The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! Well ... One of Them At Least!

Ever since I had the pleasure of first meeting one Miss Claire Rachel Pitt a bit over four years ago, we've been planning on her coming back over to the States for another visit.  We've talked about places to go, things to see, people to meet while tossing out one itinerary in favor of another several times over but with only two weeks before that long-awaited and much-talked-about visit actually becomes a reality, I think we have finally settled on a rather busy agenda which will pretty much fill up every moment of the six weeks that Claire will be a guest in the United States.  Six weeks packed full of activities and honestly, we could have probably easily planned out another six weeks chock full of things to do and still had more left over on our list!

So, what do we have on that oft-changed, rearranged, and busy agenda?  Read on and you'll see that I need to put vitamins on the top of the list of things I gotta pack!

October 17th - While on her side of the Atlantic Ocean Claire will arise at the crack of dawn, get herself to the airport, and travel back through time as she hurtles towards Boston at about 500 miles an hour, I'll be doing my usual work routine having hopefully gotten all of my packing done so that when quitting time comes I can run home, change clothes, toss my suitcase in the car, and head north to greet her on the other side of Customs with her requested "coffee and vodka".  Lots of coffee, a little vodka, and maybe one of those silly little signs with her name on it just to make her feel important.  Hmmm, wonder if I can find a limo driver's hat by then??

Once we've got Claire's cases tossed in the boot along with mine, I'll point the car north and set out for Bangor, Maine about 4 hours northeast of Boston.  Upon arrival we're going to check into a cheap motel that will hopefully at least be clean and comfortable, let Claire attempt to sleep off some of her jet-lag, and then head out bright and early the next morning for an early morning jaunt past the home of horror writer extraordinaire Stephen King who reportedly has some wicked cool gates that I just gotta get a photo of!  

October 18 -19th - After hopefully not being arrested as stalkers, we are then going to continue through Maine to the most northeastern town in the United States - Lubec, Maine. While there we will be staying for two nights at the lovely Peacock House, a historic bed and breakfast overlooking the Bay of Fundy!  While there we've got lots of exploring planned including a tour of the local lighthouse that has long been on my list of lighthouses to see!

October 20 -21st - Passports in hand we're going to continue heading east and cross over the Canadian border driving through New Brunswick to Hopewell Rocks - home of the world's highest tides.  During our time in Canada, we'll be guests of the Innisfree Bed and Breakfast who have promised to make sure we see all there is to see in the area - sending us out with our bellies full from a hearty breakfast first.

October 22nd - 23rd - Leaving the wilds of Canada behind, with hopefully the closest encounter with moose or bear being from a safe distance, we'll start homeward bound stopping first for a night in the area of Acadia National Park with the hopes of catching the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain before we make our way back to Connecticut.

October 24th - 25th - Claire will hang around the house chatting with the girls and keeping Tesla company while I go to work for a few days and rest up for the next phase of our wanderings.

October 26th - 28th - Back to Massachusetts and the North Shore where Claire will get her first glimpse of my beloved Salem - right smack at the peak of the Halloween madness that is the hallmark of Salem in October.  We'll be staying at Chez Lederhaus - home of my friends Walt and Juli whom I can't wait for Claire to meet and vice versa.  On the 27th of October Claire will be doing her best Simon Cowell impression as she takes on the role of judge at the uber-cool Hawthorne Hotel Halloween Ball.  As she gets to take a guest, that will be me along with my trusty Nikon and I'm sure it will be just as much fun - if not more so - than last year's Halloween Ball.  Hopefully there won't be any snow this year but you just never know!

October 29th - November 1st - Back in Norwich, Claire has talked me into a visit to Dark Manor which is supposed to be THE #1 haunted house in Connecticut. Fortunately it's located not too far from home so in case anyone needs to change clothing before heading out to the Harp and Dragon for a pint afterward, it will be easy enough to just pop by the house! I'm sure that on Halloween night, Amanda can find something spook-tacular for Claire to do - zombie makeovers may be included!

November 2nd - November 4th - We'll be trundling southwest to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and staying at the Ramada while meeting up with one of Claire's blogging buddies from Pittsburgh as well as Lisa and her Macs (both big and little!), whom I have already had the pleasure of meeting up once a few years back - of course, that was pre-Little Mac! I believe a coal mine tour and a tour of America's oldest operating brewery are on the current agenda while there, as well as meeting up with Mod Betty from Retro Roadmap who is going to point us in the direction of some of the true Americana that Claire craves!

