Rockland, ME

Rockland was a stop for more sightseeing along the coast, more lobsters and lots of lighthouses. But I enjoyed the old, New England style homes, in Rockland, which I encountered on my morning walks with Fancy.

This home was fascinating because of the inscription on the sidewalk in front.

 

Notice it says, 'Cave Canem'. I first saw this inscription in Pompeii at the House of the Tragic Poet. In latin in means simply, beware of the dog. For more info about this inscription and what it means, follow the link below.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/pompeii/ig/Pompeii/Cave-Canem.htm

I believe this is the Talbot House, which is now been turned into apartments. I could spend hours just walking around admiring the beautiful architecture of these old homes.

But there were so many more things to do in the area.

This is the walkway out to Breakwater Lighthouse. This breakwater was built in 1912 and has been battered with storms and yet still stands. The bottom of the breakwater is more than twice the width you see on top.

As you see, at the end is a lighthouse, almost one mile out in the harbor.

They are restoring the keepers house and it will eventually open as a museum and gift shop and you will be able to climb the lighthouse, but it was closed still when we were there.

There is a peninsula just SE of Rockland which heads through Spruce Head and down to Port Clyde. On the north end of the peninsula was Owl's Head Lighthouse. Here is some more of the beautiful, rugged shoreline of Maine.

The keepers house is not connected to this lighthouse. But it was open, and we got to climb to the top.

A view back towards Rockland and Rockport from the top of the lighthouse.

It's hard to see from this picture, but the siding on these buildings are shingle and they look as if they have never been painted, just allowed to naturally weather. That seems to be a common siding in this area of the country.

We spotted a small eating establishment along side a beach and a pier. It was lunch time so we stopped and had crab rolls and local brewed root beer.

The lobster and crabs are fresh from their own fishing boats. Each of those stacked crates hold 90 lobsters (or 90 pounds, I'm not sure I fully understood what they were telling me). That's a lot of lobster either way, especially if they fill all 16 of those crates.

You could get everything from a full lobster dinner to a hot dog.

I actually like the prices on this sign better, but they are from the 1940s. Notice lobster is available daily, but chicken is only available on Sundays.

On down the peninsula is Marshall Point Lighthouse. Again, it is closed to the public, so you can only view it from the outside. But there was a small, free museum in the keepers house.

Every lobsterman has his own registered and licensed bobber design. These are an example of some. It is a large fine if you are found harvesting someone else's lobster traps.

Someone had their lab out for some exercise. She would bring in as many sticks as her owner would throw. Here she is bringing in 3.

We also took a sailboat ride on a 2 masted ketch. Of course I'm not on the one in the picture, but that is the boat we sailed on, just on a different day.

Here she is at the dock with her sails down. It was the Morning of Maine with Captain Bob.

Captain Bob pointed out this herring fishing boat. It can bring in tons of herring daily. When we asked what they did with the herring we were told it is used for lobster bait.

Here we are on the water, enjoying the sail. This was not a windjammer cruise, so we were not part of the crew of helping, but just enjoying the ride.

Here is a view of Breakwater Lighthouse from out in the bay.

And this is Owl's Nest Lighthouse from the bay.

We had some wicked looking clouds pop up while we were out.

More of the clouds.

And more clouds. But Captain Bob wasn't concerned, he said they were not going to affect us and they didn't.

From a distance we could see the lighthouse at Rockport, about 10 miles up the coast. It was a good day and we could see Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park over 40 miles north.

Close in the harbor is an old bouy which is now the nest of this osprey and her 2 young chicks. The young ones have the white spots.

I don't have pictures, but I have to tell our lobster story. A member of the Elks here in Rockland is a lobsterman. Tom C. arranged for us to purchase 30 lobsters from him. No, we didn't eat all those lobsters at once, the plan was to freeze most of them using a food saver to vacuum pack the lobster tails for freezing. I now have 10 lobster tails and 2 packages of claw meat in my freezer, but I think the concensus of everyone involved was the same. From now on, we will go have our lobster dinners where someone else can prepare them. By the time we were all done none of us even wanted to see another lobster. But in Maine, you have to do lobsters and we did.