We bid farewell to New England

I'm writing this on our last evening in New England, tomorrow we leave Vermont and start heading westward into New York, making our way over to Buffalo to spend time with our son Jason over the July 4th week.  And we have to admit the New England bug bit us bad this visit.  With the beautiful green rolling hills and mountains, hardwoods everywhere, green, green grass that is so nice to walk on, the pristine ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams, the picturesque little towns, the amazing coast of Maine, the cool wonderful temperatures, the wonderful people, quaint places to visit, the history, houses back to the 1700's that go on and on, and this year the icing on the cake to be able to visit with friends as we came through.  We lived in NH for 20 years, and it's funny how time alters memories so you remember all the good times, the great weather, the sense of individual pride and resilience, and to be honest forget about a few of the drawbacks, bugs, short summers, and long WINTERS to mention a few :-)   But nonetheless as we continue our travels, we will definitely include New England again and again.

So we left you in Schoodic Woods Campground in Maine.  We wanted to do a couple things before we left Maine, one, have one more lunch to include fried full belly clams, and two, get some lobsters so we could make rolls, sandwiches or BLT's ourselves.  We had quite a discussion as to where our last clam lunch should be, and Bagaduce Lunch won out.  We had a gorgeous day for our ride over, and the lunch was awesome!

Last lunch, clams, onion rings, and scallops

What a view as Jan gets ready to dig in

As we were returning we had noticed a sign for Tidal Falls as we crossed the Taunton River, so we went for a look.  We found a reversing falls that a conservancy has made a bit of a picnic area out of.  This area was known for granite which was loaded onto schooners that were towed over the falls and out the river for delivery back in the 1880's to 1900's.  Now a reversing falls is usually in a narrow area that has some rock ledge that produce a waterfall that flows one way with the incoming tide, and the opposite way with the receding tide.  The tide here is large, 12 feet.  And with the rushing water we saw, the only time you could safely transit this area would be at slack high tide, the calm time in which the tide makes it's switch and the water is calm.  When we arrived there was a small riffle or waterfall flowing right to left, in fact, there were several kayakers playing in the rapids.  The flow was amazing, the water was flying it's way upstream!  There was a sign that explained the best time for viewing is 2 hours either side of low tide or high tide.  We were there just a little before high tide, but it got my curiosity up, so 4 hours later I drove over to see what it looked like.  Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the first visit :-(   When I arrived and got out of the truck you could hear the water rushing by, the opposite way, left to right, and rushing by is putting it mildly, man it was flowing!

Hard to do it justice, but it was a real maelstrom

One down, and it was on to the 2nd, there are a ton of places to get lobsters, live or cooked, and this year the prices are really good so we picked up 4 cooked ones.  Jan cleaned them up and we were amazed by the amount of meat we got, they were all hard shells.  I should explain, there are hard shells and soft shells.  Lobsters molt in order to grow, after they molt, their shell is soft and "roomy" for them, so they have room to grow.  Some people like soft shells as they are easy to get into and some say they are sweeter, I don't know about that, but definitely less meat.  Hard shells are lobsters that have been in their shell for awhile, it gets harder as they age, and they fill out their shells getting ready to molt so they can grow, so they are packed with meat.  Just my simple take on the process.

Jan cleaning them

A ton of meat!

Making our lobster BLT's
Thanks again, Doug and Nancy!!

Good enough to eat, huh?
Our delicious lunch on the way to Vermont

We even had enough for lobster rolls the next day, and even lobster salad the following day.  Now it's good bye lobster for awhile.

We took a very nice scenic drive over to Randolph Center, VT to the Lake Champagne Resort, a very nice campground on a grassy hill with excellent views, large sites, and lots of room.  We highly recommend it.  Also there is lots of walking available, they have many trails cut through the fields and woods, and way down a big hill and back up a bit is the beautiful Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery which makes for a respectful, quiet, somber contemplation, as you walk through, and then back up the huge hill to get back.

The beautiful grounds at Lake Champagne

Flags flying at the cemetery

We took several drives, actually one more than planned, but all worth it.  The scenery around this state is awesome.  We popped up to Burlington for two reasons, one to check out a road we contemplated using for our next leg into the Adirondacks, and surprise, surprise to get some lunch.  It was good we did as we determined our planned route would not be very acceptable in the motorhome, so it allowed us to modify and in the process will be able to see a different part of Vermont as we leave the state.  We will be going up around the north end of Lake Champlain.  And we found a great wood fired pizza place right in the heart of Burlington for a delicious lunch, American Flatbread.