November 5th -10th - Back in Connecticut for a breather while I'm once again off to work and Claire keeps the home fires burning as she prepares some Doodologist-type things which she'll be attempting to peddle at a craft fair in Rhode Island being held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge in Cranston from 10am to 3pm on November 10th.  We've rented a table at the annual event sponsored by the Rhode Island Chapter of the National MS Society and I'm sure as long as we have Claire do all the talking and mention that the crafts are from England, she'll sell out completely!

November 11th - Off for tea and luncheon at Mrs Bridges' Pantry in South Woodstock with Princess Patricia of Ansonia in the Valley and my friend Paula who is an amazing art teacher and occasional distracted sidekick joining us. Mrs. Bridges is an authentic British tea room but we won't know exactly how authentic until Claire gives it her authentic British seal of approval! I anticipate a jolly good time though I still think we should consider wearing proper hats!

November 12 -14th - A little more hanging around in Norwich while I work and Claire possibly meets up with another blogging chum of hers from nearby New London.

November 15th - 19th - Back up to Salem and the lovely Hawthorne Hotel for five awesome nights with lots of wandering planned so that I can show Claire exactly why I love the North Shore as much as I do.  Depending on if we can fit it into the schedule, we might even get down to Plimouth Plantation for a visit with the Pilgrims if our timing works out and we don't get distracted visiting too many retro-diners and sampling pie and coffee while Claire checks out one lunch counter after another and drops the occasional quarter in a jukebox. Diners, drive-ins, and dives are definitely on her list of "must-sees"!

November 20th - 25th - Off to the lovely Sunset Hill House located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for five nights of ...  free! As Claire says, "Who says social media doesn't get you lovely things?"  Again lots of things penciled in, but nothing concrete other than helping them to decorate for Christmas and being able to take advantage of all the wonderful hospitality of the innkeepers and their staff as we take on the role of "embedded Facebookers".  Make sure you like their page, Sunset Hill House on Facebook, as we'll be live-blogging on both their page and ours during the time that we are there.

November 25th - 26th - Before heading home to Connecticut we'll be spending one night in a place that has been on my bucket list for a very long time, the beautiful Omni Mount Washington Resort which is a member of Historic Hotels of America as it has a truly impressive history - one that Claire and I will be learning all about on our private tour of the resort on Monday morning.  As excited as I am about everything else - and trust me, I am! - I am really looking forward to our one night in Bretton Woods as it will be the perfect way to end our whirlwind touring of the northeast.

We'll be arriving back in Connecticut probably late in the day/evening on the 26th with just enough time for me to catch a few hours sleep before it's back to work for me and a couple days rest for Claire before I have to take her back up to Boston and Logan Airport on the 29th so that she can climb on a plane and jet back to jolly old England. Provided she manages to get back through Customs of course!

Like I said, Claire's going to be here just about six weeks and I've got no doubt that the time will fly but hopefully not so fast that we don't get a chance to enjoy all of the things that we've got planned.  And yes, we do have a lot but you should see the list of things we had to shelve for another time! Yikes!

Hopefully Claire won't wait another four years before she gets back here so we can start work on that next list but in the meantime, I also want to start working on my own list of things I want to see in England as it's my sincere hope to get over there before Claire gets back over here.  Provided she doesn't like it so much that she finds a job and moves over permanently!  If that happens, we'll be making even more lists!

Training Myself To Take a Brief Glimpse Back

Yesterday I was going through my pictures from the Blogger's Cruise that I took on the Carnival Glory last February and realized that there were quite a few I had yet to actually DO anything with.  I guess that's what happens when you take over 1,200 pictures and then come home and take a lot more on top of those - some are bound to get lost in the shuffle ... or the uploading!

Even though these four that I'm posting today aren't from the actual cruise but from my train ride back to Connecticut after the cruise, I rather liked them so thought I'd share them here today.  As a quick background, when we got back from our cruise, Barb and I drove to Orlando from West Palm Beach (well, Barb drove and I "passenged" as my friend Patti likes to say!) so that I could catch my Amtrak train home as well as visit a bit with Morgen and Eyad before my train left.

