Discovering Rockland, Maine 2023: Art, History, and Coastal Beauty

Hello Bloggineers, we are at Hearthstone Inn and Hideaway and we're going to show you the fun things you can do in Rockland, Maine. Our first stop is the Sail Power and Steam Museum. This is a picture of Rockland in the late 1800s, and at that time, it was the United States' fourth largest seaport, so this was larger than Boston and New York. This exhibit is on lobsters and lobster traps. There was a video in the front that said that they're only 5% effective, which means the lobsters can easily go in, eat, or come out, and really only the stupid ones who decide to stay will end up getting eaten. When we first arrived in Maine, we thought those were popsicles, but those are actually buoy-like things, where you put it above the water so you know that that's your trap, and it has a rope attached to it so you can bring the lobster trap up. Oh, there we go. Wow, this is steep. The museum runs a free program for kids who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to go out and sail, and these are sailboats. The program is called SCIF, so during the weekdays, kids can do that. So the way this museum came to be is that first, Captain Jim had a smaller museum with just his stuff, and then the people that he gave tours to were intrigued, and they realized that in their garages or grandparents' garages, there were artifacts there. So then they brought in those artifacts, and it became a larger museum. If you come here, you should definitely talk to Captain Jim. A Google review said he's like 89 years old, and he tells great stories to tell, very fun to talk to. We'll be back in two days, because for now, it's the weekend, and on the weekdays, they have the sailing lessons for kids. Now we are at the main lighthouse museum. At the beginning of the tour, our tour guide, Gary, gave us some great information. Unfortunately, just in the beginning, we had some audio issues. So basically what he said is that Hamilton started all the lighthouses in the U.S., and most of the lights were made in Paris, France, and this was Hamilton's solution for there being fewer shipwrecked. Here's a model of the very first lighthouse. So the first light that ever was put in the United States was in Boston Harbor. That's the first lighthouse. And that lens is still there today. This is a second-order lens, which means it's relatively large. Here's a third-order lens, a fourth-order lens, and a fifth-order lens, so they keep getting smaller and smaller. Even though this lens would have been two hundred feet high, there's still chips from the ocean bringing up rocks, flies, so the waves were very powerful. This right here was operable and maintained by a 16-year-old girl, 16-year-old girl, for four weeks in 1863. See that little bell on the bow? Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is what it looks like in real life. This lighthouse, West Quoddy Head, is the easternmost point on the contiguous United States. That's where the first sunrise happens. Okay. This is a replica of the Rockland Breakwater. And you could walk out there. Yeah, we should try to do that. And walk all the way around it, but you can't get up into the light. Whoa! That is the main lighthouse museum. My favorite part was the lighthouse board, where it's a whole map of all the lighthouses that were made, and it's really cool to see if it's still active or not. And I was surprised that Alexander Hamilton was involved with the first lighthouses of the United States. Our next stop is Project Puffin Visitor Center. Go, Happy, he's riding a puffin. Brother's going to tell you a super cool puffin fact. The fatter the puffin chicks are, the more food supplies are around. As you can see, this puffin is really fat. That's how you know that I ate a lot of food. And that is the Project Puffin Visitor Center. This is a great free place to go to when you're in Rockland. And also, if you purchase things in the gift shop, all of the money goes to help support the puffins and the conservation. I already knew everything about puffins. No, you didn't. Whatever. Don't listen to Brother, and on to our next stop! Now we are at Center for Maine Contemporary Art. It's an evil robot. That's what it's doing. Evil robots. This one's in a ship. I think this section is about how machines can be evil. Because this looks like some sort of Kraken. No, this looks like a Brachiosaurus. It's a camera that is exploding in a ship. This one is titled Black Marks, and it's an ink and acrylic. I like how this creature is just a bunch of jumbles in its body, but then it forms this head. Someone drew an egg, and put I am an egg. So I'm going to draw a cow up here. And that is the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. My favorite part was the art studio, because