A Year About

As I write this, I am sitting in my aunt and uncle’s front yard, looking out on Saratoga Lake, at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains. Elise is fishing off the end of the dock and just caught herself a bass. Her Uncle Chris would be proud.



Before the fishing, Uncle Ted took us out for a ride on Uncle Jack’s pontoon boat. Elise and I went out along with Aunt Jan and 2 of Elise’s second cousins, Patrick and Nicole. All the kids wanted to go “faster, faster”!



We left Maine yesterday and drove to just outside of Montpelier, Vermont. Our GPS navigator, Vicky (doesn’t every GPS have a name?), wanted us to go down 95 to Massachusetts and then back up into New Hampshire, but we decided to take the scenic route along Route 2 through Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. It was glorious. We drove along the top of the White Mountains and the views were spectacular.

We stayed the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot and this morning went to Mass in Montpelier at St. Augustine. The drive to Saratoga was fairly uneventful and now we are happily ensconsed between 2 houses, each owned by an uncle, Uncle Jack on one side and Uncle Ted on the other.

We have eaten twice at an amazing bakery in Bar Harbor and would like to put in a serious plug for it. It’s the Morning Glory Bakery and it is amazing. The sandwiches are just fantastic and the desserts are yummy. Bobby had a cardamom rhubarb cheesecake square and I had a piece of their sweet potato pie – yum!



We took it easy this morning and headed out around 11:30. We first visited Somes Sound, the only fjord on the east coast of the United States and then made our way to the Visitor’s Center to get Elise’s 2nd National Park Junior Ranger badge. The ranger went all out and even annouced it to the people in the visitor’s center and got them to give her a round of applause, which Elise thought was “freaky and embarassing”!


This is the view of Bar Harbor from Bar Island.

We spent one more afternoon in Bar Harbor. One of the last things we did there was walk along the bar that is Bar Harbor’s namesake. Across the harbor from Bar Harbor is Bar Island. At low tide, the receded water exposes a bar of sand and rocks that connects Bar Harbor to Bar Island. Bar Harbor, which used to be named Eden, became known as the town with the bar (of sand) in the harbor. Hence, Bar Harbor. You can walk across this bar to the island, which we did. Along the way Bobby discovered our first sea urchin.



Tomorrow we head out toward New Hampshire to get to my Uncle Jack in New York on Sunday. We are planning to stay in another Wal-Mart near Concord, NH. Sunday we’ll swing through Hanover, NH, a town I have always believed I would love, sight unseen. I’ll let you know Sunday night if I was right.

One of the carriage road gate houses.

We started the day with a bike ride. Bobby and I rented bikes (maybe we should buy some Dahons, after all!) and all three of us headed to the carriage roads. These 45 miles of rustic road were built between 1913 and 1940, financed largely by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. They were never intended for cars and are used by hikers, bikers and horsemen. There are 17 bridges along the roads, all built by hand. Over time (during construction of the roads), the stone cutters grew very skilled and Rockefeller often requested that they not cut the facing too well, lest the rustic look be lost!


Elise and I are under that bridge, if you can see us.

During the bike ride, we kept hearing a distant rumbling over the mountains. In time, it got louder and we realized it was thunder. We hastily finished the last mile and a half. Luckily, it was downhill and we escaped the rain. We returned the bikes and then headed over to Bass Harbor Light. It is an automated lighthouse and run by the Coast Guard. A Coast Guard family actually lives in the house attached to the lighthouse.



This is the lighthouse for me. It is right on the edge of a cliff and at the southernmost point on the island. I have always had a thing for lighthouses and today I discovered why. On August 7 (my birthday), 1789 the first Public Works Act and only the ninth law passed by the First Congress of the United States was the creation of the Lighthouse Establishment. It was meant to be, me and lighthouses. At lunch today, Bobby, Elise and I talked about what we would do if we lived there. Elise’s favorite thing to do would be to scramble on the rocks. Bobby would drink coffee in the lighthouse and I would spend hours watching the tide pools. It’s the perfect place for us. So now either Bobby or I have to join the Coast Guard, become a commander and somehow get assigned to Bass Harbor Light!

