The whales tale

I've had to wake myself up and drag myself off the couch to write this, so it may not be the most stylishly written blogpost of the week, and you might have to wait until tomorrow for photos...

Our first main achievement of the day was to hike the Beehive Trail - more of a vertical scramble in places.  It was pretty challenging and very satisfying, with great views of Sand Beach from the top. 

In the afternoon we made a major trip - out to sea on board a catamaran for a sunset whale-watching adventure.   We travelled hard and fast for an hour out of Bar Harbor.  I glimpsed a couple of harbour porpoises along the way (blink and you'd miss them).  In the middle of the ocean it was hard to imagine seeing anything - but then we saw spouts, and the curving backs of three humpbacked whales!

The three whales (well known to local researchers and our boat crew as Sigma, Breakers and Notchy. The whales are distinguished by the pattern on their fluke or tail fin and some have been known for thirty years or more) stuck around for a long time, searching for food and evidently not at all bothered by the presence of a whole bunch of people staring at them from a big boat.  They came up several times, spouted and flapped their tales to dive down again. Yay!  Notchy even breached a couple of times.

It was all great fun, though chilly and wet on the deck, especially as the boat plunged through the darkening waves back to the harbour.  The Man and I managed to get pretty well soaked.  I feel the cold at the best of times, and by the end of the trip I was looking so frozen (even with two jackets on)that a small child I had never seen or spoken to before turned to me and said "You look really cold!" and I had to agree that I really was. I was more than grateful for a hot shower back at the cottage.

So, *yawn*, an exhausting day.  But certainly a memorable one.

On edge

 

Another short, steep hike today - up the South Bubble at the edge of Jordan Pond, to visit "Bubble Rock".  Like everyone else who takes that trail, we had a go at rolling the rock down the hill...

I'll admit to feeling a bit freaked watching members of my family nonchalantly hanging about at the edge of a precipice (especially the Boy, who has been a bit accident prone on this trip; he is starting to look like a walking Band-Aid advertisement).  But they assured me they were perfectly safe, and we did indeed make it down again all in one piece - while Bubble Rock, of course, stayed put.

We were going to celebrate with famous lemonade and "popovers" (whatever exactly they are) at Jordan Pond House, but the place was teeming so we made do with lesser snacks (and still enjoyed the view of the Bubbles across the crystal clear lake just as much).

 

Then over to Bar Harbor, the main town on Mount Desert Island.  We'd read that it gets unbearably crowded, but really it wasn't that bad.  The children made some purchases - the Girl bought a couple of books, and the Boy invested in (well, what else?) a cuddly Maine lobster. Who now goes by the name of "Larry".

Albaniana in Wonderland

We spent part of a rainy morning exploring Southwest Harbor.  The Girl happily settled into the excellent little public library.  The rest of us picked up some useful sightseeing advice from the visitor information centre, before enjoying elevenses at the rather good "Cafe 2". 

Acting on the aforementioned advice, we looked in at the Carroll Homestead, a 19th century farmhouse just up the road from our holiday cottage.  We had some fun there playing old-fashioned children's games (hoop-tossing and so forth) in the parlour and the yard.

After lunch the weather seemed to have changed for the better, so we all took the short Wonderland Trail through woods to a rocky beach - and got nicely soaked in another rain shower on the way back to the car.

The kids then decided they were "dun hiking" for the day, so the Man and I left them indulging in the novelty of TV-viewing, while we took in a couple more short-but-steep nearby hikes.

First was up and down Flying Mountain, with views down into the Somes Sound (one of only two fjords in the eastern United States, the other being our own Hudson River).  At one point we ended up in a secluded, pebbly cove accessible only on foot or by boat.

 

Next we did half of the Beech Mountain trail - which we'd meant to do yesterday - up steep, rocky paths, stone steps and metal ladders.  It was a more direct, but more challenging route to the same viewpoint overlooking Echo Lake.

We've ended the day with more fun and games - family Cranium.  Dad and daughter vs self and son.  Thankfully we found a way of declaring a tie before anyone actually came to blows, though I think we all know who the moral victors were...

Park life

We've had another wonderfully sunny day here in Acadia.  In the morning we went on a hike by Beech Mountain.  On account of a wrong turn it wasn't the exact hike we'd planned, but still good, with lovely views of Echo Lake far below us.

In the afternoon: back to the beach for more fun-in-the-waves, sand-in-the-hair action.  And from there it was just down the road to Thunder Hole, a crevice in the rocks that makes a booming sound as the tide washes into it.  Maybe we caught it on a quiet day - if I'd travelled 500 miles just to see it I'd have been a bit disappointed - but we watched it for a while, then the kids enjoyed scrambling about on the rocks (until the Boy tripped and had to hobble back to the car with banged-about knees).

