Freeport and Boston

 

Hi all,  We found L. L. Bean, in Freeport, Maine.

 The town is basically outlet stores.  All the older buildings have been converted to an outlet store.

 .

I found some sandals at the Clarks store

  .  There is also a big mall like structure, and L. L. Bean.  The original store is here, and the signature stores.  There is one huge store that is just hunting and fishing, then a clothing and footwear store (Outfitter) and  a home store.  Quite something.  We are here on the week before school starts!  Smart, No!  Lots and lots of people and kids everywhere.  But is was fun.  I found a few things, and we had a nice dinner in town. 



look at the space we had!
We stayed at a great campground just 2 miles from the town called:  Cedar Haven family campground in Freeport, Maine.  It was a ma and pa place.  We really liked it and were sad we were only there for one night.  The sites were large, lots of trees.  If you had a big rig, it may be tricky in spots, but the owners were so helpful and would be sure to give you a place you could get into.  It wasn't paved or anything, but we liked the space.

another lovely building in town.

The colors are just starting, but we will miss them, I think.

Then on to Boston!  We are in a campground close to the commuter rail that takes 1 hour to get to downtown Boston.  We then took a Hop On - Hop Off bus tour, that included a harbour tour on two different boats and 2 days on the buses.  I wasn't excited about going to Boston, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is a green and interesting city.  It has so much history.  Paul Revere did his famous midnight ride from here.  The Boston Tea Party, and the birthplace of the American Revolution, so many stories in all the older buildings around the town. It has the first College in the new world, Harvard.  It has many, many universities and colleges and MIT of course.  It has the first public library, the first public park, the first subway in America.  Benjamin Franklin was from here. 

 

 It was low tide, so couldn't get a good picture of old Ironsides

Aboard Old Ironsides

 



They have the oldest commissioned war ship, still afloat, the USS Constitution, launched in 1797, nicknamed Old Ironsides.  She doesn't have iron sides, but white oak and live oak, so thick that when she was fired upon, the canon shots just bounced off and she was never severely damaged.  She never lost a battle.  She has been restored more than once, but this is the original ship, over 200 years old and still afloat.

Boston State House

 

 

This is a hospital, they have many hospitals as well, to go along with the many Universities.  They used to have ship building in this area, but it was moved by government to somewhere else, so they are revitalizing the waterfront.

Yes, Cheers was from here!

Remember!

This building was once a power house for the ship building area here, it is now exclusive apartments.

Some of Boston's skyline

This is near Harvard.  Harvard has 400 buildings, so what do you take a picture of, the same with MIT, its a district of the city almost! 

Lots of beautiful buildings, and interesting architecture.

The Old State House, and the site of the Boston Massacre, another event that kick started the American Revolution.  British soldiers fired upon protesting citizens in front of this building.  5 were killed.  1770.

This was the end of our first day.  You can see the fog rolling in.  The pictures that look grey were taken on the second day, in the haze and mist.  It never really rained on us, but threatened all day.  Two long days with lots to learn and lots of walking.  I'm pooped.  Tomorrow, we will check the weather.  We are here over the long weekend, and still need to see Cape Cod.  The weather is iffy at best, so we shall see. 

Hope I haven't bored you, but I really did find Boston interesting.

So long for now.



 

Third Boxcar, Midnight train, Destination, Bangor,Maine!

Chris in Bar Harbour, having lunch

Hi all, "King of the Road"  Ha Ha.  That song has been rattling in my head ever since we settled into a campsite about 30 minutes out of Bangor Maine.  We didn't even spend any time in the town.  We are in a campsite called the Pumpkin Patch.    Anyway, it is only a short drive to the coast of Maine here, so we went to Bar Harbour, a seaside resort that was a place for the elite in the early days, the Rockerfellers, etc.  Beside that is the Acadia National Park.  They have a shuttle bus that drives you around the circle drive for free, so we did that because there were a lot of folks in the park today.  It is Sunday afternoon, and the last day of freedom for the elementary children, they start school tomorrow!  Yikes, we have been gone a while.  Kids were still in school when we left. 

