EVENTS PAGE

Please accept this invitation to join our club at Boothbay Harbor, Maine for the 38th Annual Fall Meet of our club.  The dates are  Wednesday, September 10th to Sunday, September 14th.  We will stay at the Boothbay Harbor Inn, on the east side of the harbor (Boothbayharborinn.com).

Staff at the Inn are ready to take your reservation for the four nights.  We have reserved the entire 60 room hotel so that we can enjoy it ourselves.  At this time about 25 rooms have already been reserved.  Many of the rooms with the best views are spoken for--but if you stay in a less expensive room, within 20 paces of your door you will have a wonderful view of the Maine coast that you came to see.  Bianca is the manager, and the Inn phone number is 1-800-533-6302.

(If you can be with us for only a couple of nights, please phone Doug Mayer or Bill Rust for recommendations; the hotel is taking 4 night commitments only, but we can get you right near by.)

It will be your choice of activities.  One of the days--Thursday or Friday--we hope that you will take a boat ride.  There are several that we will recommend when you get there.  Those rides will be around Boothbay Harbor, or out into the Gulf of Maine to such places as Damariscove Island or Monhegan, Squirrel Island and Seguin.  You may choose to take a ferry boat in Casco Bay, or the one from Rockland to Vinalhaven. Each trip that we recommend will be drop-dead gorgeous on a fine September day in Maine.

The other day--Friday or Thursday--we recommend a drive in your car. We will have various local maps available that will guide you along the Maine coast to some remarkable sights:  Popham Beach, south of Bath; Pemaquid light, and New Harbor and Round Pond.  Longer trips might include a day on MDI--Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park, with a trip over the new, spectacular Penobscot Narrows Bridge  (with a ride up the 400+' tower).

It is likely that you will want to enjoy some fresh seafood.  Red's Eats in Wiscasset has awfully good lobster Rolls, and Moody's Diner in Waldoboro has awfully good pies--and world renown beans.  The beans are available only on Saturday, so we may change the traditional banquet fare.  Sarah's in Wiscasset is also very good. You'll probably want to squeeze in some  time for good down east cooking.  Of course there will be a continental breakfast at the hotel each day to get you started.

If the weather is not quite perfect, there will be things to do as well.  The Maritime Museum in Bath is exceptional, and then just to the west of Bath--chiefly for the distaff side of the club--is Freeport.  It is mis-named, because it is the home of LL Bean and a raft of outlet retailers; it is anything BUT free!  All that is within a hour's drive of Boothbay.  The new Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens at Boothbay are also quite an attraction; people from as far away as Rhode Island talk about them! (MaineGardens.org).  Perhaps the Wiscasset, Whitefield & Farmington Railway (narrow gauge) will have excursions.

It is possible that we may be able to tour one of the local boatyards that seriously refit and build boats and ships.  Recently, the rebuilt "Bounty" was launched from the Boothbay Regional Boatyard.  These places have built rum-runners and rum-chasers, and they are fascinating.  We have also thought about having some short sessions on the history of the Maine coast, which is not just all about fish--but also about politics and the Navy.