Campobello (08-10-18)

Once you head north out of Acadia National Park, it isn’t too long before you run into Canada. We had no reservations anywhere, so we looked at a map to see what looked interesting. Campobello was the answer to that question.

Campobello is an international park- basically that means that everyone who comes to visit needs a passport. Its also an island, and the border stops are at either end of the bridge.




At the border stop our way onto the island (which is in New Brunswick) we were asked, as usual, about our alcohol. Paul replied our agreed upon answer :  not a lot- just enough for personal use. Deliberately vague, since we are only allowed basically a liter apiece, and we perhaps had more than that. (We sort of had forgotten we brought a .75 liter bottle of the good tequila.) The agent was very nice and let us know that  next time, we need to know exactly what we have, in case they check, and find more than we said- in which case they could flag us. Hmm…now we had to drink for two days or heaven forbid, dump something out.

We had booked two nights in the Provincial Park, and once we were set up, we went off exploring. At one end of the island there is a smaller, very picturesque island, with a light house on it.

Both the island and the mainland we were standing on had stairs leading down into the water-and a big sign:

When we looked into the water, we could see arrows painted on the rocks, showing where the trail is. It would have been fun, but we never did get there at low tide. That’s ok, we got to watch the whales off the coast.

So, what is Campobello? An escape from everyday life and the heat of the city for the rich and who cares if they are famous.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s parents took him here when he was a young child and was sick, because they thought the sea air would do him good. They fell in love with the place and built a “cottage”. They were one of about 30 wealthy families who had homes on the island. Whenever they were here, they mingled with the locals and were really just interested in the fresh air, being outdoors, and sailing.



Franklin grew up spending summers on the island, and his children continued the tradition as much as possible. When the next door neighbor passed away, she left her cottage to Franklin and Eleanor, and they no longer had to share space with his mother.

We took two tours on the island, which are offered free of charge. The first was a half hour tour of the Roosevelt cottage. The tour guides are really knowledgeable and the tour was really interesting.

The second tour was longer, and was called the FUN tour. She started by asking us all to introduce ourselves by adding an adjective in front of our name that starts with the first letter of our name. We went around the circle, and I became Silly Sue, since that’s all I could think of. When we were done, she said she just wanted to see if we would do it. There was some silliness like that, but also we got to go behind the scenes more, and heard more personal type stories of the people on the island.




At a neighbors cottage, we heard about the crazy parties they would have, with dancing and live music. Franklin would often play the piano at the parties. Then she asked if anyone played, and everyone who did, was given a chance to play the piano.

Usually the dancing would take place on the large deck, and once we got there, each family group was given 5 minutes to practice a dance to perform for everyone. There would be a prize for the best dance.

I was surprised that everyone was pretty inventive. We had the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Hokey Pokey.

I was even more surprised when we actually won, for our version of the “Porter Polka”.



Most people participated- and the guides were very upfront before the tour- if you didn’t want to have fun and be silly, its not the tour for you!





After the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, the land was deeded to the United States and Canada and is jointly owned and operated by the two countries.


After leaving the island, we spent one night back in the U.S. before heading back into Canada. We stocked up on some food items and did some laundry before we would need to pay for it with Canadian coins.

Once we crossed into Canada again, we headed straight for Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. We have been here before but it was a good stopping point along the way to Nova Scotia.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world- up to 50 feet.  When the tide is low, you can walk on the sea floor. There is an up stair case, and a separate Down staircase, due to the amount of people. You buy at ticket that is good for two days, so you can come at low tide one day and high tide the next.

Lucky for us that a) we have been here before and b) we chose to go at low tide first- because the second day, the weather was awful and certainly was not worth getting drenched to see high tide.

Anyway, this is what the rocks look like at low tide and  high tide- to get a perspective, you can see people underneath the rocks in the first picture.





















We had one more treat to repeat before we headed into Nova Scotia. The tidal bore. Along with such a huge tidal change, comes a tidal bore.  Basically, so much water rushes in the river so fast, that it comes in as a wave.  In Moncton there is a park where you can watch the bore come down the river. Once the wave passes, the water level raises at an incredible pace.

Now we were ready to move on to Nova Scotia.

Hiking Acadia (8-05-18)

We have been to Acadia twice before, and I guess you could say we have seen the “tourist stuff”. So this time, we were all about the hiking, and the food, and the visiting…..

The only reason we really decided to stop here now is because I looked for a last minute spot and actually found one, in the park,  no hook up, but close to hiking trails.

We hit the ground running, so to speak, with the Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail. This trail uses ladders and stone stairs to ascend Dorr Mountain.














When I saw the description of this trail I was pretty excited. It had a good amount of elevation gain at 1150 ft, and at 3.3 miles, it was short enough for us to handle.

I thought it looked like a lot of fun, and it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Once we were done with the ladders, we had some granite to hike up.

The views at the top of the fog shifting over the nearby islands definitely made it worth it.