After a very nice visit - which was short but better than no visit at all! - the boys drove me over to the Amtrak station in Orlando so that I could begin my journey home.  I was hopeful that I wouldn't have to deal with the same sort of rude passengers that were on-board my Amtrak train heading south and fortunately, I didn't.

Anyhow, here are just a couple of shots from that leg of my trip starting with Orlando and ending at Union Station in Washington D.C. with a stop in Richmond to stretch my legs! I hope you enjoy the views!

Rather makes me wish I was taking a train ride to somewhere this year as in spite of "Ghetto Mom and Her Howling Houligans" on the ride to Jacksonville, I still do love a nice train ride!

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Eighteen: Last Day, Last Lights

Believe it or not, I think I'm finally going to be able to wrap up the posts on our New Hampshire/Maine vacation that my mom, Jamie, and I took over two months ago!   And look, I managed to write less than 20 posts about a 5-day vacation - it's an almost-Christmas miracle!  A word of warning, though - being that this is my last post it's also going to be a rather lengthy one as I've got several lighthouses to share with you and you know me, I tend to blather at the keyboard and go on and on and on.  I'll try to be succinct, though - honest!

So, our last day in Maine (which was actually on October 10th) found us heading back down the coast in the direction of Connecticut and home but along the way we were going to be in search of several of the most photographed lighthouses in Maine with the first stop being at Fort Williams Park at Cape Elizabeth just south of Portland.  The park is the home to Maine's oldest lighthouse and extremely popular tourist attraction - Portland Head Light.

As you can see from the picture above which shows the parking area in front of the lighthouse (never mind the one that you can't see that was behind me!), Portland Head Light is the most-visited lighthouse in Maine.  As a matter of fact, there were so many people there on that Columbus Day Sunday that it was wall-to-wall people in the tiny gift shop (that small building to the left) and the museum which is located in the old keeper's house.  No wonder my mother opted to stay in the car and read her book!

In this picture you can see just a few of the tour buses that were discharging passenger upon passenger into the parking lot so that they could walk over to take a closer look at the spot where, in 1776, the new Town of Cape Elizabeth posted a guard of eight soldiers to warn citizens of coming British attacks.  They might have been trying to ward off an attack led by a king way back then but these days, they certainly had no problems in welcoming the people who were led to Portland by a Princess ...

That wasn't the only cruise ship in the area either as we'd passed a large Royal Caribbean ship docked in downtown Portland on our way through the city to the lighthouse.  Apparently Portland is a very popular spot for those going on the New England/Canada cruises and Portland Head Light is a very popular part of a shore excursion.  It's easy to see why, though just by taking a look at the shoreline north of the lighthouse.  I'm pretty sure that's the image a lot of people conjure up when they think of the rocky Maine Coast.

Before I tell you too much about Portland Head Light, as an added bonus that I didn't even know about until we got to Fort Williams Park, there's another lighthouse that you can see in the distance in Casco Bay at the entrance to Portland Harbor.  Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse is located about a mile from Portland Head Light and is an active navigation tool using a 300mm solar-powered light that was installed in 2001.

Even with my 300mm zoom lens, this picture below is about the best that I could get of the 77-foot tall lighthouse that was built in 1905 on a granite ledge that is only visible during low tide. When the light was first lit on January 23rd, 1905, it used a Third Order Fresnel lens that was mounted on a clockwork mechanism that rotated the lens to give the light its distinctive flashing pattern; the mechanism had to be wound every hour-and-a-half by the keepers of the lighthouse who worked in shifts of two. In 1958 the light was electrified via an underwater cable extending out from Portland Head and in 1959 the Coast Guard removed the keepers from Ram Island Ledge as the light and the fog signal that was added on August 28th, 1905 were monitored remotely by the keepers at Portland Head Light Station.

Speaking of Portland Head Light ... its history goes way back to 1787 when the General Court of Massachusetts provided $750 for the construction of a lighthouse at Portland Head. The original tower, measuring 72-feet from its base to lantern deck and lit with 16 whale oil lamps, was first lit on January 10, 1791 after the government took over the responsibility of all lighthouses in 1790 and President George Washington commissioned the light and providing $1,500 for its completion.

