Trolleys, a mansion and sandy feet.

Well, here we are, still firmly ensconced at Sea Vu RV Park. (No sea view, but what the heck). I hate to admit it but I really like this place, and I really like Maine.

We took a day today and went to visit the Seashore Trolley Museum here in Wells, (www.TrolleyMuseum.org) and the Victoria Mansion in Portland. The trolley museum is better than you might imagine. They have several dozen trolleys from all over the US and even a dozen or so from other countries dating back to horse drawn and up to modern electric “trackless trolleys” (aka: electric busses). We actually had a good time there and it included a 15 mile ride on a nicely restored open trolley.

The Victoria Mansion (www.VictoriaMansion.org) was both impressive and depressing. It is supposed to be of “Italian” design but to us it felt very Gothic. The dark and foreboding house was built in 1858-60 as a summer home for Mr. Ruggles Sylvester Morse who had made his fortune by building luxury hotels in New Orleans and wanted everyone up here to truly understand how rich he was. He had a lot of features included in the design because they were more expensive than the normal way of doing things. For example he had all the walls painted to look like they were covered with silk because it cost more than covering them with silk.

We had a good “BIB” experience today. The Garmin has a feature where you can ask it to list restaurants near your location. Today it listed “Becky’s Diner” just a few blocks from the mansion so we drove down and around and gave it a try. It struck us as one of those places that when you mention to someone that you were in Portland they would always say, “So, did you eat at Becky’s?” The food was great, the place is strikingly spotless, and the wait staff was friendly as heck. It was so jammed with locals that we ate at the counter and it didn’t detract from the experience at all.

This evening we drove over to Ogunquit Beach and Cheryl got her feet wet and sandy with right coast water. Now I can say I’ve dipped her into both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. We also spent some time walking around the small town visiting funky (expensive) shops. We finally found a souvenir shop that sold cheap Chinese junk and found our Maine “been there” pin. So now I can head south with a feeling of mission accomplished. However we are staying here another day before we strike out south for two reasons: 1. I like it here because there are no Farkles to be found, and 2. it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and the thought of spending a rainy day just sitting around reading and listening to the patter of water on the roof sounds really inviting.

Love to all,
Conductor Cheryl, Brakeman Frank, and passengers Peanut and Cleo