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Mid-Coast Maine Boothbay Harbor is a busy area and there's lots to do. Excursion boats go out from the town pier on about 40 trips a day. There is shopping at all sorts of gift stores and boutiques. A railway village with a train ride, an aquarium, deep-sea fishing, art studios and antiques shops, plus a chance to see the rocky coast and its dramatic lighthouses are among the attractions. Boothbay Railway Village, Route 27, Boothbay, (207) 633-4727. Here's something for the children. The village consists of 30 display buildings, 55 antique vehicles, picnic areas, a gift shop, and a steam train giving fourteen-minute rides throughout the complex. It is the only steam-powered, narrow-gauge train left in Maine. The one-and-a-half-mile excursion recreates the type of ride that would have been popular in such areas as served by the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railroad. The train operates daily at half-hour intervals, and visitors are then welcome to stroll through the turn-of-the-century village, complete with carriage display, fire equipment, an automobile display, blacksmith shop and doll museum. Open daily 9:30 to 5, mid-June to mid-October. Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St., Bath, (207) 443-1316. Relics from Maine's 400 years of seafaring heritage are preserved at this must stop for those with marine interests on their way to or from Boothbay. The showcase is a handsome brick building along the Kennebec River just east of the massive Bath Iron Works complex. The facility, appropriate for a town known for boat-building, occupies a fifteen-acre site where large sailing ships were built at the turn of the century. The new maritime history building contains permanent and temporary exhibits and collections showing prominent shipbuilding families, sailing memorabilia, navigational tools, ship models, artifacts, paintings and interpretive exhibits of life at sea and maritime technology. "Lobstering and the Maine Coast" is one of the interesting displays. Visitors can see boats in the making at the apprentice boatbuilding shop, board the 142-foot Grand Banks schooner, Sherman Zwicker or take a 50-minute cruise aboard the M.V. Argo on the Kennebec River. Open daily, 9:30 to 5. Farnsworth Art Museum, 325 Main St., Rockland, (207) 596-6457. Founded in 1948 by local businesswoman Lucy Copeland Farnsworth, this fine museum specializes in American art with a focus on art related to Maine. The Farnsworth has an especially rich collection of three generations of Wyeths, who have chosen it as the permanent repository of their works. The family of N.C. Wyeth summered for years in a house in nearby Port Clyde; Andrew and Jamie Wyeth also have had homes in Maine. The Pratt Memorial Methodist Church at Union and Elm streets behind the museum is being renovated to become The Wyeth Center. It was scheduled to open in 1998, the museum’s 50th anniversary year. Also featured is artist-sculptor Louise Nevelson, who grew up here before moving to New York City. She donated many of her works and personal papers to the Farnsworth and a major piece of sculpture, "Figure in a Blue Shirt," is on its lawn. The museum also has a good collection of works by American Impressionists, including Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman and Willard Metcalf. The Olson House in Cushing, which Andrew Wyeth painted in many of his famous works including "Christina’s World," is owned by the museum and open in the summer, as is the Farnsworth homestead to the rear of the museum. The museum gift shop is excellent. Open Monday-Saturday 9 to 5; Sunday noon to 5. The Shore Village Museum, also in Rockland, has an intriguing collection of lighthouse and Coast Guard memorabilia. In Camden, long known as the windjammer capital of the world, the harbor is quite a sight when the windjammers are in. On Sunday evenings, people sit at the wharf to watch as passengers board the old-time sailing vessels for their week's cruoise through Penobscot Bay. Several schooners take passengers on six-day sailing trips along the coast of Maine, leaving Camden Monday and returning Saturday. Activities include swimming, sunning, helping to sail the boat and eating hearty meals. At night there's often a songfest or time to explore the shore. In addition to the week-long schooner trips, there are shorter adventures to give you a taste. Some of the East Coast's best hiking is available on 25 miles of trails in Camden Hills State Park. Mount Megunticook is the second highest point on the Eastern Seaboard. If you don't feel like hiking, drive the toll road up Mount Battie, an easy one-mile drive; the view is worth the $2 per car toll. Another scenic drive is out Route 52 to Megunticook Lake. A walking tour of Camden and a bicycle or car tour of Camden and Rockport are available through the Camden-Rockport Historical Society. Material excerpted from Waterside Escapes in the Northeast, by Nancy Woodworth and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2005. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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