1 of 10
The Longest Covered Bridge
2 of 10
The First US Post Office
3 of 10
License Plate Shingles!
4 of 10
Not Something You See Everyday
5 of 10
Interesting...
6 of 10
Moose Country!
7 of 10
Ah...Maine!
8 of 10
A Kayak Adventure
9 of 10
Beautiful But Windy View
10 of 10
Moonlight on the Water
After a quick but fun family visit in CT, we headed north along the Connecticut Scenic River Byway, a quiet two lane road along the east side of the Connecticut River. We followed it north for a day, through Massachusetts and much of New Hampshire, only averaging about 35 mph.
We passed through towns settled in the mid-1600s like Hadley, MA notable for the "unsuccessful" hanging of the wife of the town founder who was accused of witchcraft. We passed picture-perfect white Congregational churches, streets named "Notta Road" and "Less Traveled Road", covered bridges (see photo of the LONGEST covered bridge and toll sign: "Walk your horse or pay two dollar fine. ") and the first U. S. Post Office. Many homes dated from the mid-1800s and are white clapboard....except for the one that was shingled with license plates! (See photo.)
We had lunch next to a dairy farm (those cows had gorgeous views) that hosts a weekly cruiser evening for a couple hundred antique cars, bought some maple syrup (learning how it's graded) and passed a real, still functioning drive-in movie!!!!! I remember drive-ins as where you went to make out and where I saw "Rosmary's Baby". Today, they must be more for a family night out as the marquis listed "Transformers" and "Rio 2".
After a night in a beautifully restored Victorian inn on Sunset Hill in Sugar Hill (love that name!), we headed Down East.
Down East. Always wondered what that meant. Learned that huge 5 masted schooners used to sail up and down the Maine coast delivering commodities to Boston. Headed south, they would "tack". But on the return trip, they sailed DOWN WIND, hence " I'm going down east Maine. ".
Do you know an island off the East Coast, originally home to Indians and then Europeans, that became an exclusive seasonal playground for the titans of industry who built grand "cottages" at their getaway? Jekyll Island, right? Yes. But also Bar Harbor. Same story. Same characters!
We enjoyed a couple days gorging on lobster, which may be $4/pound at the dock....but a two pounder with a half ear of corn will still set you back about $40 in a restaurant. How timely that the New York Times ran an article "Why does a lobster that costs $3.50 on the wharf cost $60 at a restaurant?" the next morning! But you can't beat the freshness...or the blueberry pie. Blueberry mojito? Not so good.
We enjoyed biking the carriage trails laid out by J. D. Rockefeller, Jr. with a stop at Jordan Pond, famous for afternoon tea and popovers on the lawn overlooking an emerald green lake with mountain views. But the day's lunch was on a log at the edge of a cove where we watched a loon ....Lonely Loon, we called him since he was the only one around. Later we learned he was, in fact, lonely. Loons mate for life and nest in fresh water. The one we saw in the ocean was looking for the love of his life!
On a beautiful sunny morning, we set out with a guide and 10 others for a 7 mile kayak trip on the "quiet" west side of the island. Exploring coves and shorelines, we saw some familiar Georgia friends: bald eagles, osprey, cormorants. But we also saw seals and sea otters.
Our guide was every bit as knowledgeable as the folks at Southeast Adventure Outfitters. He knew plants, wildlife, geology, tides, history.
He showed us wild peas growing on the beach (good; just like regular peas). We learned seals are color blind and our kayak would look like a 20 foot shark to them. We learned moose are strong swimmers, but seldom seen in Bar Harbor. We learned many Bar Harbor doors are painted red because, historically, you painted your front door red when you paid off your mortgage.
And the name "Bar Harbor"? Seems it was a marketing ploy kinda like the Seminole Highway in Virginia in my previous blog. The island, originally called "Eden" had a bad typhoid outbreak. They figured changing the name would fool the tourists and bring them back again.
Even the famous Cadillac Mountain is named for a French explorer/trapper who turned out to be a bit of a scoundrel. Seems he made up the "Cadillac" name, decided to anoint himself a squire and even created his own coat of arms. But he went on to found the city of "Detoi"....which we call Detroit. GM's Cadillac is named for him and that Cadillac logo thingee? Yep. It's his made-up coat of arms!
But back to the kayaking. The hours passed and the wind picked up. We weren't in the middle of the ocean, but it would be fair to describe it as open waters. The sea picked up "texture", as our guide called it. Ummm. White caps are "texture"?? We did have the wind at our backs, but controlling the direction toward our pick up point began to get a bit tricky. The kayak nose rose and fell with the 3 foot waves. Conversation among the kayakers stopped as we all focused on that point on the distant shore. Soon, even conversation within our own kayak fell quiet. Water splashed and we were both grateful for the water skirts we had disdained at the outset. And one kayak was getting lower and lower in the water.
Yes. We reached shore safely, but the guide agreed - he would not take out any more tours that day. And the one kayak had A HOLE in it! It was time for a Maine micro-brew!!!
One last hike up a granite-faced oceanside mountain, the trail lined with shrub roses weighed down with rose hips that will be bright orange come Fall....and the low, late afternoon sun shining off the rocks was all a nice goodbye to Maine and the USA.
Tomorrow we head to Canada's Bay of Fundy...home to enormous tides...and more lobster!
Janice
