July 21-23                       Southwest Harbor, Maine

At a dock party on Saturday night (where guests were served two lobsters each), we were told  one of the highlights of Mount Desert Island is Thuya Gardens.  Sunday was our last day to have the car so we planned a picnic lunch and left early to tour the Northeast Harbor area and make a visit to Thuya Gardens.

Northeast Harbor Marina is in a large open area surrounded by hills dotted with lovely homes and rugged granite cliffs.  The beautiful water was filled with a variety of large and small boats, including the red-hulled sailboat belonging to one of the members of the Bass family of Fort Worth.  All the buildings surrounding the harbor are painted or shingled in gray with white trim and the entire area has a pristine, nautical appearance.

The small village of Northeast Harbor has a downtown comprised mostly of white wooden two-story buildings for three short blocks.  The up-scale quality of the village is easily discerned by the wonderful antique shops and The Kimball Shop, an exquisite store filled with kitchenware, housewares, accessories, and expensive china and crystal.  I was awed when I looked at  magnificent Herend-Rothchild dinner plates priced at $450.00 each.  I had seen a similar pattern by H-R several months ago in Neiman’s that cost $250.00 each and had considered that price to be exorbitant.  In retrospect, they seemed cheap!

Shortly after leaving Northeast Harbor, we discovered the roadside entrance to Thuya Gardens, which requires a quarter-mile uphill hike that is described as being “moderately challenging.”  I opted to take the hike to the gardens.  David made the trip in the car and met me at the top of the hill.  The hike follows an excellent trail winding back and forth through rock-terraces.  There are frequent rough-hewn covered shelters where one can sit and look out over the harbor.  The views are wonderful.  The hike provides an opportunity to admire the many species of trees and the ground covered in ferns and moss.  It was a strenuous effort but I was very glad that I had taken the hike.

At the top of the hill is Thuya Lodge, a two-story brick and wooden structure completed in 1916 by Joseph H. Curtis, a Boston civil engineer and landscape architect.  Mr. Curtis and his family were among the first permanent summer settlers of the area.  He had purchased many acres of land and was an early conservationist.  The terraced hill and the lodge were done by his design and under his supervision.  Upon his death, the property and a generous endowment were left to the people of Hancock County and are now managed under a trust with free admission for visitors.

Inside the lodge, we met an excellent guide who made us feel as if we were guests in her home.  Furnishings are original with the Curtis family and are amazingly intact, including china, crystal, kitchenware, books, and games.  The large soapstone sink in the kitchen remains in perfect condition as are the icebox and wood-burning stone. Also on display was an ice hook for carrying blocks of ice and a card that would have been displayed in a window to let the ice man know to stop his wagon and deliver ice.  We had not seen these items in many, many years. Although the three bedrooms upstairs have been converted to libraries for botanical research, one can easily discern the spaciousness and comfort that were afforded the family.

After visiting the lodge, we visited the wonderful gardens behind the lodge.  Following the traditional design of an English garden, there were long rectangular beds filled with a multitude of flowers.  As these were in Maine, they were nestled among granite outcroppings and forest plants and trees.  We were too late for the blooming of the giant rhododendrons but we were greeted with a profusion of colorful dahlias, daisies, daylilies, hollyhocks, and hydrangeas of many varieties and hues. Although the garden is smaller than most public gardens, it is exceptionally well-planned and elegant.

We were amazed to see a dawn redwood tree amidst all the spruces, firs, cedars, and other trees in the garden.  The label stated the tree was a rare specimen of redwood that had previously been known only from fossil remains found in Arizona.  In 1946, it was re-discovered in a remote area of China and brought again to the United States by Harvard botanists.  The one in Thuya Gardens had once been a cherished plant on a Bar Harbor estate.  Although the dawn redwood tree is about the same age as the neighboring trees, it is considerably taller and appears to be thriving in the northeast area.

We enjoy entertaining on the boat and invited Linda and Phil to join us on Monday evening for dinner.  We served my favorite recipe for Classic Crab Imperial with oven-browned new potatoes and a combination of zucchini, tomatoes, and onions. From the bakery kitchen on the hill, we had freshly baked bread and a delicious pie of strawberries and rhubarb.

Before dawn on Tuesday, we had a great thunderstorm that rumbled for an hour.  The rain and fog continued sporadically through the morning hours.  It was a good day for reading.  When the sun finally came out, David abandoned me and my book to visit the facilities of Hinckley Yachts, a legendary prestigious boatbuilding firm, which has been a mainstay of the economy for many years in Southwest Harbor. Today we had two other boats in the marina flying Texas flags!

That evening we went with the Hardbergers to the Acadia Repertory Theater.  The production was Almost, Maine, comprised of a series of vignettes about love in Maine.  It was filled with quirky humor and we laughed and laughed.  The actors were excellent.  The play was held in the Somesville Masonic Lodge building and the rustic interior and spare furnishings were in sharp contrast with the palatial structures of the Masonic Lodges we’ve seen in Texas.