Not Your Usual Tourist Attraction .... In Bangor!!

Barbara and Tom have had their work cut out for them, trying to find a place to stay over Labor Day Weekend.  As most of you know, it's not good to travel on those big holidays ... especially in places where it's the last hurrah camp-out before school and winter snow.  Famished and wasting away, we piled in the car and went to the Eagles Nest Restaurant, right on the Penobscot River.

Tom says rivers run uphill here ... and sure enough, the tide was coming in and the water was running the wrong direction.  This is the view from our tiny table in the restaurant packed to the brim with eager lobster eaters.

This is it ... the "lobsta" roll.  A much better buy at $14 because it included yummy cole slaw and fries.  Good thing we'll be leaving Maine soon ... the diet is suffering greatly!!

On to the Festival on the wharf in Bangor ... a mixture of music, dancing, crafts and food ... LOTS of food!!!

Immediately we were assaulted with the wood smoke smell of pizza!!  Have you ever seen a brick pizza oven on a trailer???  Only in Maine!!

Here on the river's edge was the perfect place to people watch.  Trust me, Maine has it all.  From the tall guy wearing tights, a handkerchief-hem flowing skirt and a hat to this flower child with rose colored glasses ... they were all enjoying the outing on the water in the warm sun!!

Potatoe chips were a big hit ... spiral cut raw potatoes dumped immediately in hot oil.  I've never seen these before, but was WAY too full from the lobster roll to order any.

This gentleman rode his bicycle with one dog barking on the back and another in the basket up front, along with a cup for your "barking dog" donations.  Interestingly enough, we actually met two couples who are staying in our exact same campground!!!  What are the odds of that??

With four bandstand areas, there were lots of different music styles, including jazz from the Sea Dog Bar and three guys just standing on the corner singing.  In fact, there were impromptu bands everywhere.  Another character of Bangor ... this older lady had on a see-through blouse with a belly dancer's scarf and non-matching baseball cap.  And these were only the ones I had nerve enough to photograph!!

There was Indian food, jambalaya, alligator nuggets, quesadillas, burritos, clam "chowdah", carmel corn, ice cream ... everything you can think of, and they all smelled wonderful!!!

We held out for the whoopie pies!!  I've never tried one of these before ... what could be better than fluffy chocolate cake filled with peanut butter frosting!!!  They had made over 3,000 for this event and were constantly stocking the shelves as Barbara picked up a couple for dessert.  YUM YUM!!

We snaked through the craft tents ... kind of like the Big Tent in Quartzsite.  There was lots of hand-made jewelry and soap, along with this table of hand-carved wood items.  We arrived too late however, because almost every single item had "sold" on it, including this amazing wooden baseball cap!!

As we walked out, we stopped for a few minutes to watch the Chinese jugglers and fan dancers.  I think they garnered the biggest crowd!!

Since it was still early, we drove over to Mt. Hope Cemetery.  I know, a cemetery is NOT your usual tourist attraction, but you should check them out.  It's very interesting to read the stories on the headstones about the families who were the first to settle here.  

This cemetery is huge and mostly well kept.  It is the nation's oldest garden cemetery, celebrating 180 years and covers over 300 acres.  This is the last resting place of Temperance and Capt. Paul Hatch, along with their daughter Temperance (named after mom) and son Capt. Isaac, and his wife Abigail.  All passed away in the early 1800's, yet this monument still stands in excellent condition.  

The melting snow has left many ponds throughout the area, giving creatures a home too ... like this whatever-it-is eating something in the water.  Good description, right??  The last time I called something like this a muskrat, it turned out to be a ground hog ... so this time I'm not guessing!!

Some of the oldest sections are in disrepair.  I suppose they don't have any family living to maintain the headstones, which are pretty much unreadable and falling over.  If you think your ancestors might be buried here, you can go on their website and search the records.  Maybe someone will volunteer to fix up the older section on the hill.

Another unusual site at this cemetery is the abundance of just plain rocks for headstones.  Some have been carved, but most have metal plaques on the front.  Many have trees and shrubs like this one, and many have beautiful flowers, which makes it the garden cemetery.  Plastic isn't allowed here!!

These two were the prettiest carved ones we saw ... I've never seen this type of scroll design before.  I imagine these were sisters, Sabra and Elizabeth.  Another thing we saw at this cemetery surprised me.  It seems to be the place many people come to exercise ... there were people walking the roads all around us.  What a beautiful, quiet place to walk, while thinking about all those who have come before us.  Pretty cool!!!

Our last stop was at Best Buy.  Barbara has been looking for a new computer since we left California. She finally found the perfect Toshiba and decided to bite the bullet, since her old system has caused her so much frustration, what with locking up and all!!  I'm sure she was up until the wee hours of the morning playing with it, but that's okay!!  It's Sunday ... time for sleeping in,  Sunday Morning TV and laundry!!!