No. Massachusetts and New Hampshire Coasts

Mary and I stayed at Salisbury Beach State Park in Massachusetts for few days of very warm, humid, windy, and sometimes rainy weather. We got to take long walks on miles of open beaches, something we haven’t done for a very long time.

Mary’s friend Jasmine came down from Maine for a day and we all visited “America’s Stonehenge” in southern New Hampshire. This hilltop area of ‘smallish’ stone structures and features that are thought to date back 4,000 years are attributed to Vikings or Celts, yet most of the structures have been modified through the centuries. The site was still interesting and worth a stop if you find yourself close by.

The northern Massachusetts towns of Newburyport and Rockport are two of my favorite places. They have maritime history, great coastal settings and wonderful New England architecture. Jasmine joined us on our whirlwind driving tour of this area too.

We also drove up the New Hampshire coast. The area around Rye Beach and up into Portsmouth has some very impressive homes and shoreline areas. Portsmouth, NH also seems like one of the nicer cities we have run across.

We huddled in during our last night as the hot humid weather gave way to strong winds and left in the morning heading to Central New Hampshire for the fall colors.

Bob's Not So Silent Retreat

On the way back from dropping Mary off at the silent retreat I was listening to 50’s and 60’s Rock-n-Roll in the car, something Mary rarely likes to do. I spent a lot of time in the car listening to all sorts of music and checking out the central Connecticut coast areas. I visited the Submarine Museum and got to explore the Nautilus - the first nuclear powered sub and the first vessel to transit the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole in 1958.

Mystic Connecticut is a beautiful nautical city, and the residential areas surrounding the harbor and adjacent inlets are absolutely gorgeous. I went for a very nice sunset sail on “Argia”, an 81’ wooden schooner.

I also spent some quiet time reflecting on travel, homes, work, communicating and love.

Mary and I re-united on a beautiful warm Indian-summer day and headed to Mystic for a great belated anniversary dinner at S&P Oysters where we had a wonderful meal on the patio over looking the Mystic River draw-bridge.

We toured southern Rhode Island including the Newport mansions, Watch Hill and a Catholic retreat center on Enders Island. Rhode Island is the quintessential marine playground for the rich and envious. The summer “cottages” here dwarf the typical large McMansion. Not just large but beautifully classic sail and power boats meander around the open bays, sounds and protected inlets. The historic towns here have architectural character to match their stunning natural settings. Too bad winter can be so harsh in this area.

Mary and I also had the pleasure of meeting my cousin Bill for the first time. Although our dads were brothers, we had never met. It was nice to make that connection after all these years.

Mary's Silent Retreat

I left Bob in Connecticut and went off to a 5-day silent retreat in Garrison, NY. It was held at the Garrison Institute and was led by the American female spiritual teacher Gangaji. I have spent time with Gangaji at retreats and workshops over the past 17 years. She just gets better and better. If you are interested, check her out at www.gangaji.org

There were about 115 people in the retreat from all over the world and the US. I was the only person from WA state (there were 3 from Ireland!). It was a deep, rich and lovely time with these people and with Gangaji and I am so glad that I took this space away from “reality”. I feel so relaxed and renewed and ready to drop my old patterns. The food was great and the bed was wonderful.

Garrison is on the Hudson River right across from West Point. Bob’s dad went to West Point. It was warm and sunny most days – a definite Indian summer. I got to walk in the woods and down by the river and meditate for hours on end.

I’m happy now to be back home with Bob and we are off on other adventures.

Acadia National Park

We left the Canadian Maritimes a few days early because it was cold and wet – typical Pacific NW weather. The friendly US customs people searched our RV and took away all our citrus and tomatoes. Who knew how dangerous they could be?

I love Acadia National Park in Maine, and the first time I was here was only for about 4 hours. I knew I had to come back and I was anxious to spend some time here with Bob.

Acadia is on Mt. Desert Island, off the coast of Maine. It is horseshoe shaped, just like my beloved Orcas Island and the similarities don’t end there. You’ll find lots of rocky shoreline, long bays and inlets, a mountain that you can drive to the top of, and 120 miles of hiking trails. When I was leading whale watch trips, people always commented that the San Juans reminded them of Maine, and I would have to agree. From the top of Cadillac Mountain, at 1530 feet, you can see dozens of small islands stretching in three directions and they also have whale watching.

