August 7 - Boothbay Harbor to Tenant’s Harbor ME (Tenant’s Harbor Boat Yard)

I picked Tenant’s Harbor because i read that Jamie Wyeth owned and lived in the light house there. 

Well come to find out i think he owns the marina as well.  There is something special about this place or maybe it’s just that the Wyeth’s think so too.  It is a tiny town, one store, two restaurants, a bakery and everyone goes to the post office to get their mail.  And the houses that line the harbor are all quaint - not anything over the top - just cottages like the ones that come to mind when you think of Maine or a lake cottage.  

I have found that when you compliment someone in Maine about the beauty of the place and/or the great weather they most often respond with, ‘well you should have been here this past winter.’  They spoke of ‘how awful it was….it was record breaking…..15 degrees below zero for weeks!  Snow up past the window sills for weeks!, snow plows and back hoes having to come get you out every day for weeks, it never stopped snowing for weeks!’  Only the huge stacks of firewood in everyone’s yard reminded one (a tourist) that winter was always on their minds…never fully out of sight and always coming back. - much like those damn tourist!

As we ventured into Tenant’s Harbor to take a walk about I spied a guy of interest.  He came in by dinghy, smoking a long wooden pipe, had longish grey/white hair, wearing socks and crocks!  just one of those people you think to yourself..hmmmm he looks interesting…well come to find out he is the care taker/boat maintenance guy for Jamie Wyeth.  Jamie’s boat was docked here…an absolutely beautiful, unique (of course) old renovated beauty, named DreadNaught.  You can see it here in the background - behind the ‘interesting guy’.

So we start off on our walk and not far down the road there is a turn and in the nook of the corner i spied a fairy’s house.  Two floors, a little rope ladder and a chair out front.  I think i maybe shrieked, ‘LOOK HARRY, IT’S A FAIRY HOUSE!’  you can imagine his excitement.  

Lovely homes, very well kept.  

We found a general store and stopped by the East Wind Inn to visit and while there we made dinner reservations.

Around cocktail hour we took a dinghy ride around the harbor.  I kept telling Harry, 'go this way, go that way, go deeper into the harbor, let’s see where it goes'….and then suddenly, we are in about 6 inches of water…yikes.  we pulled up the motor a bit and turned around…and then it appears...we both see it, this big bird…and for the second time in one day, I shrieked, LOOK, LOOK, LOOK, IT’S AN EAGLE…i just keep saying, “LOOK” over and over.  I think Harry finally said ‘would you be quiet, you’re scaring it away.'  I was just SO thrilled to be seeing this majestic bird in flight and it was SO big…it finally landed and stayed roosted on a tall pine branch. 

The restaurant did not have a public dingy dock so they told us we could park in the lobster fisherman's area at night.  

We had such a good meal at the Inn served by a sweet young woman who was new to Teanant’s Harbor and would start teaching kindergarten there in the fall.  She was born / raised in upstate Maine and had never lived on the coast and was very excited.  she was SO sweet….the kids will love her.