MAINE TRAVEL: SPEND THE DAY – You can BELIEVE IN FAIRIES

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of sorts. It seems like I’m trying to cram in all the summer fun that I can before school starts, work gets more demanding, and the winter looms. Writing about the neat places we’ve been has two benefits; one is that by passing on information about these places, a reader or two might be inclined to check them out – kind of my pay it forward idea; the other benefit is that I get to relive the day, thereby extending the good feelings.

Here is a little info about one of our recent day trips:

COASTAL MAINE BOTANICAL GARDENS, Boothbay Maine - www.mainegardens.org/

I’ve been wanting the check this place out for some time now. It’s relatively new, and continues to grow. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens opened in June of 2007, after 16 years of planting and building.

The Visitor Center houses a gift shop, café, and event space for weddings and birthday parties. It’s a beautiful building and fits perfectly into the Maine Coast feeling of the location. Just outside the Visitor Center is the Great Lawn & Ledge Garden.

 

Although we hadn’t planned it, we were thrilled to find that the day we visited was part of the Maine Fairy House Festival Weekend. The Great Lawn was skirted with craft vendors offering all manner of fairy attire: wings, wands, fairy house crafts and books. Someone had ingeniously set up a step ladder rigged with a power source that propelled a wheel of bubble wands and kept a continuous flow of bubbles floating throughout the lawn area. Families picnicked and enjoyed the space. A local ice cream vendor was set up with a line of customers that didn’t dwindle the whole time we were there. I had the blueberry ice cream, in case you’re wondering. Children and adults alike frolicked. Bubbles flitted and popped.

The Burpee Kitchen Garden was not only visually stunning in its design but a sensual summer feast of scents that lingered on hands rubbed on the warm leaves of lemon basil, thyme, sage, lavender and marjoram. From there we couldn’t help but be pulled into the brand new Harold and Bibby Alfond Children’s Garden. What a fabulous place! Twisty walkways, a misting rock garden with swings, a pond with lily pads and pitcher plants, a treehouse, a Wabanaki hut, bear cave, huge vegetable garden with playful identifying signs, a weather station, and it went on and on. My daughter’s favorite part, and the place we spent the most time, was at the fairy house area.

 A small wooded section had been designated for fairy house building. Since this was the third day of the Maine Fairy House Festival, there were quite a few houses already built, and we had to search a bit for some prime fairy house real estate. There were piles of house building supplies – pine cones, tree bark, twigs, moss, any manner of natural object found in the forests, which, in Coastal Maine, includes shells, dried seaweed, and smooth beach rocks.

Children had built fairy houses of all sorts and had included walkways, hammocks, tables and chairs, bridges and fences. What amazes me about these fairy villages is the imagination of children as they design and dream of the fairies that will visit.

After spending quite a while building her fairy house, my daughter sat back, pleased with her creation. I watched kids of all ages, from toddlers to tweens hard at work and deeply entrenched in their projects. One little boy squatted near us, very interesting in the building process, and even more so in the bright green caterpillar that had dropped out of the tree overhead onto the soft moss that had become the playground.

We worked our way through the Children’s Garden and toward the trails that zig zagged their way down to the waterfront. We checked out the Haney Hillside Garden and followed the Shoreland Trail along the water. We worked our way up to Birch Allee then caught a ride on one of the Garden’s shuttles, which run around the property and deliver guests to various locations on the grounds.

We truly could have spent quite a bit more time there, having lunch and enjoying all of the 250 acres that are available to explore.

Of note here: my husband is not a gardener, nor is he a photographer and I had thought that he would be bored and anxious to leave. That was not the case at all. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens was exciting and vibrant, and managed to hold the interest of even the biggest of kids.

My advice: take all the kids, it’s worth the admission. Spend the day.

The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens are open year from, every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you’re a member, it’s free to enter the gardens. Non members are $10 for adults and $5 for children 3 -1 7. Under age 3 is free. Note that a family of 2adults and 2 kids under 18 can get in for $25. Groups of 10 or more are $7 per person.

Check out the calendar of events for all of the goings on at the gardens.