Three weeks in Maine

After leaving Canada, we spent 3 weeks in 3 places on the Maine coast: Harrington, Bar Harbor, and Old Orchard Beach, where we sat out Tropical Storm Irene.

We had no problems re-entering the US at Calais, ME - we'd heard some horror stories from other RVers, but the inspector who cleared us barely looked at the motorhome; he didn't open any cupboards, or ask us to open any slides - just made us discard the one lime we had in the refrigerator.

Sunset Point Campground on Harrington Bay had a nice mown path along the water, from which Tom took this photo at high tide the day we arrived. We splurged and ordered the lobster dinner - for $9 per pound, the campground owner cooked and delivered lobsters to our door at the time requested, complete with bibs and shell crackers. We figured it would be the last lobster we would have during this trip.





A few days later, here is the same scene at low tide. The rocks are covered with seaweed, and the aroma is quite different!

While we were at Sunset Point, we drove around Schoodic Point, the quieter side of Acadia National Park. We wished we had brought our folding chairs and lunch, as we could have spent a long time looking out over the rocky shore as the waves came crashing in.

Here is another view from Schoodic Point, looking south toward Cadillac Mountain on Mt. Desert Island, the highest point of Acadia National Park and home to the most visited features of the park.
On another day while we were in Harrington, we toured the Sardine Museum in Jonesport and learned more than we ever imagined about the sardine fishery and canning operations that were the basis of the area's economy for many years. We also visited the Bartlett Maine Estate Winery and Distillery, where we found a lovely dry Pear Wine that rivals a dry riesling for serving with spicy food, and a pear brandy that captured the essense of ripe pear. The winery has lovely grounds that are landscaped with native species - we'd seen flowering bunchberries at the Anne of Green Gables museum in Prince Edward Island, and here we saw them with the ripe red berries.

After we moved down to Narrows Too RV Park outside Bar Harbor, we took the shuttle bus around Mt. Desert Island, and stopped for lunch at Jordan Pond House atop Cadillac Mountain. The traffic was awful - the bus inched along in a solid line of cars around the north side of the island - if we go back to Acadia National Park, it will not be in August! It was a lovely warm sunny day after several days of rain, and everyone was out touring. After lunch we walked down to Jordan Pond, with the Bubbles ( the rounded hills in the background) in the distance.

On another nice day, we drove around the southeastern part of Acardia National Park, and visited Bass Harbor lighthouse - click on this photo to enlarge it to see the parade of boats progressing through the sound toward harbors farther down the Maine coast.

This four-masted schooner takes tourists on short sails out of Bar Harbor. As we walked the Shoreline Path out from the Bar Habor marina, we watched the boat take off the from the dock and raise its sails, before it sailed off into the fog bank and disappeared from view.



Our days in Maine ended in Old Orchard Beach, where we just kicked back to relax for a few days after all our sightseeing in the Bar Harbor area. We did make a trip down to Kittery Point for lunch at the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier, which was recommended by Richard Grassy, a former coworker of Barbara's. The sun was shining, they let Shelby sit under the table on the deck, and we had the final lobster rolls of our Northeastern trek. Life is good.



St. John and Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick

We spent our last few days in Canada in St. John, New Brunswick, at the nice RV park in Rockwood Park. This large city park has miles of walking trails and several small lakes. Our main reason for spending time in St. John was to research Tom's Orkney Island ancestors who immigrated to the area in the early 1800's, and others who were Tories evicted from the US after the Revolutionary War. Tom's fifth great-grandfather is buried in the Old Burial Grounds, which provide a nice green respite right in the middle of downtown St. John.

The St. John River flows through the city and out into the Bay of Fundy, which is known for its extreme tides. We visited the Reversing Falls, where the river is squeezed through a narrow gap, to see the river actually reverse its flow when the incoming tide overcomes the outgoing river:

At 12:35 pm, the incoming tide has not yet overcome the flow of the river. Note the partially submerged rock with water swirling around.

By 3:52 pm, the tide was near high, and the rock is submerged. The St. John River is squeezed by the narrow gap at this point, and the river bed is very rocky, causing lots of whirlpools.

A few minutes after the previous photo, the incoming tide has reversed the flow

 

Two days later, in the rain. When the river current and outgoing tidal current combine, this stretch of the river is impassable by boat.



Water swirling over the submerged rocks and ledge at the reversing rapids. The whirlpools constantly formed and re-formed as the current bounced off the walls of the narrow passage.

On a sunny Saturday, we drove back north to Hopewell Rocks near the top of the Bay of Fundy. These interesting pillars and arches have been carved by the rising and falling of the tides, which can vary up to 43 feet between low and high water. In the 3 hours before and after low tide, it's possible to walk on the floor of the bay.


