Monday was Mer’s day again. We started the day by driving to Augusta and going to AHOP (Augusta House of Pancakes). We both ordered breakfast, even though it was about 11:00. AHOP has great hot chocolate, and we both got enormous amounts of food.

After breakfast, we headed to the Maine Veterans’ Cemetery. It is the “middle” cemetery of Augusta’s three veterans’ cemeteries – there is a really old one, and then the Maine Veterans’ Cemetery that was in operation from about 1970 to about 2000, and then a newer one. The Maine Veterans’ Cemetery is still active even though it is full – all the spaces left are reserved, but the cemetery still averages three burials per day.

The cemetery is a lovely place to walk – well groomed and well kept. Some of the building architecture is unfortunately very “look, concrete!” 1970, but it is still a pleasant place. Mer, being the English teacher she is, found a misspelled word carved in granite within about ten minutes. All of the gravestones are flat for ease of mowing and for aesthetic appeal, but there are some memorials that are above ground.

We bumped into a very friendly groundskeeper, who was probably about thirty. We chatted for about twenty minutes, talking about how graves are dug (by backhoe), and about how he called the police on some kids partying on the grounds, and about a little history of the cemetery. It was interesting. I like to know how things work, and this was a good chance to find out how a cemetery works.

We then continued with our walking tour by driving over to the Viles Arboretum, which is just outside Augusta. The Arboretum is still fairly new (about twenty years old), so some of the trees on the grounds are still growing to maturity. It has two major trails – an inner loop and an outer loop. Mer wanted to do the inner loop, which had more shade (the day was hot). It took about forty-five minutes to walk the entire thing. We saw a rock-based garden, lots of hostas in bloom, a small pond, the ruins of an old pig barn, a grove of pine trees whose seeds had been flown on a space shuttle mission, and lots of trees. They have a good-sized grove of lilacs, but those had passed bloom for this year. It was a mellow walk.

Mer continued the outdoor theme by having us drive to the remote-feeling Jamies Pond near Hallowell. The pond is a state park, so there are no buildings on the water, and it is a decent-sized body of water. We walked along a trail we found, uphill to a stream, but then the trail ended. We sat on a rock and watched the water run by for a few minutes, but then we had to go since Mer had time-specific plans.

We finished the day driving up to Waterville to the Railroad Square Cinema, which shows art films. Mer wanted to see the film Buck, which is the story of a horse trainer who uses gentle methods to “break” horses, with some remarkable results. The film follows Buck around for a few months, and tells his story, along with the story of his family, and some of the people and horses he comes in contact with. It was a very good film.

We got back home about 7:30, where Dad was good enough to make supper again.