Monday was Mer’s first full day of being in charge of touring. We headed out of Rockland on Route 17, and made a quick stop-off at one of Mer’s childhood swimming holes. It was on the southern end of Lake Chickawaukee, and is a small beach and a floating dock. There are bathrooms and a changing room, and it is a nice little swimming area. It was pretty crowded on Monday morning with about twenty “tweens” swimming and splashing around.

After the short stop at the beach, we drove out to Union and parked in a gravel parking lot in a field next to the St. Georges River. Mer had found information on a two-mile trail-walk along an old canal. The canal site is supposed to be the oldest canal in the U.S., and the subsequent canals built in the area never made any money and fell quickly into disuse. The trail was fairly easy, with a few tricky spots, and we only met two people walking their dogs along the entire out-and-back trail. Much of the trail had a view of the small river, and it was all in woods. The woods is owned by a sawmill, and they let people use the path, which is very good of them. The brochure Mer picked up does read a little bit like pro-sawmill propaganda in places, but that was amusing. The walk was very pretty, and quiet, and smelled of pine and other fir trees. It was a great (and easy) walk that was very relaxing.

Even the drive out to and back from the walk was gorgeous. We had to take a detour because of road repair, and the detour took us to the top of a hill overlooking a farm field that went down to a lake, and the lake was framed by small mountains. Not too shabby.

We then headed back to the coast and went south along Route 1. We stopped in Port Clyde, a small seaside town that seemed to be full of art galleries and restaurants. We ate on the dock at the Dip Net restaurant. The food was good, and the views were wonderful. I like looking at the ocean and seeing boats coming and going. Mer pretty much had some form of seafood all week long, usually in the form of chowder. I pretty  much did not.

After lunch, we headed over to the Marshall Point Lighthouse and the small museum that now occupies the old lighthouse keeper’s home. The Marshall Point lighthouse is very pretty (most lighthouses are situated in rather dramatic settings), and is most famous for being the lighthouse that Forrest Gump runs up to in the movie of the same name. The museum is small, and wonderfully eclectic, with lighthouse memorabilia, boat models, stories of the lighthouse keepers, and more. We toured the entire museum and then wandered the grounds.

We ended the touristy day by going over to the nearby, and very small, Drift Inn Beach. The beach was sandy and nice, but was probably only about three hundred feet wide, and I’m guessing it almost disappears at high tide. We sat on the beach and had an amusing time watching some kids (and a mom) paddling around on Florida-style kayaks, which are huge surfboards meant to be paddled from a kneeling or standing-up position.

We got back to the house about 6:30, and I went up to my room and fell asleep by 7:00. Touring can take it out of a guy!