Pics Post #3 (final one)

This is a lobster pound. That phrase is everywhere - we thought it meant just someplace to buy or eat lobster, but turns out it means an establishment that has a cage in the ocean outside, or a holding tank inside, to hold the lobsters live. (My friend Tim, who hails from Maine, told me it was like "a dog pound, only for stray lobsters.") Here if you look closely you can see a man cooking lobsters in those large smokers for mailing around the U.S. The smell was wonderful.

Just stopped by the side of the road, at another lobster pound, to take some pictures. We could have stopped two hundred times to take pictures with a view like this.

Mike outside the lobster pound, retrieving the first of twelve rocks we would bring home. :-) See bottom of this post.

A flea market in central Maine. Note the lobster traps.

A little fishing village as seen from one of the many high bridges we had to cross. For some reason all the bridges in the northeast are very old, very high, very rusty, and very scary.

George Bush Sr.'s home in Kennebunkport, ME. We knew it was close by and looked for it. When you come across it - it is unmistakable that you have seen the right place.

A closer look of their gorgeous home.

Mike and me outside the Bush home.

So we're looking at the beautiful home, when a speedboat comes ROARING into the cove. Lo and behold - George H.W. Bush is driving. The smaller gray boat is the secret service - the speedboat is turning around at this point to dock.

Bush can't walk very well any more, but he can really drive that boat!

This is blurry because I had to zoom in so closely - but the man in the reddish-orange pants is the former president, walking up the sidewalk with the party that was on the boat.

An art gallery on the side of the road had these beautiful bronze statues. Don't remember the price on this one, but a similar one of a doe and a fawn was $35,000. Mike had better lower his expectations that he will get this for his birthday.

The flowers around the statue are lupine, and they are everywhere right now. We were told that they are the state flower, but when I googled it (couldn't remember the name), the sources all said that the state flower of Maine is the white pinecone and tassel - not really a flower, but that's what it is.

There's nothing particularly Maine-ish about this, but we stopped to eat breakfast at a local eaterie on the way out of town, and these were in the windowbox outside our table. I thought they were pretty.

Stopped here to use the restroom - had ended up on an exit with absolutely nothing but this inn. Walked inside and there was a formal dinner going on. No one noticed me and I couldn't find anybody to ask. Could not find a women's restroom anywhere, just a men's one. No one was in the room that it was off of. You guessed what I did. Fortunately no one came in. :-)

Driver and car. 2,839 miles!

Our rocks! We stopped in every state and found a rock to bring home for the butterfly garden. One of us - maybe Mary Lee - will paint the state name on the correct rock. Wish we'd written down the stories of getting the rocks - some are rather entertaining. But we didn't.