29. The Maritime Provinces - Part I

After a week of Maine rain, Mother Nature continued to dump occasional showers, interspersed with periods of sunshine, as we rolled down Highway 9 toward Canada. By the time we arrived at the border town of Calais, it was raining heavily. Narrow streets, construction and traffic made it difficult to find our way to New Brunswick. To further complicate matters, an International Day celebration was going on and traffic was being detoured around the downtown to make way for a parade. The main street was lined with people in lawn chairs in the rain, waiting for the parade to go by. We missed that photo-op.

We were prepared for anything at the border. We gave simple responses to questions about beer, guns, cigarettes, pets and our destination. They accepted our answers, confiscated Bonnie’s main weapon (pepper spray), and sent us on our way. After all the effort to get passports and other documentation together, it was a little disappointing that they ignored it all and didn’t even check our driver’s licenses or other I.D. I guess we look too much like harmless American tourists. Or, maybe it had something to do with this summer’s 60% drop in American tourism.

We crossed the border into the Atlantic time zone and continued up the New Brunswick coast. We liked the looks of the port city of Saint John and decided to stay a couple days to look around. It’s a fascinating city with lots of interesting old buildings and a nice waterfront boardwalk and city market.
Saint John is on the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia and boasts the world’s highest tides. People come from all over the world to see the Fundy tides. A popular local tourist attraction is Reversing Falls. It looked like rapids to us, but it’s a falls to them. The incoming tide rises above the water level in the Saint John River and causes the river to flow backwards over the rapids until the tide goes out again. Thus the name Reversing Falls. Watching the tides change is very gradual and somewhat like watching paint dry. But it was interesting to see a river flow in two different directions.

Saint John (pop. 70,000) became the first incorporated city in Canada in 1785. It has lots of history and many very old buildings and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, there was no indication of the type of restoration effort that was evident in cities like Charleston or Savannah. Some of the large Victorian homes have been restored and are beautiful, but it was sad to see many others in marginal condition and deteriorating but still being occupied.

The city has done some nice things around its waterfront and has a lot more work to do to realize its rehab potential.

We left Saint John on the day that three large cruise ships were scheduled to arrive. Good timing. We stopped at the first RV Park in Nova Scotia, near the town of Amherst. It was a convenient location for several day trips in different directions.

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is the smallest of Canada’s provinces. It was a true island, served only by a ferry until 1997. That’s when it was connected to the mainland by the seven-mile long Confederation Bridge over the Northumberland Strait. Building the bridge was a public/private partnership and, according to the tourist info center, the bridge will be privately owned for 35 years and the company that built it is allowed to collect tolls to recover construction costs. We paid the toll of $41.50 (round trip), which was about $20 cheaper than taking the ferry.
The island has plenty of forests, dairy farms and lots of potato fields. The coastline is picturesque with some rocky red bluffs and country two-lane roads criss-cross in all directions. The rolling terrain is very pretty but the island is fairly flat. Its highest point is only 499 ft.
Green Gables is Prince Edward Island’s main claim to fame. A series of books written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, including “Anne of Green Gables”, brought attention to the farm where she lived in Cavendish, P.E.I. and the beautiful places she described in her books. We visited her birthplace (1874) in New London and toured the Green Gables house and farm in Cavendish, which included a walk in the “haunted forest.” Although neither of us had read the “Anne” books, it was a very interesting place to visit. The scenic north coast of P.E.I. has some nice beaches and lots of bright green grass above the fragile eroding red cliffs. The red earth (iron oxide) is found throughout the island. We followed the coastline through P.E.I. National Park and small fishing villages along the way. It was a comfortable drive. The roads were decent and there wasn’t much traffic to contend with.
We stopped for a photo of the lighthouse at Rustico and came across a quaint little waterfront café and a couple excellent seafood croissant sandwiches. Note the tilted building in the photo. We saw a lot of tilted buildings of all kinds in Maine and Canada. Bad foundations maybe?
The capital of P.E.I. is Charlottetown. It’s not a large city (pop. 32,000) but has a very nice waterfront, lots of shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes and old neighborhoods of row houses.

