Northeast Maine

We left Acadia National Park this morning  heading north on highway 1 for FDR's summer home Campobello.  For two hours we went through rural Maine.  The towns are small and pretty desolate with very few cars on the road.  All along the route you will see little signs saying cookies, pies and such.  We stopped at one little building that was selling cookies and pies on the honor system and purchased cookies.  Yummy!

Tonight we are staying in Lubec, Maine just outside the park.  Cute little town, population 500, with two types of people living here (PFA) people from away and (PFH) people from here according  to the locals.  Very friendly little town.

Campobello Island is in New Brunswick but FDR's house and grounds are an international park where half the workers are american and the other half are Canadian.  We toured FDR's home and grounds.  The house has 18 bedrooms for family, servants and guests.  The views are incredible.  We were fortunate enough to get tickets to Tea with Eleanor.  Two ladies, Darlene and Carolyn, served us tea and cookies and gave a lecture about Eleanor Roosevelt.  Fascinating, if you ever visit Campobello it is a must see.  We ventured onto the lighthouse and saw the low tide.  The tides are 22 feet and move very quickly.

I highly recommend Campobello and tea with Eleanor.

Happy Travels!  Joni :)

Acadia National Park

Acadia National  Park is a must see  on your bucket list.  Beautiful coast and mountains all in one park!  Green lush foliage and gorgeous rocky coast.  Today it is rainy, cold and foggy so not many pictures.  Even with the rain though we made it up to Cadillac Mountain and stopped at all the scenic overlooks.  Great day although no wildlife spotted which is my favorite thing to do while traveling.

Happy Travels!  Joni  :)

Cadillac Mountains overlooking Bar Harbor 

Maine Coast

The Maine coast is rocky and absolutely  beautiful.  I'm in love with Maine!  After Scout had her routine  maintainance at the Mercedes dealership, we ambled up the coast stopping in the infamous town, Kennebunkport.  The home of George and Barbara Bush.  It was your typical very nice touristy small town, except, the houses are huge.  We decided to go along the Coast to see if we could find the former president's home.  We found it...it was the house everyone was photographing.  Oh and the house you couldn't drive to because of the secret service.

We continued on up the coast stopping at Boothbay, our campground for the  night was at a brewery.  Before settling down for the night we went down to the coaat for a stunning view of the Atlantic ocean.  Pictures to follow.

Happy Travels!  Joni :)

Plymouth and Gloucester, MA

Rain, Fog and Cold.  Those are the only 3 words to describe today at 55 degrees it is brrrr cold and my florida tan is fading!

While Boon docking at the Winery it rained a nice steady rain all night.  We slept sooo well.  While sipping our morning coffee, we realized we had no plans for the day.  We grabbed the atlas searching for somewhere to go and decided to go to Plymouth and Gloucester.  Plymouth was a quaint town with narrow streets and cedar sided homes.  We drove out to the coast but the fog was pretty heavy making it difficult to see anything.  By this time it was lunchtime and we decided a nice bowl of Clam Chowder would warm us up as it was still brrr cold out.  The quest for Clam Chowder began.  We Yelped up Clam Chowder restaurants and found several in the area.  Most had little or no parking for a rig Scouts size or were closed.  We decided to head to Gloucester.  Gloucester had even narrower streets!  We finally found Clam Chowder at a restaurant called Lobsta Land.  The chowder was a little thin but delicious!  After lunch we decided to head back toward Boston and await Monday's appointment for routine maintenance on Scout.

Newport Mansion Tours Day Two

Today we spent another day touring Newport mansions.  Last night we watched the movie Wind which is set in Newport.  The first mansion we toured was The Elms.  There was an audio tour and as we went into the sun room I thought to myself this looks really familar.  The Elms was where the movie Wind was filmed. (We confirmed this with the docent.)  It was a beautiful house with lush grounds and gardens. 

The second house was Chateau-sur-Mer.  I must say this house was dark and my least favorite.   It had a lot of dark paneling and walls.  The tour was a guided tour and once again the docent was very knowledgeable.  Although he did contradict the docent we had on the Rosecliff tour.  He told us the "season" was 10 to 12 weeks (not 6 weeks) and prior to the season all the women went to the same Parisian dress makers to get their gowns so they wouldn't match.  He informed us that the "season" is currently happening.

We found a park and spent a couple of hours napping and relaxing overlooking the ocean in Breton Point State Park.  A cute little park were the locals fly kites, picnic and hang out.

Tonight we are camping in a vineyard in Massachusetts called the Running Brook Winery.

Happy Travels!  Joni :)

Newport Mansions

Gordon wanted to stop by the Newport, RI mansions, so here we are in Newport.  I wasn't exactly excited about coming here but boy I'm glad we did.  These mansions are fabulous.   Today we toured The Breakers (Vanderbilt), Marble House (Vanderbilt) and Rosecliff.   We had audio tours at both the Vanderbilt houses and a guided tour at Rosecliff.  The guide was very knowledgeable telling us what it was like being an aristocrat during the guided age.  The families only lived there during the "season" which was six weeks in the summer.  The women and children lived at the residences the entire six weeks and the men were only there on weekends.  Cost for the season in today's dollars is one million.   Kind of an expensive six weeks!  

