Sunday, September 09, 2007

fort knox

m has taken bean and boo to fort knox a couple of times, but yesterday was the first time i'd been there. there was a medieval festival going on inside the fort, and we arrived in time to catch the very end of it (dancing). it was a gorgeous day, and we drove through many towns i've been wanting to explore: rockland, camden, belfast, and bucksport. the only one of those i'd actually visited before was belfast, where we spent an hour or so before nathan and eva's wedding a few years ago. i really loved all of these towns.

rockland has a great bakery, a couple of bookstores, a bunch of places to get a cup of coffee, and a wonderful antique shop which is only open by appointment (m called ahead claiming we were in the market for a sofa). we spent about 45 minutes there talking to the incredibly nice young man who sells the mid century furniture and admiring the rooms and rooms of cool stuff, including a fabulous collection of japanese slot machines (boo wants one sooo bad).

we didn't stop in camden, but m and i oohed and ahhed over the views on both sides of route one ("mountain" on one side, ocean on the other), spotting inns and hotels where we'd love to stay. the town is gorgeous, picture-perfect.

bucksport has one short main street with not that much on it, but it sits right on the edge of the penobscot river, looking lovely and villagey (except for the smallish paper mill to one side of the town, which looks more onceler-ish). the view of the the town of bucksport from fort knox is particularly pretty. there is a renovated theatre in town and it's the site of a huge maine/new england film archive. there were so many houses for sale, it was a little alarming. i wondered if the mill might be going out of business, but i can't find any news of that online. the town smells fine, too, unlike the old days of westbrook and its once-stinky sappi paper mill.

belfast is a little funky and has a nice main street (feels a bit like wiscassett/damariscotta), and it was suddenly pouring down rain when we ate dinner there at darby's.

we ran into bean's friend jukado at fort knox, along with her family:

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