Post by Grubb. Tuesday morning we woke up to marvel at the colorful sunrise on the bay. Across the water, in Canada, the lights of St. Andrews were still twinkling through the trees. After breakfast (banana for Ella, pistachio muffin for me), we drove up the highway eight miles and then stopped for a hike…
So long to Downeast: today’s route
Post by Ella. We see the term “Downeast” a lot here. I have found a couple of different explanations about why this area got the name. Here is one from Down East magazine: “When ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which were to the east of Boston), the wind was at their backs,…
About that smoke
Post by Grubb. John Wylie texted this morning to ask whether we have been affected by the Canadian fires. I mentioned that Saturday, when we were on Cadillac Mountain, I thought a mist was clouding the view from the eastern ridge. But on looking at shots taken from the reverse angle up the top of…
Up at sunrise
Post by Ella. I woke this morning to see a little tinge of orange peeking through the opening in the draperies. Yikes, I could capture sunrise for the first time on this trip. I leapt out of bed (yeah, 73 year olds shouldn’t leap), grabbed my phone and yanked open the sliding door to the…
The haunting of Eastport
Post by Grubb. Touring the new dimension, I’m getting used to not being thrown by the counterintuitive. As Ella covered in her blog post, waterfalls not only don’t fall, they ripple in reverse. Today (I’m guessing Monday) on our way up the coast we took a side jaunt into Eastport and discovered that although there…
Reversing Falls
Post by Ella. Between Dennys Bay and Cobscook (the Maliseet-Passamaquoddy word for “boiling tides”j Bay there is Reversing Falls Park. Intriguing. The Old County road off Route 1 led to a charming one lane road where we had to stop for a gaggle of geese and a photo of a seafaring church. Then google maps…
Easternmost: our route today
Post by Ella. We left Northeast Harbor and headed to Robbinston, Maine with a stop for groceries and gas in Machias, a picnic lunch in Cobscott Bay, an other dimensional experience at Reversing Falls, and a bit of emptiness in Eastport.
Arcadian Acadia
Post by Grubb. Taking the last hike of the day (Sunday…I think…whatever…) we went out the back door of the inn where we’re staying and headed up into the woods. It was late afternoon and no one was on the trail. Just us and the trees and the mossy stones. The root-gnarled path took some…
Lovely inns
Post by Ella. In Boothbay Harbor our accommodation was at Howard House Lodge, conveniently located right off Route 27 on the outskirts of Boothbay. The Lodge is small, about 25 rooms. The room was spacious with a balcony overlooking a wooded area. And super quiet. On our first night, we were the only guests. The…
High-stepping the mountain stone
Post by Grubb. Sunday morning we got up early and headed over to the ocean edge of Acadia National Park to climb the peak of Gorham Mountain. All 525 feet! Welcome to a world where mountains are the size of what I’ve been accustomed to experiencing as hills in New Mexico. So at the start…
Cadillac Mountain views
Post by Ella. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a German man of dubious character, was granted a tract of land in Maine in 1688. The land now contains Bar Harbor and Cadillac Mountain (originally called Green Mountain but later renamed after Antoine in 1918). There are spectacular views from the summit of Cadillac Mountain. With…
Bah humbug, Bah Hahba
Post by Ella. What is the magic that attracts people to Bar Harbor? You got me. I’m sure the mansions, tucked away somewhere are, well, big. But seriously? Two main streets packed with Knick-knack shoppers, perilous street crossing because drivers are frustrated at having to stop every two feet for pedestrians, parking takes 20 minutes…
On Jordan Pond
Post by Grubb. Scale changes when you enter a new dimension. When the Acadia Visitor Center shuttle bus dropped us off at foot of the Jordan Pond trail I realized my proportional world was in for a readjustment. First there was the mob clotting the throughway by the hot dog stand that led to the…
A little context
Post by Ella. Yesterday’s (Saturday) agenda.
Way down below…an eagle?
Post by Grubb. The Penobscot River was not to be missed since we were going to cross it on the way to Northeast Harbor. The bridge that crosses this expansive river is stayed by a spray of cables streaming down from two giant columns, one of which has the tallest bridge observatory in the world….