Homeward Bound

WOW, I really got lax about my blog, haven’t I? We’ve just been having too much fun, I guess. Well, the reality is, Lubec ‘s WiFi was bad and Canada’s WiFi was worse. They don’t have Verizon towers up there so we were using International data.

Yet, here we are, almost two months later, with terrific service and I’m only now posting. Got out of the habit.

Canada 🇨🇦 was wonderful, especially Prince Edward Island. Loved spending time with Marilyn and Ed. They even drove up from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to PEI to tour us around.

First a few shots of Nova Scotia:

These shots were taken in Eastern Passage, Dartmouth, the next of the moose in Halifax.

We visited the infamous Peggy’s Cove, where a Scottish lad was playing bagpipes and the place was jammed!

You should have seen inside the gift shop and lines for the restrooms! I didn’t bother to take those pictures.

We then went to Mahone Bay,

Lunenburg,

Citadel Hill National Historic Site

more bagpipes

Every day at noon 🕛 they shoot the cannon

Shortly after we paused for some seafood 🦞 chowder in Bedford Fernleigh Then we headed to PEI where we passed the Borden-Carleton lighthouse right after crossing the 9 mile bridge from New Brunswick.We camped in North Lake at an RV Park there, which was near Souris where we got to climb to the top of the lighthouse.

The next lighthouse was really close to us at Eastpoint.

We had a resident fox 🦊 at the RV Park

Then, Marilyn and Ed made the drive up.our favorite (and only) diner where we ate every meal while they were there.

Next day we went on a tour of the whole island.North Rustico Stopped for clams

Visited an amazing church (I think 🤔 it was St Mary’s)then we stopped in Summerside for lunch

They left the next morning and we continued exploring

Magnificent churches

Then we headed back to Addison, Me after once again passing the Borden-Carleton lighthouse and traveling back over the 9-mi Confederation Bridge.

That’s all for now. Who knows, we may be home before the next edition!

Touring the Area

We visited Eastport the other day and enjoyed the sights! It’s claim to fame is “the easternmost City in the US” though we heard the population is decreasing. 4 years ago I heard Tom Selleck lived here but don’t know if that cutie still is.

Lubec is pretty close by sea 🌊 but took us 45 minutes or so to drive.

The Pirate Fest is the beginning of September and I wanna be in Eastport for that! I was in Lubec for it 4 years ago, lots of fun! Everyone dresses up like pirates 🏴‍☠️ and some of the outfits are pretty awesome!

Here are a few shots of downtown.

Then there’s the ocean view.

And the mermaid 🧜‍♀️.

Next day, Saturday, we took the doggies to the beach again for some romping. They just love it down there!

After, we took them home and headed over to the Farmers Market where they have mostly organic fruits and vegetables, bread, jams and jellies, homemade soaps, etc. Good stuff!! We walked the short distance to the other end of downtown and checked out the marina.

Here is Lubec’s mermaid 🧜‍♀️.

Tuesday morning we took advantage of the overcast weather and headed again to Campobello Island for Tea with Eleanor. Great time and loads of info on the amazing Eleanor Roosevelt.

She was the first First Lady to take an active role and was quite a philanthropist! Truly an amazing woman!

Other sights at the International Park-

This was the neighboring house to the Roosevelt’s (we think 🤔 it was the Hammond House). That window was transported from England in molasses (what they used before styrofoam peanuts).

Beautiful flowers 💐 starting to mature all over the grounds.

A couple of views of the 33 room summer cottage of the Roosevelt’s.

Tomorrow we’re going back to Campobello for a fine dining experience to officially celebrate our anniversary.

Love Lubec! 😍

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse and they do tours on Saturdays. We’re planning to take the tour tomorrow.

We were to have arrived in Lubec on Monday but had to postpone a day as the front right jack on the 5th wheel failed and Charlie had to buy a new one. He couldn’t get the rig loaded to haul until the work was done. So, we got here Tuesday afternoon and got settled in. Wednesday we took the doggies down to “my” private beach and let the dogs run free.

There in the distance is the Lubec Channel Lighthouse.

My three-legged boy loves his beach! Bella doesn’t venture too close to the water.

From here we drove down to Cutler, which is basically a village with no stores or gas stations. Cute place.

Though I didn’t get any shots of the nice houses, I did get a shot of this abandoned house, which is connected from front to back (the barn at the far end). The middle portion is called the “ELL” of the House.

This is a picture of the ubiquitous wild rose bush. Very pretty and smells amazing!

We went searching for the lighthouse at the point of Cutler but it’s not visible from here and can only be accessed by boat.

On our way out we spotted the radio towers from the former naval station that are used to communicate with submarines.

So, since finding the lighthouse down there was a bust, we went to West Quoddy Head State Park.

Yesterday we explored beautiful Campobello Island in New Brunswick. Headed about 5 miles to the end of the island to East Quoddy Head Lighthouse. The tide was coming in, so we couldn’t get over to the lighthouse itself. During low tide you can walk over to it.

Perhaps you noted the stairs leading up to the lighthouse in the second picture. The surrounding ocean is quite spectacular (and there are whales 🐋 out there).