Some of the oldest government buildings in Canada are also in Charlottetown. One of the oldest is Province House (below) where the meetings were held and papers created that led to Canada’s confederation in 1867. The Provincial Legislature still meets in the building and many of the rooms have been restored to their 1860s character.

One of the most outstanding buildings in Charlottetown is St. Dunstan’s Basilica with its triple spires and Gothic Cross design. The Gothic structure was built mostly of local stone. The interior walls and large support columns are a light green Vermont marble. Very pretty. The main alter is also marble and is 37 feet high. This particular church has a long and difficult history, dating back to 1721. I won’t even try to describe it. In recognition of its history, St. Dunstan’s Cathedral was raised to the level of Basilica in 1929.

We couldn't pass up a tour of the city on a red double-decker bus that was brought from London in 1973. We got a front row seat on the upper level for the one-hour very slow ride through town. We saw everything from the city center to the neighborhoods, suburbs, hospital, college and shopping centers. For a city of this size, it was an excellent and thorough tour and a good way to finish off our whirlwind tour of Prince Edward Island.

The Rain in Maine

Massachusetts was very nice, but it was time to continue north. We drove through a small segment of coastal New Hampshire and into Maine. The further north we went, the cooler and more comfortable it became. But it was also becoming dark and cloudy and, shortly after reaching Blueberry Pond RV Park near Freeport, it began to rain . . . with a vengeance. The sky crackled with lightning and heavy thunder rattled our RV. That was just the beginning. It continued to rain off and on for the next ten days. Fortunately, the storms swept through rapidly and were interspersed with sunny periods for sightseeing and photo taking.

Freeport is the home of L.L. Bean, a primary stop for tourists passing through. It's an interesting store with lots of unusual features, such as the "hunting lodge" lounge in the photo below. Bean has grown into a complex of stores that includes an “outlet” store with very reasonable prices. Freeport has many other upscale outlet stores. It's a fun place to browse.

After a couple days in Freeport, we continued north and set up camp in Ellsworth, about 30 miles from Bangor and 15 miles from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Mother Nature greeted us with one of the most violent thunder storms we have ever experienced. Buckets of rain fell while very loud crackling thunder shook the motor home. It felt like the sky was being ripped apart. Amazing.

After the storm drifted off to the east, we took a leisurely drive along Frenchman Bay to the village of Winter Harbor. From there, a shuttle bus took us through a remote portion of Acadia Nat’l. Park. It’s a bit difficult to get to, so it’s not crowded at all, as you can see in the photos. We had a good time playing on the massive rocks and watching the waves and sea birds.

We reserved the best sunny day for a trip to Bar Harbor. It’s a serious tourist destination and traffic is intense but not impossible. We arrived early and found a spot in a public parking lot near downtown. We got carried away and stayed about seven hours in our three-hour parking spot. Fortunately, we didn’t get a ticket.

Bonnie likes to be out on the water so a boat ride was a priority. Lots of boat tours were available. We had trouble deciding whether to go on a whale watching boat, a ferry to the Cranberry Islands, a lobster boat, a sailboat, etc. We finally decided to join Captain Ed for a sail around Frenchman Bay on his lobster sloop “Chrissy” (photo). A nice breeze was blowing and it was a perfect day for a relaxing sail on the bay.

Ed told us the history of his 1910 sloop and all about the local lobster industry. He had several lobster traps in the bay and stopped to check them. He caught one but it was a little fella and had to be tossed back.

The Royal Carribean cruise ship Explorer of the Seas was in port with its 3,100 passengers. They clogged the sidewalks, stores and restaurants and pumped a good amount of revenue into the local economy.
We spent parts of three days exploring Acadia Park. It’s a beautiful park with miles of rocky shoreline, vistas, wildlife, historic carriage roads and hiking trails. We climbed on more rocks and poked around the bookstore and lighthouse at Bass Harbor.

