I've lived in Maine most of my life yet have never been "IN" Bangor. I've passed through a hundred…read moretimes. Attended the annual Witches Walk yesterday at the Bangor Waterfront Park. The event itself was so much fun - we will definitely do that again! The waterfront park is beautiful. Clean. Pretty. Spread out. Convenient to downtown. I want to come back in the summer when the docks are in.

While most people would think of an Apple Orchard as a fall event. The social media posts from this…read morefarm/orchard make it a spot you would want to visit anytime of the year they are open. Which they had recently posted about getting two mini highland cows! This spot was already on my radar but once I saw that I knew we needed to visit. My wife and I love animals and my wife is a huge fan of highland cows. Besides having animals and being an orchard they also sell Gifford's Ice Cream, make ice coffee, sell donuts and some other goodies as well! Which speaking of ice cream they made some delicious ice coffee and even offered it in a viral craze of a 24oz bucket. You can even top the bucket with a donut! Which how could you complain carrying a bucket of ice coffee while visiting some animals! Both the peanut butter and maple flavored coffees were phenomenal and packed full of flavor. Will need to return to try more of their offerings. Animal wise they had some rabbits (some new baby ones), goats, birds, as well as the above mentioned highland cows, donkeys, & horses. Quite a few were friendly and came right over looking for scratches. We were disappointed the cows didn't come over but they were enjoying an escape from the heat in their barn. Overall I could not complain about enjoying the outdoors and supporting a local farm by having some delicious coffee and seeing cute animals!

Lovely little children's play museum located in the center of Bangor. Free admission with ASTC…read morereciprocal program which made it a lovely break on our drive to Bar Harbor. A lot of pretend play areas, three floors but easily done in about 60-90 minutes for our 5 and 7 year olds. Agree with the others who thought this was better for the preschool and early elementary crowd than older kids. Great also at the last hour of the day Saturday when it was mostly empty.

So much fun! Can't believe I didn't know this was in Bangor. There are 3 floors of super fun…read moreactivities for kiddos

My daughter and I rented a tandem kayak and had a wonderful time exploring the Penobscot river…read moretogether. Explore Bangor met us right near the dock, helped us launch the kayak, and gave us some ideas of where to explore. Great service, great value, and a great adventure! Would definitely recommend and hope to book again.

Wonderful historic park in East Side Bangor. Complete with a large grassy area, large trees,…read moreplayground and a paved sidewalk encircling the perimeter, this park invites dog walks, jogs and lets your children burn off steam. One of my favorites although the playground could use an update or better yet; an expansion. The neighboring Abraham Lincoln Elementary School has a much better playground.

Wonderful playground in the back of Hampdens's elementary school. Sort of off the main road a bit…read moreand you cannot see it from the main road. Very quiet , safe and clean.

I can't believe that the BPD's Duck of Justice hasn't blown up Yelp's site.... why aren't all the…read moregood Yelpers visiting the DoJ?? After searching online for anything out of the ordinary to see in Bangor, I knew that the best must-see would be at the police department. Yes, you read that right: this is the residence of the duck's PR guy (and retired Lieutenant) refers to as the "marginally world famous" duck. Read the story online of how this stuffed duck was rescued and is now a community icon, not to mention awesome stories on their Facebook page. If you say you don't do FB, start reading the BPD's page anyhow. You can visit the duck 24 hours a day, but if you go during standard business hours you can meet the QOTFD (Queen of the Front Desk) Melody who will even take your photo with the duck. If you go and she is not there (like we did), you can take a selfie, email it and perhaps become famous as well. Or "marginally famous". The duck has a sign-in log, a family from Germany had been there earlier in the day and there have been 6,000 visitors since 2016; that makes me kind of speechless. Since we arrived at 8pm on a weeknight, Queen Melody was gone (not that I wanted a photo, but to meet her would also have been exciting) and we had to be buzzed into the building. Was my friend embarrassed by my "hi, we are here to see the duck!" response into the intercom? Of course he was. Did a nice (and good looking) officer come out to let us into the duck's lair? Yes. The room isn't large, but it has some cool stuff: photos from old crimes (beware: a couple of bodies), handcuffs that look like they weighed 5-10 lbs, a "tramp chair" and some other cool things. You can also pick up a duck sticker (now on my refrigerator) and if you really want to update your wardrobe, order a t-shirt and/or sweatshirt of the duck (proceeds go towards various community programs). In case you haven't figured it out by now, just go and see the Duck of Justice.

Had to visit the Duck of Justice as well as speak to Melody, Queen of the front desk. Melody is…read moreespecially fond of DOJ visitors and gladly enables access, she also points out that her usual cast of characters aren't the happy kind. When visiting the DOJ, mind the dangle to avoid undesirable reflections and spend some time with the other artifacts in the museum room.

Bangor is the quintessential Maine/New England town. Sitting…read morealong the water (Penobscot River) the town's architecture is a mix of historical and modern (updated). Known for so many things, specifically Stephen King. It's also got colleges, a fantastic art scene, quaint shops (including a Stephen King themed bookstore), Paul Bunyan statue, outdoor activities (hiking and water activities like boating), close proximity to Acadia National Park & Bar Harbor. The lumber capital of the world has something for everyone.

I suppose I am biased, because I was born and raised in Bangor, and even though our family had more…read morethan our share of problems and tragedy, I consider it to have been a happy childhood. I lived in two neighborhoods and though I was a bit of a loner, playing ball against the wall of our house and exploring nearby woods and fields, my siblings had friends living all around us. The neighborhoods seemed solid. That might have changed by now. We moved away to Belfast, my wife's home town, and on to southern Maine so our child could attend the school for the deaf, but since we still had relatives and friends in Bangor, we sent back a lot. It is not a small town, but in retrospect it felt Ike one. After a stint in Florida to live near relatives now deceased, we moved back to Maine. I would have liked it to be Bangor, but home prices found us settling in Dexter instead. So now Bangor is now our "Let's go to the big city today" destination point. I won;t do a laundry list of the positives and negatives of my hometown. The winter is a little colder than southern Maine, and the pace of life a little slower.