In 1855, a Fourth Order Fresnel lens replaced the whale oil lamps and reflectors and a fog bell tower with a 1,500-pound bell was installed, the lighthouse tower was lined with brick, and a cast-iron spiral stairway was built. After 40 immigrants died in the wreck of the Bohemian (a Liverpool vessel), improvements were made to the tower and it was raised 20 feet as well as outfitted with a 7-foot tall Second Order Fresnel lens. The Second Order lens remained in operation until 1958 when it was replaced by aerobeacons. The light is now part of the museum that is located in the former 1891 keeper's quarters but unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to see it.

On August 7th, 1989, Portland Head Light held a ceremony to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the creation of the Lighthouse Service and on that same day, the light was automated and the keepers were removed. In 1993 the property was deeded to the town of Cape Elizabeth who maintains everything except for the light itself and the fog signal, both of which are maintained by the Coast Guard. Should you ever find yourself in the Portland area, the museum is open from June to October but the lighthouse itself can be seen anytime of the year from Fort Williams Park. As a matter of fact, there are some stunning pictures of it taken during the winter - something I think I wouldn't mind doing myself sometime if I ever get the chance!

Leaving Portland Head Light and - what I hoped - would be the crowds behind, we then made our way over to Southern Maine Community College to find Spring Point Ledge Light which is located on the adjoining property.  Remember the Princess cruise ship that we could see from Portland Head Light?  Guess where we got a closer view!

Spring Point Ledge is a dangerous obstruction on the west side of the main shipping channel from the south into Portland Harbor - a dangerous obstruction that caused many ships to run aground in the early days before the lighthouse was built. In 1891, seven steamship companies finally convinced the federal government that a lighthouse needed to be built and on May 24th, 1897, Spring Point Ledge Light was lit for the first time.
 

Considered to be a "sparkplug" style, the light originally stood 900 feet off-shore until a granite breakwater was built in 1951 to join the light to the mainland.  Automated in the 1960s with a 300mm optic lens, the lighthouse originally used a Fifth Order Fresnel lens that, prior to being electrified in 1934, was fueled via a 239-gallon kerosene tank that was kept in the oil room in the basement of the four-level lighthouse.

I didn't get the chance to walk out onto the breakwater and get a closer look at the lighthouse as my mother and Jamie were waiting in the car and I barely had time to grab the pictures I did before a tour bus pulled in behind us and begin disgorging one passenger after another who quickly filled up the area. Seriously? Again? Sigh ...

I would really liked to  have had more time to explore the area as - unbeknownst to me - it turns out that there are old Civil War forts located in Portland Harbor!  Who knew?  Well, definitely not me!  The picture above is Fort Scammel which is located on House Island and built in 1808 as part of the national second system of fortifications - something I'll explain more about later in a future post that I have planned. The fort was named after Alexander Scammell, Adjutant General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, who was killed in action during the Battle of Yorktown.  Fort Scammell was the primary defense of Portland Harbor during the Civil War.  Not that any Southern ships came up to attempt to attack Maine, mind you, but one could never be too safe from those rascally Rebels!

Nearby on Hog Island Ledge is Fort Gorges which was constructed between 1857-1865 and is named for the colonial proprietor of Maine, Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The fort was last used by the military during World War II when it was used to store submarine mines, nets, and moorings.  The fort was acquired by the city of Portland in 1960 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The fort is open to the public as a park but is accessible only by private boat which kind of makes it hard for the general public to go visit!  I wonder if I can make a blogging buddy in Maine that owns a boat?? Hmmm ...

Maneuvering around the tour bus that had parked almost directly behind me and once again leaving the tourists behind, we continued south towards Two Lights State Park on Cape Elizabeth - which by the way was named by Captain John Smith in honor of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I and Queen Anne of Denmark.  Two Lights State Park is the best spot to view Cape Elizabeth Light which was built in 1874 and automated in 1963. The lighthouse is located on private property as is its twin which was deactivated in 1924 when the government decided to convert all twin light stations to single lights.

Both lights are 67-foot cast iron towers that were originally outfitted with Second Order Fresnel lenses. On December 20th, 1925, the east light was electrified and increased to 500,000 candlepower, which at the time made it the second most powerful light in New England after Highland Light on Cape Cod. The lantern was removed from the west tower during World War II when the tower was used as an observation post and it was after that the tower passed into private ownership.

