The Bucket List - 2

A month ago, I wrote about the pleasure of visiting places that had been off-limits during the nearly three-month pandemic shutdown of March through May.  I wrote of feasting on fried clams at Farnham’s, spooning my first mouthful of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream at White Farms and, primarily, of seeing several gardens that could not accept visitors because of Covid-19.

A pergola in full June glory.  Double-click for
a full-screen slideshow of the garden.

The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden was at the top of our post-pandemic bucket list of places to visit.  It’s a spectacular site in an enchanted spot.  It has the best of both worlds: a beautifully conceived and executed garden, with a location that makes it a worth-a-journey destination in its own right: that proverbial rock-bound coast of Maine just up the road from Boothbay Harbor.

CMBG finally opened, however tentatively, at the beginning of June.  Our original plan was to go as close to opening day as possible; we even had tickets in hand.  But life intervened and that first journey had to be scrubbed.  We purchased a new set of tickets for late June, using their website (no walk-ins allowed) to place our order.  CMBG’s protocol allows for just 50 timed admissions every half hour from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (the garden closes at 5 p.m.).  For those keeping tally, that’s only 650 guests per day.  In 2018, the garden hosted 200,000 guests; with a roughly 100-day season, that’s 2,000 visitors per day.  The garden is operating at about one-third of its capacity.

To get there, we had to break the law

It was perfectly legal to purchase those tickets.  Using them was a different story.  There was just one minor problem: by going to Maine, we were breaking the law. 

CMBG’s website contains this paragraph:  “Please note that all State of Maine CDC guidelines need to be met by Gardens visitors, including the State’s 14-day quarantine requirement for those coming into Maine. Please also note that Maine has lifted the quarantine requirement for residents of New Hampshire and Vermont. Beginning July 1, residents of other states who have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours may also visit without a quarantine period.”

In my defense let me say this: at this writing, Massachusetts is a national model for its ‘taming’ of the coronavirus curve.  After a horrific March (a major biotech company held a global conference in Boston in February that helped seed hundreds, if not thousands, of cases), Massachusetts locked itself down and slowly opened up with a rational plan that appears to have worked.  You want a statistic?  For the first seven days of July, Massachusetts has a total of 1,092 confirmed cases.  Today (July 7), the number was 140.  However, Maine recognizes only its two northern New England neighbors as kindred spirits.  Everyone else is asked to sequester themselves indoors for two weeks before going out in public.  The idea of renting a hotel room for two weeks in order to enjoy a day’s visit seems, well, a bit much.

What greets you once inside

Moreover, the Lodging Gods were telling us to stay home.  It’s 190 miles and a three-and-a-half-hour trip from Medfield to Boothbay Harbor. Technically, you can drive there and back in a day, and still have three or more hours to enjoy the site (especially with 15 hours of sunlight).  However, we’ve reached the age when driving up one day, staying overnight, and starting fresh the next is an exceptionally appealing option.

Except hotels weren’t taking guests.  Our ‘usual place’, a hotel roughly 15 miles from the garden, was apparently open only for front-line workers; and a letter of medical need was required to check in.  We finally found a hotel in Freeport, 30 miles from the garden.  They cautioned us they would not be serving meals and, by the way, they were not aware of any nearby restaurants offering takeout.

It didn’t matter.  A week before our planned departure, the hotel manager called to apologize they wouldn’t be opening before mid-July, and so had taken the liberty of canceling our reservation.  Never mind.

The new bog garden

We decided to make it a day trip.  We did so knowing full well we might be turned back at the border or at the admissions desk.  We could drive seven hours and have nothing to show for it but a lot of toll charges on our EZ-Pass statement.  But we also knew we felt fine and had been practicing social distancing and mask-wearing as a matter of course.  Other than the two of us, no one has been in our house in four months.  Also, we take our temperature daily.  Neither of us even cracked 98 degrees. 

We set out before 6:30 a.m. and, by 8:30, we were on the Piscataqua River Bridge separating New Hampshire from Maine.  Then, just over the border, we saw the first overhead sign asking us to self-quarantine for 14 days.  Nervous, we declined the opportunity to stop at the official Welcome to Maine Rest Area lest a state trooper take an interest in our red-and-white Massachusetts plate and inquire of our itinerary.

We arrived at the garden a few minutes before our 10 a.m. admission time.  The parking lot held fewer than 100 cars.  We donned our masks and, just outside the entrance hall, were greeted warmly by a docent who pointed out the remnants of several thousand tulips planted last fall in expectation of welcoming April and May visitors.  “Nobody but the staff got to see them,” the docent said ruefully.

A reminder to social distance

At the admission desk, we handed over the printout of our tickets.  No request for a negative Covid-19 test.  No demand for a quarantine certificate.  Our tickets were scanned.  That was it.  We were inside.

CMBG is an ever-expanding and evolving wonder.  Conceived in 1991 by a dedicated group of area residents, and first opened in 2007, it is now 295 acres in size (including a mile of frontage along the Back River) with 17 acres of gardens and miles of trails (the 17 acre figure is from their website and may be out of date as the map doesn’t show their newly opened ‘bog garden’). 

Garden intelligence: milkweed,
viburnum and allium grown together

The gardens are intelligently planned and beautifully maintained.  All around us, a combination of volunteers and staff were planting summer annuals even as spent spring bulbs were being cleaned up.  While going down the quite steep Haney Hillside Garden, we chanced upon one of the CMBG horticulturalists, a woman named Allison, who had only recently been 'given' responsibility for the hillside garden.  She was friendly, informative and enthusiastic about her role.  As we parted, she shouted, "Don't miss the meditation garden!"  We did indeed visit the garden and, like so many things at CMBG, it is equal parts whimsy, beauty, and thoughtfulness. 

A map of the garden.  The Meditation Garden
is at the top, right-hand side of the diagram

In visiting the garden, we had an opportunity to have impressed on us the financial tightrope many gardens are walking.  The cash flow and profits from their café and snack stands is not there.  Their revenue from gate admissions is likely down by two-thirds.  It takes deep pockets and generosity to keep everything looking good in the face of a disaster no one could have seen coming.

Yet, the many docents are out and as friendly as ever. This is an enterprise with an educational mission being fulfilled despite uncertain times.  For once in my life, I’m glad we broke the law.  Institutions like CMBG deserve our support.