22
JulSummer Miles
My most recent adventure found me exploring some parts of Maine that were new to me (and some I’ve been to many times). I spent a couple of nights in Brunswick (less than a three hour drive away), and enjoyed walking around the Bowdoin College campus. I highly recommend the Museum of Art there. Completed in 1894, the building was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim, who also designed the older part of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. From the interesting new entrance onward my visit to this museum was a treat. The bottom level is currently displaying recent acquisitions and modern/contemporary art and the upper level has some ancient art, classical European art, and American art. The museum has a good mix of different types of art, and is a very manageable size – I didn’t need more than an hour or so to appreciate what was on display. There are comfortable places to sit if a piece grabs your attention and you want to spend more time as well.
Brunswick is just over 30 miles / 50 minutes (by car) away from Boothbay Harbor. I’ve also ridden my bicycle on a longer route, but that was a number of years ago and I don’t recall how long it took. If you are so inclined, bicycling across Maine is a great adventure. There are miles and miles of quiet back roads, Acadia National Park has carriage paths that are great for all riders including less-confident / inexperienced folks, and the Park Loop Road is fun if you’re up for a little more adventure. I biked that loop on the eve of an epic trip that started there in Bar Harbor and ended in Boston, but I digress.
On my most recent visit to Maine I met some friends and we walked around the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. This is a special place where I could spend a lot of time. The collection of flowering plants was a delight to see and smell. I enjoyed dreaming about where I could find room in my small garden for some of my favorites. The butterfly house had a few of these beautiful creatures and the staff inside were very helpful in identifying both the flora and the winged inhabitants. The five giant trolls distributed throughout the gardens were clearly a big attraction for many of the visitors, and everyone in my group thought they were a lot of fun to walk around and discover. Danish artist Thomas Dambo designed these truly mammoth recycled-wood sculptures in an effort to help us “discover new ways to lose—and find—yourself” in the Maine forests. If you plan to visit the gardens, make sure to purchase tickets in advance. They limit how many people can enter at any given time, but once you’re in you can stay as long as you like (as long as you leave before they close).
As spectacular as the giant trolls and the gardens were, if I have to choose a favorite activity from my recent visit to Boothbay Harbor I would not hesitate to pick Cap’n Fish’s Audubon Puffin And Scenic Cruise. We purchased tickets in advance and arrived at Pier 7 early enough to be the second party in line to get on the boat, so we were lucky enough to get the best seats on the boat – on the top deck, in the front, just outside the Captain’s cabin. We spent 45 minutes or so cruising out across the harbor, watching harbor porpoises gracefully breach the surface in gentle arcs, listening to a tour guide from the National Audubon Society talk about the birds and marine animals out there. Then we arrived at a small, low-lying island near the edge of the harbor that is home to the most southern colony of Atlantic puffins. We learned all about Project Puffin, which just this summer celebrated the 40th anniversary of the return of Atlantic Puffins to this island, which was their historic home until hunted to extinction back in the days when it was a real point of pride to wear a literal feather in your cap. We spent a good hour circling around and around the island, watching these adorable creatures before turning back for a beautiful return trip, past the three lighthouses and gorgeous shorelines of Boothbay Harbor.
There are so many places to explore within just a few hours of driving. Then there are our trips further afield. As I write this I’m preparing to fly to Colorado for a few days to see family I haven’t seen since before the pandemic locked us all down. I know others who have flown elsewhere in the country, and a co-worker who just today flew down to the Carribean. It’s time to figure out where to go next! Here at the library we have lots of travel guides for you to check out and we are happy to help you explore any destination that strikes your fancy. When you want a book to carry with you on our travels, ebooks are a great, light-weight option. You’re probably carrying your phone, so put a couple on there just in case! There are nearly 9,000 Travel ebooks on hoopla, so chances are very good that there is something there for you. Hoopla also has streaming travel videos to help inspire and inform you about some new places to explore.
In a future column I look forward to sharing some ways I like to pass the time while traveling to and from places near and far. There are so many audiobooks and podcasts to explore, and more music than any of us can ever listen to in a lifetime. Until then, I wish you and yours a very happy summer filled with the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation. One word of advice: let’s spend more time LIVING and only as much time planning as absolutely necessary! As John Lennon reminded us, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Clayton Cheever is the Director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for his article in the July 22, 2021 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.
