Moosehead Lake–And A Moose!

We’ve been trying to decide what our priorities are for seeing everything we can while we’re in Maine, given time and budget constraints.  I really wanted to go to Eastport, which is the eastern-most point in the US.  But, it would not really be practical for us to drive that far on a day trip, so we decided we’d go to Moosehead Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Maine, located almost in the middle of the state.  Besides, ever since we started seeing signs like this in New England:

Jim has wanted to see a moose standing by the side of the road.  Moosehead Lake boasts that there are more moose than people in the area, yeahrightsure.
So this morning we packed up a picnic lunch, loaded the dogs and the lunch in the car and took off, seeing some very beautiful scenery along the way:

In a couple of hours we started seeing the signs again, and Jim was ready with both our cameras in his lap.
We went right through the little town of Greenville at the south end of Moosehead Lake and drove along the eastern shore until we got to Lily Bay State Park.

We stopped at the gate, paid our $4.50 each and drove on in to the park.
OMG!  There she was, standing by the side of the road, just like Jim said she would be, a cow moose!  We saw her!  But, she saw us too, and before Jim could focus a camera to get her picture, she was already back in the trees.  But we did see her!  A real, live, honest to God MOOSE!
No, she didn’t look like this, but this is the only moose picture Jim took:

We kept going at a crawl, hoping to see another moose, but it was not to be.  But, the lake, oh my, what a beauty:

Blue, blue water,  islands covered with trees, mountains in the distance, it doesn’t get much better:

There were lots of picnic tables nestled along the shore and in the surrounding woods:

We did get to see some wildlife:

We enjoyed the beautiful day, a nice picnic lunch and a little walking along the trails and the lake shore .

Then we decided to start back towards Greenville, where we’d seen a few shops, oh, and lots of traffic!

We walked around town, which is located right on the south shore of the lake:

And enjoyed the pretty flowers.

For Janna, here are the dogs’ new haircuts, they don’t look much different, just neater!

We had a fabulous day and got home hungry, not wanting to cook, so I went and picked up a to go pizza, now we’re ready for a quiet and restful evening.  Tomorrow – well, who knows what we might get into!