Mainely Acadia

A view from top of Mt Cadilac, the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard north of somewhere in South America. 

Our time in Acadia NP on Mt Desert Island (MDI for short) was spent in a little bit of many different experiences. The only activty I had too much of was driving/riding around the island getting from one something to another. 

We ate well...

Dan's lobster. 

My pork chop. 

Farmer's market in South Harbor. We got some veggies, fresh bread, sweet cider and a bag of Paula's Red apples plus an apple scone & two chocolate peanut butter cookies. 

We went sea kayaking one afternoon. It was fun to go out on the water, we crossed a small strait and went around the end to a beach on Bartlett Isle. Bartlett is a private island owned by David Roosevelt. I don't have any pictures for this blog of the kayak trip because I left my phone behind. 

These wonderful wood walkways are on several park trails. They are solid and old, although I couldn't find a park employee who knew just how old. This path was around Jordan Pond which leads back to Jordan Pond House. JPH is famous for popovers and tea. 

We hiked a bit up and down the side of Mt Dorr. 

I love the rustic granite steps.

We road our bikes on the carriage trails that are open to horses, bicycles and walkers. Our route was around Eagle Lake. 

There is a network of these carriage roads separate from the busses and cars. One of the Roosevelts designed them and paid for their construction. The bridges are especially beautiful. 

A couple times we settled on the rocks above the ocean to read and sew. 

Stitching with a view:-)

This is the Bass Harbor Lighthouse, the only one on MDI. Here is another view:

Our kayak guide told us the best lobster was to be found at Thurston's Lobster Pound in Bernard. 

Here are a batch of "chicks" waiting to be weighed & boiled. At first I was trying to figure out why the lobster places were called "pounds". I thought maybe it was like dog pounds where dogs are kept after they are caught and lobsters are in lobster pounds where they go after they are caught. Ahh No, no quite. Lobster pounds are where the lobsters are sold by the pound and there are different size groups. At Thuston's they are called "chicks" for the little guys up to about 1.39lbs; the "halves" are 1.4lbs to 1.79lbs and the "selects" are over 1.8lbs. Then the lobsters are further broken down between soft shell and hard shell. The price per pound goes up for the larger lobsters. It was all kind of complicated so I just tried a lobster roll. 

It was a pile of cooled lobster meat on a toasted bun with lettuce. I confess I added a bit of mayo to make it suit my taste. Here are a couple more sights in Bernard. 

Our weather was on the cool side so I only got my feet wet at Sand Beach

Rustic sign posts in a couple styles. 

So dear reader if you have percivered in reading this blog post as my topics have wandered every which way, you will have a sense of our time in Acadia. Disorganized and varied...We wandered this way and that; I am not sure how better to describe it. 

So I wonder as I wander could life be any better? 

A Visit with Vermont

Over and over again I find the most joy in the unexpected. My knowledge of geography is mediocre at best. I had never noticed that Vermont is sandwiched by water on both the east and west borders. So our entrance and exit of Vermont were over water. This photo is from our ride on the Ticondaroga Ferry. It crosses Lake Champlain at a relatively narrow point at the southern end of the lake. 

Our first little discovery was a cider and donut store just up the road from the ferry. The cider is delicious, from the first press of the season. We took a hilly drive with many 90 degree turns to the foot of the Green Mountains. It was a hot steamy day. 

At first I just cooled my feet in the water of Dunmore Lake where we camped. It felt so good we left the cameras at the camper and went for a refreshing swim. It was such a perfect day in the water, I noticed a group of 4 men standing waist deep and talking for more than an hour. I didn't notice many bugs and the lake was great. 

Saturday morning started partly cloudy and somewhat warm. We drove north towards Waterbury of Ben & Jerry fame. 

On the way we came upon a Saturday market in Waitsvlle in the Mad River Valley. We stocked up on fresh produce and restocked the freezer with some meat. 

There was a nice mix of gifts, food and music. There seemed to be many loyal customers at each booth and we took their advice to heart. A couple had traveled from Montreal just for the pickled green tomatoes; a gentleman claimed the multigrain bread was the best anywhere; & the yak burger customer had almost filled his frequent buyer card so he could earn a free yak leather wallet. 

I didn't take a picture of our yak burger that came with roasted garlic, grilled tomato, fresh mozzarella and home made bun. It was consumed before I got a chance. The Vermont Yak company has a Facebook page and I bet you can find an image there. They told me Yak are not raised in the NW, although there are some in Montana and Colorado.

 We drove on from the fair to Waterbury. 

The tour comes with a sample and a bit of information. We learned why some of our favorite flavors have changed or gone to the "graveyard". The company has changed to all GMO free ingredients--so Hershey was not able/willing to make GMO free Heath Bars, hence Coffee Heath Bar Crunch is now Coffee and Toffee Crunch. They retired a flavor that had Kalua because they singled handed lay drove up the price of Kalua beyond profitability. By the time we came out of our tour it was raining too hard to go up the hill to the flavor graveyard. 

We headed east to Montpelier and gave the capital a rainy drive by. The population of Montpelier is under and 8000 and is the only state capital without a McDonalds. That is the sort of claim to fame that fits this pretty little state. The eastern border of Vermont is the Connectiut River. 

