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Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a Fun Trip For All Ages

Finding a fun place to go with the “girls” in my family used to be a daunting task. My mom and my aunt are easy (ages withheld for my own protection), but finding something that my 22 year old sister, 12 year old cousin, 3 year old daughter, and grandmother in her mid seventies who suffers from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, could all agree on was difficult.  Until we discovered the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.

The CMGB is located on 248 acres of ocean front property.  Wide, safe trails wind through towering pines, revealing surprises at every turn including art installations and stone benches. Of particular delight to my daughter and cousin was the fairy house exhibit, and I use exhibit loosely as visitors are encouraged to enter the area and build their own houses from pinecones, fallen branches, stones and leaves sprinkled under the trees. We were there in May, and if you have ever been to Maine in spring you know there’s not much growing yet. But the gardens were radiant with flowering vegetation planted in such a way that except for the labels identifying each plant, it was easy to forget that it was arranged by human hands and not nature.

My daughter ran along the paths and, except for a brief shoulder top ride from my sister, she didn’t ask to be picked up once. By my estimation she walked over a mile on her little legs that day. My grandmother loved being out with her girls, and the labels on the plants helped her identify the names that were just on the tip of her tongue.

If you’re a Mainer looking for something to do, or are an out-of-stater planning a trip, the CMGB is an excellent choice for families of all ages. Directions, more information, and upcoming events can be found here: http://www.mainegardens.org.

Kate Kastelein is a stay at home mom, freelance writer, and life long Mainer. When she’s not writing or chasing her daughter, she works on a farm part-time, cooks, scours yard-sales, knits, and tries unsuccessfully to keep her free range chicken flock off the porch. In order to keep up with everything she drinks way to much coffee.

photo credit: www.MonjurulHoque.com