Toward the end of the day, we took a walk around our campground and discovered a cemetary on the grounds. One of the grave markers was for a Revolutionary War Veteran. I don’t know if you can read it, but it says, “In Memory of Jacob Lurvey who died Sept. 11, 1853, age 92. He was a soldier of the Revolution and was twice taken prisoner during that war.” Cool.

Danine and Elise lean into the wind on Cadillac Mountain.

I’m writing this entry while Elise is in school. Her teacher is tough, but good. It’s math I think. That’s that thing with all the numbers, unless you’re my friend Mark, then you’re way past mere numbers. Today we once again wandered and scanned the landscape atop Cadillac Mountain in our attempt to find the rock around which Danine’s family appears in a very treasured photo while on their trip around the country (see our first blog entry for the picture). In short, we didn’t find it. We did have fun scrambling on the rocks though!

Supposedly, thunder storms are moving in, but yesterday and today we’ve had high temperatures in the mid-70’s and even low 80’s. Yesterday we took a three hour cruise, a three hour cruise. Maybe longer. All to see two finback whales. They’re the World’s Second Largest Mammal Ever. They are graceful, elusive, solitary (mostly), and a complete contrast to a big jet-boat-full of gawking, squawking people trying to take pictures of them.



One of our best nature encounters happened this morning just before we went on a tour of the history of Bar Harbor. We stood by the wharf and watched a double-crested cormorant fish in the shallows. He floated on the surface with his head cocked up, then dropped into a dive. Several times we watched him shoot along the bottom incredibly fast, turn on a dime, and pop up with a little fish in his mouth.

Our morning tour was a lovely walk through Bar Harbor at the invitation of Molly, one of our campground neighbors. She and her husband Billy live here four months out of the year and give tours in historical costumes describing the history of the town and the island. Molly is full of information and it’s so pleasant to hear it all in her South Carolina accent.

Before our scramble on Cadillac we went to the Nature Center and heard a nice talk on some of the various mammals in Acadia National Park (red foxes, coyotes, porcupines, deer, moose, fishers). Fishers are similar to marmots, sleek and black, fast and hard to find.


On Cadillac Mountain with cruise ships in the distance.

Our plans right now are to be right here until Saturday morning (we love it here). We’ll then take two driving days to get to Saratoga, NY in order to visit Danine’s uncle Jack. Then two more days, so that on Wednesday we are… back in Falls Church, VA for one night only! We have to pick up the cover for our pick-up bed and drop off a few things. Oh yes! It’ll also be great to see family before we head South!

It was at 5:15 a.m. this morning when Elise said, “This is the earliest I’ve gotten up since I was a baby!” I told her, “I think it’s the earliest I’ve gotten up since you were a baby.” Miraculously, we all woke up and geared up in the early morning darkness, then drove hurriedly to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We picked a nice rock facing east, sat under blankets, drank hot cocoa and waited. At a little after six that warm, bright orb we’re all familiar with eased over the horizon amidst some light cloud cover. Beautiful.

Luckily, we had a reasonable night’s sleep prior to our chilly morning jaunt. Our drive to Mount Desert Island from Rockland was excellent (and quick). We picked our campsite, set up, and attended to a few errands (groceries n’ gas). Our camera stopped working after being unplugged from the computer before it was ready to be. I tried about ten different things, then tried charging the battery. Naturally, it was the battery (always try the simplest and most obvious possibility first, is the lesson I’m taking from that one).



We did a 2.5 mi. (round trip) hike from our campground to Echo Lake which sits at the base of an impressive wooded cliff. It was a great fun, giving us an opportunity to goof around, identify two squished ring-necked snakes, and witness the folly of three people actually swimming in Echo Lake in windy, low-50’s weather. They didn’t swim long.



After seeing the sunrise this morning, we continued with the touristy approach and drove the Park Loop Road around Acadia NP. It’s stunning in every direction, though Danine and I are partial to the views out to sea. We stopped at Thunder Hole where waves force an air pocket at the back of a narrow cut in the granite to come blasting out in an impressive spray. However, the thunder and the blasting and the spraying only really occur at the rising mid-tide and preferably with stormy seas. Otherwise it’s more like Coughing Hole with an Occasional Burp. Still fun, and a great place to scramble on the rocks (Elise’s favorite activity).



