Maine here we come!

After a lot of discussion, Doug and I decided to make our way home under the great lakes.  So from 

New Brunswick we headed for Maine.  We don't know anything about Maine, except that they also boast to having the best tasting Lobster's.  We did find out that it is the Blueberry Capital of the world, and supply low bush blueberries all over the world.  Who knew?

This is the boarder crossing at St. Stephens NB.  The border agent did go into our trailer and the only thing that we had was 1 tomato, and 1 pepper that we could not cross with.  The rules seem to change every time you cross the boarder, but it was painless that was for sure.

When we first drove into Maine, and headed south we both felt that the people were having a hard time.  The housing was poor, neglected, and a lot of junk lying around their yards.  We heard a lot in the Maritimes from people, when they heard we were from Alberta, they would say "Oh you have a lot of our people working in Fort McMurray".  We are not sure if the people of Maine have some place like Fort McMurray where they can go and make some good money to help make ends meet?  It was a bit disturbing, until we kept going south into the "Tourist" area, and then the housing improved, the up keep of their yards, and over all the area was prospering. 

We have decided to spend at least 3 days on the coast of Maine and then say goodbye to the coast and start to head inland.  So what better place to spend the 3 days but at a Lobster Festival in Rockland, Maine.  We first heard about this festival when we went to the tourist information when we first crossed the boarder.  We phoned for camping but most places we full, as always they would answer

"It is the Lobster Festival you know".  We did manage to find a place on the water, and booked in for

3 nights.

We passed this store that sells all sorts of stuff made out of wood, that is made at the State Prison of Maine.  The prison is not far from where we are camped, it is a maximum state prison which housed over 900 inmates.  Well, you just have to go into such a store.  It was huge and full of hand made wooden pieces, from boats, cutting boards, toys, birdhouses etc.  We bought a light house for Sandy Lake.

Signs outside of the store - great place to shop LOL

Now, Doug does not like lobster, but I enjoy every last bite.  Before we came to the Maritimes, either one of us knew much about lobsters, but since we have learned a lot.  The lobster season runs from May and June in PEI and most of the Maritimes.  The season is now over, and will start up again sometime in August.  When you are driving around you see hundreds of lobster traps stacked on wharfs, and beside houses.  The reason the season does not last all summer long is because the water is getting warmer and lobsters shed their shell, much like a snake sheds their skin.  Who Knew?? There is also a difference between a rock bottom lobster, and a sand bottom lobster and depending who you talk to, theirs is the best.  For example, Maine lobstermen fish by zones, abide by trap limits, and haul their traps by hand.  Their traps are designed with biodegradable vents as well as special vents that allow young lobsters to escape.  Each lobster caught is measured with a special tool, and those that are too big or too small are tossed back.  Most lobsters that you get to eat are 1 pound to l1/4 pound.  They range in cost from $6.95 each cooked to $15.00 cooked.  We have seen blue lobsters (freak of nature), albino lobsters and huge lobsters weighing over 23 pounds.

This is a lobster bouy and under each one  is a lobster trap.  Some inlets you can see hundreds of these.  In Maine, we were told each buoy or fisherman is assigned a different colour, and only he can pull his colour out of the water, to else he would be fined.

At the festival they have a small town carnival, with rides, corn dogs, deep fried everything and of course a huge tent just for lobster and sea food!! Two lobsters for me please, one to eat now and the over to take back to the camper.  Doug found a meat pie to eat, but it was not as good as the ones in New Zealand.

small town carnival

During this 5 day festival, they boast that they cook up to 20,000 pounds of lobster.  The cooker that they use now was build in 2008 and is capable of cooking 1,600 pounds of lobster at one time.  They have quite a system going, they have 4 large baskets full of about 25 lobsters each,  they dunk into the boiling salt water until done.  Then they have a pulley system that lifts it out of the water and they then put the lobsters in larger crates to take to the huge tent to sell.  They are fresh and taste wonderful.

Here they are loading the lobsters into the blue grate to take to the eating tent.  They sell a meal that consists of corn on the cob, a dinner roll, butter and a full lobster for $15.00.

