June 14 2014 - Farnsworth Art Museum, Waterman's Lobster, and the Pride Motel and Cottages

Farnsworth Art Museum, Waterman's for lobster, and the Pride Motel and Cottages

I think  I said something like "it was a pleasant enough drive." Actually, every drive has been beautiful. There are these big sweeps of lupine blooming--absolutely beautiful--all along the interstates, as well as any of the other routes we found ourselves on. All kinds of other wildflowers blooming, deep greens of the trees, rocky outcroppings. There are irises everywhere, and all color of rhodedendrons.

We enjoy driving through the small towns when we are on the smaller coastal routes, and looking at the houses, and the churches, and cool old buildings.

We also noticed that there do not seem to be any billboards. That's fabulous! Is it a Maine state law we wonder?

Farnsworth Art Museum

We reach Rockland and the art museum. I had read about the museum in a trip report, and others here on the boards mentioned the collections, and basically I got it in my head I wanted to visit. I am so glad we did! DH and I really, really enjoyed the collection.

There is one gallery called the Study Center and it shows studies that Andrew Wyeth made before he did a final painting, and often there is either the painting or a photo of the final painting. Super interesting to see the evolution to the final product.

We visited the Hadlock Gallery where more Andrew Wyeth paintings were on exhibit, many of them the paintings that evolved from the studies. I never really appreciated Andrew Wyeth that much until seeing a large exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City, MO many years ago. Now I see his work in a different way.

We browsed the rest of the museum, including a Shaker exhibit that was really cool. 

There was a LOVE sculpture both inside the museum and a large LOVE sculpture with four designs joined in different orientations. 

There was also this cool mosaic made out of pebbles.  Images of buoys, lobster, and other Maine centric items.

Then, I eavesdropped at the information desk (I was going to ask what was up at the Wyeth Center) and found out that there was a special exhibit of NC Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and James Wyeth up there.

I asked a guard how to get there and he pointed me up the path and across the street, telling us to be sure to take the elevator to the top floor. Why you might ask? (As did we.) The Wyeth Center is in an old Methodist Church and the elevator was the pastor's office!

This was a really worthwhile stop, and to those of you who recommended it, thank you! If you are in the area, it is a very "doable" museum, not overwhelming the way some large ones can bel.

http://farnsworthmuseum.org

Waterman's for Lobster

We were lobster virgins. No more. Rockland looked interesting, but remember we really had not eaten yet, and were operating on about 4 1/2 hours sleep. We needed to head back, and we needed to eat something. On my list of lobster shack possibilities was Waterman's Beach Lobster. I plugged it into the Google Maps App and we were on our way.

We were lucky, as it was opening day! Since we had never had lobster before we ordered a pound of steamed clams as well, and ordered the opening day special which was a whole steamed lobster and roll, and DH ordered a slice of raspberry pie.

It was beautiful, although a bit windy and chilly. Right on the water, lobster traps piled on a doc, mason jars with lupine on every table.

The clams were great, we made short work of them, dipping them in butter. The lobster came, along with the bib. I realized later what a good idea this was as that night when I looked in the mirror I realized I had the tiniest bit of lobster shell in my eyelashes. What else flew off that lobster as I cracked it I wonder?!

Well, we enjoyed the lobster quite a bit. I did eventually need a lesson from one of the girls on how to crack that baby. I was glad I had tipped well.

http://www.watermansbeachlobster.com

Pride Motel and Cottages

We now made a beeline back to Scarborough and the Pride Motel and Cottages. We were tired. 

There had been some discussion about this place that I had booked, and whether we should stay there. I had picked it because it was recommended from the Scarborough Marsh site as a place nearby. I had booked two nights and already paid, so I was committed.

I'm so glad we did stay there. It felt a bit like camping, and was a bit of a throwback to the 50s. It was super cheap ($75/night). We had a small cottage that had a queen size bed, small kitchenette, and front porch. Ours was set way at the back of the property, and you could not see the highway 1 traffic at all. In fact, maybe only the motel rooms at the front could see them. They cater to the family traveler, and there's a pool, a screened in gazebo, a glassed in gazebo, places to sit around the property, a children's play area, and it is surrounded by trees.

I need to stress that this is not fancy. But it worked out perfectly for us.

We checked in, unpacked, sat on the front porch for awhile, then both of us were reading in bed and both of us dropped off, lights on, about 8:30 pm. About 3:30 am I woke up, turned off the lights, turned on the heat, and it was back to bed.

A full and not bad first day of vacation!