 |
| Maine The Way Life Should Be |
 |
| Maine means a lot to my family. We have been going to Maine almost every summer since 1982. We go to the same island each year. Islesboro is located in the middle of Penobscot Bay and must be reached by ferryboat. It is a very cool place! There is nothing to do on Islesboro: no movies, no restaurants, no amusement parks, no malls. The island is fairly large--about fourteen miles long, and is surrounded by beaches and rocky coasts. |
|
 |
| This is the lighthouse at Grindle Point. This is where the ferry lands. Imagine a place where daily life is structured around the arrival/departure of the ferry. Food, oil, lumber, and concrete all arrive by ferry. If there are several big trucks in line ahead of you, you might have to wait for a later trip! Islanders are "ferry stressed!" Actually, we think it's really neat. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| There are many islands along the coast of Maine. Some are quite small and uninhabited. Others are much larger and have year-round residents and summer folks. When the fog rolls in, there may be no islands visible. Fog horns and buoy bells help guide boatmen safely through the bay. We always expect a few foggy or rainy days, so we plan for them. |
| These are lobster boats and fishing boats. Lobstering is big business in Maine. They are caught in box-like traps that lay on the bottom of the bay at depths of 30-120 feet. The location of each lobster pot is marked with a small buoy painted with a special pattern of colors for each lobsterman. Lobsters are related to crayfish--they are both decapod crustaceans. |
| The rock-bound coastline of Maine, along the Atlantic Ocean, is long & serpentine, winding in & out, up & down. Maine's landscape was created by glaciers during the last Ice Age, with U-shaped valleys, gouged out lakes, boulder-strewn fields, and striated rock that was scraped by the advancing and retreating ice sheets.There are approximately 1,102 miles of coastline, from Kittery in the south all the way downeast to West Quoddy Head, which lies next to Canada. |
| This is a classic Maine scene--a rocky point topped by spruce trees. The rocks are probably granite, and are rounded, carved, and split by the action of the waves. Most of the beaches are small, composed of sand, pebbles, gravel, cobbles, or boulders. Each of the many beaches on Islesboro is different from the others. We like to comb the beaches for treasures: sea urchins, sand dollars, periwinkles, starfish, sea glass, driftwood, and fossils. You never know what you might find! |
|