Now you  know as much about lobsters as we do.

We also ran across King Neptune and his court walking around.

Went to another light house.  Most of the light houses in Maine are black and white, while most of the light houses in the Maritimes are red and white.

You can't see it very well, but it says Lovers Lane with a arrow saying dead end

Just one of those funny signs we have come across in our travels.

We will be making our way home on Sat. as we have been gone for 11 weeks and it will take a bit to get home.  So far this trip is everything we have dreamed it would be, and we are busy crossing off items on our bucket list.

Feel free to e-mail us from time to time we would love to hear from you.

Take care, and play safe

Doug and Judy

Cape Breton Island

Hello Friends:

Doug and I have heard from a lot of people that if you go to Nova Scotia make sure you take the time to go to Cape Breton Island.  We dropped Lori and Ben off at the Halifax airport and headed to Cape Breton, not sure what to expect.  The weather turned hot, so no more rain.
On our way to Cape Breton we rounded a curve in the fog and came across this wreck that was cabled to the shore....kind of creepy if you ask me!

These ships were in the harbour where the wreck was.

We decided and advised by Lori to make our home base at Baddeck.
Baddeck is located on Bras d' Or lake, which is the largest salt water lake in Canada, and was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell.
The first day we did the drive on the Capet Trail, which takes between 6 - 8 hours depending how often you stop and what you do.  The scenery was amazing at at times I was braking (but not driving) and leaning over away from the car.  It gets really high up, and glad we did not pull the trailer thru there.

It was hard taking pictures because they did not do the view justice.  We enjoyed this drive a lot, but were tired when we got back to the trailer.

We did stop and have a picnic lunch and went into a Whale Interpetive Centre, which was very interesting.

This is a jaw bone of a Hump Back Whale

This is a true replica of a Pilot whale that frequent that area and they named him "hook"
because of the hook like shape of his dorsal fin

We also went to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.  The town of Baddeck is known for Alexander Bell having a summer home here, and the town hopes by building this Museum that tourist will come and visit.

We learned a lot, how many projects this man had his hands in besides the telephone.

He was very much involved in helping the deaf to communicate and also involved in the invention of the first Airplanes & Phonographs.  He enjoyed running around his huge estate in his bathing suit when a large thunder storm was on, which made his children laugh.  Everyday he would write in a small note book either a idea, or a thought or something he saw and wanted to do, and then during the evening meal he would bring out his note book and discuss what he had written with his family.

Alexander Graham Bell, always had a full beard and mustache

He was married and had 2 daughters 

One of the first designs of flight

A monument along the harbour dedicating to him and his wife

He bought 800 acres for $3000.00 back in the day.  Today his huge house stands vacant but some of his descendants have summer houses on the property, there are about 10 houses that we could see.  It will cost over a million dollars to restore this huge house, and as you can see work has started.  Alexander Graham Bell and his wife are buried on top of this hill.  He had a huge slab of stone dragged across the bay in winter and put on top of the hill for a gravestone for himself and his wife.  This property is not open to the public, as it is kept private from his descendants.  The family did loan articles to the museum for the public to see.

His huge mansion, pity that it sits vacant.  But because it is a private home the government will not give money to have it restored.  The dinning room sits 21 for dinner.

Doug and I also took in our first Ceilidh!

Ceilidh stands for friendly gathering.  It usually consists of fiddle player and a piano player. As kitchen parties are people who play instruments and also sing.

The fiddle player takes the lead, and the piano player follows.  It was amazing and very toe tapping.

They answered a lot of questions from the crowd of about 60 people.  They explained the difference between a jig and a reel.  The also talked about the history of their fiddles, and where they learned to play.  Ceilidhs are held somewhere every night all over Cape Breton, and they are great fun.  We met people from all over, and a nice couple from New Jersey that later that week they were going to go on the same giant clam dig that we went on, small world.

We got in a game of golf one afternoon, it was very hot about + 28.

