The Coast of Maine

Well, Maine is not what I expected! You know how you hear about a place and you visualize it in your mind. And, you see photos of it and that's how you see it in your head. Well, we have learned in our months of travel that places are never what you think they will be. I was thinking Maine would be like the northwest, with extremely tall luscious evergreen trees with moss and forests. I thought all of Maine would be treed and you wouldn't be able to see very far due to the trees. It's not like that. It's really beautiful but in a different way. The trees are shorter and the forests are just here and there, especially around cities. We have talked with locals and they say that Maine was all forest at one time but it was logged extensively and is just now growing back. There are  a lot more  deciduous trees than I had thought there would be. I guess that is why Maine is so pretty in the fall when the leaves turn colors

Acadia National Park is a huge rock with some trees. It was named Mount Desert Island by the French because Acadia is a huge granite rock. The wealthy built "summer cottages" on the island which were really huge mansions that were used only in the summer. But there were some who wanted to preserve the island and after many were destroyed in a fire on the island, they donated their land to the government for a National Park. It's the only National Park that was donated solely by private land donations. Although the majority of the island is National Park, about 1/3 of it is privately owned land and a lot of people live on the island or have a house on the island.

Our campground is Timberland Acres, near Trenton, Maine. It's just outside of Acadia National Park. We arrived on their opening day!

Black flies! They are teeny tiny and they suck your blood! We don't spend a lot of time outside, just sitting.
They are supposed to be gone soon!

DEER ISLE / STONINGTON FISHING VILLAGE:
We decided one day, to drive south and east outside of Acadia, to the small lobster fishing village of Stonington, Maine on Deer Isle. Actually it's the largest lobster fishing village in the USA. A local described it to us as a "working" port as opposed to a "tourist" destination. There were only a handful of tourists around when we were there.

Deer Isle Bridge. It has an 85 foot clearance for boats to go under it. It is the only connection
Deer Isle has, to the mainland.

I did not take this photo but it shows how much clearance there is for boats to go under it.

See all the lobster traps on the left. Lobster fishing picks up in June.

Peaceful and beautiful.

On Mother's Day I like to celebrate all women who nurture and care for children. Not everyone was fortunate enough to be blessed with biological mothers who love unconditionally and try their hardest to provide a loving a nurturing home. There are a lot of kids out there who need nurturing women in their lives. The list is endless but I especially want to tip my hat to: foster moms, adoptive moms, step moms and day care moms.

May is full of activity with our immediate family also. Our girls are all doing different things! They are all busy, socially active and also enjoying their lives. I  admire them so much!

Sasha with precious Parker. AND, great step mom to Haley and Drew below.

Haley and her dad getting in some tennis! 

Drew, doing the thing he loves best!

Karis, on the right, went to Belize with friends for a much needed vacation!!
Those are dolphins in the background, not sharks!

Foster daughter Anne and son Jacob. Anne is working hard
to improve education in Arizona and teaching Jacob about
Social Activism. 

And a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Haley as she graduates from 8th grade. She not only received an Art Award and a Student Council Award, she earned the highest award for Academics, the Platinum Award!

Haley and Sasha at the Awards Ceremony! So proud of her!

LOBSTER:
Our first lobster experience. We can't come here and not try the lobster! It's the experience that counts! The claws were great! The rest, not so much... a little bit chewier and not as full of flavor. But, it was fun!

We belong to an online ground called RVillage. Within that group, you can join groups of specific interest to you (fly fishing, full time RVing, etc.). We are in several groups, one being Liberal RVers. If you update your location, you can see when others arrive in the area you are in. So, we reached out to a couple who were just a couple miles away at another campground. We met up with them for lunch one rainy day. Then they asked us to join them in Bucksport to go to the Farmer's Market there one day. It was a beautiful day and we met some wonderful people at the Farmer's Market!! Such a friendly town! One guy lived in Kansas City Missouri for many years and founded an LGBT group there. We walked on the waterfront and had a great day!

View as we ate lunch on the waterfront in Bucksport, Maine.

After a great afternoon, we drove over to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge in the above photo! It has an Observatory at the top! It's the highest BRIDGE observatory in the United States. It is 434 feet above the Penobscot River. The bridge connects Maine to Verona Island.

There is our truck!! Way down there!

We ate lunch over there on the right, in Bucksport.

Looking back at Verona Island.

BAR HARBOR:

Our FIRST Puffin sighting!!

Peaceful park by the water in Bar Harbor.

View from our lunch spot. It was too cold/windy to eat outside.

Top: Seafood Chowder. Bottom: Lobster Bisque.

This is a home in Bar Harbor. They make and sell these flower boxes that are sailing vessels with copper sails.

ELMO JOINS US!
Being far from our loved ones is especially hard on Parker. We Facetime a lot but Parker always wants to know where we are. She asks if she can ride in the truck. She asks her mom if they can get in the car and come see us. So, I asked her to send me her favorite stuffed Elmo!! Then, I explained, we will take Elmo on our adventures and she can see all the places Elmo goes.

Elmo arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Elmo goes on his first bike ride with grandma!

Chillin'!

Lunch with grandpa.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK LOOP:

Frenchman Bay

Sand Beach

Thunder Hole area

Little Hunters Beach
When the waves come in and then go out... it sounds like thunderous clapping!

Beautiful rocks on Little Hunters beach!

BOATING IN THE ATLANTIC:

On a beautiful day in May we booked a "3 hour tour" on the Islander so we could get out on the Atlantic Ocean and see lighthouses and puffins and seals. It did not disappoint!

Once out of the protection of the harbor, the waves got high and
it got VERY rough! Some waves were 5-6 feet high.

This is Winter Harbor lighthouse. It is on an island. For years, a woman and her husband bought it and she
lived in it and loved it. Her husband hated the island and left her!

This is the Petit Manan Lighthouse.
The island is several miles from land and used to have several families living on it and even had a school. Today it is automated to light up and also to detect fog and blow fog horns.

Egg Rock lighthouse. This is where we saw Seals.

Seals and baby seals everywhere but as soon as I tried to take a picture, they went under!

Adult seals lounging on the rocks.

Puffins... not great photos but we were pretty far away.

Sea Gulls and one black bird that our tour guide said was a Golden Eagle but it's not a Bald Eagle.

Active lobster fishing!

It was a rough ride and Elmo was hanging on tight!!

Loving the lighthouses and Puffins.

AZALEA GARDEN PRESERVE:

Seal Harbor, Maine

The bees were loving the flowers!

The following is my all-time favorite photo!!

Love love love this photo!!
It's located on the way to Bar Harbor.

And we are now leaving the United States and moving to Canada for the next 3-4 months!