Close to Marble House is Larry Ellison's home, founder and CEO of Oracle.  He purchased two propertiesnext to each other, one will be his home and the other a museum. 

All of these homes have terrific views of the ocean.  Soooo jealous!

We asked a docent if anyone still lives in the houses and there are two descendants of the Vanderbilt's (grandchildren) living in the third floor of the Breakers.

I highly recommend coming and viewing the opulence of the guilded era Newport mansions.  It really is something to see.

Happy Travels!  Joni :)

The Breakers 

View of the ocean from The Breakers 

Marble House 

Rosecliff

Larry's House 

Mystic Seaport, Submarine Museum and Coast Guard Academy.

The first stop of the day was Mystic Seaport which is a quaint little area with cute little houses and good views of wooden boats.

We then headed to the Submarine Museum which was fascinating and free.  We started with a movie of the history of submarines...I didn't know the first sub was introduced to the navy in 1900.  Then toured the museum exhibits and ended with a walking tour of a real sub, the Nautillus.  We were given handheld recorded info devices..but half way through the tour we met a guy who was giving his grandson a tour of the sub.  He had served on a similar sub and was a wealth of information.  He said "we ate well and were like a family on the sub."  

A short distance from the sub museum is the Coast Guard Academy.   We stopped in the CG museum and read about the history of the Coast Guard.  Cute campus with a good water view and nice little museum.

I highly recommend the Submarine Museum and the Coast Guard Academy.  Mystic Seaport was a little pricey  and touristy for my tastes.

Happy Travels!  Joni :)

Maritimes Trip - Day 3

1576 miles and 10 States in 3 days.  Now its time to slow down!  We arrived in Mystic, CT last night after stopping to see West Point and FDR's home in Hyde Park, NY.  The mountains are stunningly beautiful. 

Today's pics are of West Point and FDR's home.

Happy Travels!  XOXOX Joni :)

Maritimes Trip - Another Travel Day

Hey All!

Today wasn't as grueling of a travel day as yesterday.  We only went 440 miles as we had several traffic delays and stops.  We went through 5 states with views of the Appalachian Mountains.  

Tomorrow we head to FDR's home near Hyde Park and West Point.  Ending our day in Mystic, CT.

Happy Travels!!  XOXO  Joni :)

Maritimes Trip Day One

800+ miles and 4 States later our first stop is Mount Airy, NC.  Andy Griffith's Mayberry was modeled after Mount Airy.  There are many Andy Griffith sites to see but as we have visited here before so we will just make a quick stop for the night and out early tomorrow morning. :)  XOXOX  Joni

A picture of our sunrise this morning as we were leaving Punta Gorda.

Getting Ready

Getting ready for any trip takes a huge amount of preparation.  Packing Lists, Things To Do Prior to Leaving Lists and Close up the House Lists to name a few.   We are working down our lists today.  I know Scout is anxious to get on the road but she will just have to wait until all items are crossed off our list!  Until tomorrow, here’s a picture of Scout in the Black Hills in South Dakota.

Scout in The Black Hills of South Dakota

Canadian Maritimes Trip

Maritimes Trip Planning

One of our big trip items on our bucket list (we have several big trips on our ever growing list) is to see the Canadian Maritimes.  The above Map is our tentative route for the trip.  After several weeks of research we have decided to go straight to Mystic, CT bypassing the eastern coast due to time constraints.   Some of the places we want to see are:  Mystic, CT, the Maine coast, Acadia National Park (Maine), Campobello Island (Franklin Roosevelt's Summer Estate,  Bay of Funday (New Brunswick), Nova Scotia, Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, Quebec City, and Montreal.   This list contains only the highlights, as who knows where we will end up along the trail.  We have been known to change directions on a moments notice.  Once we were out in California heading down the west coast and all the camping places were full (wrong time of year to be traveling as the kids were out of school and all the families were traveling) so we diverted our van to Yosemite National Park and headed east revisiting some of the Utah National Parks.  So, you just never know where we will end up!

Sharks and Alligators

When we aren't off traveling, most nights you can find us on our Lanai (which overlooks a marina basin) enjoying the evening.  Last night we were looking at the Basin and we saw a wake rippling through the water (there was no boat to create the wake) toward the seawall.  Whatever it was it glided effortlessly and was very large.  It swooped in next to P dock went along the seawall to the opposite end of the basin turned and came back.  On it's return trip we could definitely see that it was a large shark about 5 - 6 feet in length.  The shark stopped by P dock for a snack as we saw a wounded fish flopping around.   Great entertainment for the evening.

Today's Wildlife spot.  Alligator in our basin hanging out with the boats.  I think it's looking for lunch as it is around 11:00am.  The Divers who clean the boat bottoms don't particularly like this guy.  Hmmm I wonder why?