Day Twenty-Three – Mid-Coast

We continued our exploration of Maine by travelling north up the coast. The way the land juts out into the Atlantic in a series of peninsulas and islands surprised us. Looking at a map of the mid-coast of Maine appears to be crooked fingers reaching out to the sea.

Although traveling each peninsula would take much more time than we had, we did explore a few of them. The first we peninsula led out to Popham Beach State Park. We drove out a winding tree-lined county road that eventually led to a sandy beach with a few islands just offshore. 


Evidently when the tide is low a person can walk out to the islands, but if they don’t carefully monitor the tide, they might find themselves stranded! We were satisfied just walking in the water and waves. 

Due to the number of rocky points and islands along this coast, there are a large number of lighthouses that help mariners navigate safely. We sort of accidentally came across one lighthouse called Squirrel Point Light. It is on an island and can only be seen from the tiny historical township, Phipsburg. 

Shortly after our accidental detour we saw the Taste of Maine restaurant, so we swung in for lunch. We had been seeing something called a “lobster roll” on most of the menus in Maine. The restaurant’s daily special happened to be a “Crabsta’ Roll”. When asked what this was, the waitress told us it was ½ of a lobster and ½ crab meat mixed with mayonnaise and scooped onto a toasted hot dog bun. The waitress proudly said the Taste of Maine is known for having the best lobster (or crabsta’) rolls. She also scoffed at “those people down in Boston” just use butter on their rolls. We had to agree with her that this crabsta’ roll was delicious! 

Continuing our exploration of the mid-coast, we drove out to Pemaquid Lighthouse and were rewarded with a stunning view of the Atlantic. Evidently, the Pemaquid Light is iconic for the east coast. It is one of the most photographed and painted lighthouses. We enjoyed wandering around the bluff looking at the ocean and rocks from different vantage points. 

This lighthouse uses a bell inside a tower instead of a “fog horn” to aid ships. There were big weights inside the building that slam into the bell during foggy weather. Sitting atop the bell house today was a sea gull who appeared to be doing his impression of a fog horn. 







 During our exploration, always the lighthouse towered over us performing its duty to those who sail the seas. 

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