We moved on to Otter Cliff and found a nice stretch of rocky shoreline to investigate. Using our new-found knowledge of sea creatures we examined the plentiful tidal pools and identified barnacles, algae, blue mussels, and snails.





On our way back to the campground Danine and I tried to find the little cottage we rented on our honeymoon eight years ago. Danine’s memory served us well and we wound our way to Fern Farm (the name of the place). I didn’t believe it would be there. It was just a tiny one-bedroom slightly-dilapidated cottage on the inlet between the island and the mainland. As we wound down the little gravel road we saw that the owners had built a big new house there, but a short distance away was our little cottage. They didn’t tear it down. We shamelessly trespassed (worrying Elise) and took pictures and walked down to the rocky beach. What a great find!





We regrouped at the trailer for lunch and spent the afternoon in Bar Harbor. Elise took a bit of a spill and scraped her knees and feet. Ironically she hopped around rocks all morning with nary a slip, but tripped on plain old flat concrete. She’s recovering. Needless to say, after such a long day, she went to sleep in no time.

Tomorrow we’re going on a whale watch cruise. Should be cold!

We have a lot to cover in this blog entry, so pay attention.

Thursday
We weren’t planning on staying this extra day in Cape Cod, but I really needed to spend some time getting bills paid and organized. We were lamenting, slightly, the delay because we want to spend as much time in Maine as possible. We lament no longer.

There is a beach at the tip of Cape Cod called Herring Cove. It is actually around the tip of the fist at the top and so faces west. It is one of the few places on the East Coast where you can watch the sun set over the water. We got there around 6:00 and walked along the beach for a while, beachcombing (fast becoming one of Elise’s favorite pasttimes). As soon as we started walking, Elise found the torso of a lobster. No legs, no tail, just the torso (no meat, just shell), but it was in perfect condition. Into that went two crab shells, small, and the jawbones of a fish Elise found. We found lots of other crab shells and legs, which we buried, per Elise’s instructions. Out of respect for the crab, you see.

We saw a seal in the water and stumbled, not literally, upon a dead seagull on the beach. It hadn’t been dead long, so it was actually interesting to look at. It was a young bird, so we hypothesized on what may have caused its demise.



The sunset was spectacular. It was a very clear day today, so the view was unimpeded and just fantastic. Elise had never seen a proper sunset before, so it was a treat for her. She would stand on the beach with her back to the ocean and turn around periodically to check on the sun’s progress. We kept telling her to turn around because we didn’t want her to miss any of it, but she was happy to play her game.



Friday
We have discovered that rush hour traffic on I-95 on a Friday afternoon near Boston is just as awful as it is back home in D.C. We expected to get to Salisbury Beach State Park around 4:00, but with traffic didn’t make it there until 5:30. Driving in rush hour was our first rookie mistake. Our second was trying to check into a campground on a Friday afternoon. The office was short-staffed and it took over an hour for us to get registered and assigned to a space. But at least I got a great shot of the sunset!



We did, however, manage to use our grill for the first time (thanks, Murphys!) and have a campfire, with roasted marshmallows and chocolate. No graham crackers, though. The camp store was out.

Saturday
One thing that Bobby and I have been looking forward to doing on the trip is seeing relatives we don’t get to see very often. This morning, we got the treat of seeing my cousin, Heather. She is one of those people that just makes you feel happy and grateful that you know her. She is positive, engaging and a complete joy to hang out with. She came and picked us up at the campsite and we all went to a yummy breakfast. Afterward we played the “Hide the Skittles Around the Table” game. If you’re good to us, we’ll tell you about it sometime…





Now we are parked at a shopping mall in Topsham, Maine to meet a possible soon-to-be Airstream traveler. This, for us, is coming full circle. Almost a year ago, exactly, we met up with Rich and Eleanor at Annapolis Mall in Maryland, to see their Airstream and talk about full-timing. They have a daughter one year older than Elise and they graciously agreed to meet us and answer all our questions. We are meeting Bob, who wants to take his family on the road for the year. He is married and has a nine-year old daughter, whose birthday is one day before Elise’s! They are thinking of buying this model of trailer as well, and the closest one available is in Ohio. Since we are on our way to Bar Harbor, we were able to stop and meet Bob so he could check ours out. Bob has appreciated our blog as we have appreciated Rich and Eleanor’s. Like my cousin Heather said today, it’s liking we’re paying it forward.

