Kennebec Valley from the Beach to the Mountains

There's no question that when you mention Maine, most people think of lobster, lighthouses and the rockbound coast, but some people forget about our beaches.  Most of the beaches are in York County, the southernmost county in the state, but there are some great beaches in other parts of the state as well.

Popham Beach State Park

One such place is Popham Beach.  Located in Phippsburg, about 15 miles south of Bath on Route 209, Popham Beach State Park is a white sand beach with an interesting little island you can walk to at low tide.

Fox Island off of Popham Beach is accessible during low tide.

Popham is an expansive beach that expands even more at low tide.  It's a great place for families because there is a large tidal pool near the entrance to the beach, just behind the one of the bath houses.  The sun warms up this water, so toddlers can wade and play without experiencing the colder ocean temperatures.  There are two bath houses at the park with showers, flush toilets and changing rooms.  There's also a little "river" running through the middle of he beach at low tide that is quite shallow and is a great place for little kids to sit and splash around.

Wave Jumping!

 We spent about 3 hours at the beach, jumping waves, building a sandcastle and enjoying a picnic lunch.  We were fortunate that the seagulls didn't abscond with our lunch.  Others weren't so lucky as their bags of chips where snatched from the beach blankets by hungry gulls.  You'd be surprised how bold a hungry seagull will get, and how much they can carry away, given the opportunity.

After a day of surf and sand, we headed home to rest up for our trip to the headwaters of the Kennebec River in The Forks, Maine the next day.  Today's activity was a tubing trip down the upper part of the Kennebec River that was booked through Bullfrog Adventures.  Steve and Tammy Toothaker got us all suited up with PFDs (personal floatation devices), tubes for our bodies and a tube for our cooler that held our lunch, drinks and snacks for our day on the river.

The 2-1/2 hour, 8-mile trip cost us $22 per adult, $17 for our son, and $10 for the cooler tube.  The trip starts at The Forks, which gets its name because the town is located at the convergence of the Kennebec and Dead Rivers.  The river water levels are controlled by a hydro dam several miles up stream.  Typically the water is released at about 4,500 cfm (cubic feet per minute), but on this day we were treated to a big release of 7,400 cfm due to the hot weather and higher demand for electricity, so our tubes move briskly along the river. 

Stopping for lunch along the Kennebec River

The trip is a good mix of small rapids and steadily moving water.  We stopped halfway down the river for lunch as the water continued to rise along its banks. Steve and Tammy told us that the river has many fossil rocks, so along the way, we made a stop at "Fossil Island".  This is the unofficial name dubbed by Steve because pretty much every time he stops here, he finds a fossil rock.  We made a stop on the island, but to my son's disappointment, the water was so high we didn't have much luck.

Fortunately for us, as Steve and Tammy were waiting for us at the take out spot, they found a fossil rock that they generously gave to Ashton.  The rock had impressions of shells from thousands of years ago, which he thought was pretty cool.

After loading up the van with our tubes, we headed back to Steve & Tammy's house to change and prepare for the ride home.  They also run a campground on their property, so they have modern showers and bathrooms for their campers, and tubers.

We changed out of our wet swimsuits and made a promise to ourselves to come back next year and bring some friends to enjoy this great family outing. 

York's Wild Kingdom - Oh, the Memories!

Entrance to York's Wild Kingdom from downtown York Beach

It's probably been about 40 years since I've been to York's Wild Kingdom and aside from a nice zoo, the rest of the park has not changed much in four decades.  Although many of the games in the arcade have been updated, with the exception of the ever present Skee Ball, most of the rides have been there for the duration.

Admission was around $50-60 for two adults and one child, but I was disappointed that this did not include some of the activities like the go-karts and mini golf.  Ashton was most interested in the fun houses.  There were three at the park and probably about 2/3rds of our time was spent going through them again and again, with the exception of one of them which was a haunted house.  Apparently that was a bit too spooky for more than one journey.