We had a nice lunch at a seaside restaurant, then a tour and home.  It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm.

View from our Restaurant, note a cruise ship was in, another reason for lots of people around

The Rugged coastline of the Acadian National Park.

This area is beautiful, as you can see.  The country side is rolling hills covered with mixed forrest.  Lots of granite around.  The colors will be great in about 3 weeks, I bet.

Til next time. 

St. John and Area continued

Hi there, First congratulations to Tyler and Caroline today, their wedding day.  We will toast you at dinner time

St. Andrews by the Sea from the pier

Yesterday we woke up to dense fog here in St. John, but decided to go to the town of St. Andrews by the Sea and go whale watching.  So we left not knowing what weather we would get there.  Well, it was 28 degrees and sunny!  Go figure.  It is about 1 hour south of St. John and very close to the border with Maine.  It is the first Resort town in Canada.  What a lovely spot!  A must see for anyone near the area.  There are lots of small inns and a lovely campsite right on the water.  We are still in St. John with our rig, so anyone traveling this way by RV, it would be a lovely little stop. 

 

Whale watching excusions were booked for the afternoon, so took the 5 pm boat.  We had a blast.  Saw Minke and Fin whales and many Porpoises. 

Our Boat, the Island Quest

Harbour Seals, sunning themselves on rocks, waiting for the tide.

It's a Whale!  We saw about 4 whales, but several sightings of each of them.  It isn't easy to catch them in a photo.  They just break the water and they are gone again. We had a lovely time just being on the water. 

Another shot of St. Andrews, note the breakwater.

This was the breakwater when we got in at 7 pm.  You have to be very careful maneuvering a boat here.  lol

 

There was no beach here at all a few hours ago.

The side of the dock at low tide.  The tide here is consistently 22 to 28 feet.

Today we visited St. John, a much nicer day.  Sunny, a little breezy, which kept the fog away.  They don't run any bus tours of the city except on days when the Cruise ships are in town, so we walked around with a pamphlet to see the old town.  It isn't as old as you would think because the town burnt down in 1877, so everything is from that date forward.  Chris and I decided it is a working man's town.  Downtown, they have a walk, but you are mostly back from the water, which is a harbour, or a cruise ship terminal etc.  The picture above is called Market Slip by Market square.  We had lunch there, at an outside cafe.  It is the area where many Loyalists arrived by boat.  Many immigrants to this country arrived to this spot at sometime or another.

This lamppost is a reproduction of one that was here for years, and was used as a marker for ships coming into harbour.  Towards the water, the light is red.  If the captain saw 3 red lights, he knew he was on course for the harbour.  If he only saw one, or two, he knew he needed to alter course.  The picture is not that clear, but you see a small Island in the distance.  That is Partridge Island, and it was a quarantine Island for new immigrants that arrived on our shores with small pox, or typhus, or Cholera.  A Celtic cross is standing just below this lamp, erected to commemorate 2000 Irish Immigrants that perished of Typhus, 600 were buried on that island.  The structure to the right in the picture is a cruise ship terminal.

They had some whimsical art work around the town, quite fun.  Can you find Chris?

 

They have a reversing Falls here.  The pictures here are an attempt to show you, not sure it's possible.  But the River flows left to right, but the water in these pictures is flowing right to left because it is high tide.  It is flowing fast as well.  I guess you had to be there.

So now I am putting away Canadian Tour Books and finding USA information as we cross the border tomorrow.  We have some food to eat up as well, could be a good evening.  We also have too much booze.  So much to do and so little time.  Tata. 

St. John and the Bay of Fundy

Two story Bandstand in King's Square

We arrived in St. John yesterday afternoon and headed into town to see the City Market and buy some food for dinner.  We decided that we had had a lot of sea food, so bought a nice steak for the Barby!  St. John is Canada's first city.  It had 14000 Loyalists arrive here in 1783, so it grew up fast.  We didn't have time to tour the city that day, so headed back to the campsite.  We are camped in a park that is part of the city, Rockwood Park.  We are near a lovely lake, but the campsite itself is a little barren, gravel and not many trees but good services.  It is nice and close to everything.  We have very slow internet though, so I hope this comes through alright.

