Maine, York - Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - Long Sands Beach

Got my toes in the sand today, but not much in the water – the water was cold.

 

 

We spent the day at Long Sands Beach along with a lot of other people.

Maddie was looking fashionable as always.

 

 

Lots of seaweed washed up on shore, it was churned up during the storm a couple of days ago.  Huge clams get stuck in some of these bundles.

 

 

Jason was braver than the rest of us, he got out at least waist deep.

Maddie tried the boogie board.

The weather was beautiful today, just right for sitting and watching the waves come in.

Or taking a nap.

This little hermit crab was just going in circles.

After naps a different swim suit was in order for playing Frisbee.

Maddie and her friend Ryan having an important conversation.

Before we left Maddie had to bury Papaw’s foot in the sand.

Maine, York - Monday, June 29, 2015 - Long Sands Beach

Even though it is still a little cool and breezy, we walked about two blocks down Long Sands Beach after lunch.  Nubble Lighthouse is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.

 

 

Today the tide is still pretty high so the beach is more pebbles and rock than sand.

 

 

I’m guessing these are called beach roses, they smell like roses and have buds like roses but their blooms are much looser than the roses I am used to seeing.  There are quite a few milkweed plants mixed in with them, not sure if that is on purpose or not, but they are good for the Monarch butterflies so I hope they keep them.

 

 

There were some treasure hunters out plus a few hardy swimmers.

Last night the waves were crashing up to the top of those cliffs in the background, definitely much calmer today.

Flagg’s looks a little better today since it isn’t pouring down rain.  Greg found out how to get the sewer hooked up – but we are still stuck and just mostly level.

The rest of the afternoon is going to be spent doing laundry.  I think Greg went through darn near all of his clothes yesterday getting things done in the downpour.  It was raining when we left the Bar Harbor area and still raining when we got here so he unhooked and hooked us back up in the rain.

We have to get the food in our freezer and fridge used up before we get back to Indiana next week and put the coach in the shop for two or three weeks.  So, this evening we are putting together beef and noodles for supper, Robyn and Jason are fixing something to go with it.  We have steaks thawing for tomorrow night.  By the time we get through the week our cupboards should be about bare.

Maine, York - Sunday, June 28, 2015 - Flagg's RV Park

We’ve moved to York, Maine to be close to where daughter Robyn and her family will be staying for the next week.  They are our first stop on this summer’s “grandkids tour” so we are looking forward to spending some quality time with them.

It took us a little over four hours to get here this morning and it rained the whole way.  Some of the rains were heavy downpours blowing sideways because of the strong winds.  Not a good day for driving or for much of anything else.

We picked Flagg’s RV Park off of the internet because it was the closest one we could find to where Robyn and Jason are staying.  I think there are some others that don’t advertise that might be a better choice, we’ll look around this week and see what else is available in the area.  Right now we aren’t going anywhere, we are stuck until the ground dries out.  The sites here aren’t paved or gravel, right now just wet muddy grass.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be a little drier and Greg can figure out how to get our sewer hooked up.  The hook up for this sight appears to be a piece of PVC pipe sticking out of the ground in an elbow – nothing like what we normally hook up to.

We all went to Lobster Cove for dinner this evening.

 

 

I chose the Lobster Pie which was big chunks of lobster in lobster bisque baked with crumbs on top, pretty tasty.

I tried to get a couple of decent pictures through the window of the restaurant to show the huge waves crashing up on the shore.  It was too darn cold and windy to stand outside and try to take any others.

It’s in the low 50’s with very strong winds – not exactly weather for exploring the nice beaches they have here.  We are hoping for better weather for the rest of the week because we are just a block from the beach.

Maine, Bar Harbor - Saturday, June 27, 2015 - Whale Watching

Whale watching today!!  I’m stepping outside of my comfort zone again today.  Since I don’t know how to swim I usually avoid being in a situation where I could possibly drown.  The advertisements said we would be going out about 20 miles from Bar Harbor into water that was 400 feet deep.  Sounded pretty scary until I realized I could drown in the deep end of a pool in someone’s backyard – might as well do it big if it is my day to go.

 

We had lunch at Stewman’s Downtown again today.  We watched a group of kayakers heading out.  That one headed for the pier ended up with its nose into it.

 

 

We really enjoyed our haddock sandwiches, mine was with sweet potato fries.

Our whale watching boat the Friendship V is similar to its sister ship.  We chose to sit outside at the rear of the second deck.  I wasn’t sure whether or not I would get seasick so this seemed like a good location J.  Not a problem, enjoyed every minute and it was a great picture taking location.

In the harbor the wind was pretty brisk.

The wheelhouse has lots of bells and whistles.

