Little Cranberry Island

One of the perks of our jobs here at Mount Desert Narrows is complimentary tickets to several activities offered by tour companies here on the island. We had tickets to join a cruise to Little Cranberry Island and Somes Sound on the Sea Princess out of Northeast Harbor. So we picked a day, and invited our friends Sherry and David of In The Direction of Our Dreams to join us, and happily we received an email accepting our offer :-). By the way, she has an excellent blog about this trip here, so head over there to read a detailed history and even pictures of us for a change :-).

I chose the 10:00AM morning cruise that was narrated by a park ranger, thinking the ride would be more interesting with a ranger narrating. It was ok. Our ranger, Becky, was ok, but wasn't really able to answer too many questions outside of her scripted narrative.

Our boat, the Sea Princess. I would say there were about 20 passengers on our tour.

Pulling away from the dock in Northeast Harbor. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of some of the beautiful yachts docked here, it's apparent that many wealthy people make this town their summer base :-).

As we got under way, Ranger Becky handed out a navigation chart and a wildlife identity chart.

Heading out into the open sea! Well, not too far ;-)

We went past Bear Island, and saw beautiful Bear Island lighthouse. Ranger Becky showed us pictures of the island back when the lighthouse was built in 1828 and there were no trees around the lighthouse to be found. A history can be read here.

A view of the mountains named "The Bubbles" to the right. I love the lobster pots everywhere, there's so many you feel as if you could hop-scotch across the water on them :-)

We had an up-close view of this beautiful lobster boat and fishermen checking their pots. It seemed as if everytime they pulled up a pot, the boat swung around so I couldn't get a shot of it!

I call this my "moody Maine" picture. I didn't catch what she called this, but they used to light a fire in it as an old-fashioned lighthouse.It looks very ancient.

One lone seal popped it's head out of the water to check us out.

After motoring past some beautiful homes along the shoreline, we came to the harbor of Islesford.

The Islesford Historical Building, part of Acadia National Park, sits next to the original Blue Duck General Store. 

The Blue Duck Ships' Store was a ship's chandlery, built about 1850 by Edwin Hadlock. The chandlery operated until about 1875, when it became a store, the Isleford Market, then apartments after 1912. Sometime later, George Hadlock, Edwin's son, sold the building to William Otis Sawtelle, a physics professor at Haverford College who spent his summers on the island. Sawtelle was a founder of the Islesford Historical Society, and after 1919 he maintained the store as the headquarters for the society and as a museum. Sawtelle named the store the "Blue Duck Ships' Store." In 1927 a new facility was built to be a museum. The Islesford Historical Museum took over the Blue Duck collection, which included ship's manifests, historical artifacts and genealogical information. Such collections and purpose-built museums were unusual at the time, and the Islesford Historical Museum represents one of the first of its kind. (Krog, Bronwyn (February 14, 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination FOrm: Islesford Historical Museum and Blue Duck Ships Store". National Park Service. )

The dock housed a photogenic restaurant, and several artist shops.

There was also a ranger inside the museum, who gave us a short synopsis of the history of the museum. Sadly, we found that although the museum had been built to be fire-proof, for the protection of the artifacts and documents stored here, a bad storm last winter had blown in some windows, and resulted in massive amounts of water damage. The artifacts and documents were removed to the main park headquarters in Acadia for restoration efforts. A photographic display was put up in the museum for visitor's to look at instead.

This reminded me a lot of the "dory rescue squad' back on Eastern Long Island. Our two areas have much history in common.

One artifact on display is "Squirt", Islesford's only fire pump for over 100 years.

Heading back to the Sea Princess, I passed these cute dinghies tied up together and couldn't resist a picture.

Heading back to Northeast harbor, we made a side trip into Somes Sound for a view of Eagle Cliffs. I never tire of seeing the almost perfect blocks of granite piled on top of each other, and how the tree line goes right to the water. I've heard that so many times from visitors here, that they didn't know how close to the shore the trees grow. It's not like the beach areas south of here, its the rocky wild coast of Maine!

So we had a very nice morning with Sherry and David, and enjoyed our cruise on the water. The only drawback to this trip is this small amount of time you have on Little Cranberry Island. For a more extensive trip, it would be better to take one of the mail boats over, and then you would have plenty of time to explore the museums, visit the town itself, and maybe even have lunch at that pretty little restaurant!

We had planned to enjoy lunch of soup and popovers at Jordan House with Sherry and David afterwards, but unfortunately it is peak season here, and the park is swamped with visitors. They were able to find parking for their little car Ruby, but we couldn't find anything for our big monster truck :-(. So they enjoyed lunch without us (although were kind enough to post a picture of the two empty seats we should have been in!), and we'll get there for lunch after Labor Day ;-)!!

Friendly Faces

As much as we love our friends on the road, sometimes you just long for a familiar friendly face from your past life :-). We were fortunate enough to have more friends from New York make the trek northward and spend some time with us the end of July. Al was back in Florida for their arrival, but made it back here in time to spend a couple of nights with them before they headed onwards in their travels.