Bob and I “hiked” to the top of Dorr Mountain. It was more like rock climbing with a 1,000 ft elevation gain in less than a mile. We thought that was tough, but coming back down the Gorge Path was even worse. This was no path. We had to climb down a rock covered stream to get out.

Biking was a real joy in the park. There are 45 miles of carriage roads that were built in the 1920s and no cars are allowed on them. They run through very beautiful forests and along ponds and lakes. We rode the lakes loop and stopped for lunch at the Jordan Pond House for their famous popovers. Yummy.

The town of Bar Harbor is also on the island. What a wonderful place filled with great restaurants and inns. We were surprised to see two huge cruise ships in the harbor almost every day. No wonder the park was filled with visitors this late in the season.

The one thing that I found odd here was the lack of wildlife. Hiking or biking we never saw scat, barely a sparrow and no road kill on the highways. There were plenty of sea birds, but the land critters seemed to be missing. Anyone know the reason for this?

Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick

I had heard of the Bay of Fundy as a kid and have always wanted to see it in person. Mary was also interested in seeing the tides up close. We camped one night at Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick, to be able to view some of the most dramatic tide changes in the world.

The Bay of Fundy is very large and rather shallow with mostly a red mud bottom. At Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, however, there is a steep rock cliff face with hoodoos right off shore that dramatically show the effects and height of the tides. Here you can “walk on the ocean bottom” (as they say in their brochure) at low tide.

Mary and I live on a tidal inlet where we have over one-half mile of mud flats at low tide and almost 10 feet of water at a good high tide. We know tidal variations and weren’t sure we would be impressed. Because of our tide flats we have a sign on our driveway in Olympia that reads “Acres of Mud”.

The Bay of Fundy at Hopewell Rocks is certainly impressive. The huge bay almost seems to empty at low tide, and it is very fun to walk on the “ocean bottom” along the cliff face and hoodoos. The rocks and mud are very red and the water is also very red and muddy. In fact there were several businesses using the phrase “chocolate river” in their titles.

We saw the shoreline a couple of hours after high tide the evening of our arrival, and the next morning we got to see the striking difference in the shoreline and the whole bay. The tidal variation is almost fifty feet. We decided if Olympia is ‘Acres of Mud’ then Fundy is ‘Miles of Mud’.

We noticed a curious thing in Canada. If you go into a liquor store, the prices are about twice what we pay in WA state, which is high for the US. But, if you order a glass of wine or beer in a bar or restaurant, it was usually much less than in the US. Odd………We also got to sample new fare at McDonalds. When we saw the sign on the road, we couldn’t resist – McLobster. It was actually good!

It was also a lot of fun watching the news in Canada. Mary thought we got better coverage about world issues and good coverage on things in the US. We even saw Hilary Clinton on a late night talk show and the interviewer was asking very important questions about US policy. It was a great show.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Wow, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia is gorgeous! A wonderland of green hills and rocky shoreline awaits you. Bob and I drove the Cabot Trail, a 187 mile loop around the northern end of the island. The cliffs and water look very much like Big Sur or Panoramic Highway in Marin County, CA. On one side is the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the other is the Atlantic. It was cool, in the 50s and rather rainy, so we didn’t get to hike in the huge Provincial Park as we had planned. The campground host said that before hurricane Earl came through it had been very warm and muggy, but not so now.

We went whale watching out of a tiny little town called Pleasant Bay. We had our choice of many different types of boats, but settled on an open cruiser called the Double Hookup. The weather was a bit cloudy, but we encountered a total of more than 50 long finned pilot whales. This was my first time being with pilot whales and they were very much like orcas. We saw small pods with males, females and calves. They weren’t at all bothered by the boat and sometimes they surfaced right next to us.

Just up the road from Pleasant Bay, we visited Gampo Abbey, the Buddhist monastery where Pema Chodrun teaches. They were in retreat, but we were able to walk around on the grounds and visit the stupa. We heard that the monks have an annual baseball game with the local volunteer firefighters, with the monks in robes and the firefighters in full gear. As a symbolic gesture to the Buddhist precept of not harming any being, each year the monks buy the last days catch of the lobster season and then hire a boat to go out and release all the lobsters back into the sea. This seems to amuse the locals quite a bit.