After the east tower's 1,800-pound second order Fresnel lens was removed in 1994 and replaced by modern optics, local residents lobbied for the preservation and display of the lens as it was the last lens floating on a mercury bath in use in New England. The lens is now on display at Cape Elizabeth Town Hall.

If you're interested in reading more about Cape Elizabeth's Two Lights, I highly recommend that you click on over to New England Lighthouses:  A Virtual Guide where there are some very interesting stories about the history of the lights as well as some of its keepers.  In particular the heroics of Marcus Hanna, who was a Medal of Honor recipient during the Civil War and keeper of the East Tower in 188,5 were quite an interesting read. Six months after a particularly bad winter storm during which Hanna saved the lives of two crewmen from a ship that had run aground on the reef, he received a gold lifesaving medal for "heroism involving great peril to his life" after what is regarded to have been "one of the greatest lifesaving feats at an American lighthouse."  I think most of us tend to forget that job of lighthouse keeper held great responsibility as well as the potential to be quite hazardous but indeed it could be.

Initially when we got to Two Lights, Jamie opted to stay in the car with my mother but after I had gotten out and explored a little bit myself, I went back and asked her to come on over to the rock ledges with me as they were quite fascinating.  Even though the ledges are made up of metamorphic rock, they look more like petrified wood and even feel more like wood than they do rock.

Fascinated by this, I did some research when I got home and came across this explanation which is a little technical perhaps but at least proved that I wasn't crazy in thinking the rock ledges were made of wood:

"One of the most conspicuous aspects of the Cape Elizabeth Formation is its striking resemblance to weather-beaten wood. Indeed, one of the most frequently asked questions is how all the petrified wood was formed at the park. Actually, there is no petrified wood here, and the similarity is in superficial appearance only since all the materials of the Cape Elizabeth rocks are of inorganic sedimentary origin. The woody appearance is due to the presence of very closely-spaced microscopic fractures which cause the quartzite, in particular, to weather to a wood-grain appearance." **

Looking at the ocean in the area of Cape Elizabeth, I have to say that it was quite calm the day that we were there and the waves barely lapped against the rock ledges but I guess there is the potential for some horrific storms in the area and it was easy to picture the surf pounding against the "petrified wood" rocks.  Honestly, the more I looked at it, the more beautiful the Maine coast became and I kept wondering why I'd never spent any time up there before.  Well ... other than because Stephen King had scared the beejeebers out of me when it came to anything Maine related - something that Jamie still thinks is pretty funny as obviously she hasn't read nearly enough Stephen King to warrant looking over her shoulder for evil clowns every so often!

Two Lights State Park was our last stop in the Portland/Cape Elizabeth area so from there we continued south down Route 1 where we stopped in Scarborough to visit with Lenny the Chocolate Moose and then stopped for lunch at a very nice 1950's-style diner before making our way to the last lighthouse on my list - Cape Neddick Light Station which is more popularly known as Nubble Light.

Even though mariners had been asking for a lighthouse on the "Nubble", a small, rocky island a short distance off the eastern point of Cape Neddick, since 1807 it wasn't until 1876 that Congress appropriated $15,000 for the building of a lighthouse. The 41-foot cast-iron tower, that is lined with brick, was first illuminated on July 1, 1879 using a fixed red light through a Fourth Order Fresnel lens. At first, the lighthouse was painted reddish-brown but the tower has been painted white since 1902.

The fourth-order Fresnel lens currently in use is not the original one but is an 1891 lens that was moved from another station in 1928 after the original lens was damaged in an explosion. The lighthouse was automated on July 13, 1987 and the keepers were removed at that time. In November 1997, the people of York voted overwhelmingly to allow the town's selectmen to "adopt" the lighthouse and under the Maine Lights Program coordinated by the Island Institute, the lighthouse officially became the property of the town in 1998.

Another quintessential New England lighthouse, Nubble Light and its surrounding property has probably appeared on more postcards, calendars, and other souvenirs than any other New England lighthouse with the possible exception of Portland Head Light.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists make the short drive from popular York Beach to Sohier Park to view the lighthouse every year especially during the Annual Lighting of the Nubble which occurs twice per year when the houses and towers are outlined with white lights. This occurs on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and again for Christmas in July for those who either aren't in the area at the time or would prefer to miss the nasty winter weather which can be quite cold and windy - especially at night when the lights are lit.

