Not up for biking and kayaking? Plenty of options in Maine

A horse figure that is part of an art installation at Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies in Deer Isle, Maine.[Photo/Agencies]

We left for Maine with three bicycles on the back of the car. One for him, one for her, one for any house guest who cared to ride along. There were other modest recreational plans for our three week vacation on the coast. Twice-weekly yoga at a local community center, a little kayaking, a little hiking maybe, and certainly walking the hilly streets of Bayside and admiring its gingerbread-house architecture.

That was all before my wife's broken ankle. On the second day of the trip.

By the end of the vacation, only one bike had been taken out. Only one of us had paddled the Penobscot. Mount Battie remained unconquered. And the yoga mat remained coiled and unused in a closet.

But as vacation disasters go, this was a relatively small one. The broken bone was Debbie's fibula, so she didn't need a cast, just a walking boot. Still, she couldn't walk much. So we had to rewrite our expectations and create a Maine vacation that was friendlier to the differently abled.

Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies

A wise friend who has vacationed in Maine countless times mentioned that some of her best times in the state had been just driving around. Sitting in the passenger seat did turn out to be a boundless source of pleasure for the injured one: the abundant Queen Anne's lace and tiger lilies that decorate the landscape, antiques stores and lobster shacks around every bend, wonderful vistas of inlets with bobbing boats, bridges connecting islands and peninsulas.

On one outing, to the 17th century French settlement at Castine, waiting for lobster rolls to arrive, a fellow diner at our picnic table recommended a stop on neighboring Deer Isle: Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies, which Google correctly categorizes as an art gallery.

Yes, there are jams, but the big attraction is the sprawling installation by metal artist Peter Beerits, which evokes an old Western town, complete with saloon, jail and 24 slightly menacing life-size characters.

No charge, although they take donations, and you do feel honor-bound to purchase a jar of something. There's a nice little cafe with coffee and tarts, too.

Farnsworth museum and Olson House

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is a well-polished gem, with a collection of American works, especially Maine-influenced ones.

In this part of Maine, that means three generations of Wyeths: NC, Andrew and Jamie.

Equally important for our injured traveler, little walking was required. Both the main museum and an annex in a converted church have elevators. Galleries easily accommodate available wheelchairs, which, thankfully, we didn't need.

The Farnsworth also runs the Olson House in Cushing, about 20 minutes' drive away.