Government Shutdown Substitute Vacation

Our long-planned flying/boating trip to Utah/Arizona was scheduled to start October 2nd.  Exactly 1 day after all the National Parks were going to visit were closed.....

So, we decided to head to Maine instead!  Nice to have options!

We had a few things we needed to do down at the boat, so we actually started our trip from New Bern instead of from home.  Dick and Lindy took off from Eagles Landing about the same time as we took off....destination for lunch is Albany.

I think this was somewhere in Pennsylvania - pretty leaves already turning.

Approaching Albany - pretty looking town!

The folks at the Albany airport  were very nice....loaned us their "courtesy car" to take to get lunch....it certainly puts courtesy cars to shame!!!  A new Mercedes! 

After an uneventful flight to Bangor, we headed out for our first lobster dinner.  

Very yummy!!

This trip was planned in about 2 hours.....so it generally was just intended to tour Maine/New Hampshire....we had a road map and plans to see STATE parks (which are all still open!!)

The first morning, we headed south from Bangor and visited the Fort Knox State park. 

Lovely grounds -  no real combat was seen here, but it's a neat park.

Some old cannons are still there.  The structure is well preserved from the mid 1800's.

From Fort Knox, we toured on further south along the Penobscot River.

Wandered thru Moose Point State Park - lovely shoreline trails.

I just thought these berries were lovely against the pine thicket backdrop.

And this is just funny in the parking lot where we stopped for lunch....based on the large tree-stump beneath this telephone pole, there obviously used to be a  rotten tree.  I just thought it was cute that they left the sign on the pole....more tomorrow!