Then we traveled back to the other side of the island visiting different coves as we went.

We stopped by The Porch coffee house/cafe for a short respite and asked what was out in the water in front of us. It’s a salmon farm! The “island” is actually a bunch of piled fishing nets!

So, off we ventured to the Roosevelt Campobello International Park to check out the Roosevelt “cottage”.

We’re going back over for “Tea with Eleanor” next week. (The above picture was taken 4 years ago when I was there. The restoration work they were doing then on the left front of the cottage has since been completed.)

On our way back, we stopped at the Mulholland Point Lighthouse, with Lubec across the bay, and beside seeing it, we also got to see two Harbor Seals feeding.

The bridge connecting Campobello to Lubec is the Roosevelt Bridge. The water in the straight is running two different directions causing that ripple effect which happens 1 hour before high tide and low tide.

Here are the seals …

So, we went on back to the RV Park and relaxed. Sunset wasn’t quite as fiery as the night before yet still nice.

This morning’s sunrise was quite spectacular.

Today we are going to head to Eastport which is only a few miles by sea yet perhaps an hour drive away. Eastport is there in the distance on Moose Island.

Until later, my friends!

In Search of Lighthouses

It’s been raining a lot this past week and since we have a veritable pond out back we’ve been plagued with lots of skeeters. The good news is that at night there are lots of lightning bugs shining their little lights.

Today was a beautiful day as we drove down to Deer Isle where there are several lighthouses at the southern end. We were only able to spot one at the north end of the isle and that was on little Pumpkin Island.

From here in Hermon we headed to Bucksport, then to Sedgwick

Over the bridge at Sargentville

Then on to Deer Isle.

Our next stop on Deer Isle was Stonington where crowds of people were gathered (tourists) apparently awaiting tomorrow’s 4th celebrations. I guess it’s a big deal there. We saw vehicles from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maryland. There were even a few from Maine! 😜

It’s really a pretty small town with some nice old homes and buildings.

Guess what! There are even islands off of the island.

It’s possible that is a lighthouse on the right end of the island , but I’m not sure.

Lots of boats out in the water.

(This last picture actually has some mannequins in these three sailboats.)

No lighthouses to be found so we headed to the northern end of the Isle and finally spotted Pumpkin Island Lighthouse.

No access to the island except by boat so we headed back over the Sargentville bridge to Castine to check out the lighthouse there and grab a bite.

Seems like the majority of the population here have lobster 🦞 traps (which we were told cost $100 each). If you haven’t seen one lately, here are a few.

I finally got a couple of shots of some beautiful flowers. Lots of wild roses growing around.

Don’t know the names of most of these (Sigh).

Before heading into downtown Castine for lunch, we visited the Dice Head Lighthouse and wandered down a trail to the ocean.

Several sailboats ⛵️ out near the lighthouse.

Got home later than normal, probably because I got out of bed late so we left late. Terrific day all in all!

Exploring the Original Fort Knox

What an adventure we had today! Drove down to Bucksport then over to Fort Knox which was built around the Revolutionary War and took 25 years to build. By that time the war was over so it was not entirely completed and used for military training.

We had a wonderful tour guide who took us through the Fort and explained as she went! So amazing!

Since there were no local stonemasons, they actually hired some from England and Ireland. The granite stones were quarried from up river and shipped down.

Those cannon balls weigh about 400 pounds each and had to be carried by 2 strong men.

The cannons were removed from the Fort by the government during WW1 so they could melt them down for the war effort. The Fort was able to get a few back.

This last picture shows Officer quarters.

Here’s the bread kitchen where they made something like 400 loafs a day.

The “manhole ” looking things were drops for the food storage, accessible through a hidden walkway.

Views of Bucksport from the top of the Fort.

Then, we went to the observation tower in the awesome bridge for even more amazing views.

Next we drove to Fort Point State Park and got some shots of the lighthouse.

I loved their lighthouse mailbox!

The site had previously been a fort:

There are beautiful flowers growing everywhere and I only managed to get shots of two different ones. I’ll have to go on a flower shoot one day soon.

On our way to lunch we stopped for a few random shots.

More adventure awaits!

Off the Beaten Path

Honeysuckles are blooming and what an amazing smell!

Yesterday we went to Machias so I could get some lab work done and after finally got to Helen’s restaurant for lunch (we had stopped by there with Ralph and Tina three weeks past but the place was jammed).

Four years ago I had my first whole lobster there during my 3 months traveling.

This time I had a most delicious crab quiche made from fresh farm eggs and freshly caught crab. Oh, if I could only adequately describe that amazing taste! Charlie “settled” for fish and chips and he said it was delicious as well (freshly caught Haddock).

Then we decided to take a new path and headed south on highway 92. We stopped at several spots along the way so I could take pictures.

We drove to the end of the road to Starboard. The last photo shows Libby Island light station in the distance.

We turned around and stopped again at A beach (I don’t remember the name of) with beautiful Magnolia trees (I always thought they were bushes) blooming.

That top picture is of an old school house. Next we headed to Buck’s Harbor and had some challenges getting to it.

