A US/Canada Day

On our first full day in Canada, what did we do?  Why travel back to the US to get to a Canadian island, of course!  I hadn’t realize that we’d have to do that in order to explore down one of the drives in the travel book that I had for exploring the Atlantic Canada provinces.  So, we had to cross the US/Canadian border 4 times!

Mulholland Lighthouse was built to guide ships through the Lubec Narrows, a body of water that separated Campobello Island, New Brunswick, and the town of Lubec, Maine.  The lighthouse was completed in 1884, and the light was installed in 1885.  Campobello Island is the island where FDR would spend summers as a child, and the estate took up quite a lot of land on the island.  It is here that FDR was first stricken with polio which left him paralyzed from the waist down.  Eleanor Roosevelt used to visit the island more than FDR did after they married, and her last visit to the island was just a few weeks before her death in1962.

Mulholland Lighthouse

At the opposite end of Campobello Island is Head Harbor Lighthouse, which is also known as East Quoddy Lighthouse.  The bay it sits in is Passamaquoddy Bay.  It was the first warning for ships of the craggy rocks located around Campobello Island.  This image was taken when the tide was coming in.  During low tide, one used to be able to walk from the island to the lighthouse. There were stairs going down to what would be land from both the island and the lighthouse.  However, when we were there, the steps down to the “land” were partially destroyed and access was chained off.  The area where one would walk is the area where the waters are the most churning during the tide change.  I don’t know exactly how deep the waters were at the time this image was taken, but my guess is they were well over my head, even with the tide not being completely in! 

Head Harbor Lighthouse

One of the interesting things that we noticed when driving in northern Maine and certainly throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is that there are a LOT of small cemeteries.  Altho we couldn’t find anything to confirm it, our guess is that back in the late 1800s, communities were much more insular, and so, each community had its own cemetery.  The cemetery in Lubec, Maine, seemed to be an old one, with several headstones that I saw dating back to the late 1800s.  

Headstone Down

Enjoy!

A Drive along the Schoodic Peninsula

The last place of Acadia National Park that we visited was the Schoodic Peninsula.  Inadvertently, we had saved the best for last!!  Come and travel along with us!

Enjoy!

Quiet side of Mt. Desert Island

The most popular area of Acadia National Park is on Mt. Desert Island.  However, that’s not that’s on the island.  There is what I call the quiet side of the island, and we explored that one day…..

The most famous lighthouse is Bass Harbor Lighthouse.  That could be, of course, because it’s the only lighthouse on the island!  There is a lighthouse called Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse, which some may assume can be found on Mt. Desert Island, but it’s actually about 20 miles south of the island.  The view shown here of Bass Harbor Lighthouse is from its “bad” side, if lighthouses can have a bad side!  

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

The better view of the lighthouse is from the other side.  However, one must climb out onto very rough, rugged rocks in order to get the iconic shot.  I am not a mountain goat, so Jeff said he’d give it a try.  He gave up trying to get out there, and noted that only those very young, in their teens and twenties seemed to be willing to try to get out to the point where the iconic shot was to be had.  However, I did like this image Jeff took of the lighthouse beacon seen thru the trees.

Beacon in the Trees

The tiny village of Somesville is home to perhaps one of the most picturesque bridges I’ve ever seen.  It is a footbridge and the first time we passed it, I totally missed seeing it.  The second time by, however, we did stop so that I could capture this charming sight.

Footbridge in Somesville

There were some wildflowers alongside the bridge in Somesville.  When I processed the image of these, I converted it to watercolor pencil sketch – I just felt like it captured the feeling of it being there alongside the bridge best.

Wildflowers

Likewise for these lupine growing in the same area as the wildflowers. 

Pink and Purple Lupine

Enjoy!

Taste of Acadia

The most popular way to see Acadia National Park is to drive the Park Loop Road.  We did that one of the days we visited the area around Acadia, and I want to share some snippets with you.  Just informationally, Acadia is split into 3 distinct areas – Park Loop Road on Mt. Desert Island, another island south of Mt. Desert Island, and Schoodic Peninsula.  We didn’t see the area south of Mt. Desert Island, and the Schoodic Peninsula will be covered in another post, but this one is devoted to the Park Loop Road.  Let’s get started!

Much of the Park Loop Road is driving along some lovely forested roads like this one.  I bet this looks amazing in the fall, but a lot of green looks lovely, too!

Driving on Park Loop Road

There is an area called Sieur de Monts Spring, where a spring flows and keeps plants and flowers there very well-watered.  Walking thru that area is like taking a walk thru a lovely, serene garden or small woods.  Not that many people (relatively speaking) were there – I guess most were looking for the big views of other areas.  I found this area a nice respite from the “maddening crowd” – LOL!

Fern Reflection

Lushness like this is not seen very often in our home state of New Mexico!  It was also nice to hear the gentle undercurrent of the creek gurgling thru all of this – fed by the spring, of course.

Fern Floor Forest

As we moved down the road, we saw this lighthouse, which sits just off shore.  Altho not as dramatic as those we saw in the Cape Elizabeth area, the red roof of the keepers’ residence made for a nice pop of color.  Interestingly the lighthouse got its name because it sits on Egg Rock.  In years past, settlers used to visit this tiny island (it’s much smaller than it appears in this image) to collect the eggs of sea birds that laid them there.  At one point, a couple of different varieties of sea birds almost went extinct due to this activity.  Needless to say, no egg gathering is currently allowed. 

