New England 10/6 Whale Watch

On Sunday we took the bus to Bar Harbor. We walked around for a while, checking out the restaurants and shops. Poppa wants to have lunch here:




And he couldn't resist this fridge magnet:




Bar Island is very close to Bar Harbor:


At low tide, you can walk across a sand bar to it. Poppa might try that Wednesday when low tide is at 8:08 in the morning. If he doesn't get back across the sandbar before 9:30, he'll have to wait until 8:00 in the evening! Dottie wants to stay with Nana that morning, but I want to go with Poppa.

At noon on Sunday we went out on a boat for a whale-watching tour, and got to watch two humpback whales for an hour. Sometimes they were only 75 yards from the boat!

Unfortunately, Poppa's iPhone didn't take very good pictures. Still, it was pretty awesome watching them!


- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 10/5 Mount Desert Island

Bar Harbor is located on the largest island on the coast of Maine. French explorer Champlain called it "Ile des Monts Deserts" or "Island of the Bare Mountains" because the mountains on the island are bare rock. It is known now as "Mount Desert Island", or MDI. There are 5 harbors on the island: Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor. Bar Harbor is the most famous.

On Saturday we drove around the island to get familiar with it. After lunch, Poppa got to know someone else's dinner:




Have you heard about the government shutdown? One of the things affected is the National Park Service. Unfortunately, one of the biggest attractions on MDI is Acadia National Park. Perhaps the most frequently taken tourist photograph this week is of the Park Closed" signs:




So far, the closing of the park consists of putting up roadblocks and signs at the many entrances. People just park outside and walk in. Maybe the shutdown is just the government's way to get Americans to exercise more. If the park was open, we would have parked at the lighthouse instead of walking half a mile to visit it:



This is the Bass Harbor Head Light, and here is the lighthouse keeper's house:





- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 10/4 Freeport to Ba Ha Ba

Today we drove from Freeport to Bar Harbor. Poppa put three more "R"s in the box just saying "Ba Ha Ba".

Remember when Poppa said Maine might be the "Mother May I?" state? Well, we saw more rules today when we got on the Maine Turnpike. Among other prohibited things are "Animals, driven, ridden, or led". That means you can't have an animal in front of you, under you, or behind you. Yes, the sign actually said that! Can you imagine how desperate a bureaucrat would have to be to dream up a rule like that?

We saw another sign that said "WARNING: Moose crossing next 17 miles". Poppa was really nervous that a moose would be in front of him, under him, or behind him and he'd get arrested.

Acadia National Park is one of the major attractions here, and it is closed due to the government shutdown. The local sentiment about this was shown in the sign on this Inn just before we drove onto the island:


(Click on the picture so you can read the bottom left corner.)

We have spent many days at KOA campgrounds, and had the first bad experience when we pulled into the one at Bar Harbor. The lot we were given, #104, sloped a lot from back to front. After putting the automatic levelers down, 3 of the wheels were off the ground and the RV still wasn't level. The front two wheels were WAY off the ground. Poppa went to the office and told them the lot was not acceptable. They suggested that he move the RV left or right, forward or back to get it more level. There was no success with that, so back to the office. "All of the other lots in that area are already reserved, but we can put you on an ocean front lot. Oh, yeah, it doesn't have a sewage connection, and it will cost $88 per night instead of $62."

We're going to be camped for 6 nights, so the sewage connection we were counting on would be important. Poppa said %&#@, went online, had Nana call Hadley Point Campground. They could give us a lot without sewage for tonight, then one with for the rest of the stay. Done deal, four miles down the road, and the lots are level.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about Ba Ha Ba.

- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 10/3 Bath, ME

Oops - yesterday's post was titled "10/3 Portland" and should have been "10/2 Portland"

Today is Thursday, 10/3, and we're going to Bath, ME.

We walked around a neat old shopping area on the Main Street and then walked around looking at some old houses - kind of boring. There was a neat looking church, so I took this picture across a park:




I promised Nana a picture of at least one of the old houses, so here it is:




Finally we go to the interesting part of the day - the Maine Maritime Museum! This is on the grounds of the old Percy & Small Shipyard, where they used to build wooden ships.

