A Forest, A Bog and A Casino

We have a lot on our “ta do” list here in Maine.  Yes, most definitely, Bar Harbor and Acadia NP are on that list.  We probably have at least 2 and maybe 3 days slotted for those.

But one day at a time, and today we elected to stay a little closer to home.  Besides, there were still a few clouds hanging around, and we’d like to have sunny days to visit “Bah Hahbah” in our “Kah”.  (Darrell, I think they will know that we’re From Away no matter how hard we try to speak the local language!)

We spent a little time this morning doing a bit more schedule tweaking.  We’ve looked up, down, sideways and backwards to find handy stopping points on our way out of New England.  We’ve talked to friends and looked at every resource we have.  Nada.  Oh, there are a few campgrounds, but nothing that really meets our needs.  We’ve got a plan now, but I’m not going to lay it out just quite yet, you never know what might change between now and then.

I also made a couple of calls this morning to see about scheduling a grooming day for the furkids.  I mostly groom the dogs myself, but a few times a year I like to take them to someone for a “spa day”, gives us all a little break.  I have them scheduled for next week, they sure need a trim!

After our business was taken care of, we went off in search of today’s adventure – City Forest and Orono Bog Walk, followed by a lunch at the Hollywood Casino.

The Rolland F. Perry City Forest is owned by the City of Bangor and encompasses more than 680 acres in the northeast part of the city. 

There are miles of trails and a few roads to access the forest that is open year round.

We thought this bench looked pretty inviting after walking awhile:

The clouds cleared off so I could take a picture of some of these tall Maine trees:

Then we came to the Orono Bog Boardwalk.  The City Forest link above also has a page about this very interesting bog.  I could imagine Stephen King spending time here, thinking up some of his plots and characters!

The boardwalk starts off through dense, green vegetation:

But all of a sudden, due to soil conditions, the vegetation changes drastically:

There was something out here that kicked up an allergic reaction for me, and I spent this part of the walk with burning eyes and runny nose – we hurried through this part to get back to the car.

Whew, that was quite a walk.  What a neat place, though and quite interesting to read about if you access the link.

Once I’d gotten settled down and my nose and eyes stopped running, we programmed DeeDee to take us to the Hollywood Casino downtown.  We played a few slots, ate lunch at the buffet, and then played a little more.  Today was Jim’s day to win.  Once again we came out a few bucks ahead, but nothing big.  Just enough to cover lunch.

Back home and settled in for another exciting night of Rangers Baseball.