I made sure to check out the location of the life boats and the life jackets.

We are on our way.

Another picture of the schooner in the harbor.

The houses on the cliffs were amazing.  This one was my favorite.

This lighthouse isn’t always on the whale watching tour.  We were able to take a little longer trip today because the boat didn’t have to be back for another trip after us.  This is the light on Mount Desert Rock.  The lighthouse was built in 1847.  This lighthouse is further offshore (21 miles) and more exposed than any other on the east coast.  The “rock” is only 600 yards long and 200 yards wide.  It is frequently submerged by waves in storms.  The keepers of this lighthouse were paid more than keepers of other lighthouses, they had to be pretty hearty souls to be able to stand the isolation and barren location.  Rainwater was collected but drinking water had to be shipped in.  Electricity was provided by a small gas powered generator.  There hasn’t been a keeper on the island since the 1970’s when the light was automated.

In 2009 Hurricane Bill did a lot of damage to the house and outbuildings.  All of the furniture and equipment on the first floor of the house were ruined when it flooded almost to the ceiling.

Now the only inhabitants of the island are harbor and grey seals.  A few looked like they were coming out to greet us.

See the mountains faintly in the distance?  That is where we came from.  We ended up being 37 miles from Bar Harbor in water that was over 500 feet deep.

The whale we spotted today was a fin whale or razorback.  This is the second largest of the whales reaching up to 90 feet in length and about 73 tons.  They are called the “greyhound of the water” because they can reach speeds of over 25 mph.  Our captain clocked this one today at about 16 mph.  This species of whale is an endangered species right now.

The whale today never got completely out of the water.  This type of whale can leave the water entirely and then dive to a depth of 800 feet in search of food.

 

 

Since it had to come up for air about every 15 minutes we got several looks at it.

 

 

 

I know that since there isn’t anything in the picture to compare it to it is hard to judge it’s size (this could be a sardine swimming in a pan J)  You’ll have to trust me on this one – it was huge!

 

 

The water was kind of choppy in the harbor, but it was very calm out where we ended up watching the whale.

Although I started out on the outside of my comfort zone, I would do this again.  It was an amazing day.

Maine, Schoodic Peninsula - Friday, June 26, 2015 - Schoodic National Scenic Byway

We couldn’t get tickets for whale watching today, we’ll be going tomorrow.  We had to get out and take advantage of the nice weather so we headed for a lesser known area of Acadia National Park on Schoodic Peninsula which is across Frenchman Bay from where we have been exploring on Mount Desert Island.  The Schoodic National Scenic Highway runs along the western coast of the Schoodic Peninsula.

 

 

Our first stop was Taunton Bay.  Fresh and salt waters meet and mix here.  The tides rise and fall 12 feet every day.  Right now it is low tide.

The Hancock-Sullivan Bridge over the Taunton River is our way over to the peninsula.

Native granite is used for about ever thing from curbs to decorative posts.

 

 

 

Wildflowers are in full bloom adding some color to the otherwise green and grey landscape.  Don’t get me wrong, even without the flowers it is anything but boring.

 

 

 

 

 

This is looking across Frenchman Bay to the mountains of Mount Desert Island.  From left to right they are:  Champlain, the valley is Bar Harbor, Dorr Mountain and Mount Cadillac.  If you stand at the top of Mount Cadillac you will be one of the first to see the sun rise on a new day in the United States.

 

 

Lobster fishermen at work on Frenchman Bay.

We stopped at a little paved pull off and got a great picture of the Winter Harbor Light on Mark Island.

This little waterfall in the granite slabs was intriguing.

A trail led down to the granite slabs that make up the shoreline.

All of this looks like rocks, it is really huge slabs of granite.

 

 

This is looking across Frenchman Bay to the Winter Harbor Light and on to Mount Desert Island behind it.

Schoodic Point was our main destination.  You could hardly tell where the water stopped and the sky started.  Absolutely magnificent!!

 

 

This ribbon of black rock that looked like slate was striking going through all of the granite slabs.

I wanted to get a picture of the water rushing into this deep gorge.  Notice Greg telling me that if I would step over a little I could get a better picture – not happening.

 

 

Do you realize how hard it is to time a picture to get the water spraying up over the rocks?

This picture was taken at Blueberry Hill.  That is the Prospect Harbor Point Light in the background.  It is privately owned so we couldn’t get much closer.  The ringing of the buoys was a sound I hadn’t heard before.

I think these are called cairns, people build them to mark that they have been here.

Lobster boats at rest right now in Prospect Harbor.

Loved the day, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.  Traffic was light to non-existent, roads were curvy and the scenery was beautiful – perfect ride.