder.