Along the Maine coast...

When we left Bar Harbor, we caught Highway 1 and followed it south.  Exploring the sights and towns along the way...

Where Route 1 crosses the Penobscot River is a fairly new bridge called the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory.  This bridge caught my eye simply because it's pretty :)...

We didn't stop the day we passed through, I didn't know until way later that there is more there than meets the eye!  The Observatory is an observation tower withing the bridge itself, the only one of its kind in the US (and one of only 4 in the world).  Access to this tower is through the nearby Fort Knox.  THE Fort Knox!  How I wish we would have known this as we were passing through, we would have for sure stopped!  Oh well, one for next time ;).

those windows at the top are the Observatory

The first place we did stop was at the City Park in a little town called Belfast.  This park would be the perfect place to spend a summer day...they have an outdoor pool (no admission fee, wow!), playground, various ball fields, even an organic food vendor on site.  All of this and it sits right along the Penobscot Bay...which is what led us to stop in the very cold off season :).

There are steps that lead down to a small rocky beach.  It was really cold, but fun to explore...

saltwater snails!

When the chill got to be too much, we hopped back in the car to continue our drive down Hwy 1.  Our next stop was a little harbor in Owls Head...

 

After looking around a bit, it was time to find some lunch.  We backtracked about 15 minutes to the town of Rockland.  We spotted a tiny restaurant tucked away in a garden area that had tables set up outside amongst the trees.  It was cute and had good reviews online, so we stopped.  The food was decent, I think we would have enjoyed it more had we not been shivering in our (they were cute, though) seats ;).

When we left Rockland, we drove south to Portland.  Our destination was the Eastern Promenade, a park/beach along the picturesque Casco Bay.

We walked along the beach, admiring the boats...

...lighthouse...

...old fort in the distance...

...AND we found some sea glass :)!

see the piece of sea glass on the right side of the big rock...

To be so close to the largest city in Maine, this great park was really empty.  So glad we stumbled upon it :)! 

Next stop, Kennebunkport...