Bar Harbour life

Bass harbor ferry

The other side of the island is called the quiet side which is mainly filled with lobster fishermen and displaced artists. There are many smaller islands that are also home to many fishing families. There is a ferry that services the surrounding islands and carries kids to school on the mainland on a daily basis. It's a bit harsh in the winter especially on the islands that head straight into the Atlantic winds. 

Defunct kipper factory closed 1962

The lobster business is huge here and growing. Unlike cod and herring fishing which has long since collapsed due to overfishing, lobster fishing has become very sustainable mainly due to the way they are ‘farmed’ . Thousands of baited lobster pots saturate the sea bed around the Island and up and down the coast. Lobster live on dead fish that drop to the sea bed so the only food available to them is what is in the pot. So as they migrate on shore to off shore and back, they are nearly all caught in the pots.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse from the sea

But the fishermen are only allowed to take lobsters of a certain size so any too small or too large have to be thrown back along with all breeding females. Generally out of every 10 caught 6 are thrown back and most that end up on your plate are males. You would think that this would impact on the number of breeding males available but the 4% who make the cut and manage to grow bigger than the maximum allowed catch size end up fighting it out on the sea bed to rule the lobster harems.  The lobster industry is growing largely due to the managed feeding and the huge number of pots laid daily. The lobster men can lift 800 pots in a day in all weathers – not a job for the faint hearted. 

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

Lobster quay and typical boat

  

We went on a cruise around the islands which was brilliant and although we didn't catch any whales we saw bald eagles, cormorants, harbour and Grey seals.  


Next we go inland to Gorham and the White Mountains for more scrambling fun!

Grey seal

Cormorants

Bald Eagle looking for lunch

Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park

On top of Cadillac Mountain

Arrived in Bar Harbor for a week of healthy living - thought it would be a bit of a back water but it’s more like the American version of the Lake District where everybody comes to do their outdoor thing – everything from swimming and sea kayaking to hiking and climbing. Glad it has passed the busy season though and all of the kids have gone back to school, it must be really busy in the peak season. Everybody is gearing up for the Fall colours and the visitors now mainly consists of more mature people (?! ) relaxing and taking in the views . The weather has been brilliant apart from today (Thursday) which has been like Loch Ken on one of those dull rainy days when the kids would settle down to a day of card games whilst the more hardy of us would be braving the elements. The kids will have fond memories of those holidays.

Emery's Cottages by the Sea, bar Harbor

Our shed (2nd left)

We are staying in a pretty basic cabin in a lovely setting on the seafront at Frenchman's Bay - we've even got seals swimming in the bay.

Pretty average sunset at FM's Cove

The facilities are pretty rudimentary – a laundry, some barbeques, a stony beach and as you would expect special facilities for cooking lobster.

It’s located close to Bar Harbour and Acadia National Park so everything is nearby and the sunsets are quite spectacular (maybe not quite Crosby  or Seal Beach though!). The only dodgy thing is that the mosquito's have been voracious and unusually, they have been eating me rather than Mary. We bought some homoeopathic repellent but the only thing it has worked successfully on is Mary - It is made from essential oils  you can smell me coming from a mile off.

Mary conquering another climb

We have been walking a lot in and around Acadia National Park and have traversed Cadillac, Arcadia and Mansell Mountains. The mountains aren’t particularly high but are a bit more technical in places than most walks that we are used to in the UK. This has honed Mary's scrambling skills though so there will be no excuse next time we take the straight up route to Haystacks.  The landscape was formed in the last Ice Age and has a similar feel to that of the Lake District; the rock is quite grippy so scrambling even steep ascents is fairly straight forward even in the wet.

Getting too easy now - just wait 'til the White Mountains

When we did Cadillac we took a bus to the start - buses are free and we thought we should go eco. The idea was that we ascend via the North Ridge and then descend by the South ridge routes and pick up another bus at the other end so that we could return to our parked car. Unfortunately by the time we got down we had missed the last bus (I only looked at the summer timetable!) and we were 12 miles away from the start point so we had to hitch a ride home. Some kindly souls stopped and took us right back to the car park making a 6 mile detour for us - true knights of the road!

