The Day of Thrills and Chills

We began our third day in Maine with the intention of exploring the last remaining corners of the region. We started in Stonington (the town we are staying in), with breakfast at the one cafe that is open (the one with the local-encounter... and yes, that local was there, again). After breakfast we walked down the one street to visit the three stores that are actually open this time of year. I bought a t-shirt and we took some pics. All in all, it was just a cold walk with nothing to do, so we went ahead and boarded up and headed off Deer Isle to the "Maine-land" (hahahaha). Bundled in our layers and headgear, we were driving towards Belfast when we noticed a fort. And this is where my trouble began.

I have uploaded the videos to youtube on 'thrashersrw', so search for them. There are 7 total, so be sure to watch them in order. They essentially take you through our accidental discovery of Fort Knox, to my terrifying ride up the 400 ft observatory, apparently the tallest bridge observatory in the world (although I can't imagine the competition is very wide for bridge observatories). For those who don't know, I am deathly afraid of heights but I have a near inability to say no to peer pressure when it comes to going up in ridiculously tall things.

After my heart stopped flying out of my chest, we walked down to the fort, which was built during the revolutionary war but never saw a battle so it is very intact. It is apparently the first all-granite fort, which is significant I guess, although Maine's granite resources have nothing on little Elberton, GA I'm afraid.

The fort was what you would imagine - dark, a little scary, deserted, and FREEZING since it is in Maine in October. To make matters worse, they were preparing the fort for 'Fright at the Fort', so you would be walking along and suddenly a 'prop' would pop out at you. Lovely.

We actually did have a pretty good time running around, pretending to shoot off canons, and taking pictures of the incredible view. And then we were starving, so we got back on the road and drove until we found a pub that had an awesome pumpkin bourbon cheesecake and Shipyard Pumpkin Ale on tap - so I got my pumpkin on.

The drive back was sleepy and relaxing. We stopped at one of the many co-ops, which are similar to Whole Foods, only the majority of goods are 'Maine-Made'. It's a very big deal up here; you see signs all over the place promoting 'buy-hire local'. Halfway back to Ellsworth, we stopped at a road-side shop that had all kinds of antiques and candles and homemade fudge. We got six different kinds, which are making me very happy as I type this right now.

We needed to waste some time before dinner since we had our awesome pumpkin-infused lunch kind of late, so we drove around for about an hour looking for a movie theater, but of course, we're in middle-of-nowhere Maine, and the most any cinema had were three movies and none of the showtimes were good. So we gave up, stopped to have a light dinner at Barncastle (which yes, is a barn that looks like a castle, or a castle that looks like a barn, you decide), then headed back to Stonington for another night of winding down by the fire and taking it easy. One more day in paradise, then onto Philly!