We also stopped at St. Peter’s Catholic church in Cheticamp. Built in 1893, it is by far the tallest building in town and the interior is fabulous. Everything was wide open so we able to wander around upstairs and down.

There are several different languages spoken on this island. Cheticamp, where we stayed is in the Acadian area. It’s been fun to listen to people speaking a “kind of French” that you won’t hear anywhere else. In other towns you’ll hear Gaelic. Bob and I love Acadian fiddle music and we saw several groups.

Food is fun in Canada and we usually try out a new flavor of potato chips each day. So far it’s been roasted chicken, fries and gravy, jalapeno and cheddar, dill pickle, ketchup and the good old salt and vinegar. I think I’ll stick to sour cream and onion.

Next stop is Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy to see the enormous tides.

Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia shoreline is vast with hundreds of long winding bays and rocky inlets. Bob and I set up in a campground in Glen Margaret, just yards from a lovely quiet bay. Not far down the road is the picturesque fishing town of Peggy’s Cove with its red and white lighthouse on the rocky point. We stopped there twice, and even got to see the sun set over the ocean again thanks to the weird topography.

Bob and I spent a day driving along the southern coast and visiting the towns of Mahone Bay and Lunenburg. These towns were established in the mid 1700s and have many historic buildings. Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and known as “the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America.” They also have lots of great little seafood restaurants that we enjoyed. We both love the shrimp, lobster and scallops of this area.

Halifax seems to be a very livable city. We toured the Canadian Maritime Museum with its Titanic exhibits. Did you know that hundreds of the dead from that tragedy are buried here?

I am mourning the end of summer. It was foggy and in the 60s today with a light mist – way too much like Seattle. Where is the sun and the warm breezes of last week? There is mostly rain in the forecast.

The Canadian dollar is almost the same as the US right now. So far most things are more expensive here. We paid $4.10 per gallon for diesel and the groceries are about 10-20% higher. We popped into a liquor store and found prices twice that of Washington State, which is already much higher than many other states. Good thing we’re not drinking much these days.

Maine

We arrived back in Cape Cod the evening of Aug 31^st and spent another night with my friends. In the morning, Bob and I picked up Harriet and headed north through Massachusetts to Maine. It was good to be back on the road again.

We spent two nights at a campground near Bath, ME, where my old friend Jasmine lives. It was great to get together with her and catch up. It was so hot these two days that they cancelled school – in the mid 90s and lots of humidity. Bob is glad that our air conditioner works so well. We enjoyed lobster one evening outside at a tavern on the river and live music the next at an air conditioned Irish pub.

Maine is a very beautiful state with lots of rocky coastline and forested areas. There are signs everywhere about moose, but we didn’t see any. Bob and I drove up Hwy 1 from Bath to Camden and bought blueberries on the side of the road. Camden is a sweet town with great shops, restaurants and quaint inns. We went to the top of Mt. Battie (800ft) at Camden Hills St Park, which looks over the town and the islands beyond. It reminded me so much of Orcas Island and Mt. Constitution, just on a smaller scale.

We had reservations to stay four nights at Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, but hurricane Earl sent us inland and north. Instead we stayed in Medway near Mt. Katahdin, the highest point in Maine (5267 ft). It was a good thing since Acadia evacuated all the campers to a parking lot in Bangor. That wouldn’t have been much fun. We didn’t get any wind from Earl, but had 4 inches of rain in about 6 hours.

Hiking in Baxter State Park was glorious. It was a cool and breezy day but we could see all the peaks of Mt Katahdin. Bob and I hiked about 4 miles, most of it on the Appalachian Trail and rested by a wonderful waterfall. The trail and woods reminded me of my favorite hikes in Moran State Park on Orcas, except that there were more deciduous trees here. The park has limited parking, so you can’t always get in, even to hike. They also have cabins to rent on small lakes that looked like a lot of fun. This would be a great place to hang out for a week or more.

Tomorrow we go to Canada and will be spending two weeks in the Maritime Provinces. We won’t be using our cell phones there, but if we have good Internet, we’ll post some blogs.