Sohier Park, named for William Davis Sohier, a lawyer from Boston who gave the land to the town of York in 1929, was once described by York Parks and Recreation Director Mike Sullivan to be "... absolutely jam packed every day. Part of the allure of Nubble Light is its mystical nature. You can't quite get there. You can almost reach it but you can't get there." Obviously that was most definitely the case on the Sunday that we stopped by as witnessed by the large group of people above on the rocks of Sohier Park as well as the lady below who was sitting in the sun and doing some needlework -

I can't say that I blame her as I'm sure if I lived close by, I'd be spending a lot of time in the general vicinity myself!  Add on the fact that it was a beautiful Sunday in York with nary a cloud in the sky - well, unless you count those barely visible ones over the light keeper's house in the picture below! - and who wouldn't have been at Sohier Park enjoying the sun and the view?

Truth be told, I was probably darned lucky to have even gotten a parking space the lot was so crowded but fortunately there was a car from New York backing out of a space just in time for me to pull in.  I even managed to get Jamie out of the car for this one without any coaxing on my part though she told me that she wasn't going to walk over to the lighthouse.  I told her that was a good idea being that it's on an island and you can't walk over!

The view above shows the rock ledges to the east of Nubble Light and I can only wish that I was lucky enough to be able to wake up to such a view every morning but alas, the view out of my windows looks nothing like that one!  Again, if you think Maine, you may very well envision a coast that looks just like that one.  It really is beautiful.

Jamie and I decided to fool around a little bit while taking pictures of the light tower - which is only 41 feet tall but when you add on the additional height of the steep rocky island, the light is actually stands 88 feet above sea level and can be seen for 13 nautical miles.  The light wasn't electrified until 1938 which incidentally is also when indoor plumbing came to the lightkeeper's house.  I'm not sure if I were the keeper at the time which one I'd have been happier about but I'm definitely leaning towards the latter!

After a few more pictures, it was time to leave Maine behind, wrap up the vacation, and head home via a quick stop in Massachusetts to drop a few things off at Montserrat and say 'hello' to Amanda. Even though we were a bit early for what could be considered peak foliage, from the mountains of Bethel and Rangeley to Acadia National Park to the quaint streets of Camden to the beauty of the craggy coast, I would have to say that I had an absolutely wonderful time visiting a state that I'd never really spent any time in at all despite its close proximity to Connecticut. Even though I had dragged her to covered bridges, state parks, and more lighthouses than I'm sure she really cared to see, I really think that Jamie had a good time, too.

Now the question begs to be asked ... when am I going back up to Maine and searching out a few more of its more than 60 lighthouses and who wants to go with me?? Maybe my mom would be up for another trip next fall?

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Seventeen: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea

The entirety of this post can now be found at Where the Mountains Meet the Sea at my travel blog, The Distracted Wanderer. Please be sure to click over and check it out if you're planning a trip to the lovely town of Camden, Maine - or even if you're not!

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Fifteen: A Sweet Break

Have I mentioned in these posts about our vacation to New Hampshire and Maine what a good sport Jamie was about being dragged to covered bridges and lighthouses? Chances are good, that's not exactly the dream that vacations are made of for 17-year olds but she really did well with the whole trip and didn't complain once that I can recall.  Of course, we went on the vacation two months ago so I may have forgotten if she complained but I'm pretty sure she didn't!  Anyhow, I wanted to make sure we did a few things that she'd enjoy (like the Fryeburg Fair way back in Part Twelve of these posts!) and that included a stop at one of Maine's "sweetest" attractions.

Len Libby Candies is located on Route 1 near Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Maine - a bit south of Portland.  When the business first opened in 1926, it was owned and operated by its namesake, Len Libby, who had opened his own shop when he retired after working as a master candy-maker in Portland for several decades.

In 1949, the business was sold to Fernand Hemond who had begun his apprenticeship as a candy-maker while still in college at the Higgins Beach shop.  When he took over the business, Fernand promised to continue to run the shop using the original recipes and traditions that had been taught to him by Len Libby and to this day, he has kept that promise. 

So ... you may be asking yourself what makes this candy shop any more special than any other candy shop, right?  Simple!  This candy shop is home to Lenny, the world's only life-size chocolate moose! 