Doug and I have never been on a sail boat, so check another thing off the bucket list.  We went on this big sail boat for a couple of hours.  It was very rough and a lot of white caps, but Doug did not get sick.  But when the captained turned the ship around, huge waves came over and totally soaked both of us, could not get any more wet if we had a shower with our cloths on.  It was great fun and met a nice family that lives in Baddeck, that take this sail every time someone from out of town comes to visit.  The captain takes tourist sailing here all summer and then takes the sail boat down south for the winter.  Not a bad living if you ask me.  

The Baddeck lighthouse.

Every once in while we come across some strange "ART"? on peoples lawns that just make you laugh!  

We now have decided to come back under the great lakes in the states.  So we had to get travel insurance and some USA money today.  We have travelled over 13,000 km and have seen very little construction and only one minor accident.  We did discover that our tires are wearing out, so we had to purchase new tires "ouch".   But we have been safe, nothing major has happened, and we are still getting along even though it is a small space we are in.  Love retirement so far!  

We now are going to leave the Maritimes ( a little sad), and slowly make our way home, so heading for Maine on Monday.  I have eaten a lot of seafood here, and looking forward to comparing Maines lobster with the lobsters of the Maritimes.

Keep well 

Judy & Doug

On our own again

Hello Everyone:

We have just dropped Lori and Ben off at the Airport, so we are on our own again and we have been gone for 2 months already.  We have travelled over 11,000 Km and have seen amazing things and met some great people.

We have fully enjoyed having Shauna, Lori and Ben coming out and joining us for a few weeks.

The weather the past week with Lori and Ben has been raining, so that put a bit of a damper on what to do.  We still traveled around Nova Scotia for the week and found things to do.

We spent the day at Halifax Harbour

One of the many ships that were docked at the Harbour

There was a demonstration of glass blowing which we all found interesting

City of Halifax taken from the Harbour

A clock tower

Navy ships docked at port

Not knowing a lot about Halifax, Ben, Lori, Doug and I decided to take a tour on a Hopper Bus

This vehicle goes both on land and on water of which Ben fully enjoyed.  We learned a lot about Halifax and the Harbour.

Ben found some friends.  These guys were collecting money for Prostrate Cancer, their costumes are all home made and it was a very hot day standing out in the sun.  Good for them!

Now I don't think you can visit Nova Scotia without going to Lunenburg to see the Blue Nose.

The first Blue Nose burned to the ground, and then they rebuilt it.  So that is why it is called the

Blue Nose 11.  It was at dock getting repairs on its propeller, we could go right up to it, but were not allowed to go on it.

This is a beautiful tall ship and it great shape.

Now, Lori and Ben taught Doug and I all about Geo-Caching.  Geo-Caching is like a modern day treasure hunting.  They have a APP on their phone that shows them if there are any hidden Geo-Caches hidden nearby.  These are hidden all over the world, and some are very small and are just log books you sign, and some are larger with little treasures in them.  They can be hidden in trees, hidden under rocks and anywhere you can think of.  If you find one with a treasures in it, you take what you want and and leave something behind for the next person.  After you find a Geo-Cache you go back to web site and enter that you found it along with the date.  We all went Geo-Caching when we had a few minutes and Ben loved finding all the different treasures.  See you can teach old dogs new tricks!

This Geo-Cache was found under a bridge not far from "Darlene the friendly Dragon"

 Some of the house along the trails of Nova Scotia.  A lot of houses are painted with bright colours.

We stopped at a information place, and saw all this sea foam in the water.

Sea foam that looks like snow and Ice

An Osprey sitting on her nest, she had one chick she was feeding.

In the Maritimes, they have "Kitchen Parties", which means, a bunch of people who can sing and play instruments get together and play for the shear enjoyment and the love of music.  Doug, Ben and I went to one at a town near where we were camping.  We enjoyed the music, there were 2 guitars, one african drum, mandolin, organ and a harmonica.  They could all sing well (ok a little better than me).

Ben posing with some Art work he found outside a house

So the weather has now cleared up, and Doug and I are off to Cape Breton to see the Cabet trail for a week or so.

So until next week - keep healthy and safe

Lori, Ben, Doug and I