Veggie on the top, meat on the bottom
Both yummy

We returned in heavy rain the likes of which we hadn't seen in a long time.  Man did it pour, one of those where everyone is doing maybe 10 mph down the interstate cause you can't see more than 25 feet in front of you!  But it only lasted about 30 minutes.

Now the other big thing we wanted to do while here in Vermont was to go and visit Orvis' birthplace and flagship store, and maybe look at new rods and reels.  When we, in my case renewed my interest in fly fishing, and Jan started fly fishing over 2 years ago we bought decent starter rigs to see if we were going to take to the sport or not.  Well, we sure did, and we thought it was time to take a look at some better equipment.  I'm not sure if you are aware, but Orvis is considered one of the most respected names in fly fishing and have been since being founded back in 1856 by Charles Orvis in Manchester, VT.  Now I should mention, although it is a very pretty and interesting drive, it is over 77 miles away from Randolph:-)  Off we went, and no I won't spend too much time on this subject but Jan and I arrived and were very impressed with big warm feeling store, and the extremely friendly and knowledgable staff.  It is wood and stone and looks a lot like a lodge with beautiful grounds with ponds full of the biggest trout you have ever seen!  Lots of room to cast and try out equipment, much encouraged I might add.  We had discussions with several helpful associates and we tried out their newest fly rods, and were very impressed.  But we weren't ready to commit.  We had noticed an Orvis Outlet store on the way into town, and thought we'd take a look.  Manchester is a gorgeous little town, the shops, inns, and homes we saw were fantastic.  So we decided to get some lunch, talk about it and then stop into the outlet store to see what we could see, never realizing they would have fishing equipment there, we thought it would be all clothing.  Anyway, they had a bunch of rods that were returns or discontinued, so we went out with Jim, the store manager to cast several that were on an amazing sale.  One of the rods we casted and immediately started smiling with was their previous "best" rod.  It was every bit of 50% off and Jan and I decided we just couldn't pass it up, so we picked up two rods, then went back over to the main store and got 2 reels, and line.  We just couldn't pass up this opportunity to upgrade at such a huge savings.  Now I should mention one little thing, we had a choice on the rods, a mid flex or a tip flex, and we decided after much back and forth we wanted mid flex, so that's what we got.  So smiling as we left, stopped and had coffee, still smiling, drove back to the campground.

Orvis

A nice place for coffee

Well, we got back too late to play with the new stuff, but first thing the next morning Jan and I got the rods all rigged up and a casting we went, as I said there is lots of room and lots of grass here so it was a perfect place and..................fickle me figured out I got the wrong flex after all.  So after calling them, asking if I could exchange my rod, we very unexpectedly drove back down to Orvis to exchange my rod, and after much casting we are both really pleased with our selection.  Watch out trout!

We have had a lovely time here and now we must bid New England adieu.  

Our last evening

Acadia and surroundings, warning, it's huge post!

We got a slow start due to the weather, but we tried hard to make up for it when we finally got a break.  Acadia National Park is one of our favorites, it has so many things.  Scenery and viewpoints abound with the spectacular Maine coast; tons of hiking, 158 miles worth; 45 miles of carriage roads where you can walk and bike, and even horseback ride; with 7 peaks over 1000'.  

Even with the damp, blustery weather we did a little exploring in the truck.  I'll tell you, the Maine coast is amazing, I personally don't think any other coast can beat it, now I will admit, the water is cold, but otherwise, it's sensational.  In fact, in our opinions, Maine is a terrific state.

Idyllic harbors

Our bleary, yet beautiful coffee spot

Once the weather broke we wanted to hike the Ocean Path in Acadia NP, it starts at the Sand Beach and follows the coast by Thunder Hole and continues 2.2 miles around to the Otter Cliffs, and as you know Jan and I like to do these early before the crowds.  In fact we had breakfast at an overlook first, then on to the hike.  Funny we had never done this hike before.  It was wonderful, even as it was a bit overcast and we even got rained on a couple times.  It is an easy 4.4 mile hike, very little up and down, but with fantastic views.

Looking back at Sand Beach, the start of the hike

Nice easy path

Beautiful, even if it is overcast

The granite walls break down in square segments and the waves
eventually wear the cubes into balls

Otter Cliffs
Some climbers getting ready to descend
It is a very popular place for rock climbing

Some instruction going on

A damp, but happy Jan

After clocking so many miles, we decided to explore the next day back in the truck and took off for Deer Isle, and a lunch place we had heard about, yeah, I know.  

