Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust

My goal this summer is to explore as many places within an hour drive as possible. The Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust in Orland was the first on our list.

You could potentially hike several miles in the refuge, including up a mountain, but we are out of shape. We decided just to explore the nature trails, picnic on Alamoosook Lake and take some pictures of Craig's Pond. I am so pumped for all of the summer adventures to come!

Mount Hope Cemetery Tour

Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine, is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States. It was designed by architect Charles G. Bryant in 1834 and built by the Bangor Horticultural Society. The cemetery includes the gravesites of Vice President Hamlin, two U.S. Senators, eleven U.S. Congressmen, two U.S. Ambassadors, five Governors of Maine, eight Civil War Generals, and numerous other members of the nineteenth and twentieth-century Bangor elite. The movie Pet Sematary was filmed here. Stephen King lives about ten minutes away.

Mount Hope Cemetery is seriously huge. It is also a hodgepodge of a lot of different kinds of gravestones. There are so many mysterious graves whose secrets have yet to be unearthed. This is a useful map if you would like to do some exploring on your own.

One of two of the Civil War Memorials

The strange cradle grave of a little girl named "Kate". A nearby grave simply reads "Kate's Mom"

The graves of orphan children

A husband and wife share an off bead wreath

The second Civil War Memorial. Legend goes that a dauggerrotype and letter from Abraham Lincoln are buried underneath.

The grave of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin.

A stone path lies on either side of the Hamlin family lot.

Prentiss family lot. Prentiss Woods near Bangor High School is named after them.

A seriously creepy angel.

Veazie family graves.

Dorothea Dix Park

Woah. It has been almost two months since I last posted. March and April were chaotic to say the least. At the end of March I flew out to California due to a family emergency. Toward the beginning of April there was massive flooding in our apartment. We were not able to live in our apartment thanks to all of the damage and mold. We finally moved back in about a week ago and have spent the past week trying to catch up on all the disasters that have happened the last two months.

On the bright side, all of this inspired to BUY A HOUSE! We close on June 12th, maybe even a little earlier! Best birthday present ever (after Freckles of course)!

The weather this past week has been gorgeous. Everything is starting to bloom and the trees are a riot of lime green. This is one of my favorite times of year. The warm weather and our new neighborhood inspired us to check out parks near our new home. We decided to check out the Dorothea Dix Park in Hampden.

Image courtesy of maineanencycloepedia.com

I had never visited this park before, but instantly recognized it. I have driven it by several times before and had nicknamed it the Soviet park thanks to that rather 1960's bridge...and the fact that I am really weird.

The remaining pictures are all of the glimpses of spring we caught, including Fiddleheads, a Maine spring delicacy!