O.K., this is a bad picture of the lower part of a triple-expansion steam engine, but I wanted to show Karen and Joni where it was built:



Now here's the cool part of the tour. They built the largest wooden ship ever in America on the lawn here and slid it down into the water in 1909 - more than a hundred years ago. There is a sculpture that is the same length, width, and height as the real ship, on the same lawn where the ship was built:



The white stuff at the left shows the shape of the bow (front) of the ship; the white stuff at the right shows the shape of the stern (back) of the ship. The six flag poles show the location of the six masts (it was a sailing schooner, designed to carry coal). The flag poles are 70 feet shorter than the masts were! To get an idea of the size of this ship, here is a picture of Dottie and me sitting on the frame of the bow, the left of the picture above:



We're the really small dots in the lower right corner of the picture!

Here is a model of the ship:




Dottie and I crawled into this lobster trap - I wouldn't want to meet a lobster that fits in here:




Right next to the museum is (are?) the Bath Iron Works, which still make ships for the U.S. Navy.

- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 10/3 Portland

On Wednesday we set out for Portland, but stopped first in Freeport since Nana hadn't been there with us a couple days ago. We stopped at L.L.Bean and saw their trademark shoe:



Look closely to see Dottie and me.

Nana and Poppa aren't very good shoppers, so after a quick stroll through the store we skipped all the other stores and outlet, heading for Portland. First stop was Gritty's Brew Pub for lunch. Poppa liked these paintings in the brew pub:







Dottie and I posed on an old signal buoy:




It's a good thing this guy put out the "<-- Food Truck" sign. Otherwise, who would have guessed it was a food truck?




After walking around the port, looking at shops, browsing through fish markets, we headed for the Portland Head Lighthouse:








Here is the lighthouse keeper's house:




Longfellow visited here:




The lighthouse is pretty tall:




Nobody knows why this ship wrecked here, because visibility was good. Fortunately, everyone survived:




The coast is pretty rugged, with lots of granite:




Did you know roses have hips? They're all over the place:




- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 10/1 Boothbay Harbor

On Tuesday we drove to Boothbay Harbor, "the biggest harbor north of Boston." It was recommended by Ken, who drives the snowplow on our street at home.

On the way there, we drove through Wiscasset which proclaims itself "The Prettiest Village in Maine". It just might have the best lobster rolls at Red's - just a little stand on the corner with a dozen people standing in line waiting for it to open in the morning. There was still a crowd when we drove back through later in the day.

Poppa took this picture of Boothbay Harbor from the deck of the Blue Moon Cafe while we waited for our first lobster roll:



(Remember that you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.)

Lobster rolls are pretty good - chunks of lobster mixed with mayonnaise and served on a french roll.

Hey, Aunt Joni - looks like people from Georgia like Boothbay Harbor:




Some great houses and inns around town:












And I loved this one - can you read the sign:




We took a drive to see a lighthouse, but it's privately owned and we couldn't even see it from the beach. We did get to see a nice bit of shoreline:





These folks are ready for Halloween:




We saw "Monkey C, Monkey Do", which looked a lot like an adventure Nicole and Dan had a couple weeks ago:




- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa

New England 9/30 Freeport ME

Nana wasn't feeling well Monday morning, so we stayed around the campground. In the afternoon, Poppa took Dottie and me to Freeport for some grocery shopping. It's a small town, but big for shopping. L.L.Bean's main store(s) are there, along with lots of other factory/outlet stores: Jones New York, Clark's of England, Orvis,...

Poppa took advantage of being on his own to check out the L.L.Bean kayak/bike store. Check out the Surly Moonlander:




There are job opportunities here for Gretchen:



I don't think she would like the winters here. Besides, we're excited about them moving to Pittsburgh so we can play with Quinn and Tessa.

Nana was feeling much better when we got back, so I think we'll be touring again tomorrow.

- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa