In our last post, we introduced Curtis Island. Here it is seen across the Belfast, Maine harbor. Belfast is where we ate the delicious lobster rolls I featured earlier.
We are wrapping up our leaf-peeping tour of New England tour today. I’ll close out the series with photos of the Island and three spectacular trees at Camden Hills State Park. And then add a few more as we travel back to Virginia.
This photo of Curtis Island includes its lighthouse on the far right hand corner.Close up. I’m not sure what the red plant is. Whatever, its brilliant red matches the roofs. The lighthouse is one of 65 found along the Maine coast. There are so many Maine has become known as the Lighthouse State. In comparison there are approximately 80 along the whole Pacific coast including the states of Washington, Oregon and California.1851 painting of Curtis Island by marine painter Fitz Henry Lane.I mentioned in my last blog that Curtis Island was named after the publisher Cyrus Curtis. Did I mention he was wealthy? This is a photo of his boat, er, yacht. Curtis’s summer home was in Camden just south of Belfast where he was Commodore of the Yacht Club from 1909 to 1933. Of course when you build the club, donate it to the town, and dock your 230 foot yacht out front, you should be Commodore.
Curtis was the creator of the Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post. Both have interesting stories. Legend has it that when Curtis first published the Ladies Home Journal he gave a copy to his wife, Louisa Knapp, for review. She more or less told him it was crap. His response was “Do you think you can do any better?” Hers, “Yes,” His, “Fine, you do it.” During its day, the Journal became the most widely circulated women’s magazine in the U.S.
The Saturday Evening Post had its beginnings some 80 years before Curtis purchased it in 1897. It traces its beginning back to 1821 when it was printed out of the same shop and using the same print type that Benjamin Franklin had used for the Pennsylvania Gazette. It achieved its highest circulation with 90,000 nationwide subscribers in the 1860s. Curtis pushed this up to the highest circulation of any magazine in the world by the 1920s. His wealth was calculated at $43 billion in today’s dollars. No wonder he could afford the yacht. He actually had three built, all with the name Lyndonia. Two of them would actually do military service. One in WW I and the other in WW II.
We pulled off at Camden Hills State Park to take advantage of its restrooms and were treated to our last view of fall color on the Maine Coast— and what a view it was!The trees were just reaching their peak.Reds, oranges, and yellows were all present.Providing opportunities for close ups of the orange, yellow and…Red maple leaves.Then it was time to begin our zip across New England and New York back to Virginia. We continued to be treated to fall colors.And a hot pink garage that was attached to a hot pink house.Stone fences reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Walls.Small lakes provided opportunities for reflection shots.While cloudy skies served to promote silhouettes.Driving down to see our friend Betsy in New York gave us views of the Pocono Mountain Range.I’ll conclude today’s post and this series on New England leaf peeping with a photo of Peggy and me taken by Betsy at her home in Red Hook, New York. We hope you have enjoyed the tour. Thanks for coming along!Turkey Dressing for Thanksgiving Dinner.
Happy Thanksgiving from Peggy and me! (This is one of 50 cards I have created for family and friends over the years.)
Have a wonderful holiday! I have loved traveling with you two throughout the year. The picture of you two is beautiful! Blessings from Olyland and looking forward to next year’s travels!
Hi Wendy. First thanks. We’ve enjoyed having you along this year! Your comments are always appreciated. We already have trips planned to Scotland, Ireland and Bali this coming year. Pretty sure there will be more as long as my 82 year old body keeps cooperating!
Hope you, Pedro and kids had a great Thanksgiving as well, Crystal. Clay fixed us bratwurst with all the trimmings. That boy sure loves his German food. It was fun having you along in New England as you relived your past experience up there! Could’n have asked for a better send off back home than those trees in Camden Hills. That’s for sure!
We had leftovers on Thanksgiving Day, then celebrated properly with friends and family on Friday.
Great photos as always, but sorry, Curt. You triggered a memory. Alie’s dad, a brilliant man who had studied Latin, Ancient Greek and German at the University of Pennsylvania [Class of ’30] worked nights as a color sheet proofreader for Curtis Publishing. Asked why he chose that profession, he said “because it left my mind free to think about higher things.” Unlike almost the entire rest of the world, he really could multi-task. And he brought his family free copies of the Saturday Evening Post.
Love your addition, Ray. Fun that his mind could wonder down higher paths as he did his proofreading. Wouldn’t work for me. I can multi task as long as the project is simple, i.e. editing photos while watching a movie. Anything more complicated, like writing, requires my complete focus.
For the vast majority of the world, multi-tasking means simply switching between tasks and not doing any of them as well as possible. When Alie worked for a Republican governor who was chair of a committee, then Governor Bill Clinton was the vice chair. She did some work with him and told me he was one of those rare people who could actually multi-task.
