Maine

Decided to take a long weekend to visit Maine, Bar Harbor and Acadia NP... located on Mount Desert Island.

Left on Friday after work, took Rt 2 across New Hampshire and arrived Bar Harbor at 7:30 PM. Stayed in the most economical motel we could find (too far to take Clyde is such a short time) and still cost $278 for 2 nights. The best feature was being right in the down town area and within walking distance to main street. Had a light dinner at Route 66, sort of misnamed as America's Highway ran from Chicago to LA and no where near "Down East". Spicy Chipotle Shrimp and local blueberry beer, pretty tasty.

We walked around watching all the people,  didn't take long to tire of that, much rather watch birds or stars...

Had a puffin, light house, and seabird tour books for 1:15 on Saturday, however, that trip was canceled due to fog and rough water, so we booked a short excursion around Frenchman Bay at 10 AM instead.

The most noticeable feature of the bay was the hundreds of brightly colored buoys

and several stacks of crates...
the buoys mark the locations of the lobster pots, each buoy is distinct and registered to different lobster-man, sort of like a cattle brand, who can have 800 lobster pots. They normally pull 200 per day when working the traps.

 The houses located on the island are called cottages, ranging from 1 room shanties to these rather large ones.

 Schooner Head was named for the natural rock formation which looks like a painting of a sailing vessel.

two popular destinations in the park are Thunder Hole... which during a 3/4 tide and rough seas roars loud enough to be heard back in town.

and Sand Beach, a swimming area. Approximately 3 million people visit the park annually, I think they were all at the beach Saturday afternoon, not a parking spot with 3 miles. The interpreter on the tour boat said the water temp was about 15 minutes, not measured in degrees but length of time before hypothermia sets in. 

Egg Rock lighthouse was on our tour... 

The small island is shared by seals, nesting gulls, cormorants, and Common Eiders.                   

                  

This pair of Bald Eagles find an easy food source among the nestlings...

This Greater Black-backed Gull was a treat after all the hundreds of Ring-billed and Herring...

One of my pet peeves is guides and interpreters referring to them as SEAGULLS. 

The vegetation changed dramatically at the summit of Cadillac Mountain, named for a French explorer, not the automobile. With an elevation of 1,528', the highest point on the Eastern shoreline. 

Large scars on the bedrock attest to glacial activity...

Alvin watched the fog bank that canceled our trip from the summit.

 Numerous islands dot the bay

This "bar" is where the the city name comes from, during low tide people walk and drive to Bar Island. Some have been known to forget the time and get stranded and even have their vehicle totally submerged by the rising tide. 

Dinner that night was lobster from Cottage Bakery and Deli, the best deal in town - $12.99 for a whole lobster and 2 sides. Just crack the shell and dive in. 

Another few days in Vermont

Kind of slow the last few days...

Alvin mowed the rec field last Wednesday afternoon and suffered a severe allergy attack afterwards; almost migraine-like headache for 4 days. He was supposed to be Santa Claus for the Christmas in July festivities on Saturday hosted by Kate, one of our college age rangerettes. She's studying park management at University of Montana preparing for a career as a park ranger. The other park volunteer stepped in to fill the Santa shoes.

We also had a star party planned for after the Christmas campfire complete with s'mores, but...
totally clouded out. We managed to catch a peek of 5 or 6 stars, not all at once before giving up.
Yet 5 miles from the park had beautiful clear skies. Go figure! Not the first time I've been weathered out, surely not the last. We did get a treat of several big brown bats feasting on the hungry mosquitoes.

Entertainment was provided by a family with glow-in-the-dark hula hoops and a light-up Frisbee that changed colors in flight, pretty cool; I found some neat pictures on the web site MoodHoops.com

Had some good b'flies in the park, Summer Azure and beautiful Cabbage White enjoying the herb garden. A nice Widow Skimmer flitted around the Queen Anne's lace, hawking for lunch.


The bee blossom is in full bloom and the hummers are enchanted, maybe we should call it butterfly bush instead.

The blackberries are coming along nicely. I can see raspberries out in the brush, but there's no path cut though and I don't think I can penetrate the dense wall of shrubs to reach any of them. Hope the red squirrels and chipmunks enjoy them. Maybe they will leave my tomatoes alone.

Picked my first squash today and fried them in cornmeal just for Alvin. It was yummy!

Used the Coleman stove outside, too hot to cook indoors.







Visited Green Mountain Smokehouse in Windsor on Tuesday...
Alvin found locally made beef jerky, I don't even like jerky, but thought this was very tasty. Also found good sausage, bacon, smoked turkey, and ham steak.

Grilled the ham steak to go along with fried squash and baked sweet potato. Can't get much better.






Attempted a mid-week star party last night, again cloudy, but we did manage to view the waxing gibbous moon through the spotting scope until thunder and lightening drove us out of the field.
I finally found a spot where I can view the western horizon for good looks at Venus. I'm still looking for a clear eastern horizon for Jupiter and Mars in the pre-dawn sky.

Laundry day this morning, we left home at 5:45 - to beat the 90° temps and 90% humidity we've been having every day. Not only that, all the weirdos are still asleep instead of hanging out at the Kleen. We were back home in the woods before 8 AM.

Took a walk around the park about 9:30. Poor little Red-eyed Vireo feeding 2 Brown-headed Cowbird chicks. Wish I had my BB gun...

St Johnsbury

Sunday was a visit to St Johnsbury with Ranger Lisa and her husband, Michael...

Nice drive up I-91, the further north the taller the mountains following along the Connecticut River.
We arrived little after noon, the Fairbanks Museum our primary agenda. Thaddeus Fairbanks was the inventor of the Fairbanks-Morse scale and grandfather to Franklin Fairbanks, who founded the museum in 1889.