Jordan Pond is a very popular and scenic place. We found a patch of wild blueberries and were merrily picking when the sky opened up again and gave us a brief shower.

The highlight of Acadia Park was viewing Bar Harbor and the Maine coastline from the top of Cadillac Mountain. The mountain rises to a nosebleed elevation of 1,530 ft. That’s not very high by Northwest standards, but it’s the highest point along the entire east coast of North America. A roadway leads to a parking lot near the rocky top and we managed to struggle the final 100 feet or so to the summit (without oxygen). From the top, visitors can admire views in all directions from a series of easy trails and viewpoints.

Lobster (lobstah) is king in Maine. There are “lobster pounds” everywhere. These are places where one can buy fresh live lobsters to take home, or have one cooked on the spot for instant consumption. Luckily for us, the price of lobster is down this summer. Some places are selling lobster rolls and meals for around $12. We ate our share of seafood, including lobster, shrimp, crab rolls, fish & chips, bacon-wrapped scallops, fish and corn chowder and other local delicacies. On August 6 we celebrated Bonnie’s birthday with a non-seafood dinner of prime rib and pork. It was a nice change of pace.

Maine is a very nice quiet place. The people are nice and friendly and life seems to be a little more laid back. We love the rocky coastline and thick woods. The small towns with their old buildings are very picturesque and nearly all the towns have white church steeples poking up above the trees. Families live in houses built in the early 1800s and kids still attend 100 year old brick school houses. Things move a little more slowly here in Maine. It's a very nice change of pace.

27. Massachusetts

Mother Nature blessed us with a torrential dumping on July 24. Fortunately, that was our stay-in-camp day to relax, tidy up the rolling abode and do some travel planning. The next day was beautiful. We got an early start and drove through southern New York, over the Hudson River, through Connecticut and Rhode Island, and arrived at the Canoe River Campground in Massachusetts in mid-afternoon.

The campground is fairly large but we arrived on Friday and nearly all the sites were full of summer weekend campers. We were lucky to get a spot next to Earl’s fifth-wheel. Earl is single and a truck driver. He grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and has lived in this campground for five years in his trailer. Earl is one of those interesting characters that we occasionally come across in campgrounds. He drives an old rusty Cadillac stretch limo and keeps a flock of more than 40 ducks as pets. The ducks waddle around, chase each other and quack a lot, but don’t cause any trouble. They amuse the other campers and kids love to chase them. During the five days we were there, a momma duck laid half a dozen eggs in a little nest about five feet from our RV and sat on them the whole time (photo below). We left before they hatched. Earl has a sign posted in front of his trailer that says, “Welcome Friends – Now Leave”. That says a lot about Earl.

We targeted four places during our stay in Massachusetts; Hyannisport, Fall River, Newport and Plymouth. Each was different and interesting in its own way.

Hyannisport: Our campground was about 50 miles from Hyannisport, home of the Kennedy clan. Senator Edward Kennedy was recently treated for brain cancer, so we thought we’d go down and wish him well. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and half of Massachusetts seemed to be heading for Cape Cod. We ran into a ton of stop-n-go freeway traffic but made it to Hyannisport. After a quick burger at Mr. Dude’s, we caught a harbor cruise on the Prudence that took us out into the ocean to view sailboats, coastal homes and the Kennedy compound.

Around the corner and along a stretch of nice beach was a line of big beach homes, including the Kennedy compound. The main Kennedy house is the large white one with the multiple gables. That's where Senator Ted lives. The next photo is Ted's sailboat. According to the tour guide, he sails often.

After the tour we drove down the beach to Kennedy Memorial Park. It's a very nice little park with a bronze memorial plaque on the rock wall behind the fountain and lots of rose bushes and other gardens overlooking the ocean.

We also snooped around the neighborhood to see how close we could get to the Kennedy compound. There were no high walls or gates and we got within a block or so before encountering discouraging signs. The Senator wasn’t home anyway, so we didn’t stop to chat.