I first heard about Lenny from my cousin Amy who had shown me pictures of him from when she had made a weekend trip to Maine with her friend Vanessa this past summer.  Having not seen any other moose on our journey through Maine, I figured this might be Jamie's only chance to see one so we stopped in. 

Honestly, pictures do not do Lenny justice as he's really quite a large fellow standing there in his white chocolate pond! 

Joining Lenny is Libby, a Maine black bear, and her two cubs - Cocoa & Chip. 

Mama Libby is in the middle in the picture below but I'm not really sure which cub is Cocoa and which one is Chip!  

In addition to being home to a 1,700-pound chocolate moose, Len Libby Candies sells some very tasty treats including taffy, truffles, fudge, and chocolates in all sorts of shapes including lobsters, moose, seashells, and - my favorite - lighthouses! Oh, and may I highly recommend the Pecan Caramel Popcorn which was absolutely delicious! Jamie's favorite was a chocolate-covered s'more that she made short work of though I did get a small taste and it, too, was quite delicious.

All in all, it was a very sweet break before we went back to hunting the Maine coast for more lighthouses which were a lot easier to find than moose - real or chocolate!

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Fourteen: Acadia National Park

After a short break, I'm at long last continuing the posts on our vacation to New Hampshire and Maine way back in the beginning of October!  Hopefully I'll be able to wrap this trip up soon before I've forgotten everything that we saw!   My last post on our trip covered a few of the lighthouses that we saw southwest of where we were staying near Camden (a lovely little town that I will hopefully be telling you more about before these posts are done!) whereas this post takes us further east to what I believe is one of the most beautiful parts of New England - Acadia National Park located along the rugged and rocky coast of "Downeast" Maine on Mount Desert Island.

To get to Acadia from where we were staying in the small town of Lincolnville just east of Camden, we took Route 1 which took us over the Penobscot Narrows Bridge near Bucksport, Maine. The new bridge, which opened in December of 2006, replaced the old 1931 Waldo-Hancock Bridge (the first long-span suspension bridge erected in Maine as well as the first permanent bridge across the Penobscot River below Bangor) that you can still see behind it.

What's really cool about the new bridge is that the first tower on the left is also an observation tower known as the Penobscot Narrows Observatory. It has the distinction of being the very first bridge observation tower in the United States and the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. The tower reaches 420 feet into the air and allows visitors to view the bridge, the nearby Fort Knox State Historic Site, and the Penobscot River and Bay.  My guess is that the view is pretty cool but alas, we really didn't have time to stop as then I would have wanted to also check out Fort Knox which was constructed from 1844-1869 and was the first fort in Maine to be built of granite instead of wood.  The fort is the original one to be named after Henry Knox, the first US Secretary of War. Unfortunately, the Observatory and the fort were just going to have to be seen another time as Acadia was waiting about another 40 miles to the east and time was a'wasting!

Believe it or not, I'm going to try really hard not to get into a lot of history of Acadia National Park during the course of this post but will hopefully let the pictures speak for themselves as - just to give you fair warning - there are lots of them!  Not as many as there could be, mind you, but still a fair number!  If you ever go there for yourselves, I'm sure you'll be able to see why there are so many pictures and wonder why there weren't more - it truly is beautiful land.

What I will tell you about the history of the park is that President Woodrow Wilson established it as the Sieur des Monts National Monument in 1916 before Congress designated it as Lafayette National Park in 1919 - the first national park east of the Mississippi River. The park was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, an influential French supporter of the American Revolution, but Congress changed the name again to Acadia National Park in 1929 - I have no idea why!

The park became a retreat for prominent people of the times who came there to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities in the East.  The Rockefellers, Morgans, Fords, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Astors all chose to spend their summers there as they built elegant estates and called them 'cottages'.  Yeah, right!  Still, a lot of credit has to be given to Mount Desert Island summer resident and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated over 11,000 acres - more than one third of its present total area - to the park as well as the gift of 45 miles of rustic carriage roads that were built between 1913 and 1940.  The carriage roads, which include seventeen stone-faced bridges, are still in use to this day as hiking, biking, and riding paths. I didn't get to see them on this trip but they're on the list for next time!