But first lunch at Anthony's Diner...

I had a friend egg and onion sandwich on homemade bread, yummo.

Have learned to ask about the tea, most places use instant, but Anthony's actually brewed their own.

 Love the little, local diners, and there are tons of them in Vermont to choose from, most of them have excellent food.


Back at the Museum, we purchased tickets for the planetarium show and museum admission.

Built to house his vast collections of just about everything... over 175,000 objects ranging from Egyptian mummies, Japanese Samurai uniform and sabers, fossils, minerals, insects, a complete Vermont herbarium...

mammals of the North Country - polar bear, grizzly bear, beaver, otter, fisher cat, porcupine, bobcat, lynx, wolf, coyote







And birds... hundreds, maybe thousands of birds from all over the world in enormous glass display cases, carefully taxidermied by W.E Balch in the late 19th century. Some were a little worn, due to less than perfect display cases, but very impressive. His collection even included Carolina Parakeet and Passenger Pigeon.

The Spitzer planetarium, the only public planetarium in the state was added in 1961 and updated last year. Much smaller than the Blakemore Planetarium in Midland, but housing a state of the art digital projector and a very enthusiastic astronomer to provide an excellent, entertaining tour of the evening sky.

The architecture of the building was worth the visit by itself even without the planetarium and the exhibits.

But, our afternoon excursion wasn't finished... a stop by Maple Grove Farms and a tour of the sugar house made mouths water. The smell was heavenly and the sample of Maple Candy was melt in the mouth delicious.

Littleton NH, just across the Connecticut River is home to Chutters, candy store extraordinaire...

Grab a bag and fill it from any of the jars and pay by the pound!
I filled my bag with moose-heads and maple leaves.

 Alvin opted for the fudge counter, buying dark chocolate fudge pralines for me and sugar-free turtles for himself.

If all that wasn't enough, we stopped by Bishop's Homemade Ice Cream

for banana splits and sundaes, started in 1976 and still yummy.
Always helps to have locals as tour guides.









Michael made a quick stop by work, Pete and Gerry's Organic Eggs, to check the refrigeration units on the semi-trailers awaiting unloading on Monday and picked up 2 dozen eggs for me. We've enjoyed fresh eggs since we arrived. All the hens are Marans, heirloom hens that originated in France and certified humanely raised, the eggs are brown with golden, yellow-orange yolks.

Not only do they taste delicious, the packaging is also creative, clear plastic made from recycled water bottles.

Fourth of July Parade

Quechee SP celebrated Independence Day with a parade and a bike race...

Kids started showing up around 9 AM to decorate bikes for the parade which began at 10, led by our grand marshal, Uncle Sam (Dale - volunteer host) and our own Miss Quechee (Kate) Driver is Carol, also a volunteer.

Alvin drove the resplendent John Deere for the grande finale! 

The bike race consisted of 2 riders under the age of 13 and 7 ages 14 and over. We had scheduled 10 laps but called them in after 7 because of the extreme heat and humidity. I was running the stop watch and lap counter, not taking photos. Alvin was the flag man who started and ended the race. 

We immediately headed for home and AC for a couple of hours before manning the office until closing time. The park is booked 100% for the weekend despite the crummy weather. Take more than a little rain to spoil a camping trip. 

Stowe VT

We try to manage one big excursion a week... this week's destination was Stowe and Mt Mansfield, Vermont's tallest peak at 4383'.

About 65 miles north and a little past Montpelier, a good Sunday Drive and the first full day of sunshine in about a week.

Our first stop was Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, started in a renovated gas station in Burlington in 1978 after the 2 college dropouts completed a correspondent course in ice cream making.

 At the end of the tour we sampled a new flavor of blueberries and chocolate chips. Alvin gave it a thumbs up.

 Next stop was Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where the cider doughnuts right out of the fryer are sinfully delicious. The leftovers popped in the microwave the next morning are pretty laraping good, too,





On the list of not to be missed  had to be the Trapp Family Lodge.

All my girls appeared in "The Sound of Music" in
Lovington High School so we have a long standing love affair with all things related. The Trapp Family settled in Stowe after escaping from the Nazis and traveling world wide sharing their story and music. The original house consisted of 27 rooms. After a devastating fire, the current structure was built in the 1980's. The halls are decorated with delightful illustrations from the book by Hans Wilhelm.

The gondola at Mt Mansfield, a busy ski area during the snowy winter, operates during the summer to hoist visitors to the summit restaurant. Smuggler's Notch SP is located on Hwy 108 toward the summit. The campground has been relocated to a lower location but the summit still has numerous hiking trails, waterfalls, and picnic areas. The twisting road is very popular with motorcycles and is reduced to one lane between gigantic boulders in several locations. I was too busy holding on and holding my breath to take any pictures.

Not many places are open for lunch in Stowe, seem to cater more to the dinner crowd, so we picked Sunset Grille. A very good choice...
Cowboy Burger was piled high with bacon, cheese, and 4 onions rings squeezed in. Plenty of food for both of us, as we generally share so we have room for dessert.

We checked out Little River SP and Waterbury Reservoir SP. High water levels has the beaches flooded in both locations as the past 2 months have seen non-stop rain.

We took the back-road back to Quechee along Hwy 100 where we discovered Glen Moss Falls reachable by a short boardwalk.

No covered bridge can be passed with driving across and documenting with photos. This one in Waitsfield was constructed in 1833 across the Mad River. Bridges were covered to protect the construction from weather to prolong the life expectancy. Uncovered wooden bridges generally last only 10 to 15 years.

100 bridges, 16 weeks... that's about 5 per week. We're behind schedule.