4 Jul 2024 - Happy Fourth of July! Eastport Maine Festivities!

 Happy Fourth of July!  We spent part of the day in Eastport Maine, which claims to be the largest 4th of July celebration in Maine!    This year's theme was "Eastport 4th of July and Old Home Week Celebration 1776-2024".  Their schedule of events started on Sunday 30 June and extends through Saturday 6 July.  Liberty accompanied us as we had no idea how long we would be gone, plus "Liberty" + "Fourth of July".... it seemed so appropriate!

As we entered Eastport we contributed to the local fund raiser that supports this event.  In trade, the young lady that took my money complimented us on our beautiful truck! 

I was a bit reluctant to attend this as I hate dealing with parking and traffic issues, coupled with narrow streets, etc.  But, a little advanced planning paid off as we scored parking at the elementary school in trade for a short walk. 

The walked to the downtown area was nice.  We passed many very old, well-maintained houses.  

The streets were lined with lawn chairs as folks obviously knew the route of their parade and they reserved their spots in advance.   

After a few blocks we arrived in the downtown area.  Again, many, many very old buildings in a New England fishing village.

As we turned down the main street it was obvious we were at the right place!  We strolled down the street that had been blocked off of vehicular traffic.  

There was a large group that gathered in front of a bandstand and we arrived just in time to watch the blueberry pie eating competition, and what a blast!  It did not last long.  I believe those who participated got to take their uneaten portion home with them if they wanted.  One young lady walked away clean, with a whole pie!

We continued down the street that was lined with shops and booths of all sorts.  Again, the buildings along the main street are very old.  Some have been fixed up and some are showing their age.  

Eastport Savings Bank 1887

We drank some Narragansett aka "Nasty-gansett" when we were stationed at Loring! 

The remnants of a car show that occurred before we got there.  

We strolled all the way down the street and then headed towards the water and walked that pathway back.  There were fishing boats of all kinds,  and a Navy ship docked that was to be open for tours.  

This ship is some sort of dredging operation with huge water pumps.

Two huge centrifugal water pumps

These appear to be dredges of some sort

I looked for Popeye, Olive Oil and Bluto but never saw them

Some other neat pictures from Eastport, along the Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay:

The backs of the businesses along the main street.

A walkway between the buildings and the shore

"Nerida" Eastport Mermaid 2015

This statue was built in 2001 for a Fox TV mini-series "Murder in Small Town X"

Eastport shoreline

We decided to make the break before the parade started as we did not want to get trapped in town.  As we headed back to the truck we captured these pictures 

One of the many parade vehicles decorated nicely!  Probably has a huge bag of candy inside to be thrown to spectators, if they do that here.

Got a chuckle out of this one!

Ayuh!  I love this place and the people who call Maine home!

We called it a day at Eastport and headed up to Calais to see what was going on there.  Nada!  Was like a ghost town! Had we found a restaurant open we might have stopped but there was not much moving, so back to the campground for lunch.  I had the last of my lobster that Dianne Noskowiak sent home with us from what was left of our lobster dinner there.  Two lobster rolls!  They were $25 each at Eastport today!  They tasted great!!

That is it for today.  Tomorrow we plan to have lunch with Chick and Joanne in Machias plus Doreen is going to look for some of the blueberry wine she got up here last time.  Happy 4th everyone!