 

On our way back to our cottage we detoured up Cadillac Mountain, to the highest point on the island and yet more impressive views.  It was wild and windy up there.  The Girl leapt around like a mountain goat.  I found a plaque memorialising Stephen Mather, who in the early part of the 20th century was the first director of the National Parks Agency and established the policies by which the parks continue to be developed and preserved.  "There will never come an end to the good that he has done" reads the plaque.  May that ever be true - the national parks are inspiring, beautiful and altogether one of the greatest things about America.

 

The Maine event

After our mountain adventure yeserday we were back on the road for a few more hours, and in the early evening we reached our final destination:  Acadia, Maine.

We're staying in a small cottage in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island.  It's one of a few towns dotted between large stretches of Acadia National Park.

It took us a while today to get our bearings and stock up on provisions, but eventually this afternoon we took ourselves to Sand Beach, which is part of the park.  As the name suggests, it's a beach and it's sandy - which is actually quite unusual up here.  It was great.  Not deserted, but not unpleasantly crowded.  Man and kids spent a long time in the sea (too cold for me) and eventually emerged shivering but still cheerful.  All in all, an excellent start to our main, Maine vacation.

 

 

 

World's worst climate summit

The definite highpoint of the day (pun intended) was our trip up Mount Washington, NH.

At 6,288 ft (1,917) m, it's the highest peak in the White Mountains' Presidential Range.  We considered driving our own car up the Mt. Washington Auto Road (America's first man-made tourist attraction, built originally as a carriage road in 1861), but were glad that we decided instead to fork out and take the one and a half hour minibus roundtrip.  Not only did this mean that someone else's brakes took the strain on the notoriously steep route, but we also got the benefit of our driver's extensive knowledge of the mountain.

America is never shy to claim a superlative, and this mountain is reckoned to have the worst climate in the world - weather hazardously changeable, snowfall likely every month of the year, famous for severe winds...if you're a weather buff you can read all about it here.  Every morning we listen to a lengthy weather forecast on public radio, and the windspeeds on Mt. Washington always get a mention.  But today it was unusually mild and hardly windy at all - rather to the Man's disappointment.  More wind, might, in fact have given us better views from the summit.  As it was, we could see little through the clouds below us.  Then again, at least we didn't experience winds as strong as 231 miles per hour which, as a sign attests, has happened.  It's just as well that the roof to this summit building is held on with chains.

Another way up the mountain is by cog railway.  We watched this rather lovely vehicle make its ascent during our half-hour stay at the stop.

On the way up and down we got to see how the terrain changed, from forested valley to treeless alpine zone at the top.  I was surprised to see many monarch butterflies as we drove along - apparently they cross the mountain on their extraordinary migration from the northeast to their winter home in Mexico.

We thoroughly enjoyed our ride.  Another passenger with us in the minibus didn't seem to have quite such a good time.  Poor guy, he spent much of the journey both ways with a jacket over his head, unable to look out as we ascended and descended on such a steep narrow road with no safety barriers - yikes! - although, as our driver assured us, in the road's long history no driver has gone over the edge.

Bear essentials

We've spent a while on the road today, heading northeast towards our vacation destination. 

Along the way we stopped for lunch in Hanover, New Hampshire - home of Ivy League Dartmouth College (and also one-time home of Bill Bryson).  It's a tiny place.  We checked out a couple of bookstores and cafes on Main Street.  At Lou's Restaurant the Boy ordered what purported to be "the best milkshake in town" (but when we asked him if it really was the best he replied earnestly that he couldn't really say, as he hadn't had any other milkshakes in that town).

Now we're at our en route accommodation, the Stonybrook Motel in Franconia, NH.  I've always fancied staying in a real motel - one of those one-storey places where you park your car right outside the door to your room.  This one is not grand by any means - I'm not sure that any of them are - but if you don't mind just basic facilities, and decor circa 1974, it's really not bad.  And the setting is splendid - grassy fields around the backs of the buildings, a pond and a river, and views of the White Mountains.  On top of that, an indoor swimming pool where we had fun racing each other, and now the Man is teaching the kids about another type of pool in the Games Room.

And...as we were setting out for dinner this evening we saw A BEAR!  It was just wandering around the motel grounds and (from a safe distance) we watched it climb a tree and then fall out of it when a branch broke under its weight - it was huge! 

Wow.  I've never seen a bear in the wild before.  I'm kind of glad we're not camping... But anyway, now I'm holding out for a moose...