Tonight we are staying at a Wal-Mart in Rockland, ME and then it’s on to Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park. We can’t wait to get there!

Sunday
Sleeping at Wal-Mart was a success. As Elise was falling asleep last night, though, with the traffic of Rt. 1 roaring by, she told us that she preferred sleeping at the truck stop in New Jersey! The trucks’ engines were like lullabies, she said.

We went to 8:00 Mass this morning at St. Bernard in Rockland. I’m sitting outside the public library picking up their wi-fi to send this and then we are really off to Bar Harbor!

Yesterday, the 19th, was Elise’s birthday. She is now the ripe old age of 7. We celebrated with cinnamon rolls in the morning, a Junior Ranger badge and a bike ride in the afternoon, candy for Elise’s late lunch, and corned beef and mashed potatoes for dinner. It was a good day.



The bike ride was really fun. Elise had her bike and Bobby and I rented a couple for us. We rode through a beech tree forest on a relatively flat surface. At one point, we left the forest and headed out onto the dunes. It was other-worldly. I felt like we were on another planet. I half expected Captain Kirk to pop out from behind a dune at any moment! But he didn’t, so I had to settle for enjoying the scenery. Ho, hum…



Tuesday was a gorgeous day. We spent part of it at the Highlad (Cape Cod) Light, the strongest/brightest lighthouse in New England. Ships 30 miles out to sea can see it! About 10 years ago it was moved because the cliff it is on is crumbling. It had been 100 feet from the edge and was moved 400 feet back. They have a rock with a plaque on it showing where it had been before it was moved. The fact that they could move the entire lighthouse was pretty intriguing to Elise. She was miffed to learn, however, that she couldn’t climb the lighthouse because she wasn’t tall enough.



Elise and Bobby are out and about today while I catch up on bills here at the local library. Quick aside: The libraries in New England (at least the few I have visited) are beautiful! They are clean and quiet and so well designed. I’d move up here for the libraries alone! But back to Bobby and Elise…

They have gone off to climb the Pilgrim Monument. It is a 252-foot high monument that commemorates the Pilgrim’s landing here in November of 1620. They spent five weeks here in Provincetown before heading across the bay to Plymouth. This is something I did not know. I love all the history we have come across! After they explore the monument and attached museum, they will come back to get me and we will go lighthouse hunting. I have always dreamed of being a lighthouse keeper and love to see them whenever I get the chance.

We have arrived at Cape Cod, although it took us a little longer than anticipated. As we approached a tunnel just north of Fall River, MA we realized that if you are traveling with propane tanks, you cannot go through tunnels in Massachusetts. So we searched for a detour that ended up taking us through neighborhoods in Fall River just as all the schools got out for the day. It was slow going. At one point we were heading very slowly up a steep hill and we heard some teenagers who were looking at us exclaim, “I didn’t think a Nissan could pull something that big!”

Before we rolled into our campground, we stopped in Hyannis at the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory for a self-guided tour and some free (small) bags of chips. It was interesting to see the huge vats of potatoes that were gradually turning into chips. There is a person at the fry “kettle” (vat) who stands there with a standard garden rake (seriously) and rakes through the chips as they cook to make sure they don’t stick together. We bought a bag of cracked pepper and salt potato chips and look forward to comparing them to Kettle brand of salt and pepper chips (our new favorite). Greased and salted up, we continued our journey up the Cape.

We are staying at a camping “resort” in North Truro (about 10 miles from Provincetown) for the next few nights. It is now officially the off-season, but they still managed to charge us a mighty fee. It’s $2 off the “in-season” rate, but they charged an additional $4 a night for daring to bring a child on their grounds. Apparently, they have adult-only sections of the campground, too. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised at this, since many RVers are retired and appreciate their quiet. But still – adult only sections?



