Maine Botanical Gardens

After a pretty long rough work week I told my girlfriend straight up we need an adventure day. This always entails me dragging her off to some water based location or a hike in the woods. She had shown me reels of these massive wooden Troll sculptures earlier in the week so I said to myself yep I got just the place. We had been to one other botanical garden before in New York for the nightmare before Christmas light show and while the company and theme were great, we really didn’t see much of the garden. That was not going to be our experience with this trip.

How she spent her time was looking over all the plants with “sneaky feet” she’s simply the cutest.

Within 5 minutes of being here she knew we would be coming back. The gardens were absolutely gorgeous and the staff was a total vibe. We immediately bee lined it over to the Cafe cause after 3 hours of driving up from Malden we were in our words HUNGRY! To her joy there were so many gluten free options to be had. She ended up getting a fiesta bowl with tofu and a Carrot ginger soup (that gluten free vegetarian life). She loved the food and flavor felt the soup was way hotter than she anticipated but was delicious all the same. We then made our way off into the gardens. I had one goal in mind find the five Seed Guardian Trolls quicker than the website said it would take. According to the gardens website it would take 3 hours but I am sure it was due to potential wait times to take pictures of them. We made our way up to the first troll Roskva.

Those eyes really follow you every where you go.

Walking up there wasn’t much wait which showed promise cause this Troll was right in the main garden area no hiking needed. We had one group in front of us taking pictures before I went ham. I got low to get this shot cause its not trip to the woods if my pants don’t get dirty. I took a bunch of photos and once i was done i turned around and about five families were walking up. We then left and started making our way through the woods. to find the other Trolls.

The next troll on our adventure the baby Lilja

This Troll Lilja was the first real test of my patience. There was a child trying to climb up and onto their arms when the sign clearly stated do not climb on the arms. Between waiting and waiting for this child’s parents to say hey kid that’s enough let these other people enjoy the art and a bystander just walking away saying “I don’t blame the kid i blame the parents” under their breath. We finally had the Troll to ourselves. By ourselves me and the 6 other people all taking photos. I was amazed particularly with the woodwork to get the feet’s features down pat. Once we had our shot we moved right along to the next Troll Birk.

The Storyteller himself Birk with his impressive stick beard.

Walking through the woods you see Birk’s arm towering into view of the clearing almost invitational to come and hear the stories he is about to tell. His beard of sticks was very impressively done. I was marveling over the articulation of his fingers. These sculptures are extremely intricate works for the magnitude of their size. Birks right leg (not pictured) was unfortunately falling apart as one mom told her son “hey don’t play on that leg that’s where the squirrels have made a home”. It puts it all into perspective that as impressive as these sculptures are they are made of natural materials and will as all natural things wither and wear their way back to the earth. But just as our own lives we should enjoy and experience life while we have it. So after having a deep philosophical thought about a squirrels nest we were on the move to see Gro. But one detour to get away from the climbing kid who was now following us as he was hunting the trolls as well.

I’ve never seen a greenish hue in a body of water that I still wanted to jump into before this one.

In an attempt to shirk the child my girlfriend ever wise as she is had us go to the little landing by the water they had to go take it all in. It was gorgeous and as she knows me so well the water has always made me happy. It was cool seeing the boat under the harbor and once I was nice and refreshed we moved on with our troll hunt to find Gro.

The irony is not lost on me that after having philosophical thoughts and meditating over water we happen open this Troll.

We arrived at Gro to see cones and after our first thought being oh man Scotland made it to the Trolls we wondered if it was due to damage from climbing. It was actually due to pesticide treatment. Which is yet again another reminder that these are natural materials that wear and weather in the elements.. We had only one Troll left to find and despite the website saying it would take 3 hours we were making impeccable time.

As much as she says she’s a hermit this woman is as outdoorsy as it gets. She made sure I heard every single croak the frogs made and me knowing full well if we were anywhere else she was going to catch one. We went through the philodendron part of the park with all her favorite plants and in the dead middle of it a frog pond. We did end up finding the frog in there. Also her ever playful silly gooseness coming right out when seeing the massive leaves and calling them “Mouse Tobogans”,

the hardest and best worker in the world save the bees especially the bumbles.

After having our fill of plants and nature in this little section of the garden. We made our way off to hunt down the final Troll. It was on the way I found a very familar bush with very familiar flowers. I immediately recognize it as the same plant that grew in my Grammy’s front yard and it was a wonderful site to see I took a quick photo of the hard at work bumble bee in the plant and moved right along to find Soren,

I swear he looks like he was just minding his buisness and you caught him off guard.

We found Soren in a pose i can only describe as my girlfriend whenever I walk into a room and she doesn’t expect it. The startle is strong with this one and my girlfriend is outrageously jealous of their flexibility. With this troll found we had done it we had finally found all the trolls. All that was left to do was walk around and enjoy the rest of the garden. We went to the bee pollinator area the butterfly area to sit and rest. We went through a few tunnels made of branches that had the adults laughing that two grown adults were enjoying the things very clearly made for kids but that’s one of the things I love dearly about my girlfriend her never ending sense of whimsy.

Get you a girl that looks at you like she looks at intricate plant structures.

With that we left and headed off into Boothbay proper. I had 2 goals in mind for this and she had one. I wanted a red hot dog I have loved them since my first one golfing with my dad in Maine many many years ago. I also wanted a nice shot of the water. Boy howdy did I find one. Boothbay was a very quaint walking town reminiscent of Rockport, MA. Incredibly walkable but Boothbay had more parking which is not a high bar as there still isn’t a whole lot of parking. We walked all the way to Dunton’s Doghouse and Drew’s seafood and it was everything I remember with the added touch that this shack was clearly well loved local spot with tons of regulars. It seemed every other person walking up knew the owners and the owners very much knew them and whether they would be to go or for here. When I bit into this dog it was heavenly. I swear nothing compares to a seaside burger joint and I will always find at least one where ever I go.

When front yard lemonade stand goes nuclear but hotdogs and seafood.

I need to get on a sailboat again sometime i haven’t been since i went to Italy and it would be nice to be on one again.

We rounded the end of our trip off with a classic go to a book store which ended up distracting my girlfriend far more than the usual bookstore cause it was like wicked good books and roost in Salem MA had a combined store the ridiculous ness that was in this store. After we made it out we went and got ice cream (I can never pass up a Maine blueberry ice cream) hit up a couple little gift shops and then Hannaford’s for the one thing I wasn’t about to drive the 2 hours and 30 minutes home without…more red hot dogs to grill at home.