Quite the bridge over to Deer Isle

Our lunch destination

It's a beautiful remote spot with picnic tables all around
What you can't see in the picture is the chilly wind

But lunch was superb!
Fried whole belly clams, onion rings, and a scallop roll

By this time the weather was improving very quickly and we were able to take advantage of our incredible waterfront site.

Low tide

Every low tide there were 3-6 people out digging clams right in front of us

A view of our site from across the water
2 clam diggers working

Another hike we wanted to do and one familiar to us was the Jordan Pond loop, it is 3.3 miles around the pristine Jordan Pond.  It is fairly easy although there is one section with quite a bit of rock climbing and a 3/4 mile section of log boardwalk, a wonderful hike.

Jordan Pond

Clear water

A little bridge at the north end

2 happy folks!

Part of the boardwalk

It was such a gorgeous clear day that on the way back, we went up Cadillac Mountain, 1530', the highest point on the east coast.  Quite windy up there but got some great views.

Bar Harbor from the summit

We decided the Jordan Pond hike was so nice, we would go back the next day and do it again in the opposite direction, we went even earlier, saw only 4 people, and finished up around 9am.

Mother nature is pretty incredible

Our private pathway 

A pristine morning!

And this little guy even said hello

Now the next thing on the agenda was to go get some lobsters, they are quite cheap here this year, about $7/lb.  We decided to make our own lobster rolls, and steal Doug and Nancy's excellent lobster BLT recipe.  We bought a few steamed chickens, those are what 1 lb lobsters are called, cleaned them, and created our own sandwiches.  Delicious!

Lobstah BLT

Lobstah rolls

So we wound up our week at Narrows Too on the water with glorious weather, cocktails, and a nice evening.

What a spot

A nice last evening

So now we are farther up the coast at a new National Park campground, Schoodic Woods, on the Schoodic Peninsula, another small part of Acadia NP.  It is a very nice place, water and electric only, but huge sites, easy to maneuver, and all paved roads.

The campground Schoodic Woods is just south of Winter Harbor

Our site

And I included this to show how humongous our site is

We went out to a nearby fish store and bought some fish for dinner and while out we picked up some local seasonal fiddlehead ferns for dinner.  Doug and Nancy, while we were there asked us if we ever had them and said they were quite delicious.  They are only available for a short time and we thought we'd give them a try, they were delicious, something we missed out on while living in NH for 20 years:-)

Fiddleheads
We sauteed them in some olive oil and garlic, tasty!

There are several bike paths and hiking trails that go right out of the campground here so we hit the "easy" Lower Harbor Trail, a 1.1 mile trail along the water.  We got an idea that our "easy" and their "easy" was bit different as we descended 100's of feet to the water over rocks, tree roots and mud, but it was nice and very quiet in the trees.

Beginning of the trail

Along the shore

Thinking about climbing back up the hill to get back:-)

Very pretty!

We, happily, ended up coming back up a different way and returned to the camp site on a bike path making it an all-in-all nice 2.5 mile hike.  After lunch we took off on the one way loop road all the while talking about how we had never been here before.  We missed the unmarked road to Schoodic Head the first time around so went back around to get there, it's only 12 miles all the way around, and up the dirt road we climb to the parking area on the summit, and as we pull in, we both look at each other and exclaim, OMG, we've been here!!  I guess we are losing it, but seriously, we have been to so many places in the last 25 years all over this wonderful country that we have to admit it does run together now and then.  Just remember, it has nothing to do with us getting older!

Surfs up on the loop road

Egg Rock Light

A nice view from the top

Now, I hope you have been able to get through this very long post, but I am going to leave you with one last thing.  We had heard about a little restaurant here called the Pickled Wrinkle, strange name we thought, turns out a Pickled Wrinkle is a old Downeast Maine Delicacy, I'm quoting here.  "They are large carnivorous sea snails, or whelks, which are pickled and marketed locally as Pickled Wrinkles. Unlike herbivorous periwinkles, which inhabit tidal zones, wrinkles are larger and inhabit areas below the tide line. Lobster fishermen find wrinkles in traps they haul from the ocean floor. In tough times, wrinkles were relied on to help feed Maine families, and pickling was a great way to preserve the protein packed morsels." 

So the deal is they serve them as an appetizer, and everyone has to try them, right?  So we did.

Pickled Wrinkles

This is our statement, we are glad we tried them, a bit chewy, a bit fishy, and a bit pickly,  and we would not order them again.  Head up to Winter Harbor, actually Birch Harbor to the Pickled Wrinkle and give them a try for yourselves....