Maine part 2

The weather quickly went downhill after our trip to Nova Scotia; however, we still decided to explore Acadia via tandem kayak despite rain and sub-sixties temperatures. Beforehand, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, where it was so cold we pretty much took a picture and got back in the car. Wednesday's weather was bad enough that we made a day of exploring downtown Ellsworth and some of the nearby antique shops. If you're ever in Ellsworth, make sure to stop at the Mediterranean restaurant called Cleonice - it was fantastic! Afterward we ate the obligatory lobster and haddock dinner.

We got a really nice shot of Bubble Rock, which we hiked after the Great Head hike on Sunday (with blueberry soda and cake at the Jordan Pond House in between).

Since the weather wasn't improving, we left the resort a day early and split our return trip in half. En route, we stopped at the Maine Wildlife Park, where we saw moose, lynx, bears, vultures, ravens, chipmunks, turtles, and a bunch of other wildlife creatures, but no fish. Not that we were looking for fish. The animals were in cages, so they were somewhat difficult to photograph.

We got on the road shortly thereafter and stopped in Portland for an obligatory lighthouse picture. The lighthouse was attached to Fort Williams in South Portland. Portland looked like the kind of place we might revisit a few years down the road.

Finally we stopped in Scarborough at Len Libby Handmade Candies to check out the 1700 pound (771.1 kg) life-sized milk chocolate moose. Little did we know that Lenny the moose would be accompanied by Libby the bear at 380 pounds (172.4 kg) of dark chocolate, and her two cubs at 80 pounds (36.3 kg) each. Lenny had been there since 1997; the bears were more recent additions.

More photos available at our Photobucket album, as usual!

--j&j

Maine part 1

We drove up to Ellsworth, Maine this past Friday. It is a long drive, and we made it longer by taking a route that would avoid the majority of city traffic; leaving at 6 in the morning, we didn't arrive until around 9:30 at night. Ellsworth is in the Downeast section of Maine, right near Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor.

Saturday we visited the Atlantic Brewing Company to sample very small quantities of several delicious varieties of beer, root beer and blueberry soda. Afterward we started driving the park loop, which has several park ranger-selected points of interest, including fantastic overlooks and hiking trails of various difficulty. On Sunday, we hiked a moderately difficult trail starting at Sand Beach that wound up at Great Head overlook. Afterward, we had a delicious three-course seafood dinner in Bar Harbor where we were a bit under dressed.

Yesterday, we took the high speed CAT ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. We only stayed the afternoon in Canada, but had a fantastic lunch on the waterfront. Today, we kept the theme water based and rented a kayak and spent a couple of hours on Long Pond. It was just a bit chilly, and we got rained on!

The area is really slow paced with great weather and better food. We tried chevre (a type of goat cheese) that was made right up the road in Lamoine; it is delicious! We also are huge fans of the maple mustard.

We'll have pictures and another update in a couple of days.

-- J & J

They try to convince us they don't like each other.

Zoe was hanging out in the carrier, and Zeke jumped in to attack her, so Jeff seized the opportunity to shut them in and we took some jail kitty pics. Real entry coming soon!

--jess