We crossed the Connecticut over the Mt Orne Bridge. It is 266 ft long and the sign says the vehicle clearance is 12'6" high. We are 12'2" so we should have been good to go, but

On the New Hampshire end we heard a bang on the roof... The bar hanging down has 11'6" printed on it! What the heck! Oh well just a noise no damage to the rig. 

The Connecticut River looking back to Vermont from New Hampshire. 

Here is our simple dinner of fair faire. We will give New Hampshire a quick drive through today and be in Maine by tonight. jb

On the brink of autumn...

New York New York

Our entrance to the state of New York from Ontario on Labor Day afternoon was a slow experience. Once we finally got to the border patrol I decided the slow down might not be due to all of the security. When we asked the border agent where we should eat she gave us several suggestions including driving directions. 

Here is view out the back door, bike is on rack in foreground, Lake Ontario is through the trees. The only Great Lake we missed was Erie. We did get a good look at the falls below Lake Erie. You may have heard of them. Wow! Niagara was awesome! 

The two best ways to see the falls are from the Maid in the Mist boat ride and from Canada. 

We did both. We parked on Goat Island and walked across Rainbow Bridge for the Canada view. 

This is the up close view of Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. 

Later that day we got distracted while away from the camper when a heavy rain storm hit. It was only a few hours later that we discovered the vent over the bed was open. Big oops! We took all of the bedding off, the wetness went into the foam mattress pad but not main mattress. We put the wet stuff in the cab for the night and remade the bed with the spare set of bedding. 

We learned 

In th morning there were laundry facilities in the camp so that we could dry the bedding. 

We traveled the rest of the day with a fan running under the foam pad. By nightfall it was dry. 

In all we camped 3 nights along Ontario. Then headed into the Adirondacks. What a beautiful area! It is an interesting blend of public & private land protection. 

This is Moffit Beach on Lake Sacanaga we had a pleasant afternoon and I even got some sewing done. 

I now have all of the blocks complete for my Cathedral Stars quilt. It had been so long since we packed in June I couldn't remember what or if my next project would be. It was fun to open the seldom opened area under the seat in the camper to find two more projects ready to go. We took a long zig zaggy route through the Adirondacks. 

We had an ice cream treat at the Adirondack Country Store near Schroon Lake. Just few more miles down the road and we were heading onto the Ticonderoga Ferry and into Vermont. 

I will write about Vermont in my next post. Afterall the title of this is New York New York. 

I almost forgot this photo...have you seen this before? This is called pig wood siding, an Adirondack tradition. 

Heading to Ben & Jerry's today mmmm

Happy Saturday  

A Blissful Day of Quilting

I made these Cathedral Star blocks in June at a quilting workshop in Portland with Bonnie Hunter. Then a couple weeks later we left in the camper for this journey we are on. In between I have made blocks for another quilt. I grab an hour here and there when I can spread out my sewing and get some work done. Before we left I had cut all of the triangles to finish this quilt, plus bagged up plenty of 2" strips of neutrals and colors. I stitched all of the triangles, the star points and half square triangles last week. Today I almost finished the 300 4-patches. Only the final seam on 100 are left. Here are some pictures of the camper turned quilting studio.

Sewing machine & cutting mat on dining table. 

Pressing station on kitchen counter. 

Supplies on step below bed- you can see Dan hanging out in front of the camper because there was no room for him inside. 

These are stacked and pinned in sets of 10, so I can keep track of how many I have made. 

When I finish these last few 4-patches I will start turning these 3" squares into 9" quilt blocks. I will wait until I am home to assemble the whole quilt. If you want to see what the finished quilt will be do an image search for Cathedral Star. It is a free pattern created by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com

We are in the small town of Au Gres, Michigan. We are in a city campground which has really filled up for the holiday weekend. There does not seem to be much to the town. It is on the shore of Lake Huron on the lower peninsula at the top of Saginaw Bay- the bay that creates the "thumb" of Michigan. We bought some fresh beans, corn, and tomatoes at a farmer's market today. Dan washed the truck and camper. 

At the grocery we found the same flavor of ice cream that we enjoyed out on Mackinac Island. Vanilla with butter fudge swirls and chocolate fudge chunks. Good stuff!

I hope you have a great holiday weekend. 

jb

Day Trip to Mackinac Island

Yesterday after a short 20 minute boat ride with bikes along we arrived at Mackinac Island. It was like stepping into a whole new world. No cars, just horses and bicycles or feet for transportation. 

Downtown on Bicycle Steet is a very busy tourist area, one t-shirt shop or fudge shop after another. 

Very colorful. 

It was not all bustling, here are some rural pics:

We road the 8 mile paved road around the whole island. The Arch Rock is one of the scenic stops. 

As seen from above and below respectively. 

It was a nice place to get some exercise.

 One of the gems of the island is the Grand Hotel with the longest porch in the world. So they say, I'm not fact checking them. They charge $10 each just to look around the porch and lobby. So we opted for a treat instead from the ice cream parlor. 

A yummy reward for the ride up the hill. 

So another fun day was had in this "Thready" life I lead. 

We are getting a couple chores done this morning. Got the oil changed on the truck and a wash. 

Here is the camper offloaded. I am staying here writing this post and quilting while Dan does the chores. Oh, I did vacuum- that should count as a chore. 

Today we leave the UP. I wonder what our next adventure will be.