Traveling PT Adventures: State Parks and Relaxing for Labor Day Weekend

This weekend I spent Saturday and Monday visiting different state parks around the area and Sunday was spent reading, meeting new interesting people and just general relaxation at Sue's lake house.
On Saturday, I went to Fort Knox State Park where they have an old fort, obviously, and a new bridge that was built with an observation tower at the top. This tower is 437 feet high. From the top you could see the little town of Bucksport across the water and a number of mountains. The sound of the wind at the top was pretty cool. There were huge gusts every once in a while that would come howling through the vents (probably the after effects of Earl).

Fort Knox was an interesting place to explore because they really had not done a lot of renovating or making it tourist frinendly. I am pretty sure the state came in, called this a state park, put up a couple information stands and left. This fort was built into the side of a hill so parts of it were under ground. The walls of the fort were covered in mildew and in some parts there were no lights. Even though I saw it in the middle of the day it was pitch black in certain areas and just really eerie in others. I have to admit I was scared. There were not a whole lot of other people there and I was alone for most of my exploring, but I could always hear noises and other footsteps... probably just my imagination playing tricks on me, but still. Creepy.

After Fort Knox State Park I went for a ride (which turned out to be a little longer then expected) to Holbrook Island State Park. It was really pretty with nice easy walking trails and a cute little harbor.

By the way, I am on this state parks kick because they have a cool system where you can get a stamp in your "Maine Parks Passport" book every time you visit a different park and it is like a little treasure hunt to find the stamp and you have to unlock the lock box with a code. It's fun. So far I have 4 stamps. :)

On Sunday I stayed with Sue and we took a ride around her lake and saw a beaver dam. First one I have ever seen...

and we went to visit an Amish community where they have a little store and hand made furniture that is really beautiful. (I would have taken more pics of the people and their spiffy outfits, but I thought it might be rude.) In the store they had skylights in the ceiling instead of regular lights, and their cash register was a serious antique. It used a hand crank to operate.

Finally, on Monday I visited yet another park where I think I may try to go camping one evening. It is not to far away from my house and it was very pretty. This one was called Peaks-Kenny State Park.