Wednesday, September 5th, Kennebunkport

Greetings!

Pat, my Aunt Kitty, and I drove over to Kennebunkport from Hudson, New York today.  We stopped in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she lived until last year.  She took us on a walking tour of her favorite downtown places, and we had a great lunch at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant she used to frequent.  A big pat of Lowell is the National Park Service's Historic Park, which highlights the town's role in the development of the industrial revolution as a planned manufacturing center for textiles.

From Wikipedia, "Irish canal construction workers fleeing potato famines, and English farm girls working in hydro-powered mills, drove the town's economy. By the 1850s, Lowell had the largest industrial complex in the United States. The textile industry wove cotton produced in the South. In 1860, there were more cotton spindles in Lowell than in all eleven states combined that would form the Confederate States of AmericaThe city continued to thrive as a major industrial center during the 19th century, attracting more migrant workers and immigrants to its mills. Next were the Catholic Germans, then a large influx of French Canadians during the 1870s and 1880s. Later waves of immigrants included Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanians Swedish, and eastern European. They came to work in Lowell and settled in ethnic neighborhoods, with the city's population reaching almost 50% foreign-born by 1900. By the time World War I broke out in Europe, the city had reached its economic and population peak of over 110,000 people."

Heading east to the coast, we stopped at Newbury, to see if we could find the grave of a relative born there in 1644.  Found the cemetery, but not the grave.  I'll contact the church officials by email to see if they have more info.  On the way up the coast, we found some surfers enjoying cold, three-foot waves on a sunny day.

In Kennebunkport, we're staying at the home of  Cindy and Dominic DeSalvo, good friends of Kitty's, whose oceanfront residence is what we all dream of.  I'm including a photo of the sunset tonight from their front deck.   They've agreed to let  us stay in the guest cottage for a few days while we explore more of Maine.

Tomorrow, we're driving up into central Maine to visit Sherbourne, Gilead, and several other towns which were home to the Larys.

Here is a link to the few photos taken today: Wednesday, September 5th, Kennebunkport.