Anyhow, enough history!  Before beginning our tour around Acadia, we stopped in at the Hull's Cove Visitors Center where my Mom signed up for an America the Beautiful Senior Pass which grants her and 3 other adults in the same car free access to Federal Recreation sites for the rest of her life  - a very good deal at only $10!  I also picked up an audio CD tour for our drive around the 27-mile Park Loop as I figured that would be the best way to get the most out of our drive around the National Park. 

As we started our drive to the Park Loop, one of the first things we saw was a cruise ship docked out in Frenchman Bay which was named for Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who visited the area in 1604.  Apparently the town of Bar Harbor is a regular port of call for ships doing a New England/Canada trip.

I believe this one above is a Princess Cruise Line ship but I could be wrong as I'm certainly no expert when it comes to cruise ships!  I'll have to ask Miss Bee what it is as I'm sure the Empress of the High Seas would know!

So ... even though I had a CD to tell me where to go and what to see, the very first thing I did was veer off of the guided route and head up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain ...

Originally named Green Mountain, in 1918 the name of the highest peak within 25 miles of a coastline on the Eastern Seaboard was changed to honor the French explorer and adventurer, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac.  The summit is pink granite that is covered with green lichen ...

...and tourists!

With an elevation of 1,528 feet, Cadillac Mountain is commonly believed to be the first location in the United States to be struck by the sun's rays each morning but that's not quite right. Cadillac only sees the first sunrise in the fall and winter when the sun rises south of due east whereas during most of the spring and summer, the sun rises first on Mars Hill, 150 miles to the northeast.  Additionally, for a few weeks around the equinoxes, the sun rises first at West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine, which is the easternmost town in the United States that has a really cool lighthouse that I definitely want to go take pictures of one of these days!

Regardless of where the sun rises first, though, you have to admit that the view from the summit is beautiful. It was a bit cold and windy the day that we were up there so while I walked around the summit taking pictures and wondering why I didn't have the good sense to bring a warmer jacket and gloves, Jamie and my Mom retreated to the Cadillac Summit Center where they spent some time in the rather crowded gift shop.

I made it over there in time to grab a picture of Jamie as well as have my Mom offer to buy me a very cozy fleece pullover that has a moose on it.  Thanks, Mom!

On our way back down the mountain, we pulled off at another scenic view where I had Jamie strike an obligatory pose.  And yes, she was a bit cold but she was a good sport about it!

Once we got back down to the main road, I got a bit turned around and we ended up taking kind of a round-about way to get back onto the Park Loop that we wanted to be on but eventually we made it and were treated to some spectacular views.

Acadia National Park covers almost 73 square miles, part of which is along a very rocky shoreline that borders the Atlantic Ocean.

Part of the drive stops near Thunder Hole which is a small inlet that is naturally carved out of the rocks that waves roll into. Down low at the end of the inlet is a small cavern where, when a big rush of waves arrive, air and water is forced out like a clap of distant thunder with water sometimes spouting as high as 40 feet.  I'm sure it's pretty cool but you have to be there at the right time to catch that and we weren't - mostly what we caught were a lot of people climbing up and down near the place where that happens so I merely snapped a picture of Jamie who had finally warmed up a bit before we continued on our way.

Jamie herself decided to snap a couple pictures of some of Acadia's visiting wildlife ...




Ah, teenagers!

In this shot, you can just make out Otter Cliff from Thunder Hole - at least I think that's what that is! Maybe Lisa can help me out with that one being that she's been to Acadia and absolutely loves it there?

I think we were a bit off on the timing for peak foliage in this part of Maine but there were still some pretty colors to be found along the way.

I took these shots from a small turnout ...

... which was a lot higher than you might think!

The views were just absolutely gorgeous no matter which way you looked.

It was pretty easy to believe that God had done some of his finest work in this part of Maine!

There was A LOT of Acadia National Park that we didn't get the chance to see as one obviously needs more than part of one day to see it all but I'm very glad that we got to see the parts that we did as there just aren't words to describe how beautiful of an area it is.  As the only National Park in New England, Acadia may not be as showy as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or Yosemite but it's really got a lot to offer and I'm very thankful that I can say that I've seen at least some of it.  Of course, I'm already trying to figure out when I get there again and be able to spend some more time - especially considering there were a couple of lighthouses in the area that I didn't get the chance to seek out and you know how I love my lighthouses!