It was a sunny morning from what I could see through the tree canopy. Bob took Auggie for his morning walk up to the Office to inquire about the bus that takes campers to town. We found out that they go 3 times a day–at 9:00. 12:00, and 4:00. It was already 9:30 by that time, so we decided to drive into town ourselves. We had researched where to find parking and located the Footbridge Parking Lot without a problem once we got into town. The lot was pretty empty for a Saturday morning at 10:30. It was $1 per hour or $7 per day, so we paid for 3 hours. If we stayed longer, we could pay the additional cost on the way out. We took a walk over the footbridge–the longest wooden footbridge in the country.
People seem to walk across the bridge for their morning exercise. It goes across the end of the harbor from one shore to the other.
The tide was out with a low tide coming at 1:48 this afternoon.
The tide swing in this area is 9 feet.
From the base of the footbridge, we walked over to Shannon's Unshelled Restaurant to check out the price of a lobster roll in case we got hungry later.
We walked along Wharf Street to also see about taking a whale watching cruise with Cap'n Fish's tours. We could see all different kinds of boats in the harbor from there. Among them were a couple of large yachts,
a sailboat cruise boat,
and a swordfish boat.
Many working lobster boats and pleasure boats were moored or docked in the harbor. This green one was especially pretty. We loved looking at all the boats there.
Looking at the harbor, we could see the lighthouse on this nearby rocky island.
The only way to get to the island in the middle of the bay is by water.
It was getting to be around noon, so we decided to go into McSeagulls for a Bloody Mary (with lots of veggies).
It had an open-air deck on the water.
We sat at the bar with a good view of all the boat action in the harbor.
We left there and went into the Mine Oyster Restaurant. They have many different kinds of oysters on the menu and we wanted to check out their prices.
Leaving there, we walked along Wharf St. to Boothbay Harbor's Public Landing.
It was a beautiful day in Boothbay Harbor until some dark clouds moved in.
We walked on, popping in and out of the shops. Many were having sales and Bob found a really nice shirt he liked. In the back of this store, they had a little nautical museum. It was very interesting with lots of old photographs of the boat building industry. This iron "C" clamp was huge hanging on the wall. Imagine the size of the boat it came from!
From the backdoor of the store, we could see the tour boats returning from their morning cruises.
We walked along Commercial Street to the Tugboat Restaurant on the edge of town when it started to sprinkle.
We made our way back towards downtown, dodging the raindrops by walking under awnings and stopping in the shops. I wanted to see what Gimbel and Sons Country Store had to offer so we went inside to look around and get out of the rain.
We found some chairs to sit on in front of one of the stores and waited out the rain.
It didn't take long before the sun came out. While Bob hung out there, I walked around the corner to the Downeast Ice Cream Factory for a root beer float–my favorite.
I rejoined Bob back on the chairs and we sat there watching people and cars arriving in town. By now, it was after 12:00 and people were pouring into town. It was a constant stream of cars.
We enjoyed watching all the action, but it was time to give up our parking space and take a drive on Atlantic Avenue around the other side of the bay. This is looking at the other end of the footbridge.
We found a restaurant that we had been to before-The Boothbay Lobster Wharf. We want to go back in the next day or so and check out their lobster rolls. We remember it as being a good place to eat with a dynamite view.
This cool fisherman statue in the yellow slicker stood front of one of the hotel restaurants.
We finished our drive around the bay and returned to the campground. The 3 of us sat outside for awhile and then decided to take a walk down to the backwater tidal marsh in the campground. The tide had been out and was just starting to come in.
I went back a little later in the afternoon to see the difference.
We also walked around the tent area and saw this unusual sleeping hammock. The black hammock is stretched between the trees and the tent screen comes down over you when you sleep.
The matching port-o-potty was interesting. We had seen those before.
In the same area, was this old RV that has been fully restored. It probably belonged to a woman–hence the pink! Whoever did it, did a really good job. Check out those wings!
Back at the campsite, we had a little thunder and then a little rain. Sitting under our awning, we didn't get wet and it didn't last long. Before long, the sun came out and I went to do a load of laundry. I sat down by the bay on a swing, watching the tide come in and waiting for my wash to finish. Bob got some time to himself. We had an indoor meal of ham and scalloped potatoes. It had cooled off quite a bit and got windy, so we turned on the fireplace and got cozy. The low temp tonight should get down to 58 degrees, so we might need to put on an extra blanket. Tomorrow we'll check out some of the lighthouses in the area. Before we went to bed, we took a flashlight and went out to look at the stars. It was so dark in the woods, we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. We had to walk a ways before we could get away from the trees to see the sky. The stars were out and the moon was almost full. It was a gorgeous night!