you get to make a bunch of things out of paper. Such as a box, and a box, and a box, and a box, and so on. Now we're going to check out Farnsworth Art Museum. Edward Hopper is a famous American painter, and I've heard of him from my art classes back at home. So, in 1926, he and his wife came to Rockland for seven weeks, and he made these paintings on Rockland. In the back, it's a collage. As you can see, there's words and poems everywhere. This is a painting of Black Head, which is somewhere along the Maine coast. And it reminds me of yesterday when we went to Acadia National Park, the blowhole area, because this is also the ocean going crazy. Guess what this art piece is titled? It's titled Cow. There should be one with hats. I saw this piece from a distance, and I was like, ooh, Chihuly. And I came here to confirm, it really is from Chihuly. This might be my favorite piece of the museum. It's sand art, and some of them, well, most of them look like landscapes. This piece is called Daburu Plate Installation. So, everything in each column are all the bodies of the same animal. Like, this is all the body of a snowman. This is all the body of a javelina. This is all the body of a bat. And then for each row, it has the same head. So, like, the bottom row is all the head of a snowman. And this single diagonal line that goes all the way like that, those are the correct animals. Here, so that's the proper tusked javelina. That's a proper snowman. That's a proper bat. I saw everything. And that is the Farmsworth Art Museum. My favorite art piece was this one right behind me. Because it's very creative, and it looks very funny. I like this one too, and also the sand art and the hopper paintings. The cool thing about this museum is there's art in many different forms, all unique, and a lot of them are local. On to the next stop. This is Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. And right now, the tide is going down. I think high tide was like 30 minutes ago. So, hopefully, it's not too wet out there. It's .8 miles each way. So the unique thing about this is that it's not a pier. It's a bunch of granite rocks. This granite breakwater was built in the 1890s by the United States Army Corps of Engineers from locally quarried granite. We reached the end, and look how far the mainland is away. It actually looks pretty close, but believe me, that took like a good 20 minutes to get here. And we noticed that as we were getting towards the end, it kind of goes lower a bit because now we're way closer to the ocean. Like in the beginning, the rocks were probably a few feet higher, but now they're pretty wet from the high tide. So when the tide is at its peak, I wonder if it's even possible to get to the lighthouse, or if you get stranded. If you come around to the other side, you get a bit of a better view. And although you can't completely see the light, it's blocked by a solar panel. This is still pretty cool that there's a house in the middle of the ocean. There's an influx of waves coming, but according to the website that I found, the tide should be going down. So I don't think we have anything to worry about. Oh dang. Wait, look at that. Okay, that bridge, the fishing bridge over there is violently bobbing up and down. I think it's our... Uh oh. Okay, yeah, it's our cue to head out of here. Okay, slow here. Let's not get washed out to... Oh gosh. Look at that. Hold on, wait, wait. I need to get... I need to record this though. This is kind of cool. There. Okay, now we go. Now we're going to check into Hearthstone Inn and Hideaway. Hearthstone Inn has several properties adjacent to the main Inn and Restaurant and we'll be staying at the Sorrento Room in the Manor House. We're going to give you a tour of the Sorrento Room. Once you enter, there's a kitchen. Fridge. Freezer. Microwave. Sink. Cupboard. Dishwasher. Stove. Table. Life. Here's a really nice cabinet with a lot of plates and silverware. This is like a house. It really makes us feel like we have a home away from home. Here's the living room area that has a blue theme. On this shelf, there's cookbooks, magazines, and in here, a straw hat and some puzzles. Wait, this is... This is not a bedroom. Closet. Here, there's a closet. Wow, the bathroom. Now for the tour of the bathroom. There is a sink, soap towels, a shower with all the soap, conditioner, shampoo, toilet, toilet paper. And that's it. In here, we have a fully walk-in closet. Wow. This bedroom has a queen-size bed and a little office space. And this is the next bedroom. It has a bed and then a fireplace and a chair. And you can exit from this way. Lastly, the master bedroom. There's a bed, TV. Whoa, look how many pillows there are. There's 10,000. There's the keys to the house and another fireplace. Ooh. And dark chocolate sea salt. That's it.