White Mountains NH

We’ve seen a lot of waterfalls the last 3 days. Paul’s favorite was Diana’s Baths. It had numerous waterfalls with small pools in between. If the weather had been warmer, we could have gone swimming in the pools, which would be a lot of fun. I think my favorite was Arethusa Falls, which happens to be the highest waterfall in New Hampshire. I swear though, the hike to it was 2 miles each way, and it felt like it was uphill both ways(see picture). It was all hill, and rough terrain. The others were fun to get to, but in the autumn there isn’t much water running. It would be more dramatic in the spring. We moved from Gorham to Twin Mountain so that we could more easily access different areas of the mountains. We explored the Crawford Notch area one day, including the Willey House historic site, which I have been to several times. We drove all the way down to North Conway, had ice cream, as usual, and just stopped along the way if something looked interesting. At one point we stopped to take a picture of Mt. Washington, and a fox was meandering around the pull-off, looking for handouts from people. I took a lot of pictures, but it was kind of sad to see. Especially since a little girl did feed him, while her parents watched. Duhhhhhh. The campground we stayed at apparently has a resident bear that hangs around, although we didn’t get to see her, nor did we see a moose while we were here, which was very disappointing. We could have gone on a Moose Tour, but elected not to do it. We did meet Debby and Ken at the campground and immediately hit it off with them- conversation never lagged, that’s for sure. Sometimes we had multiple conversations going as we sat around the campfire trading life stories. They are also full timing and just starting out, although they are headed for FL for the next 6 months, and then they will be on the road- their passion is flyfishing. Yesterday was Franconia Notch exploration day. We did the Gorge tour, which was good, quite a walk, but expensive at $12 per person. We drove down to Clarks Trading Post, but there was no bear show that day. We did see the bears though. In the afternoon we explored the “Lost River”, which is a gorge with caves that you can go in and out of. The main reason we went there is because I remember going there as a kid and I wanted to see if it was how I remembered it. Paul had never been there. It was a fun afternoon. Left NH behind this morning, headed to Lake Champlain, VT. On the way we stopped at Cabot Creamery and took a tour of the facility. It was really interesting. Cabot is a farmers’ cooperative- it has grown from local farmers to hundreds of farmers all over New England. There are signs in several places that make people aware that ALL the profits of everything go back to the farmers. There was an amazing amount of sample cheeses, dips etc set out for people to help themselves. We ate quite a bit, but we also bought some great cheese. I tried something slightly different. It was cinnamon pear jam mixed with cream cheese- VERY good! I bought the jam so I could make it sometime.

White Mountains (Gorham) NH

As we drove along, leaving Maine for New Hampshire, I realized I will really miss the ocean. One of the things I loved about Acadia was walking in the woods and being able to smell the ocean as well as the pine trees. There is a very distinct smell to salt water that I really love. Lakes just aren't the same. I am looking forward to seeing other parts of the country, and discovering all the differences that make each area special and unique, but I think the Atlantic Ocean will always feel like home.

Paul has a fascination for forts, and Fort Knox was pretty much on our way to NH, so we detoured just a bit to be able to check it out. One of the things we have discovered after seeing quite a few forts on the east coast, is that most of them either never saw action, or saw very little action. It always seems to take so long to build them (25 years for this one) that by the time they get built, the technology has changed so much that they are obsolete. By the time they were ready for the cannons at this fort, cannons were obsolete because ships were made of steel.

Our ticket to the Fort also included a bonus feature for Paul. We drove across the Penobscot Bridge, which has a huge tower, that looked like an observation tower to Paul. Our ticket to the fort included a ticket to the top of what actually in fact is an observation tower. That was a fun and unique experience.

We arrived in Shelburne/Gorham NH after spending a night "on the road," at a campground along the route. We also made a stop at the visitors center in NH. We have learned to make that stop as soon as we enter a new state. There is so much information we can get there about what the state has to offer. We hadn't made a reservation at a campground so we beelined for the one we wanted. Most of the campgrounds around here are not very full right now, so we are only making reservations if we want a specific campground for some reason. After setting up, we took a ride around the area to check it out, and make some plans for the next few days. Once we did that, the weather changed everything anyway!