Other rides we enjoyed were the roller coaster, the big slide and the scrambler.  And for those of you who are fans of 80s music like yours truly, there was a place that Billy Joel would have appreciated.  It was the house of glass.

Ashton, please do not throw stones in this house.

Fun House at York's Wild Kingdom

As I went through the haunted house, I remember all those years ago when it was something else.  It was a fun house that had bars near the entrance.  Some of the bars were real and some were rubber.  The idea was to find the rubber bars, pull them apart and continue on your merry way.  But when I was little, I was small enough to fit through the real bars.  Unfortunately my brother wasn't and he got his head through but could not get it out.  Yes, he got his head stuck in the bars and they had to either cut the bars or remove one of them to get him unstuck.  Yes, this is one of those family stories for which we will all give my brother a good ribbing for the rest of his life.

Haunted house at York's Wild Kingdom

The bars are no longer in the fun house, maybe it was because of this incident, but walking through the place brought back memories that made the place feel somewhat familiar.  My family used to vacation in York or Wells pretty much annually in the late 60s and early 70s.  We mostly stayed at the Nubble Cove Cottages overlooking the iconic Cape Neddick "Nubble" Lighthouse.  The cottages are now condos and I'm not even sure if they can be rented by the week anymore, but they will always provide a lifetime of memories for me.

I have vivid memories of running around the rocks in front of the cottages, attempting to sneak up on seagulls, with very little success.  Occasionally I'd slip and scape a knee or elbow, which would necessitate a trip back to "nurse mom" for Bactine and a Band-Aid.

On foggy mornings, the powerful light would cut through the gray haze while the fog horn's ominous signal would drift through the fog at regular intervals.  There was something rather soothing and comforting about this sound, as if it was proof that perhaps there is civilization beyond the misty wall even if it cannot be seen.

Most days were spent at Long Sands Beach in York.  For five bucks, I (or actually my parents) could rent an inflatable "raft" with which to ride the waves in the 60-something degree water until my teeth were involuntarily chattering together.  Then it was back through the labyrinth of colorful beach umbrellas to the mini oasis among the sea of people where our beach blanket lay in waiting.  A few minutes in the warm sunshine and we were ready for another go at the waves.

When not combing the beach or exploring the tidal pools, we would get to spend a little time feeding quarters into pinball, skee ball and other electronic games at the arcade.  Skee ball was a favorite because if you got a good score, the machine would spit out tickets that could be redeemed for toys and souvenirs.  Of course, had you bought any of these things you won in the store, you probably would have paid significantly less, but what fun would that have been?

The ever popular Skee Ball

Arcade overlooking Short Sands Beach in York Village

Of course a trip to York Beach was not complete without two very important stops.  Brown's Ice Cream, just up the road from Nubble Light, and the Goldenrod in downtown York Beach.  Brown's is still serving up ice cream that receives regular raves on review sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor.

A stone's throw from Short Sands Beach is a white clapboard building with stainless steel mechanical arms perpetually spinning gooey taffy into the famous Goldenrod Kisses.  It was always a treat to watch fresh salt water taffy being made at The Goldenrod. They've been making taffy here since 1896, so they must be doing something right.  And when you taste it, I think you'll agree.

Home of Goldenrod Kisses, York's famous salt water taffy

 Across the street another candy store serves up a large variety of sweet treats.  What was once called "Penny Candy" is now sold by the pound, but it is reminiscent of the old candy stores with jars of candy in brightly colored wrappers tempting all who dares enter.  You can also get fudge, rock candy and ice cream.

My son pondering the sweet choices

At the end of the day, we ordered a pizza "to go" from the York House of Pizza and sat on the beach at Long Sands.  Most of the folks had packed up their beach umbrellas, beach blankets, shovels and pails and had headed back to their cottage or motel for the night, probably to do it all over again the next day.

After a bit of wave jumping in the surf and a quiet stroll along the beach, we headed home with a plan to return to the ocean again soon.