The Trolley Museum is housed in a restored 19th century mill building. Their collection includes 26 trolley cars in different stages of restoration and hundreds of other items related to the street car era. They have a 5 mile track that runs from the museum to their newly built repair shop. Along the way the trolley travels through a one mile tunnel, over a bridge and through a forest.
We were lucky enough to ride Number 80 to the repair shop where it was left for repairs, and ride Number 76 back.
Number 80 is a light weight trolley and can run 80 mph. It has doors in the front and rear, seats are smaller, and the interior is not as elaborate as Number 76. The motorman is seated in view of the riders. In addition to the motorman, this trolley required a conductor. 
Inside the tunnel riding on the number 80.
Number 76 is a heavier trolley with cherry and mahogany wood trim throughout the interior with brass accents. The seats are cane woven and the operator is hidden behind a wooden divider. The doors are in the middle of the car. With the middle door placement, the need for a conductor was eliminated.
Inside the number 76. Note the cane seats.
On Number 76 there is a seat that folds down between the center doors so the motorman can sit and collect tickets. 
There are several cars and numerous displays inside the museum. 
Inside the number 120.
The farm team for the NY Yankees has a stadium next to the repair shop. When the team has a home game on Sunday, fans can park at the museum and ride the trolley to and from the game. Not only is this a treat for everyone, it is a true step back in time.The Steamtown Historical site is owned and run by the National Park Service, and is housed in an old roundhouse. Several additions have been added to the roundhouse and numerous ramps and walkways have been built to allow visitors to get through the steam engine and car displays.
Most of the steam engines are works in progress.
This is a museum within a working train yard. Visitors are able to take train rides, see video presentations, and in general, walk through and climb on more types of rail equipment than one can imagine. Picture a park ranger in a “Smokey the Bear” hat giving a talk regarding the inner workings of a round house operation!
Equipment is moved up and down the tracks several times a day, and visitors are allowed to roam the yards while moves are being made. This is highly unlikely to occur in any other rail yard.
Both of these museums are well worth the visit.
Built in 1914 by Simon Stein and Harry Goldstein, owners of the Artistic Carousel Company, the ride has 48 horses, 2 chariots and a Wurlitzer 153 band organ.
The outer row of horses has more detail than the inner rows. 
Some have their tongues sticking out. 
This chariot has a dragon on the side. 
Two veterans were there for rides, and a bit of nostalgia. 
We also visited the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol, managers of the Bushnell Park Carousel. We wish we could share some photos; sadly, they do not allow photos to be taken in their museum. Their collection of carousel figures is very extensive and includes about 200 examples of horses and menageries. Menageries are figures which are not horses (pigs, cows, rabbits, etc.). Wood was always the preferred material until the last 20 years. Now most are made from fiberglass. Other materials used have included aluminum, steel and plastic. 
Our first stop of the day was the Penobscot Narrows Observatory located in Prospect, ME. The Observatory is in the top of one of the bridge supports. It is the only bridge observatory in the western hemisphere and one of four in the world. The others are in China, Slovakia and Thailand. It is also the tallest in the world. It is 420 feet tall with an elevator will take you to the 400 foot mark in 50 seconds. This floor is referred to as “the second floor”. When the door opens you are looking through floor to ceiling glass four feet from the door. If you are afraid of heights, it takes a few seconds before you can step out the door. After you exit the elevator, you climb an additional two floors to get to the 420 feet level. In this room, you have a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. The elevator is equipped with a seismic alarm. If an earthquake occurs, the elevator will immediately stop, if ascending, and return to the bottom floor where it locks itself out and shuts down. The down side of that is if you are on the top floor when it happens, you get to walk down the steps, all 420 feet. Note the windows at the top of the tower. Cheryl decided the safest place to be in the tower room was in the center away from the windows!! 
These are the two bridges across the river. The old bridge, on the left, opened in 1931. During a bridge inspection by DOT in 2003, they discovered severe corrosion in the support cables. The weight limit was immediately reduced from 100,000 pounds to 24,000 pounds and plans were started on a new bridge. Just 42 months later, in June, 2007, the new bridge opened. 
You are looking down on the bridge. There is only one lane in each direction.
Our next stop, which is right beside the bridge, was Fort Knox. This photo was taken from the observatory.
The fort was constructed between 1844 and 1864. It was never occupied, although 500 troops from Connecticut were stationed there during the Spanish-American War. They lived outside the fort in large tents.
It takes 2-3 hours to go through all the tunnels, rooms and passageways of the fort. Most of the cannons are gone and the furnishings are minimal but you can feel the fort talking to you. Each room has a story to tell.
This is the powder magazine. It has just received a new floor and walls.
Each step of the spiral staircases (two of them) is cut from one piece of granite. Even the piece that makes up the support column is part of the step.
The drill field in the center of the fort has rooms under it that were designed for food storage. Note the air vents on the right side of the field.
Tomorrow we will be going to Hartford, CT to ride the carousel in Bushnell Park, and then to the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol, CT. 
Sand Beach is one of a very few places on the island suitable for getting into the water. You can see the sand on the right side of the photo. The rest of the area is covered by giant slabs of pink granite.
Along the coast, the rock has collapsed in several places and formed small caves. 
Thunder Hole was formed in the same manner as the caves. During high tide and rough seas, the water flows into the “hole” and a thunderous boom results from the water striking the back of the hole. Spray from the hole can, and does, blow skyward. 
Otter Cliff, 110 feet high, is one of the highest Atlantic coastal headlands north of Rio de Janeiro. 
Some parts of the coast look like a stone mason stacked the granite. 
During high tide, Otter Cove backs up through three culverts and forms this pond. We came by during low tide two days ago and the pond was empty. 
During high tide, the culverts are used to travel between the cove and the pond. 
Tomorrow we will be leaving Ellsworth with a stop by Penobscot Narrows Observatory on our way to Haverhill, MA.
On our way to the park we stopped in Winter Harbor and visited Grindstone Point which lies due east of Bar Harbor. Frenchman Bay separates Goldstone Point from Bar Harbor. The bay is 7 miles wide at its widest point and 15 miles long.
Cheryl and I have talked about building an inukshuk for some time. Today we took the time to build one on Grindstone Point. We saw several hundred when we drove through Canada and wanted to leave a message for the next person visiting the point, “Safe travels”.
This part of Acadia is very different from the main island. Few people travel the 35 miles from Bar Harbor to see this part of the park, but it contains a magnitude of beauty. The coast is lined with large slabs of granite which have been tossed around by the storms and tides. 
The tides run about 10 feet on the Schoodic peninsula. If you look at the rocks, you can see a change of color along the high tide mark. At about the 5 foot mark you will see where barnacles start to form. The photo is of the snails that live below the barnacle line.
Schoodic Point is the most visited spot on the peninsula. The rocks are huge and the waves continually slam against them. There are several wide veins of a black rock that can be seen running through the granite. These were created when the molten rock was cooling and cracks occurred in the granite. New magna with a different mix of chemicals filled the cracks. As the upper layers of bed rock eroded, the pink granite with the dark stripes was exposed. The stripes are called diabase.
A business in Wonsqueak Harbor waits for the tide to return. They had their boat tied about 150 yards downstream from the dock.
Tomorrow we are going back to Acadia to see Otter Cliff.