We had originally started down this road to check out the site of Fort O’Brien but passed by it the first time. Nothing left there but a cannon. This was one of the first navy facilities to protect against the English. Beautiful site!

There’s still a naval base across from there that has lots of radio towers that apparently communicates with submarines.

I really love the architecture here and wish I could get more pictures of the buildings but we seem to be traveling too fast for decent shots without the side mirror involved!

There are small cemeteries everywhere we go. Each little hamlet has its own.

Lastly, a lovely sailing vessel moored.

Saturday we leave this beautiful village for Pumpkin Patch RV Park in Hermon, which is just outside of Bangor. We’ll be there a month then off to Lubec!

Oh, I sold some more mermaid cards to that little shop in Lubec. That makes nine she’s purchased!

Lazy Days

Charlie ‘s 4th AA birthday on June 5th, so we drove into Ellsworth to the noon meeting to celebrate. Afterwards we finally got back to Ruth and Wimpy’s with the great big lobster in front. Charlie had one of his favorite sandwiches, a Rueben and I had BBQ pulled pork with restaurant made onion rings (as opposed to frozen). We definitely enjoyed our meal!

Yesterday we decided to take a drive south to South Addison which, apparently, is a very small village. We actually missed the turn and just kept on driving. Check out the map.

https://goo.gl/maps/fpXCngB6rzMEseQP6

So we hooked up to Rte. 187 and drove through Jonesport again, then headed to Jonesboro where we stopped for lunch at Swamp Yankee BBQ. Charlie chewed on some delicious macaroni and cheese (without the lobster) and I, apparently, got hung up on more pulled pork, served with coleslaw, beans and cornbread. What a meal!

Oh, we did stop in Jonesport at the church cemetery to let the dogs out and take a few pictures.

We’ve noticed in our travels that there are a lot of homes in need of repair AND a lot of homes for sale. Most of the homes needing repairs look like they were not built below the permafrost level as they are sagging. Some are very old appearing. I quite imagine it’s rather expensive recovering from the winters. I still wouldn’t mind living in this state. Guess you could say I’m a Maneiac!

A Day Visit to Lubec

First we stopped by Sunset Point RV Park where we’ll be spending two weeks in August. Hardly anyone there yet. Nice views of Johnson Bay.

Next we stopped by the beach so the doggies could run free for awhile. Needless to say, they loved it!

Afterwards we went to the sweet little mermaid shop in the small downtown district and the lady bought 4 of my mermaid cards!

It may not have been these exact cards, but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying making rubber stamped cards again!

My two favorite restaurants in town are forever closed so we stopped at the Fisherman’s restaurant and had a delightful bite of seafood. Charlie thinks we’re gonna be sick of seafood by the time we leave, but I doubt it!

We sat outside on the patio overlooking the water. The temperature was wonderful as were the sights.

We’ve had some beautiful days this past week and have been taking it easy. More adventures to come

Wonderful afternoon at the beach

We finally got in touch with a couple I had met 4 years ago who live near Bangor. They met us in Machias yesterday, we had lunch then drove down to Roque Bluff State Park and played on the beach. Amazing views of the ocean and several islands.

I do love the sound of the ocean waves breaking, take a listen up above.

Ralph is the brother of a dear friend of mine from Tucson (who is actually from Maine) and he, Ted, had given me the name and number for Ralph before my first visit. He and his wife, Tina, are wonderful folks and Ralph is especially fond of playing tour guide. Hopefully we’ll hook up with them again on a clear day.

Yesterday was perfect with blue skies and 65 degree weather. Today we are back to rain and overcast. The locals are all complaining about such an unusually wet May. Definitely not normal. Frankly, I’m just grateful to be here!

Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor

We started our journey with Bass Harbor yesterday south of the park. It was a beautiful day and the sky was clear. The best trail for a great picture of the light from below was closed for maintenance. Truly breathtaking views.

Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor (and all the other lovely villages) are located on Mount Desert Island and looks somewhat like a pair of lungs as the middle of the island is split by water. Bass Harbor being on the West and the majority of Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor on the East.

After our West Side tour we drove over to Bar Harbor for lunch and a “walk-about”. We ate at a lovely restaurant on the second floor with precious views of the harbor.

We shared crab cake appetizers and Charlie had a delicious bowl of New England clam chowder while I feasted on a cup of lobster bisque. Truly divine! For dessert we shared a piece of fresh wild blueberry pie a la mode. A perfect lunch!

We explored a few blocks and wandered near the infamous Bar Harbor Inn (probably the most photographed building in all of Bar Harbor).

I so adore Maine architecture so, of course, I had to take pictures of some of the downtown buildings.

After our short tour, it was well after two o’clock and decided to make another day of it to visit Cadillac Mountain (which is the highest peak in Maine at 1,530 ft), thunder hole, also the eastern-most portion of Acadia National Park on in Schoodic Peninsula (apparently a primitive area).

As I said, the day was gorgeous and today we’re inside as it’s once again raining.

Sunday we’ll again head over to Machias for all-you-can-eat brunch at the Blue Bird Ranch Restaurant. Not only are they a marvelous restaurant but an absolutely delicious bakery.