Our Last Day at the Cottage

It has been a bittersweet day.  Neither one of us are ready to leave our cottage!  The last time we were here, we stayed for two weeks.  The good part of staying for only a week was that it forced us to really prioritize what we wanted to do.  The bad part of staying for only a week was that being on this time frame meant that scheduling time to just "be" was limited.  We had really thought that we'd go back to Acadia this trip and didn't make it.  Guess that means that the next time we come, we'll have to make sure we go.


It has been quite chilly here today.  While the air temperature is 55º, the 'feels like' temperature is in the upper 40's.  We made a trip into Rockland this morning to do laundry.  (I HATE not having a washer/dryer.)  It didn't take us long to accomplish that job.  The next thing was to walk the breakwater leading out to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.  This walk is 4,300 feet long and is constructed of 732,277 TONS of granite.  Isn't that amazing?  The walk is perfectly level, but you do have to pay attention because you are walking on enormous slabs of granite that have been fit together to form the walkway.  When you realize that this was construction was started in 1881 and completed in 1899 and that it is still absolutely plomb is quite incredible.  The walk out was windy, but nothing like the walk back!  Dave estimated that there were wind gusts around 25 mph.  We both wished that we had stuck kleenex into our pockets by the time we got back.

This afternoon was spent repacking suitcases and organizing things for our departure tomorrow.  We did manage to find time to order two (2) more 1.5 pound lobsters for our supper tonight.  This time we got the hard-shelled lobsters.  Here is our opinion:  We definitely could taste a difference.  The soft-shelled lobsters (shedders) were sweeter and easier to crack.  There was more meat with the hard-shelled lobsters.  The meat was not as sweet, but had a wonderful texture--a bit more firm than last night's feast.  Dave had a bowl of haddock chowder to round out his meal that we got from the Keag Store (pronounced 'gig').  It smelled delicious.  I had a big green salad--using up the last of the romaine, the last bit of tomato, the last bit of cucumber and the last lemon wedge from the fridge.  


We decided on a whim to visit a private beach here after supper tonight.  Now remember, here on the coast of Maine the word 'beach' does not refer to white sand, but instead it refers to rocks!  It took us awhile to reach our destination.  (Turns out that we went much farther than we needed to and totally missed the driveway leading to the beach.)  We scrambled through some pine trees and found a way down to the rocks.  We crawled around, admired the colors of the sunset on the water, and then headed back towards Sprucy.  We were delighted to find some art "compositions" hidden amongst the trees and moss.  Clearly there is someone with an artistic flair that enjoys creating little objects of art from rocks, seashells, twigs and moss.  I wish the light had been better--it was getting dark--and we would have taken a few more pictures.  

We did get some nice shots of our last sunset at Sprucy.  We leave here with wonderful memories.  We hope to come back.

Tomorrow we are heading out from here and stopping at Moody's Diner.  I plan to eat breakfast here before we leave and have tea there while Dave will save his breakfast for Moody's.  I think we will also try to stop at Reid State Park about an hour from here.  It is a beautiful spot and one that we have fond memories of visiting the last time we were here five years ago.

Tomorrow night we are staying near Albany, NY in a place called Latham.  Then Sunday it is on to Baltimore to spend a few days with Dave's brother, Bob.  We are really looking forward to seeing him.