Egg Rock Lighthouse

I’m not certain what the occasion was, but we did see a tall ship sailing in Frenchman Bay, not far from Egg Rock Lighthouse.  Again, I love the spot of color the sails lend to the scene, and how lovely it was to see such a magnificent sailing craft.

Tall Ship Sailing in Frenchman Bay

Next along the road was an area called Sand Beach.  The parking near the path heading down to the beach was very crowded, so we opted to just catch a glimpse of the beach thru the trees. I actually really liked this view of what was a nice, small beach. 

Sand Beach

As the road ran close to the edge of the island, around the area called Otter Cliffs, we were able to see a bit of the shoreline that I was hoping to get a view of that makes Acadia famous.   

View from Otter Cliffs

Heading inland, one spur of the Park Loop Road headed up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the island.  About halfway up, this was the view, looking out over the land mass that makes up Acadia.  We are looking out over Eagle Lake.  I do like the way the sunlight is dappled, due to the puffy clouds overhead.  

Dappled Light – Cadillac Mountain View

At the top of Cadillac Mountain, looking off to the north, one can see the Cranberry Islands off shore.  These islands are named for the cranberry bogs that were once there.  The two largest islands are serviced by ferries and have people living on them year round.

Cranberry Islands from Cadillac Mountain

Looking off in the other direction allows you to see the tourist town of Bar Harbor and off that shore the Porcupine Islands.  During the French and Indian War (1754 -1763) French gunboats hid behind these islands to ambush the British vessels.  No such activity goes on now – just a cruise boat anchored off Bar Harbor on this day!  The island closest to shore (on the left side of this image) is called Bar Island, and during low tide, a sand bar appears, allowing people to walk across the small channel that separates it from Mt. Desert Island.  One just needs to be careful not to get stuck there when the tide comes in!

Bar Island off Bar Harbor

Enjoy!

The Adventure Begins – June 1 – 7, 2018

Our latest adventure began on June 1^st.  I’ve decided to try something different.  For the travel blog, I will select one image to represent the day.  Each blog post will cover 7 days, so there will be 7 travel highlights.  It may make it easier on those of you who diligently read each of my travel blogs, and frankly, easier on me, too!  Let’s get started…..

June 1^st was a driving day, from home in Edgewood to Amarillo, Texas, as will be just about all the days that make up this first week, as we make our way to Maine.  I just started taking images as we drove along, with no plan in mind.  I figured things would become clear to me once I looked at all the images I took.  I had several images of landscapes, of old billboards that had seen better days, and of deserted homesteads (one of my favorite subjects!).  But, as I looked at everything I shot today, the one type of image that stood out for me was rather iconic of the West, and ranches or farms in the West – the windmill.  I processed this image to create a sort of vintage feel, as that’s what I felt like it represents.  

Tilting at Windmills

June 2 was quite the day!  The word of the day for today was WIND!  Originally, I planned to do some of the driving, to help out Jeff.  However, with cross winds at over 20 mph, Jeff said forget it – I would not be happy.  And, he was right – at times I wasn’t even happy being a passenger in that wind!  Our drive from Amarillo, Texas, to Tulsa, Oklahoma took longer than we thought it would, mainly because we went slower due to the wind.  This image just captured what the wind kept creating every time we looked around, it seemed!

Dust

Day 3, Sunday, was almost the polar opposite of yesterday.  Driving was very pleasant – no wind to speak of – and I even got a chance to help out with the driving!  The other major change was the color green!!  We entered into Missouri after about 1 ½ hours after the drive for the day began, and green took over as the primary color when we looked out the window.  In this image, you can see the cows/steer just lazing about in the shade.  Altho you can’t see it in this image, I do believe a small pond wasn’t too far from where they were.

Green

Driving thru both Illinois and Indiana, a very common sight is of farmland and farms.  They are two of the states that make up the “bread basket” of the US, where most of the crops that we eat are grown.  So, today’s image is a tip of the hat to all the farmers out there – thanks!

Farmland

Almost from the moment we entered Ohio, the skies began to cloud over.  We checked the forecast, and didn’t see any real mention of rain (maybe a 10% chance), but that 10% ended up being 100% wherever we were!!  The silver lining in all this is that at least this wasn’t a day we were going to explore some sights!  The sun did come out at the end of the day, so maybe tomorrow’s weather will be more cooperative.

Overcast Skies

As we drove along the highway in New York State, we passed a small cemetery that had a WWII fighter jet trainer sitting in the middle of it.  It seems to be the way they’ve chosen to honor the fallen.  We don’t know anything about who is buried here, but I am thinking it must be the veteran section of the cemetery.

Honor the Fallen

It’s been a week since we started on this adventure, and we began our last day of the first week with a walk around a pond in the campground where we stayed last night.  It was the perfect tonic for a week of miles and miles of miles and miles!  I always love to watch herons “fish”.

Stalking

This is week 1 of a several week adventure.  Stay tuned for next week!

Enjoy!