Maine trip 2012- part 1

We have been trying to go to Maine to see friends for about 10 years. This year we finally did it. Wow!
  We started our trip, with Chris and Jerry,( our intrepid travel partners), in Boston. We rented a red Toyota Sienna mini van and headed out for Skowhegan,Maine, to visit Andy and Donna.

Skowhegan

Walking on a local trail

 The weather was a little rainy, but everything was so green and beautiful. Andy gave us a wonderful walking tour of Skowhegan and then off to their house for a great meal and good times. 

Chris and Donna cooking supper.

Jerry, Robert, and Andy cooking supper.

Good times, great memories.

We left the next morning to make our way to Ft. Kent, in the north. The drive was just incredibly scenic. 

Kennebec River

Mt. Katahdin

Portage Lake

 We arrived in Ft. Kent in time for a Chinese Buffet supper with our great friends, Norm and Gabye.

The beginning of Rt. 1.

Ft. Kent blockhouse

Jerry on the Fish River

Chris on the Fish River

Melissa picking potatoes! (Look close!!!)

We toured Ft. Kent and then headed north to their camp in Quebec on Lake Jerry. It took awhile to get through Canadian Customs, but we finally did!

The camp on Lake Jerry

 It is such a privilege when people share their lives with you. Norm and Gabye
were so warm and generous with us. They even gave us their bed, Norm slept downstairs and Gabye stayed with her parents. They had a wonderful Labor Day bar-b-que with their families and totally included us. It was really interesting, since French was the dominant language. The food was wonderful! Norm took us on a boat ride around the lake. It was so much like the lakes where I grew up. I had a lot of memories surface. It was a totally different experience for the rest of our group. They are all Arizona people and this terrain is so different for them. We all loved being there.

Getting ready to put the boat in the water.

Lake Jerry

Captain Norm

Robert, Melissa, and Jerry

The boat ride. 

Lake Jerry

Mist on the Lake

                                                               

Lake sunset. 

It is such a wonder to have a place on water. I have always had that dream. 

One day we decided to go to New Brunswick to the Botanical Garden. It was so nice. I wondered what would still be blooming in the fall, but there was plenty to see. They even had a butterfly house!

Melissa in the gazebo

And that ain't no bull!

Gabye and Norm

Stonehenge of Canada.

Robert holding up the stones.

We went back into Maine to Madawaska, one of the four corners of the United States. That made our third corner. We just need Key West!

The photographer was lopsided!

Jerry

  Our next major stop on the road trip was Bar Harbor. What a beautiful place. It is on the coast and right down the road from Acadia National Park.

                                            View from our balcony in Bar Harbor

                                                             The beach at Acadia.

Most of the beaches are rocky. The waves did not seem very high and their were not many people anywhere we went. Acadia is a small National Park. You can drive to most places in the park. It is very beautiful.

                                                          Jordan Pond in Arcadia

                                                                Forest in Acadia

                                                 View from the top of Cadillac Mountain

Thunder Hole in Acadia where the waves "thunder in".

We spent a few days in the Bar Harbor area.  Then we headed down the coast to Kennebunkport, Old Orchard Beach, and New Hampshire. The coast was extremely beautiful.

                                                                         Kennebunkport

                                                           Lighthouse at Dice Head

                                                             Old Orchard Beach

                                                Everybody has to stop at LL Bean!!!

We stopped at a beach in New Hampshire. Their was a jetty there with hundreds of rock piles. I think that these were memorial piles. I am sure that only the people who built each pile knew the reason for it. We made two. One for my late father in law and one for all others we have loved and lost. The place was windswept and had a very holy feel to it.





I wanted to just stay and spend time everywhere we stopped. We saw a lot in the time we were there and it did not seem like enough. I love the coasts of the US. I would spend all of my time on them if I could. I think being around the ocean is magical. As much as we travel, I always want to go back to the ocean.