This year, because of our daughter Shannon’s schedule, we celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday rather than Sunday. Normally, my husband, Clif, and I stay pretty close to home, but on this special occasion, he decided he wanted to go on a little road trip to Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park in Freeport, Maine. Weather permitting, of course.

The weather did permit, and the day was sunny and very warm. Shannon had put together a picnic lunch—a macaroni salad mixed with Dijon mustard as well as mayonnaise; cold chicken that had been marinated and then cooked with a spice rub; and a multigrain boule from Hannaford, our local grocery store. I brought some peaches to round out the meal, and for dessert, I had made strawberry shortcake. What a feast we had at a picnic table in the shade!

While Freeport is pretty well known for L. L. Bean’s, that bastion of outdoorsy retail shopping, Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park is not as well known, and even on the sunniest, warmest day, the park is not crowded. A smallish state park of 246 acres, Wolfe’s Neck is on a peninsula of land, with Casco Bay on one side and the Harraseeket River on the other. The park gets its name from Henry and Rachael Wolfe, who, as the park’s brochure puts it, “settled here in 1733, the first Europeans to do so permanently. They and their descendents cleared most of the peninsula for farms, but over time this part returned to forest.”

And a lovely forested peninsula it is. Along the Casco Bay side, there is in island with an osprey nest, which, for as long as we’ve been coming to the park, has had a pair of osprey raising young ones. This time was no different, and after our picnic lunch, Shannon, Clif and I paused on our hike around the park to watch the osprey and listen to their  high-pitched calls. Their island is close enough to the mainland so that viewers can see the nest and occupants without needing binoculars.

After admiring the osprey, we  followed the trail along the rocky shoreline and then into the woods, with ferns so lush and large that I felt as though I stepped back in time millions of years. We passed a little stream coming down a rocky incline, and the stones on each side were covered with dark green moss. We saw lady slipper leaves and stems, but alas the flowers had gone by. Uphill and downhill we want, chatting and admiring the cool woods.

Two and a half hours later, we came back to the parking lot, and we all agreed that we had walked off our picnic and that it was time to head to Freeport for an ice cream.

Clif has given me permission to write that he had a very nice Father’s Day at one of his favorite places in Maine.

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers. Here’s hoping that they can spend it as well as Clif did, at a favorite place with their families.