Fall River: Ron likes to climb around on old Navy ships, so we drove down to Battleship Cove in Fall River. The destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy was on display, along with the attack submarine USS Lionfish and battleship USS Massachusetts. Inside the battleship was a small museum and memorial to Massachusetts residents who gave their lives in World War II and the Persian Gulf War.

We came across an unexpected surprise next to the Navy pier. Inside a special Victorian building was a restored 1920 carrousel, complete with four dozen hand-carved horses and a genuine Wurlitzer organ. It was a real gem. There were very few people there so we paid our dollar and went for a ride. For a few minutes we felt like kids again.

Newport, Rhode Island: South of Fall River and Providence and on a hill overlooking the ocean and Narragansett Bay is Newport, home of the rich and famous. Among the many beautiful homes are some of the finest mansions anywhere. The king of the mansions, and most popular tourist stop, is The Breakers. The first home by that name was built for tobacco businessman P. Lorillard. In 1885, Cornelius Vanderbilt II bought the house for $450,000. At that time, he was chairman of the New York Central Railroad and director of 49 other railroads. At that time, the Vanderbilts were the richest family in America. After the house burned down in 1892, Vanderbilt hired architects to build the present 70-room “summer home”. The house has the dimensions of a hotel, but the details and personality of a home. The central Great Hall is at least 3,000 sq. ft in area with 45 foot high ceilings, heavy chandeliers and lots of paintings and detailed carvings. The 2,400 sq. ft. formal dining room has two priceless 12 ft. chandeliers made by French glassmakers Cristalleries Baccarat. The dining table can be extended to seat up to 34 guests. Simply incredible. [No photos allowed inside.]Outside the main house is a children’s playhouse (below) with all the details of a full-scale house, and some extras. Note the carved porch posts. There was also a separate house for the manager who managed the household and all the cooks, maids, groundskeepers and other servants that kept the place going.

We also toured Marble House, which was built for Alva Vanderbilt, a local society hostess and a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. Her husband William Vanderbilt gave her the house as a birthday gift. She divorced him three years later and married another Newport millionaire. This house was built primarily of marble in all colors. Much of it was brought by ship from Europe and cut and shaped by Italian workers on the site. The house is hard and cold but is lavishly decorated and very impressive inside and out. It cost $11 million to build in 1892. Imagine what it would cost in today’s dollars. Again, photos weren't allowed inside, but the house is incredible. Bonnie bought a book describing all the great mansions of Newport.

Downtown Newport is also a fun place to look around, shop and get a bite to eat. The old part of town still has original cobblestone streets and lots of old buildings.

Plymouth: A couple months ago we were in St. Augustine, America’s oldest continuous community. As a follow-up, we had to visit Plymouth to see where the Pilgrims landed in 1620. Plymouth is very attractive with some of the oldest buildings in the country and its harbor full of boats. It's a very pleasant and comfortable community to visit.

The Mayflower II, a replica of the original ship, is moored at a pier a block from the Plymouth Rock monument. It was actually sailed across the Atlantic in the 1950s and is now a tourist attraction.

Do you remember Massasoit from your history books? His statue stands in a small park overlooking the harbor and Plymouth Rock. He was the Indian who gets most of the credit for assisting the Mayflower immigrants. Many of them died during the first winter and they all might have died if they weren’t helped by the local Indians. Sadly, the newcomers later turned on the Indians, killed many of them and took their land. A plaque next to Massasoit explains that the local Indians now congregate on Thanksgiving Day each year as a day of mourning.

We had a very nice relaxing day in Plymouth. We had lunch at the Lobster Hut overlooking the harbor. Bonnie had her first lobster roll, which is a hot ticket food item in this area. Most eateries offer lobster, crab or clam rolls. Thanks to high gas prices, bad economy and reduced tourism, the price of lobster is lower than average this summer, which means we can eat more. That’s good news for us.

We liked Massachusetts a lot. The people were all very nice and friendly, the countryside is woodsy and pretty and there’s lots more to do and see than we had time for.