Blue! O how I have ignored you, taken you for granted! I learned today that blue makes all other colors possible. Yesterday, with the drab drizzles and grey skies, my formerly favorite color was muted, inconsequential. But today, the green was magnificent! But, only with the blue skies. 

I know some might think I mean sunshine makes the colors more vibrant, and that is true to an extent. However, I saw today that green was prettiest when blue was behind. Red, too. Even in sunshine, if the background was grey or white clouds, green was not the vibrant color that has always been my favorite. It wasn’t until today that I realized I have been exceptionally narrow-minded about my favorite color. I grew up in Southern California and have lived since in Colorado where blue skies happen 300 out of the 365 days of the year. OK, OK, that was a rant. But it was also how I was feeling!

Another driving day, but in character, we went to a park first. This one was called “Echo Lake” and it was a tiny park. We drove to the top of glacially scoured granite (like Yosemite Valley) and looked at an oval lake below us (Echo Lake). Beautiful!! I could not help but compare this to other places we have visited. The shear cliffs and rounded granite were like Yosemite but the trees were absolutely NOT! Most of the trees here were deciduous and a minute percentage of those were turning color. The overall view of the rounded knobs of granite with the deciduous trees was also like the Blue Ridge Parkway, a bit south of here.

Shear granite cliff at Echo Lake with a bit of red foliage

Some people put locks on the fence, near where rock climbers. I remember reading about a similar tradition in France that caused the government to take all the locks down because of the weight on the bridge.

Next we visited Augusta, the capital of Maine. Surprise! Three capitals in four days. A record for us.

The capital dome In Augusta was bronze, we think. And the overall ambiance was less affluent and ornate than the two capitals we visited so far this trip. But all three had replica Liverty Bells, complete with painted cracks. 

This one also had a display of flags.

And they had a kids handout to look for fossils in the stonework of the floor and walls – an activity after my own heart.

Our final destination today was Penobscot Bay, because Roberth McCloskey wrote a children’s book about it and won “The Caldecott Medal” in 1957, the year Brian was born. His mom read that book to him, and we read it to our kids. We just wanted to see, and here we are.

This bridge, actually a famous bridge with an observatory in one of the towers, is over the Penobscot Narrows. It also overlooks Fort Knox.

So we sleep on Deer Island, in Penobscot Bay, and we will read the book “Time of Wonder” to each other tonight. We will be here tomorrow night as well.

Happy!

• Coast-to-Coast Trip