We climbed down more than 100 steps to reach the "beach"



The mud around the rocks was very gooey and sticky - we kept to the firmer ground. At high tide, the water comes about half way up the biggest rock - the passage between the pillars is completely under water. We were fascinated by the shapes worn by the constant tides - on the left we see an old woman's profile (with a big pointy nose!) - and if you use your imagination the rock on the right looks a bit like a standing bear.

Another section of the coastline, bare at low tide

 

South of the rocks, miles of mud flats are exposed, with muddy streams cutting through the muck.

View of the rocks from the cliff above

So ends our 7-week tour of the Canadian Maritimes and Newfoundland. We'll need to return at some point - while we saw and did a lot, there's a lot more to these provinces than we had time to explore!

Glenora Distillery and Broad Cove Scottish Concert

On a lovely Sunday in Nova Scotia, we drove to the western side of Cape Breton Island to tour the only single malt whisky distillery in North America, then on to the Broad Cove Scottish Concert, an annual celebration of Celtic music.

The Glenora Distillery and Inn, which survived several cash-flow crises during its first few years, is now an award-winning producer of single-malt whisky (otherwise known as Scotch, but only if it comes from Scotland). The pool in front of the distillery is a collection reservoir for water from McLellan's Brook, which flows through the grounds behind the building pictured above, as the mash process requires more water than can be drawn from the creek itself at one time:


McLellan Brook, flowing between the distillery and and the Inn and restaurant that are part of the complex.



 Gary and Tammy Beeler, long time friends of Barbara's who moved from sailboats to motorhomes long before we did, joined us for the tour of Glenora:





The distilllery tour was short, but very interesting, and the building houses a nice exhibit explaining the production of single-malt whisky and its history in Scotland and Nova Scotia.This huge mash tun is where the sugars are extracted by soaking the malted, smoked, and ground barley in hot water. The extracted sugar water ferments with added yeast to about 9% alcohol. It then goes through two disllations that concentrate the alcohol first to 22% in the right hand still, then to about 70% in the left hand still. The final alcohol content is adjusted with additional water, then aged in oak barrels for a number of years.

After the tour, we tasted the 10-year-old Glen Breton single malt - it was luscious, smooth and nutty with a very long finish. Unfortunately, the price was well beyond our budget!

We then went just a few miles north to the grounds of St. Margaret's Church at Broad Cove, for the 55th Annual Broad Cove Scottish Concert. This event turned out to be a "down home" affair, where locals and returning locals spent more time visiting than listening to the many small groups who performed.

We had especially looked forward to hearing Natalie MacMaster and her husband Donnell Leahy (Donnell grew up in Broad Cove), who were scheduled from 7-9 pm - unfortunately, they didn't get started til after 8, then only played a few numbers before turning the stage over to their numerous nieces and nephews - good family fun, but not really what we'd come to hear.

As always, Natalie was dressed to the nines - hard to believe they have 4 children under the age of 6. She and Donnell are incredible fiddlers - we have loved their music since hearing them in concert at the University of Florida.

Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, NS

After returning from Newfoundland, we spent several extra days exploring Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. First, we drove the Cabot Trail, the famed drive around the north end of Cape Breton, around the edges of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and along some dramatic shorelines. To get to Cape Breton from North Sydney, where we were camped, we used the Englishtown Ferry to cross the narrow opening between St. Ann's Harbour and St. Ann's Bay, to the sandy spit of land extending from Cape Breton:

The current rushing through this narrow gap is very strong when the tides change, so the ferry uses the cable you can see in the foreground to keep itself on target. The whole ride takes less than 5 minutes, but cuts about half an hour off the travel time to Cape Breton.

As we drove north on the east coast of Cape Breton, the road snaked up, down, and around, providing many spectacular views on the clear, warm day that we were lucky to have for our drive:



Looking southeast along the eastern Cape Breton Island shoreline



We proceeded across the top of the National Park, stopping to view waterfalls that looked good in person, but not so great in photos. We stopped at the Rusty Anchor restaurant on the northwest edge of our drive, and enjoyed lunch on the deck as we watched tour boats in search of whales and persuaded Shelby that she had to stay off the edge of the deck.

On the west coast of Cape Breton, the road again twists and turns, high above the coast. We stopped at several lookouts to see if we could spot whales, but had no luck. We did stop on one lookout with one end cordoned off by police tape, and an ambulance on site - turned out that some unfortunate soul had driven his car right through the guardrail and down the steep slope - we never did find out what became of the driver.

We enjoyed the drive around Cape Breton, but were glad we were in the car, not the motorhome!