Flowerpot Rock on Fundy Trail Parkway, close to high tide

Same spot, Six hours later

We drove the coast on the Fundy Trail Parkway today.  We got to the Parkway around Noon, which was 1 hour before high tide, then went looking for covered bridges etc. and went back to the same places to see the difference.  It was quite remarkable.  We were not exactly at high and low tide, but you get the idea.  Highest tides in the world in the Bay of Fundy - up to 50 feet.  Chris had an interesting statistic:   in a 12 hour period, 115 billion tons of water flow in and out of the Bay of Fundy.  Equal to all the water flowing out of all the rivers in the world in a 24 hour period. 

Fishing boats at Noon

Same boats on dry land at 6 pm

The fog rolls in and out - nice beach down there.

We found 4 covered bridges, this is our favorite.


So, another lovely day here.  It was around 25 degrees and mostly sunny, with a little fog here and there on the coast.  Kind of added a bit of mystery to the area.  Catch you next time.

On the Road Again

a local in Amherst

Hi all, we have had some R & R here in Amherst, NS.  We met up with some Peachlanders here, Greg and Raye, great to see someone from home.  They toured me around for a couple of days while Chris got better, and he has improved enough that we are heading to St. John tomorrow. 

The town next to us is Springhill, which is the town that Ann Murray comes from.  So we went to the "Ann Murray Centre"  It has many pictures of her growing up, video clips, her many music awards, her outfits that she has worn for various special events.  Generally learning about this icons' life.  We quite enjoyed it.  This is also the town that had a terrible coal mining disaster in 1958.  There was a museum about it, but we didn't go in.  It involved going down in a mine, and we decided it wasn't what we wanted to do that day.  So we drove to a bakery instead.  Much better.  lol.  Then we had a nice dinner together at the RV with Chris.  They have gone on to Cape Breton, and we had another day of R & R and laundry and vacuuming etc.  So we are set for the next leg of our journey. 

 

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse as fog was rolling in

Peggy's Cove!  One of the most famous coves in the country, and probably one of the most photographed and painted.  Even though we were there with many many people, it is a stunning place.  There are 35 people who live here full time, and tour buses and cars coming in and out all day, every day.  We took lots of photos too, so will share a few with you.  The coastline here is solid granite.  They showed a polished piece of it in the visitors centre and I swear that is what is on our kitchen counter.  Who knew!  The trees are sparse, and stunted, so you know they get some wicked weather here. 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch at the Sou'wester Restaurant in Peggy's Cove and they had some statistics on the place mat that I thought were interesting.  Nova Scotia is 175 miles long and 60 to 100 miles wide, and has 4,625 miles of coastline!  The thing that is different between the coastline in NS verses BC, is that it is ALL accessible by car!  you can drive most of that 4,000 odd miles.  There are also a lot more lakes than I realized.  You seem to be passing water every couple of miles.  Then you go uphill and there is another lake.  Then you go down, and, you guessed it, there is another lake.  So, when I said you could spend all summer in Nova Scotia, I wasn't kidding, and you still would not see it all. 

 

 

We then drove back to Halifax to see more.  We went to the Public Garden.  It is a great park near downtown with lots of flowers and fountains, benches and a great gazebo where they have music in the park.  There was no one playing when we were there, but it would be great. 

 

Chris is not well, he has a nasty cough and sinus cold, so we did not want to go in a tour bus or anything, others would not be impressed, so we headed home and had a quiet evening to get this boy better.  He says he doesn't feel bad, but he sounds bad. 

 

Today we drove to Amherst, Nova Scotia and met our friends Greg and Raye from Peachland.  They are here on holidays as well.  We will hang out here until Chris is a little less contagious, it is a nice park and the weather is perfect.  It's Blueberry Festival this weekend, so we should be able to find some things to do.  We will keep you posted.