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Maine

From like the Stanley Steamer invented by Mainer Francis Stanley.

Ice houses and lighthouses

If you’ve ever used the word “icebox” to describe a refrigerator, you may enjoy visiting a historic ice house in South Bristol. In 1826, Asa Thompson dammed a stream, created a pond, and started cutting ice, selling it to anglers, delivering it to customers or shipping it as far away as Philadelphia, Cuba, China and India.

Today, Thompson’s is likely the only commercial ice house on the National Register of Historic Places to continue to store

Mississippi cruise

From

Adding to the mix are college students from Louisiana State University and 10 other schools in the city.

The city’s sites include the Capitol Park Museum, which traces contributions of Native Americans, early European colonists, enslaved people and others to the area’s development and accomplishments.

Exhibits at the LSU Rural Life Museum, a complex of 32 historic buildings, focus on the way of life of 18th- and 19th-century Louisianans.

New Orleans

Our voyage ended in New Orleans, which included a guided excursion to the famous French Quarter and lovely Garden District.

While some of New Orleans’ homes rival the beautiful plantation houses we encountered during the cruise, many are relatively modest in comparison.

My personal favorite, Houmas (pro- naturally frozen ice harvested from a nearby pond using the traditional method. nounced Hummus) House, located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, has appeared in various films and TV series. An oak tree alley leads the eye to the front of the graceful house, and resident geese and ducks act as noisy sentries.

Videos and docents explain how workers cut big ice blocks with hand saws and tug them up an incline into the ice house for storage. Locals have an ice harvest here every February.

Of course, Maine is also famous for its lighthouses, many of them decommissioned but still picturesque. To visit one of the state’s 65 lighthouses, take a one-mile boat ride from Boothbay Harbor to the Burnt Island Light Station.

There, time travel does seem possible. Interpreters in 1950s clothing (remember gingham dresses and Keds?) portray the lighthouse keeper and his family during the time Harry Truman was president.

The plantation was established in the late 1700s on land inhabited by Native Americans known as the Houma. The main Greek Revival mansion, built around 1829, was the focal point of a major sugarcane operation, successful due to the labor of up to 800 enslaved men, women and children.

The tour of the restored antebellum mansion allows a glimpse of its rare period furnishings, art and artifacts.

Then there are the gardens. The 38 acres of colorful native and exotic plantings serve as the backdrop to a museumquality collection of sculptures.

If you go

The challenge facing travelers selecting an American Cruise Lines trip is choosing from the long list of destinations, ships and

Electricity didn’t arrive at the 1821 lighthouse until 1961. Water for home use was precious, most collected in a 2,000-gallon cistern. Saturday was “bath day,” one of the “daughters” told a group of visitors on a summer tour. “The cleanest girl goes in first.”

If you go

It’s a nine-hour drive from Baltimore to Portland, depending on the route and traffic. However, you can fly round-trip from BWI to Portland on Southwest for around $400. If you fly, a rental car is a must.

One way to “do Maine” is to go to a “grown-up camp,” such as the Hog Island Audubon Camp. Campers stay in dorm-like lodges, have communal meals, take photos, paint landscapes and learn all about experiences. Its boats ply the Mississippi, Columbia, Ohio, Hudson and other rivers, go through the Chesapeake Bay, along Maine’s coast, and on a long list of other waterways.

Fares for the week-long Lower Mississip- terrestrial and sea birds in classes and on field trips. See hogisland.audubon.org. pi River Cruise that we enjoyed begin at $4,125 per person; some include domestic airfare. The cost of other itineraries is as low as $2,405. See americancruiselines.com.

Boothbay Harbor is a good home base for day trips to Bath, Camden and other sites. You can stay in cottages, B&Bs or hotels, but the Mid-Town Motel in Boothbay Harbor bills itself as “a true 1950s classic” — an 11-room motor lodge run by the same family for 66 years (until last year, but it retains the olden days aura). When the movie Carousel was filmed in town, the cast stayed in the Mid-Town (midtownmaine.com).

Its turquoise and white outdoor color scheme, indoor knotty pine walls, and cheery window flower boxes are far removed from today’s monotonously similar chain hotels. But yes, it has WiFi.

To plan your trip, go to visitmaine.com.

For more information, call 1 (800) 814-6880 or visit americancruiselines.com.