A Fort, a bridge, and a lighthouse

We woke up on Thursday morning to rain, and a grumpy brother who tried to get us coffee but it appears that everyone in a 25 mile radius all went to the same Dunkin Donuts on this morning so he went to some Java Junkyard or something like that. Once he had the coffee and was back at the hotel, he understood why there was no line at all at that place, the coffee was horrible. So bad that we just dumped it out.

We loaded up the van and started on our way back towards Boston, stopping along the way for breakfast at a nice little cafe in Ellsworth. Breakfast and coffee were good. After breakfast, the rain had stopped and we were back on our way. We didn't get very far before we decided to stop at the Penobscot Narrows bridge and Ft.Knox. This would be the original Ft. Knox that was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot river valley against future British attack. I just love old forts and military stuff. Following the fort, we went over to the Penobscot Narrows bridge. The bridge has an observatory at the top of one of its spires. It is listed as the tallest Bridge Observatory in the world. It was an amazing view from the top.

After this unplanned stop, we needed to offset the fort with some culture so we stopped in at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME, to check out the art of Wyeth family. I know a lot of people would never think that I would enjoy art but believe it or not, I actually do enjoy some art. I am not a big fan of modern or contemporary art but other types of art can be interesting to me and I enjoyed the Wyeth exhibit.

After the Art stop, we headed out to the Marshal Point Lighthouse, also located just outside Rockland, ME. This is the lighthouse that was in the movie Forrest Gump. It was where he ended his cross country run. I will be honest and say that it was a little underwhelming, as far as lighthouses go. For some reason, I was expecting it to be a little bigger. It still was a beautiful area and we walked around and climbed on the rocks along the shoreline.

After the lighthouse, it was time to eat. We were all starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now around 4 or 5. Unfortunately we had to drive a ways until we finally found a place to eat, that looked like it would be good. We stopped in Wiscasset, at a place called Le Garage. We were seated with a nice view of the river and had a really good meal and I ended up eating to much. 

Now that our bellies were full, we were all sleepy. We were still too far out of Boston to stop so we had to keep driving. Since we were flying out the next day, we wanted to stop for the night, no further than an hour out from the airport. We ended up stopping in Wakefield, at the same hotel that we stayed at for the first week of our vacation.

The vacation has been fun and it was nice to spend time with family but I think the others all agree that we are ready to go home. I think we are all a bit tired and it will be nice to get back home. Unfortunately for me, I have to leave for a week long work trip after the weekend and as soon as I get back from the work trip, I am flying up to North Dakota for a week to visit family there and to spend some time with my Dad who is coming up to visit his brother and my sister. It will be Sept. before I will get back home. I love traveling but I am ready for a month of being home.