Month: September 2011

Would you like Potatoes with Your Moose?

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Today was all about driving South on Route 1, following the St. John River, which separates the borders of Maine and Canada. Another good weather day, as we traveled through many small towns and lots more farming country than we’ve been seeing. The photo below was taken while in the parking lot at McDonald’s (stopped just for coffee), looking across the river to the Canadian City of Edmunston. As you can see, the Canadian influence is big in this part of Maine – even the trash cans speak French.

Getting back to the title of this post (Lou’s idea). Apparently this is the start of moose-hunting season, and that seems to be a really big deal. Even with all these signs on the roads, there must be a few moose who missed the warning message, because the ones we saw were riding in the back of pick-up trucks. They didn’t look happy to be there.

The other big crop is potatoes. We’d forgotton Maine was still a large source of potatoes. We saw lots of farms and processing plants.


Today’s destination was Lubec. We arrived before 4pm, and checked into the Peacock House, our B&B for tonight and tomorrow. Lubec is the Easternmost City in the US, and they have a sign to prove it. This is turning out to be a real geographical road trip.

Lubec is a quaint village, located at the end of a peninsula. There are some lighthouses to visit, and we’ll do that tomorrow. Here are a couple of the downtown shops:

We had a good dinner at a local pub in town. Lou had a lamb burger … cause they were out of moose burgers. I had potatoes. Early to bed tonight, so we can be ready for whatever tomorrow may bring.

Road Trip – Day 1

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We left Camden at 9AM this morning to head out on our Adventure. We took a relaxing drive North – all the way to Fort Kent, which is at the uppermost Maine border, right next to Canada. We saw more fall color than we expected to, especially as we got further North.

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Driving into Belfast, we saw Bradley’s twin brother. Don’t often see Golden Retrievers this red.

We continued on Hwy 1, then drove about 100 miles on I95 before turning onto Hwy 11. Will try to put a map up tomorrow.

 

We stopped at the Mount Katahdin Lookout. Lou checked his email while I took some photos. There is a beautiful lake and then the mountains. When I returned to the car, Lou pointed out that my camera was not actually pointed at the Mountain. Oops, I liked the view the lighting better pointing the other way.

 

Here it is – Mount Katahdin is the highest mountain in Maine at 5,268 feet (1,606 m). Named Katahdin by the Penobscot Indians, the term means “The Greatest Mountain”. Katahdin is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park (compliments of Wikipedia)

 

 

The very beginning of US Route 1. It starts here in Fort Kent, and ends in Key West, Florida. The bridge behind the signs is the one that crosses over into Canada.

 

 

Lou likes to know the facts, so this is for him.

 

 

This is Soldier Pond, just before sunset. This is across from the Four Seasons, where we are staying, just outside of Fort Kent. That would be the Four Seasons B&B, not the fancy hotel.

 

 

This is The Four Seasons Inn. It’s a very nice, 100 year old house with quite a few antiques and memorabilia inside. We’re the only ones here tonight, so it should be quiet. Our room is on the third floor (no elevator, if you can believe that 🙂 ) Getting our exercise, between this and that extra 100 Ft on the boat dock.

A sneak peak inside the house – this is the library. There’s also a nice sitting room and a dining room.

We’ll see where we get to tomorrow. I think we are going to Lubec.

Our New Address

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It’s good to know at least one of our faithful followers was paying attention (Hi, Jeannette!).  We are trying out a new location in the Marina.  We’ve moved to the far end of the dock – just behind where we were.  We were quite happy with our other slip, but we can save a considerable amount of $$ if we can make the new slip work out.  Our old one was actually wide enough for two boats – this one is a single slip.  Lou is “testing” it out now – only real concern is it is not as deep, so at low tide we risk sitting on the bottom.  No worries – Dr. Epcot is performing his scientific evaluation to determine if it will work.

Here’s an attempt to show just how dramatic this move has been.  And yes, you’re looking at some of my goofy photos, cause I get bored just showing you the regular stuff 🙂

 

We were in the empty space shown here.  A great spot.  Next to the ramp up to the parking lot.  A corner spot for Lou to man the Command & Control Center for everyone coming onto the docks.  Very difficult to get in and out of, especially if a boat was next to us.

 

And, this is where we are now.  At least on a trial basis.  Not quite as convenient.  Farther to walk to the parking lot and restrooms (not a bad thing, probably).  Perhaps easier to get in and out of – don’t know yet.  Has a much better view off the aft deck, with no boats right behind us.

 

And, here’s an overview photo that shows just how traumatic this move has been.  We have shifted position by at least 100ft.  Don’t underestimate the impact of this on our social interactions.  We are now removed from most of our “dingy buddies” who always stopped and visited when they came out for their daily rides.  This will take some consideration.

Nothing Much New Here

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We’ve been enjoying the past few days – it seems like summer again.  Temps have reached the 80s, and Lou had to turn the A/C back on (has to flip a switch in the engine room).  Supposed to cool off and then some more rain later in the week.  Lou has planned out a trip for us to see some more of Maine.  We’ll be heading North, up to the Canadian boarder – checking out some of the sights, but we won’t be visiting Canada this time around.  We leave Thursday for our Northern Exposure Adventure (as planned by LJD – no tour groups for us!).

In the meantime, I continue practicing my photo taking. Here are today’s samples.

 

 

 

G’nite, all.

 

Back in Camden

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The weather never cleared in Southwest Harbor on Saturday morning, but we headed home anyway, leaving at about 11 am, after having eaten another large breakfast prepared by Chef Louie.

This photo shows the chart plotter after we’d been underway almost 2 hours. Notice the numbers floating around – those indicate that the water depth is over 100 ft. virtually everywhere – except where there are rocks or land 🙂

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Almost 5 hours after leaving, we made it to the home stretch. As usual, the fog started to clear just as we entered Camden Harbor. An uneventful trip – no boardings by handsome young Coasties.

 

 

Things look pretty much like we left them … same boats in a row.

 

 

Once again, our invitation must have been lost in the mail. Believe this was a wedding reception at the Yacht Club, waiting for the wedding party to finish taking photos. You might ask how we know they are waiting for the bride and groom … read on.

 

 

Check out the bottom right corner of this photo. Not a great day for a wedding in the park, but fortunately it didn’t rain.

 

I bet this couple will be sorry they paid for a professional photographer, once they see this photo*. They could have had me, shooting from a boat – and had sea gulls and rigging lines in their photos, all for free.

*Of course, they won’t see this photo, because this blog is not “searchable” by google or other search engines.

 

Once safely docked (again!), Ben & Emily decided they were going to wash the boat. It must be wonderful to be young and so full of energy! We had a great time on our trip, even though the weather was not so good.

 

The End!

Stay tuned, we have a couple short road trips scheduled during the upcoming weeks to visit some light houses and areas of Maine we haven’t seen.

More Boats

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Whew – we survived another tough day. Stayed at Southwest Harbor today, Lou cooked a great pancake breakfast, we took some naps, and had a nice dinner. Ben and Emily got ambitious and cleaned the dingy. Check out the gallery for some photos – some of these I took last night, some this morning. We actually had a few brief (very brief) moments when the sun and blue sky showed up. But then, back to fog all day and evening.

To see the full-sized photos, please click on a photo below to start the slide show: