Gloucester, MA - 08/23 to 08/29

We drop down to Cape Ann in Massachusetts - this will be our base to tour the Boston, Gloucester and Salem areas.

After getting set up in the fog and mist, we take a brief tour around the downtown area.














And of course we have to locate the famous
Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial to:

"They that go down to the sea in ships ..."

We spent two days touring Salem, MA which it turns out is a really great historical town.

We opted to start out with the Trolley tour so we could get a good overview of what all was there.

The come on is all about the Witch trials but it's kind of over played ....  They certainly did happen here but it was really unfounded fear and mass hysteria.  That being said people were actually imprisoned and hanged.
John's family actually had a witch that was burned at the stake but it turns out it was in Connecticut where they had a similar situation.

The old part of Salem is really a cool place with lots of very old brick and cobblestone streets.

And who knew that it was the home of author  Nathaniel Hawthorne.  We toured the real House of Seven Gables ....









The Peabody Essex Art Museum was pretty impressive, especially for a town of this size.










Mary finally gets to enjoy an East Coast Lobster that is prepared the way she likes it!
Plus a beautiful sunset on the deck overlooking a picturesque little harbor.

And then came two full days in Boston ...

We took the commuter train from Gloucester to Boston and then used the Trolley system to get around town.  The trolley tour came first to get an overview of all there was to see followed by a harbor tour that was included as part of the price.  We then struck out on our own and saw so much history there that we just can't put it all into the blog on pictures.

Lots and lots of walking and trolley hopping to Paul Revere's house, Old North Church, Bunker Hill, USS Constitution, the Boston Common, Beacon Hill, Cambridge, MIT, Legal Seafood, the Cheers Bar and the list goes on ....

Yikes we wore ourselves out ... but what an experience.

Oh - OK - A few Boston pictures ...

The Old State House and site of the Boston Massacre that sort of kicked off the Revolution

Quincy Market - one of the first open air farmers markets and it still is.

USS Constitution - "Old Ironsides" - launched in 1797 and most famous for her actions during the War of 1812.  Named Old Ironsides when the British cannonballs actually bounced off her sides.

Unfortunately undergoing some renovation.

Bunker Hill Monument - site of one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution

Old North Church made famous when Paul Revere hung the lanterns in the bell tower - "One if by Land and Two if by Sea" and later chronicled by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

Cheers! in Beacon Hill

(Looked for Kelsey Grammer but couldn't find him)

Kennebunkport, ME - 08/18 to 08/22

We make a move down the coast of Maine from Acadia National Park to Kennebunkport, stopping along the way in Freeport to check out the famous L.L. Bean flagship store which turned out to be one of several L.L. Bean specialty stores on their campus (their headquarters was actually just a bit further down the road).

OK, it was pretty much a giant outlet center with lots of different brands getting in on the action.

And the narrow streets were pretty much a nightmare for hauling a 30ft Fifth Wheel but we survived.

Day one was a trip back north to Portland just to check it out.  And it is a really cool old New England seaport town with lots of interesting shops, taverns and restaurants.

A whole lot of the downtown streets are still the ancient (looking?) cobblestones.

And it is a working seaport so the dock areas are pretty cool.

We had a nice dinner on an outdoor patio overlooking one of them.









Day two was spent in Kennebunkport on a foggy & cloudy day with intervals of light rain.

This could be a quaint little village except everybody comes here and it's just way too overrun and crowded.  And not cheap either ...

The Shipyard brewery and Federal Jack's pub helped get us through the day.

On a rainy day three we head south towards Portsmouth, NH which is only about 20 miles to the south.

The USS Albacore submarine museum is an important destination for John.
She was the first US submarine to have the teardrop shape which all subs since have had.

She was a total experimental boat to test the new hull shape, the different configurations of the stern planes, the use of dual counter-rotating propellers and new sonar systems.
Also - No weapons systems and no bow planes.

A model in the museum shows her with the original stern planes and a set of bow planes - all very cool stuff for John .... Mary a bit less excited.

We stop at the Discover Portsmouth Center to learn that this city is a real history center.
Across the street was the John Paul Jones house where we learned how it became a shipbuilding center in the 1700s and how Teddy Roosevelt helped end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 with a peace conference at the Wentworth By The Sea hotel.

We went there for lunch.


The skies have cleared so it's back to town to Prescott Park and some beautiful gardens.

Across the river from the park is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard which now specializes in nuclear submarine work.

Curious that the Portsmouth shipyard is actually in Kittery, Maine and Not in Portsmouth New Hampshire.
Go Figure ....

We then tour the Strawbery Banke historic village where all of the houses are actually still on their original foundations and most are fully restored.
It's a real time capsule dating back to the early 1700s.






The town of Portsmouth was originally named Strawbery Banke because when the settlers first landed the banks along the harbor were covered with strawberries.

A trip to Trader Joe's was the final stop of the day.  Mary's first TJs fix since leaving Colorado.

And our final day in these parts was spent doing some more driving around the Kennebunkport area.

Of course we had to do a drive by of the Bush Family compound and supposedly they were in residence.  We waved but they didn't come out to wave back.

Then we drove south along the coast to the town of Wells to see what are supposed to be some of Maine's best beaches.

Who knew that Maine looked like this ....

Bar Harbor, ME - Acadia National Park 08/10 - 08/17

We have made it to our primary destination of Acadia National Park!

We made a brief stop at an RV Service firm in Ellsworth, ME and worked out a solution to our equipment issue.  Then he met us about an hour later at our RV park to help us get the trailer and truck disconnected from each other.
     Now we have transportation while we tour Acadia National Park & the Bar Harbor area and wait for the needed parts to arrive.
     And due to this and a bit of rain we have decided to extend our stay here a few more days.

Day 2 gets off to an early start in Acadia for the day.
We start with an early drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain where at 1530 ft it's a pretty cool morning but the views are pretty spectacular.  Bar Harbor is at the lower left.

Then a stop at a nature center at a place called the Wild Gardens of Acadia and a hike on the Emery Path at Dorr Mtn.  We only went part way up ...

A stop at Sand Beach is next where there is actually a lot of swimming going on.  Brrr

Here we take a hike on the trail that loops around the wooded point in the background above called Great Head Point.

And we end the day at a restaurant in Bar Harbor where Mary gets her first Maine Lobster ... Yum

The following days we take a ride on the old system of Rockefeller carriage roads on the island open only to carriages, horses, bicycles and foot traffic.  The peace and quiet is really nice.

The stone bridges are really very cool.  There are something like 23 of them all total.







And there are several magnificent gardens just outside the park boundary.












On two different occasions we went to the restaurant at Jordan Pond for their world famous popovers.  Early visitors of the Rockefellers would stop at Jordan Pond during their carriage rides for afternoon tea and popovers on the lawn overlooking the water.

More Yum!

The Bar Harbor Inn has a terrific outdoor cafe on the lawn overlooking the harbor where we had an early dinner and watched the departure of that day's cruise ship - Holland America's MS Maasdam.

Canaan ME to Holden, ME 08/08 to 08/09

We continue moving east towards a big enough city to have RV repair services.

We land at a really nice RV Park that had a site for two days that was totally level and long enough to hold our RV without unhooking.
And we are able to link up with an RV dealer that looks like he can help us - on Monday.

We had no transportation here so we simply used the time to catch up on laundry and get some much needed relaxation and down time.  We also attended the park sponsored pot luck dinner.