Our descent was slowed by the blueberries along the trail. We are in prime blueberry season and there were thousands of them just sitting there along the trail. Yum!

Our “day off” from hiking was spent…hiking. One of Paul’s fraternity brothers lives in the area, and we met up with him for a hike. It wasn’t in the National park- it was in a dog friendly park so that we could bring Cooper, Rich’s young black English Lab.

It was a 3 mile hike but essentially no elevation gain, so it was reasonably easy.









With the temperature and the humidity in the mid 80s, Cooper was just happy he was allowed to go for a swim!










Our reward was lunch with a view. We picked up sandwiches at a nearby deli and relaxed on the waterfront.
We also went to dinner at Rich and Sue’s house one night, but of course, I didn’t get any pictures!

Next up on our hiking agenda was the Precipice Trail….sounds scary, doesn’t it? Yep, so scary that this is all I saw of the trail:

They warn  you in large letters that if you are afraid of heights, this is not the trail for you. It literally climbs up the side of the mountain. Hmm, not for me, but Paul has wanted to do this trail for a while.. It’s usually closed because of nesting peregrine falcons, but there was no nest this year.











Off he went, along with about 20 other people that started at the same time as him. With my having no cell coverage in the park, we both took Jeep key with us. It was my intention to walk down the road to the beach and hang out there while I waited for him, but I never left.




Instead, I chatted with people as they were starting the trail and also with those who were finishing, so the time passed by pretty quick. And I took lots of pictures.  I couldn’t tell until we got home to the computer that I actually managed to get a few of him.



:
He is waiting for his turn to climb one of the ladders in this picture.

This is what it looked like to him:

He was quite impressed with the view from the top.

It took him about 3 hours to do the trail.

Its been really hot and muggy in Acadia, and we quickly learned to keep our swimsuits and towels in the Jeep so they would be handy. Most days we ended up at Sand Beach for a swim, or in Paul’s case, watching his wife swim.

Running out of days to hike, we broke our unwritten rule of taking a day off in between, and headed for the Beehive Trail the day after he hiked the Precipice.

The Beehive isn’t a long trail on its own – once you climb up it, you decide which trail you want to take to get back down.

Its a mini version of the Precipice trail, with it’s share of ladder climbing and steep drop offs.

This picture was actually taken when we hiked it the first time, in 2009- it shows both the steep drop, and the gorgeous views.

This is my least favorite section of the trail, where I really debate turning around.

Once we reached the top, Paul decided his legs had had enough and he opted for the short trail back down. I wanted to do the Gorham Mountain Trail, so he went back to the Jeep and drove down the road to the trailhead where I would finish.

It was a fun trail, with great views, and the total mileage was only about 2 miles.

Before leaving Acadia, he managed to have lobster one more time- this time it was a lobster roll- his first time having one! It was so great that the weather was nice enough to sit out on the dock at the Fish House Grill.

Coastal Maine (08-01-18)

Eventually we left Massachusetts.  The last time we came thru the small coastal town of Rockport, ME, we were towing our 5th wheel, and had reservations further up the coast. This time, I was determined to stop and check it out. 

The nearby town of Rockland has an Elks Lodge with RV sites, so we plopped the camper there, and started exploring.

First up was food- we found a local place to have dinner- another lobster for Paul, and even though it was cool outside, we had a great view while we ate outside at Claws Restaurant.

Slightly south of us was Owl Head Light, so for our first full day, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out. There has been a lighthouse here since 1825 and this particular one was built in 1852.

The views from the lighthouse were awesome. The fog kept rolling in and out, constantly changing the look of the shoreline. I love the smell of the ocean!



















After exploring the shoreline area, we decided to head to a nearby beach to have lunch. Not a bad view!

Our “hike” for the day was along the Rockland Breakwater. It’s 7/8 of a mile all the way out to the end.

Once there, you can relax and watch the many lobstermen pull in their traps.

After taking it easy for a day, we looked for a challenging hike, and Camden Hills State Park delivered.

I have to say that this is one of the best days we have had in a long time.

We started by hiking Megunticook Trail to Adams Lookout (2.5 miles RT with 900 ft of elevation gain). The trail was fun and the views at the top were amazing! 

We are still ramping up on the hiking thing, so this was perfect.

Once we descended from the trail, we crossed the road, threw our chairs on our backs (they have straps to carry them) and hiked a short distance to the perfect spot to have lunch. We spent two hours just relaxing and watching the fog and the boats in the distance.

We spent our last day just driving around through the local towns. Most of them are on the water, and have a few restaurants and shops. After driving through them all, my favorite was Camden. It was  a great mix of outdoors, restaurants, shops and waterfront.

The small town of Thomaston doesn’t have a pretty harbor, but it does have two unique things- one is a store that showcases the beautiful work, much of it woodwork, done by prison inmates..

…and  an urban garden, which is planter boxes along Main street that contain herbs, lettuce, tomatoes etc. which are free for the taking.  It was kinda neat.

Paul managed to find lobster again along the way, and I was happy with the haddock chowder.