Boothbay Harbor, Maine
1 June 2025
We made good time driving north on May 27. Aiming to leave at 8:00 a.m., I managed to start the car at 8:36, which, for me at the beginning of a road trip, is pretty much on time. I'm one of those people who has to take out the trash, the recycling, and the compost; and make sure the cats won't lock themselves into a room; and make sure certain lights are on and the windows are closed; and say goodbye to the cats; and stretch my back one last time, before we leave the house.
The reason we left so early is that nearly everything in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, shuts down at 7:00. Jack found the one restaurant he'd be willing to eat at that would still be serving at 8:00 p.m., and had made reservations. I was determined to arrive well before that.
Waze took us around all the Tuesday morning rush hour traffic. We even made it through Connecticut without grinding to a halt. It was at our third quick stop, this time for gas, in Kennebeck, Maine, that I spotted the rack of Duncan Imperial yo-yos.
I did not know these still existed. I had one as a kid. It started off as transparent purple and faded to a muddy brown. I think I finally chucked it, but, if I didn't, it's in the back of a desk drawer at home.
During a long text chain with Heddy that night, in which she remembered her Duncan Butterfly ("banana yellow"), we both did quick Amazon searches and discovered that yo-yos are still very much a thing. Who knew?
I didn't buy one at the rest stop. Now I kind of wish I had. Maybe on the way back...
Anyway, we arrived at the Fisherman's Wharf hotel around 5:00. In the window of our room was a sign that read, "Please don't feed the birds or seagulls." Seagulls aren't birds*?
I'd found out after we'd made our reservations that Tom had stayed at this hotel last year. When I sent him a photo of our balcony view, he mused that we might be in the same room he was.
We walked around town on our way to dinner. Most of the shops were already closed. I snuck a photo of a local artist's whimsical pottery in one store that was still open.
There's a footbridge that crosses a narrow inlet. I took photos from the bridge, but not of it, because I'm stupid.
The sign next to the bridge house explained that the original attendant got busted for bootlegging in the late 1800s. Prohibition existed in Maine long before it went national.
On a spit of land at the edge of the harbor were two buildings, one of which, from where we were standing, looked like a church or a lighthouse.
The restaurant wasn't crowded and took us in at 6:30.
We got up early the next morning to find breakfast and check out before our 9:30 a.m. boarding time for the Audubon puffin cruise. The sun was bright on the still harbor water.
Yeah, Tom took this picture too!
The hotel had free parking, and they were okay with letting us stay in the lot until the 12:30 p.m. return of the cruise boat. But they were hesitatnt to let us stay past that. On the other side of the hotel was the muicipal lot. On our way to breakfast, I saw a sign there that said parking would cost $5. After we checked out, I figured we'd be polite an move our car a few hundred yards. When we pulled into the lot, the price had jumped to $40! Too late now. I handed over the cash.
I watched the lot fill up as we sat on the upper deck of the boat.
When we left the dock, I took a few pictures of the footbridge.
And of a herring gull on a piling, because one must take a photo of a gull on a piling when one is on vacation in Maine.
Boothbay Harbor is a working harbor. This is a lobster boat.
I'll have photos from the puffin cruise in the next blog entry. Meanwhile, this is an old schooner we passd on our way back to the dock.
This shipyard's specialty is restoring old sailboats.
I wonder what the flood insurance is for these houses.
We learned that the two houses on the spit of land are private rentals.
After the tour, we wandered around town some more, and I took a proper photo of the footbridge.
Jack, meanwhile, had been searching Google Maps and had found a landmark labeled "What used to be the bowling alley." Where we ate lunch ended up being next to the spot. Jack took a photo and posted a review: "The best what-used-to-be-the-bowling-alley in Maine, maybe in all of New England. Five stars."
After that, we left Boothbay and took the coastal route towards Bar Harbor.
(*No, seagulls aren't birds. In fact, seagulls don't exist. Gulls exist, as our puffin cruise guide explained, before showing us images of herring gulls, laughing gulls, and black-back gulls.)
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