Janice and her three daughters spent a whole week up here, and as I suspected, enjoyed it very much. One night while Al was away they invited me to go with them to the Great Maine Lumberjack Show. It's a really touristy thing to do up, and was really an enjoyable show.

The ticket office

Assorted goodies at the arena...I enjoyed the "Chicks with Axes" t-shirts :-)

Several different lumberjacking skills were demonstrated, starting with chopping logs in half...

two man sawing contests..

pole climbing....

and chainsaw carving. This was a "rabbit", which was actually a joke carving, and it turned into a child's chair that was given to a little girl in the audience.

There was also log rolling and ax throwing demonstrations, but it was getting too dark for even halfway decent pictures. 

Another night we had dinner and played mini-golf at Pirate's Cove, where we had a great deal of fun, but for protection of all those involved, no pictures will be shown :-).

Of course, no stay in Acadia could be complete without a visit to a lobster pound. So one night we piled into our trucks and drove over to Bernard to have dinner at Thurston' for Lobster, a pound right on the harbor front. 

The dining area is a double decker seating area built right on the piers of the harbor, giving you a great view of the waterfront from every seat.

These are the large "pots" that the lobsters are cooked in, along with the corn, steamers, etc.

Dinner preparation area...all the baskets lined up waiting for their lobsters :-)

After waiting in a short line, you arrive at the ordering area. here you select your lobster, or whatever else you may be having. This is a blue lobster! Of course, Al asked for a "large lobster"....

Think this one is big enough??

Weighing it up...3.6 pounds....yep, that'll do :-)!!

After a short wait, dinner is served! The blueberry cake dessert was delicious. It was almost like a spice cake with the blueberries.

Janice's lobster wasn't quite as big, but she still looked a bit in awe of it, wouldn't you say?

Joyce just wanted mussels...finished them all in record time.

We couldn't leave without some atmosphere pictures along the docks...lobster pots piled up,

buoys glowing in the fading sun...

lobster boats quietly waiting for their next departure.

It was a wonderful visit, and ended all too soon. It was so nice to hear that they enjoyed it so much that they want to return again next summer. There really is so much to do here, for families, couples, singles, really anyone. It is a beautiful area, and when the sun is out, :-), it's even better!

Thanks Janice, for coming up to see us all! We'll see you again in October :-).

Petit Manan Point

Before Al had to fly down to Florida two weeks ago, we had taken a short ride to the town of Millbridge, about 30 miles north of here. There was a hike at Petit Manan Point that we thought we would explore. Petit Manan Point is part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. This Refuge contains more than 55 offshore islands and four coastal parcels, totaling more than 8200 acres of land. The complex spans more than 250 miles of Maine coastline, and includes five National Wildlife Refuges: Cross Island, Seal Island, Franklin Island, Pond Island, and Petit Manan Island, which we saw from the sea during our puffins cruise.

Petit Manan Point is on the mainland, and has two different hiking trails. We chose the Hollingsworth Trail that day, taking us out to the cobble-stoned beach at the point.

We parked at the trailhead and started up the trail. Initially it was pretty open.

As normal, you must watch your feet as the trail is mostly on rock

It's blueberry season!

The trail had some boardwalks over the mushier areas

Part of the boardwalk went through a white cedar swamp. It smelled wonderful through here

We continued picking our way through the rocks, roots and blueberry shrubs

We finally broke out onto the shore!

It was very pretty here, and we sat for a while letting Chelsea rest and enjoying the (relative) solitude. Only a few other people had found there way here...for the crowded conditions here right now, that's not bad!

We watched the offshore fog bank slowly roll its way towards us, and decided to continue down the path along the shore.

The fog bank caused some interesting light conditions along the shore.

I liked how the rocks formed a barrier creating this large tidal pool, and the waves breaking on the other side of the barrier. 

There was a memorial plaque and sitting bench along the shore talking about John Hollingsworth and his love for the area.

The fog creeping in behind us as we trod the rocky shore.

One last look at the shore before we turned back into the forest.

We crossed a small waterfall...

and found the rocky trail and the sun again.

Back to the open heath where the trail started.

We heard a lot of birds singing along the way, and a few deer scattered out of our way. Of course, we are barging through two not-so-quiet pups! We all do enjoy our walks, and would highly recommend it for folks looking for something  away from the maddening August crowds :-). 

Sadly, after that walk, we received the bad news that Al needed to fly home to Florida as quickly as possible, so we swung into emergency preparations. I missed him terribly, but was extremely grateful he was able to make it home in time to say good-bye, and had time to spend with his sisters. 

Since he's been back, we've been very busy at the campground, but have found some time to spend with friends from New York who came to visit us, and with our "road friends" Sherry and David. And those pictures and stories will be the subject of the next post!