Augusta and Portland, Maine – 4/10/2017 – http://fulltimetimeshare.com/blog

April 10, 2017 (Monday)

Absolutely beautiful day! Sunny skies and warm. Can’t be better than this with the snow all around and the sun shining in the sky. Love it.

Mt. Washington, home of the worst weather in the world. Had held world highest recorded wind speed record and then a typhoon in Australia beat them.

We got up and left (after coffee and cereal) at around 8:30 AM. The first leg of the drive was about 100 miles to Augusta, Maine (the State House, aka Capitol). We drove mostly scenic back roads and through towns like Naples, Norway, and Poland. Too fun. The snow was really deep at some points. We loved seeing the lakes that were frozen over but starting to thaw. So lovely. We also kept seeing signs for moose, but still nothing.

We are heading out, looking up from the back parking lot. Center Dormer window is our bedroom and the windows below are our living room, a second bath, dining and the kitchen.

April 10, 2017 and still a winter wonderland.

We crossed into Maine not far from North Conway.

Feels like forest primeval not too far from the road.

They take their boats very seriously here.

We got into Augusta and to the Capitol. First thing I must mention is how nice the people in the Augusta State House were. Probably the nicest and most gracious we’ve encountered. (Is it because they are so close to Canada and the Canadians are the nicest?) We went through security and into a little room to await our tour guide (they also had a self-guided tour but we had time to do the regular tour and prefer them). There were wonderful works of art by very gifted local teenagers and some butterfly collections. Who knew there were so many different beautiful butterflies in Maine?

It is a nice sized building, appropriate to the population size.

Reminded us of the Louvre, in miniature.

Interesting display in the waiting area. They found broken spear tips at the kill site. They later matched them to broken discarded pieces at the camp site.

Point found at kill site and base found at camp site, exact match. Base discarded to reuse spear shaft with new point.

Crystal, our tour guide, arrived just a couple minutes late and apologized. She started us on the second floor at a bust of one of the former governors who donated lots of land for a park and other things. She pointed out portraits and things of interest and went into the history and detail of all things Maine. We also got to go into the Senate and House Chambers. Crystal was very knowledgeable of the history of Maine and we really enjoyed hearing the stories.

Crystal in front of the bust of Percival Baxter. He gifted land to the state that created Baxter Park. He also bequeathed monies to operate the park by his rules.

Capitol elevator, the second not made of brass.

Baxter Park through the front doors which are no longer used due to security screening.

Copy of a famous Washington painting. Almost all paintings are gifts to the state of Maine.

Justices portraits on the fourth floor rotunda.

Second floor porch, very nice views and breezes.

House chambers. Their desks are their offices.

In the House Chamber we were allowed to wield the gavel. Grumpy found his rightful level of authority and leadership!

Bottom two names are representatives of native Americans.

State seal. Dirigo means, “I lead or I direct” Edie thinks there must have been control issues somewhere along the line.

Senate Chamber, formal, no touching. Their desks are their offices, no office space provided to them.

Exiting the Senate chambers I was struck by this portrait. This has to be one of very few governor’s portraits that include their dog. This is Governor Baxter and his dog, Garry, the puppy went with him everywhere. When Garry died the governor ordered the flags at half staff. This upset many people.

A plaque to “Garry” calling for the day to come when there is no cruelty or neglect to God’s creatures however humble they may be. This was paid for by Governor Baxter and accepted by the Senate – and officially hung with the portrait outside Senate Chambers.

Interesting stairs in the inside of the dome.

When we left we walked into the basement and down through the tunnel to the state building across the way. Fun tunnel with a skylight that we had been looking at when we walked into the Capitol and wondered what it was and what it did (other than looking like a miniature louvre). While in the tunnel I finally got to see a Maine moose – dead and stuffed – but it was a Maine moose. Poor thing.

Pretty woman ascending into the tunnel. She is such a phob, she does not use the hand rails (germs!).

From in the tunnel, you can see the dome and statue.

We think the only moose we are going to see (but we’ll keep looking).

Edie found the right spot to photograph the relief and dome with statue at the same time.

After a remodel, the back of the Capitol is now the front and main entrance.

Michael isn’t feeling very well (cold I gave him) and we weren’t sure if we would be able to do the second part of our day – a trip to Portland, Maine for lunch. (We thought we would see the beautiful Maine coastline that we see on movies with lighthouses and rocky coastline. No such luck even though we made sure we went the coastal route. Bummer.) Michael said he was up to it so we drove the approximately 60 miles into Portland and drove around and found a place we had searched on Google that advertised it had authentic Maine food – Becky’s Diner. Lots of food. So much, in fact, that we had to box it up and take it back home with us. Michael had a pastrami on rye, and I had a chicken salad club. (I wanted to get a lobster club but they wanted $22.00 for it!) We also split an order of onion rings. The server wasn’t the best as I had asked for a soft drink and she never brought it. Charged us but never brought it. She also didn’t check back very often but managed to hang out and talk with her friends up by the food delivery station. (Sorry, gritchy today I guess.)

An extraordinary day. 76 degrees outside.

My hot pastrami on rye. Half went home for dinner.

We shared these as an appetizer and took half of them home with us.

Edie had a great chicken salad club, half went home for dinner.

We left and drove around Portland. What a cute (and very old) town. Larger than Augusta. Looks like a lot of remodeling is happening (and needs to happen). We even drove by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s home. It doesn’t open until May but we got to peek and see it. Michael and I have talked and we want to fly back here sometime (during summer months with no snow or threat of snow) and explore more. So much to see and so much history that we would love to learn.

In the heart of Portland, a memorial to Union Soldiers lost in the Civil War.

The biggest northern memorial to the Civil War that we have seen.

There is a museum, new and modern, attached to the house.

We drove back home on different scenic back roads. So lovely and leisurely. Felt like a Sunday ride we used to take with the kids to explore different areas. That was our day. Hope yours was great!