It’s beyond me, that’s for sure, Ray. I’m tempted to say that apparently Clinton’s multi-tasking included a wide range of activities. Whoops, I said it.
I had no idea there were so many lighthouses in Maine by comparison. What a great end to a great fall colors trip. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Peggy!
That garage is precisely the color pink I just can’t abide! As for Curtis publishing, I did a bit more reading and discovered it also produced two magazines I loved as a kid: Jack & Jill, and Childlife. You certainly have had a pleasant and colorful fall; I hope your Thanksgiving’s as enjoyable!
Happy Thanksgiving, Curt. What a great tour of lighthouses and you hit the trees just perfectly. What a great trip. Thanks for the tour. Love the photo of you and Peggy!!!!
Can’t believe it’s December already and the fun has just begun!!!
Glad to have you along, Cindy. As always. In terms of the trees, we were worried at first that we had missed the peak of the fall colors, but we lucked out!
Wandering through Time and Place 
It’s a gorgeous colour you are wearing on you!
Thanks. 😊
I have enjoyed this tout Curt. Another great gallery of course.
Thanks. Getting back to New England in the fall had been on our agenda for several years.
Have a wonderful holiday! I have loved traveling with you two throughout the year. The picture of you two is beautiful! Blessings from Olyland and looking forward to next year’s travels!
Love,
Wendy
Hi Wendy. First thanks. We’ve enjoyed having you along this year! Your comments are always appreciated. We already have trips planned to Scotland, Ireland and Bali this coming year. Pretty sure there will be more as long as my 82 year old body keeps cooperating!
Happy Thanksgiving, you two. So happy to have joined you in New England this year. ❤ The fire in Camden Hills State Park was simply jaw-dropping.
Hope you, Pedro and kids had a great Thanksgiving as well, Crystal. Clay fixed us bratwurst with all the trimmings. That boy sure loves his German food. It was fun having you along in New England as you relived your past experience up there! Could’n have asked for a better send off back home than those trees in Camden Hills. That’s for sure!
Thanks for the info about Curtis. Have loved all the autumn colours. I wonder if that pink garage glows in the dark. Happy Thanksgiving to you both.
It might, Peggy. Day-glow paint! We had a good turkey day eating bratwurst. Hope yours went well.
We had leftovers on Thanksgiving Day, then celebrated properly with friends and family on Friday.
Great photos as always, but sorry, Curt. You triggered a memory. Alie’s dad, a brilliant man who had studied Latin, Ancient Greek and German at the University of Pennsylvania [Class of ’30] worked nights as a color sheet proofreader for Curtis Publishing. Asked why he chose that profession, he said “because it left my mind free to think about higher things.” Unlike almost the entire rest of the world, he really could multi-task. And he brought his family free copies of the Saturday Evening Post.
Love your addition, Ray. Fun that his mind could wonder down higher paths as he did his proofreading. Wouldn’t work for me. I can multi task as long as the project is simple, i.e. editing photos while watching a movie. Anything more complicated, like writing, requires my complete focus.
For the vast majority of the world, multi-tasking means simply switching between tasks and not doing any of them as well as possible. When Alie worked for a Republican governor who was chair of a committee, then Governor Bill Clinton was the vice chair. She did some work with him and told me he was one of those rare people who could actually multi-task.
It’s beyond me, that’s for sure, Ray. I’m tempted to say that apparently Clinton’s multi-tasking included a wide range of activities. Whoops, I said it.
I had no idea there were so many lighthouses in Maine by comparison. What a great end to a great fall colors trip. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Peggy!
It was a great ending, Diana. We had a great Thanksgiving. Thank you. And hope that you and your family did as well.
That garage is precisely the color pink I just can’t abide! As for Curtis publishing, I did a bit more reading and discovered it also produced two magazines I loved as a kid: Jack & Jill, and Childlife. You certainly have had a pleasant and colorful fall; I hope your Thanksgiving’s as enjoyable!
Great turkey day as well Linda, although it was German food, which our son-in-law loves. Bratwurst and all of the trimmings. Grin.
big smile to the pink house and garage!
Have to hand it to whoever built it. I’d love to know the story.
Happy Thanksgiving, Curt. What a great tour of lighthouses and you hit the trees just perfectly. What a great trip. Thanks for the tour. Love the photo of you and Peggy!!!!
Can’t believe it’s December already and the fun has just begun!!!
Hugs,
xo
Glad to have you along, Cindy. As always. In terms of the trees, we were worried at first that we had missed the peak of the fall colors, but we lucked out!
Thanks a bunch and sooo glad you got to see them!!!
❤️😎❤️😎 🍁🍁🍂🍁