When we got here, Elise decided to help Bobby un-hitch the trailer. This picture is for my dad – aren’t you proud?!

We are at our first private campground, with hookups. So for the first time since we have been on the road, we showered in the trailer. Rest assured, we have been showering regularly (!), but when you don’t have hookups you use the showers at the campground, to avoid flling your gray water tank too much. After we cleaned up, we headed to downtown Mystic for Mass at St. Patrick’s. It’s a very simple New England church. The altar is not more than 6 feet long and certainly not 4 feet deep. Mass was nice and the priest did a nice job with the homily, opening up with a George W. Bush joke (we’re in liberal country now!). After Mass we drove a few blocks to downtown Mystic and ate at the famous (if you remember the 80s) Mystic Pizza. We got a Hawaiian Pizza which was yummy and Elise had, predictably, plain pasta with butter. But she was happy, too, so who are we to judge?! After dinner, we wandered into a bookstore and then down the street for ice cream. I had toasted almond and Bobby had green tea. Elise went for Oreo Cream. While we were in the bookstore, a bagpipe, fife and drum corp came down the street, playing and marching. I don’t know what they were doing there but it was cool to watch.

We spent today, Sunday, at Mystic Aquarium. We were going to try and do Mystic Seaport yesterday, but by the time we got here, it would have been too rushed. I don’t know how fascinated Elise would have been with all the ships, anyway. I’ll have to do it with my dad sometime. He’s one who would really appreciate it all.



The aquarium was great. We saw beluga whales, sea lions, sharks, zillions of fish, penguins and much more. The coolest thing for me (and Bobby) was the sea anenome tank. This tank held hundreds of sea anenomes along with toad crabs (which look a lot like spider crabs), sea stars and mussels. I could have spent all day at that one tank. The volunteer was feeding the sea anenomes and crabs and it was fascinating to watch the crabs eat and the sea anenomes curl in on the piece of fish or shrimp they were fed. Bobby and I think we are going to join our niece, Grace, and become marine biologists, too!



Tomorrow we head to Cape Cod. My parents honeymooned there so it holds some sentimental value for me. We’re staying at the tip of the Cape and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll be there through Thursday and then we’ll start heading toward Bar Harbor (where Bobby and I honeymooned!). If anyone has recommendations for either spot, we’d love to hear them.

I’m feeling slightly guilty. We woke up around 8:00 yesterday morning, ate breakfast, did a little organizing and tweaking around the Airstream while Elise played with some new friends. Then we went to the nature center and heard a very nice presentation on sea and freshwater turtles. For example, there are only 8 species of sea turtles left on the planet and 5 migrate past Long Island each year. Turtles are reptiles, but they have less in common with snakes and lizards than birds do. After the presentation we wandered around the butterfly garden and through the salt marsh. We plan to help tag Monarchs on Saturday in order to track their migration to Mexico…





So I’m feeling guilty because we’ve had a similar day today and can do this again tomorrow and the next day and so on! It’s definitely as much an education for Danine and I as it is for Elise.



Last night we met up with Barbara and Maggie along with Barbara’s friend Claudia and her two boys. We ate at a fish fry joint (which is great, but only after long intervals for the sake of your arteries). It was great to see them one more time!


A whelk shell is at the far right.

Today we went on a nature walk along the beach. We’ve been really pleased with the Nature Center, in particular Russ who gave us our own family beach tour. We collected as many different kinds of shells and seaweed as we could find, then spread them out, and he told us about each one. My favorite are whelks. They are related to snails and have lovely shells that curl into a point. They use the edge of this point to pry open mussels. Once a whelk has opened a mussel just a crack, it squeezes its stomach into the opening and digests the poor mussel. It’s a gruesome business living under the sea.



The sky here has been incredible, bright blue with ever-changing clouds. The pictures turned out well, which is a testament to a good camera (Nikon D40) and a good sky, not so much my jittery photography.



Time to go back to the nature center for the snake presentation!