ME III: Botanical Garden Adventure

Oct 14, 2023 · Maine Event

Today we had a grand adventure. We woke up early and took our normal walk to wake up and greet the sun on its arrival to tour the sky. Then we summoned an Uber and went to the Jetport (Portland's wee airport). There we rented a car with no lines and were handed keys with not much more than a glance at my driver's license. We drove north through a patchwork more glorious than I can explain of mile after mile of trees changing colors. It was like a full-on magic show. We arrived in Boothbay at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. It was the weekend so the central part was crowded but it was set up to make the viewing accessible for everyone with things for young children, and adults and easy paths for older adults with multi-seat golf carts to shuttle people back when they got tired. There were also small trails through the woods along the perimeter that were delicious. Overall it was fabulous and if we had time it would have likely been nicer on a weekday. Following that we drove another 20 minutes or so to Damariscotta (Damariscotta is from the Algonquian word Madamescontee which means the "place of an abundance of alewives", which are small fish that spawn in Damariscotta Lake.) where we met my dear friend Paula for coffee and a walk through tail end of PumpkinFest.

For several years we wanted to see the botanical – plus they have magic trolls I wanted to see. The trolls I believe started at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens but now they are in several communities. Here is the map of the magical trolls.

A couple of things I learned at the botanical garden first is that there are 17 different kinds of bumblebees here. We see lots of different kinds of bumblebees on aster flowers and we have wondered what they were - so fun. There are also 276 different kinds of bees in Maine!