Maine 2005

This trip was special. Fifty years ago this summer, when I was 3 years old, my family took our first "Pinerest Cottages" vacation in Maine. Over the course of my childhood, every summer we eagerly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed on our Maine vacation, seeing old friends and making new ones. We spent weeks, and sometimes even months, enjoying Pinerest, Maranacook Lake, and life in the slow lane.

Jo & I had our first Pinerest vacation in 1977, when Jo was pregnant with our son Mike. Over the ensuing years, we managed to go to Pinerest a few times, most recently 10 years ago. But this year was special. It was my 50th Pinerest anniversary and the first time Jo and I vacationed there without family or friends staying with us. Because it was just the two of us, it was very different from all my previous visits ... but very nice, as well.

There have been a number of changes on Maranacook and in the surrounding communities - after all, 50 years is a long time! But the changes have been slow to happen, and subtle ... not like northern Virginia at all!! The cabins have changed. They were sold individually more than 30 years ago, and each new owner has made modifications to their cabins. The cabin we stayed in (formerly known as #7) had a very nice refrigerator with a large freezer, a microwave, and a very decent stove ... and a wonderful wood-burning stove we used one particularly chilly evening. It was a little strange having such creature comforts at Pinerest for someone who remembers the pot-bellied stoves for heat and the community shower at one end of camp!

And the lake has changed. Some of the changes have been positive. I don't remember ever seeing the quantity and variety of wildlife that we saw this year. Some of the changes have been negative, especially the jet skis. But much of the lake remains the same. It's still beautiful, and a wonderful place to vacation.

So, we left home on a Saturday, and stayed overnight in Taunton, Mass., having dinner at Benjamin's, one of our favorite restaurants. The next day we went on to Maine. Along the way, we stopped at the Portland Head Light, having been afflicted with lighthouse chasing during our visit to New England last year. And we got two lighthouses for the price of one - about a quarter mile off the shore, we could see the Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse, to the right of the Portland Head Light as viewed from the south.

Then we headed north and arrived at the lake that afternoon. Driving down the very familar dirt road to the camp, I felt the same excitement as I had felt as a kid. And the cabin and lake were just wonderful! The cabin was modified from the original floorplan - the original porch was enclosed and made a part of the expanded main room of the first floor, and a new porch was added, putting the porch even closer to the water. And the views were great. Here's a picture taken in front of the cabin looking south, and another looking north.

We rented the cabin for two weeks and spent most of our time in Maine there in the cabin, or on the dock, or out on the water. The owner made several boats available to us - the only ones we used were two one-person kayaks, and we had a ball. It was the first time we had used kayaks, and not only were they a lot of fun, but they allowed us to get a lot closer to the lake wildlife. One morning, as we came around the small island on the opposite side of the lake, we came up behind, and joined, several loons making their way to the north end of the lake. It was really something to be cruising along with the loons. Maybe birds of a feather? {grin}

After our first time out in the kayaks, we tried to get out on the lake at least once every day. The best time was early morning before the lake got busy with boats and before the wind cranked up. And we saw a bald eagle, and a busy beaver (angry at us for interrupting him), and a blue heron. And lots and lots of loons.

Our first field trip was to Bar Harbor and a whale-and-puffin watching cruise. It was excellent! And it lived up to its name - we saw a finback whale and a bunch of puffins ... but we were too far away from the puffins, and the whale was too quick, to get any pictures. We also saw a seal and a shark, arctic terns and razorbills. And two more lighthouses! The first was Egg Rock Light, a small lighthouse in Frenchman's Bay we passed on the way out to sea. And the second lighthouse was the Petit Manan Light, and that's where we were taken to see the puffins. The cruise was great - lots and lots of fun, and I highly recommend it.

Our second field trip was to Kezar Lake, in the western part of Maine close to the New Hampshire state line. My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, nephew's wife, nephew's wife's parents, and - most importantly! - great niece Emma, were renting a cabin at Gilmore Camps on Lake Kezar. We enjoyed our visit, the camps are really nice, and we had some outstanding lobster and corn on the cob - YUM! It was a great day, driving through a part of Maine I had never seen before, seeing a very pretty lake, and of course, visiting with family.

Our third and last field trip was a spur-of-the-moment trip to Pemaquid Point. We had checked the Maine state map and thought there was a lighthouse there that we could get to by car, and we were right! The Pemaquid Point Light was the first lighthouse we've visited that we could go inside and up to the top ... and we did - fantastic! There were also some neat rock formations between the lighthouse and the ocean that we climbed on - great fun. In addition to the lighthouse itself, there's a small restaurant, a gift shop, and the Pemaquid Art Gallery. There we saw a painting of Sand Beach, a beach in Acadia National Park we had visited last year. We both really liked the painting and figured we were good for at least one impulse purchase during our vacation, so we bought it.

But as I mentioned before, for most of the two weeks we were there at the lake. We fell into a very easy, laid-back routine of kayaking, and sitting on the dock, and reading on the porch, and playing cribbage in the evening. It was a vacation of simple pleasures - eating dinner on the porch and watching the sun set, or getting down to the dock first thing in the morning to watch the morning mist slowly lift off the lake.

I thought we had planned a good trip, but it turned out even better than we had hoped. We knew we would have a nice relaxing time at the lake, and we did ... but there's no way we could have known how much we would use and enjoy the kayaks, or how much wildlife we would see up close. We knew that we had planned a couple of field trips that would be fun, but we had no idea how much fun they would turn out to be. And once again, after many, many miles and more than two weeks with just the two of us for most of the trip, Jo & I are still talking to one another! Not bad. {smile}

The Related Links below include our favorites from this trip.