Bar Harbor is a busy place, it is a stopping off point for cruises up and down the coast and because of the deep harbour huge ships drop in and disgorge all of the passengers on to the streets of this small town. It’s obviously really good for local business but the town loses its intimacy. The ship pictured is the Caribbean Princess which cruises up and down the coast from Newfoundland to the Caribbean; it dwarfs the harbour and is one of the biggest that visits with a capacity of 3110 people. 

The only bad day we had - still looked good in the mist

Top of Cadillac

Camden - not quite North London

The drive up the coast along the US1 was pretty uneventful and a bit boring really - we had had expectations of sweeping sea views as we passed through the many English named port towns and cities.

THE best thing about the drive was a Reuben on pumpkin bread that I had at a roadside deli half way up the road. It was brilliant and gave me a marker for New York. 

Camden is a real clean cut town but with a thriving arty community with plenty of things to do if you like sailing , fishing,walking or anything arty. It is the sort of place that you feel comfortable in as soon as you arrive. It's a shame that we only planned to stay overnight as it would have been nice to have stayed longer.

We stayed at the Belmont Inn which had the best porch so far - it's a pity we didn't arrive early enough to relax n it with a bottle of wine! 

Rockport Harbour

The B&B also gave us the best breakfast to date. Anita Leno , the inn keeper, prepared all of the food herself and it consisted of Melon wrapped in Parma Ham and squeezed lime followed by home made, individual goats cheese quiches and roasted baby tomato's  straight from the oven. The breakfast was kinda formal with all the guests assembling at 0830 for a coffee and a chat prior to eating. The other guests were from al over including Sweden, Brasil, Up state NY and South Carolina. We started with a brief 'Lern yerself scouse' introduction so that they could understand us.

Camden Harbour

The previous evening, Anita recommended a French style restaurant called Francine - we got lost trying to find it but after an hours walking round in circles we went back to the B&B and it turned out it was 5 minutes around the corner. Still we did get to see all of the town.
Food was good but Mary had the best - John Dory with garlicy green beans served chilled and a side of garlic fries. 
Loses a bit in translation but tasted lovely. Tried to trade for my duck but she wasn't having any of it. 

Camden Harbor

On the Friday we walked down to Rockport Harbor  which was typical of the area - full of boats! It seems that a lot of the bankers bonuses from over the last few years are literally tied up on this coast.


Camden is a great harbor though is really beautiful and very well kept. The house below is a good example of the look and feel of the place.

Camden House overlooking the harbor

From leaving here we have a 2 hour drive further north to Mount Desert Island the home of Acadia National Park where we will be staying for a week in a cabin. Cabin fever here we come!

Boston in the sun!

Arrived in Boston from MV – trip back was great and the La Cappella (little Chapel)

Apartments are brilliant and right in the heart of Little Italy and the atmosphere is really buzzing. It helps that the sun is out unlike the day we arrived in the US.

Weather was very hot and humid for the whole stay but managed to make the most of my shorts.

My Sea Bass and Mary's Ossobuco

 As you can imagine, the food has been pretty much Italian flavoured. The quality has been a bit up and down but we did have our second best meal here at a small Italian Bistro that opened on to the street. I had Chilean Sea Bass served on saffron risotto and topped with parsnip crisps with a side of asparagus which was so fresh and cooked to glistening perfection – the bottle of Chardonnay helped it down and maybe coloured my assessment  somewhat but what ever! Mary had Ossobuco served on pappardelle pasta, enough said.

The other thing is the coffee and pastry shops actually serve coffee that you can taste. We found this one – Modern Pastry – the fonts are great and would have made a great T shirt or cap but the only memorabilia they had was a ruddy mug.

Modern Pastry

Modern Pastry 

Clare and Kim - you would have loved the cakes and pastries.