Saturday the idea was to go hiking , check out some waterfalls and investigate anything else that looked interesting. When we got up, it was cloudy, VERY windy, and not exactly warm. An executive decision was made to "trade days". We usually do our errands and laundry on Sundays, but with the lousy weather it made more sense to do it Saturday. We were really glad we did, when we saw today's weather. Beautiful! Warm, beautiful blue skies, and just as importantly, no wind. We took off to explore and stopped for a picnic lunch along the way (we usually pack a lunch every day and eat wherever we happen to be).

It was never really in our plan to go to the top of Mt Washington. We have both been there, and for whatever reason, didn't really feel the need to do it again. Until we saw it. And by that I mean, we could see the whole thing. Usually its in the clouds.

As we drove up the mountain in the van, the driver commented that there are really only about 12 days a year that are this fabulous on the mountain. The air temperature was 49, toasty warm for the mountain (yesterday:35 degrees), visibility was 130 miles, (yesterday:1/16 mile in freezing fog) and the wind was only 30mph (yesterday: gusting to 90 mph).

The views were absolutely amazing.

Acadia National Park, ME

this video is one that I took from the top of Acadia Mountain...the view was incredible!
I must say, at the risk of jinxing things, our weather has held for quite a long time. Since we've been in Maine its been great during the day, sunny or partly sunny, and in the 60s or 70s. At night it gets cold, sometimes in the 40s, but who cares....
Bar Island was different from what we thought it would be...we brought water shoes and a towel, expecting that to cross over to the island at low tide, we would be slogging through watery sand, and would get wet. When we got there it turns out that it is more like a gravel road, and trucks actually drive out there at low tide.. we didn't get at all wet. We did walk the island, which had great views of the mainland. No pictures, since I actually forgot to bring the camera. Our plan was to grab a piece of pizza for lunch at a place we passed by the other day. It smelled soooo good! Unfortunately, it was closed and instead we ate a restaurant called Rte 66. It had great 50s memorabilia, and awful food. it was the biggest waste of money, and the worst food we have had in a long time. That afternoon, there was actually a cruise ship in port, which was funny because there were so many people downtown, they were swarming the place.
We knew that Wednesday would be our last day here so anything that was really important for us to see was put on the agenda for the day. In the morning we went to the Gardens and Museum in the National Park. The Nature Center was really interesting, but the rest of it we probably could have passed on. From there we went hiking a trail along the ocean and met a really cool older couple. They were right behind us starting out on the trail so we chatted with them. A short time later they realized it was a more difficult trail than they had anticipated, and it was really too late for them to turn back. They said they'd just take it slow and steady. We met up with them again a few minutes later when we paused to look at the view. Turns out he is 79 and she is 80. Amazing what they were doing! Again we went ahead, but the trail got more vertical and challenging, so we kind of hung around waiting to see if they were ok...we joked with them, telling stories about people who push their spouse over a cliff and claim they fell. This time I asked them if they wanted company on the trail, but they said they were fine. Still, we saw them about 4 more times. That was not an easy trail! Their agility was amazing...!
After continuing on the "Loop Road" that winds through the area, we then made our way over to the smaller, non-touristy towns. Paul found a store that sells his new favorite treat- its called a Harbor Bar and its vanilla ice cream between two incredibly good chocolate chip cookies, and the whole thing is covered in chocolate. He had one a few days ago and has been on the hunt to find them again. What makes it great is the quality of the cookies. They taste like homemade...
It was approaching sunset when we reached the light house at Bass Harbor. Great timing! We had about 2 minutes to look around before I had to start taking pictures. There were about 20 other people there doing the same thing, and about 1200 mosquitos per person. I think we left before the sun had even completely set!
Today was a travel day- we are still in Maine but tomorrow we will move on to NH. We may take the time in the morning to get the oil changed on Paul's baby...um, I mean, truck..
We spent tonight trying to make some decisions on how long we want to stay in NH and VT. Our original idea was to head to Lancaster PA and the amish area before we see Jess in mid October, but, Joe and Judy Rizzo, the people who bought our boat, have invited us to join them for a couple of days of hiking the Adirondacks. It sounds like fun so we are trying to move our schedule around to be able to do that. I think Lancaster will have to wait.