First Day of School!

Hard to believe it's the first day of school already. Danny is pumped! He had to wear his "senior" shirt. I'm sure he'll tell everyone he sees, that he's a "senior" this year! (Just in case they didn't know!)  Jean's a freshman this year. Yikes! My baby is in high school! She wasn't quite as excited as Danny but maybe a little excited. They got their old bus route back. That mean's they get picked up at 6:34. It also mean's they will be home a half hour earlier than last year. Probably around 2:45.

Last Day in Maine - Baxter State Park

Danny took this picture of Dad.

We checked out of the townhouse on Saturday morning and headed up to Baxter State Park. We didn't realize that it is a Wildlife Preservation and they only allow so many cars into the parking areas. When we got there, we stopped at Park Headquarters in Millenocket. We were told that the parking lots were full. But they said we could go up to the park entrance (8 miles) and see if anyone had turned in their pass. We were lucky as two cars had just returned their passes for the pond where the moose feed. We were pretty pumped to hike out there and actually see one feeding in the water. She was not afraid of us and stayed there the whole time we were there. By then it was late in the afternoon and they said if there was room in the parking lot where the falls were, we could just go in. We ended up hiking a couple miles on this trail in the picture above. It was a work out but fun.

We ended up back in Bangor for the night Saturday. We didn't have reservations because we weren't sure how long we would be in Baxter and if we would start heading east before evening. That was a mistake. All we could find was a "smoking room" in a dive. It was pretty bad but we didn't have much choice as it was 9:30 on a Saturday night in August in Maine. We spent one more night on the road in Queensbury New York and got home Monday night. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride through upstate New York. Very picturesque.

Maine Day Seven and Eight - LL Bean

 

Wednesday night when we got back back to the townhouse and saw the forecast for Thursday was rain we decided to sleep in and just hang out at the townhouse. It rained all day. That night Fred and I went to the Lobster Shack above. They advertised grilled lobster tail. Fred had that and I had ribs. The ribs were awesome! The lobster above was the one and only I had. That was near Bar Harbor the first day in Maine. You break off the tail and eat that meat. You can eat meat from the claws also. I was kind of turned off by the green slime when you snap off the tail. The waitress said lots of people eat that green slime on crackers. I was in Maine so I tried Lobster, so did Jean, but once was enough. Fred had it a couple times and a couple Lobster Rolls.

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Friday it rained all day also. We decided to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Freeport Maine and went to LL Bean's flagship store. It was pretty fun.

Maine Day Six - South From Ellsworth to Fort Clyde

Saw lots of artists capturing the scenes, especially around lighthouses.

We mostly saw the low tide. The docks look kind of funny like they were on stilts.

 Lobster boats were everywhere and you could see the trap markers everywhere also.

Lots of lighthouses! Not as many in use as years ago but still quite a few active ones. This one above had a lightkeeper and his family living in it. There were signs not to go up to the house so the family could have their privacy. We didn't see anyone there.

Maine Day Five - Campobello Island

We went to Campobello Island in New Brunswick. The island is only about 10 miles across. The tide difference from high to low was higher here than along the coast of Maine. We had a really fun day here and even saw some seals and a whale.

 President Roosevelt had a summer cottage on Campobello Island. We stopped and toured it. It was preserved in the period that he spent here. It was really interesting. It had 18 bedrooms, several of which were maids rooms. Three floors. This last picture is the view from the back of the house. That is Bay of Fundy.

 That is a seal peeking out of the water. We saw a few by the lighthouse right after we got on the island.

This lighthouse is on the north end of the island. There are only three hours a day that you can walk to it. This was low tide and at high tide, where we were walking, would be covered over with 24+ feet of water. We didn't actually walk over to the lighthouse. You can see those stairs Danny is climbing in the picture above this one. There is an even steeper set going down below the pine tree in the bottom picture and then it's a little hike across rocks to get over to the lighthouse. The picture doesn't show the depth or distance very well. While we were standing here we did see a whale out in the water. It would just pop out for a second or so at a time and we weren't able to catch it on camera.
On the way home we saw lots of trucks out clamming. We talked to a local and he said the clam price was high right now so lots of people were taking advantage of it.

Maine Day Three and Four - Ellsworth and Acadia National Park

I spent hours and hours online looking for a rental. Trying to figure out the best place to have as our base as I knew we would be be going up and down the coast. I finally settled on a townhouse at Acadia Village Resort in Ellsworth. It worked out great. It wasn't the fanciest place but it was spotless! I'll take clean over fancy any day! There were two bedrooms and three baths. Danny slept on that couch which opened up as a hide-a-bed. We ate breakfast most mornings here and a few times packed a lunch. We would leave in the morning and usually get back after dark.

All the pictures above were taken in Acadia National Park. It is one of the prettiest places in Maine and believe me, there are a LOT of pretty places. We went up Mt. Desert, which is in the park, pictured in the two top pictures.