Just around the corner from where we stayed

We spent a day following the freedom Trail which is basically four miles of backslapping on how they kicked the ‘brits’ out of America.  Well presented though fortunately at the 2/3 rds point we passed Modern Pastry so we called it a day! It seems to me that they swopped the Brits for Italians probably because they had better food and coffee shops.

Typical side street in the North End 

We also took a trip to Harvard on the 'T' (Boston's tube system). The students have just started back for the new term so it was quite busy. It was founded in 1638 by its main benefactor John Hartford. We had lunch in Harvard Yard; this became the standard by which most American institutions of higher learning modelled their campuses. It was all a bit 'Dead Poets Society' with students huddled in groups discussing who knows what!

Harvard Yard

Harvard Yard

Our next stage is travelling up north to Maine - we are picking a car up from Boston Airport and driving north to Maine, first stop Camden and then on to Bar Harbor.

Marthas Vineyard - Gothic House in the smart part of town

Architectural corner (for Ed's)

This house was built in 1891 and ranks as a historic monument in the US (even though it was destroyed by fire in 2001 and has been completely restored to its former glory). 

Corbin Norton Cottage - Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs

Reminds you of something from a Stephen King novel but hey, what do I know! 

Out and about in Marthas Vineyard

Marthas Vineyard Camp Meeting Association 
- We found this campsite as we were walking through the area where we stayed in MV, - the tabernacle is the centre piece of the camp ground.     Originally it was the site of a religious revival in the late 19^th century .  It consists of a large open auditorium surrounded by small wooden houses which were originally made from canvas    but they were re-build in wood to survive the hard winters of New England .   Even now, though, they are not insulated.

Architecturally, the Tabernacle is a unique structure, with wrought iron arches and supports, two clerestories with dozens of coloured glass windows, and an octagonal cupola.

The tabernacle is surrounded by a  green area  and then the houses are all around the green, and to walk through at night and see people sitting outside on the porch was lovely.  All the houses are painted different colours and every porch is different.  The tabernacle is on the national register of historic places.     

Marthas Vineyard

From the ferry landing 

It poured down all the way from Boston to the ferry at Woods Hole but just as the ferry docked at Martha's Vineyard the sun came out and it's been brilliant ever since. 

Marthas Vineyard - and the sun!

We have packed a lot in in the few days that we have had here. We went to Edgartown where Jaws was filmed - full of ruddy tourists but great all the same. We have also hired bikes and toured around Chappaquiddick. You have to get a ferry to it which takes all of 5 minutes but It's quite different from the rest of the island - quiet, barren with some isolated holiday homes that only the likes of the Kennedy's can afford.

Wasque Reservation, Chappaquiddick

The food has been great -mainly seafood as you would expect from a seaside resort but a bit up-scale from Hornsea! We went to a nice French restaurant on Saturday and had the best seared tuna. We also found a great micro brewery (Offshore Brewing) which also served a brilliant Portuguese fish stew. 

Edgartown - Amity from Jaws (no sharks apparent) 

On our way back to Boston today which is a shame as we have really liked it here.

Arrived in Boston!!!

We have arrived in Boston after a long day travelling. Keith picked us up at 0415 which was a bit of a shock as i'd only just rolled out of bed, and we made the Humberside airport before 5. 


All of the flights went to plan and even US Customs were very pleasant (they asked Mary had she seen the Beatles at the Cavern but she was quick to point out that she would have been about 12 then. 


Got stitched up by a taxi driver first day here - he dropped us at the wrong hotel so we had to get another through the rush hour traffic (apparently it's always rush hour) Total cost was $40 for a 6 mile trip only to find that the hotel runs a shuttle for $8 door to door. We'll be skint in a few days if we carry on like this so from now on it's back to walking.

Anyway, sunny Boston is basking in inches of rain - a bit similar to the dank weather we've been having in the UK.


We are going to get an early night as we don't want to be late for the bus to Marthas Vineyard tomorrow. Let's hope the fog doesn't cause the ferries to be suspended! 

Just finished work for 5 weeks weh hey!!!

Just got to pack now and try to remember the passports!


Lambananas on tour!

Just packing!

Mary has got enough gear to last a year. two more sleeps!