Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - Phippsburg, ME - I just can't believe that
August is almost gone and, if the weather has been any indication the
past few days, fall is almost here. The lows have been in the upper 30s
and lower 40s the past few nights and the highs just barely 70. We have
even noticed some of the trees beginning to turn. As many of you know, I
happen to LOVE cooler and even cold weather, but the Mainer's are not
any too happy. They had maybe 2 weeks of really summer like weather this
year and they are not ready for the cold and snow. I can't blame them,
but for me, it is perfect!!
Yesterday, we took one of our famous day trips. We went over into New
Hampshire into the White Mountains to Mount Washington. Mount Washington
is known as the Home of the World's Worst Weather. It holds the record
for the highest wind ever recorded - an amazing 231 mph! It is said that
Mt. Washington creates it's own weather but yesterday we did not get to
experience any of it.
We drove up the Auto Road which has been in operation since the 1800s.
It is narrow, winding and in places down right scary. There are no
guardrails and must be driven in the lowest gear possible. The elevation
at summit is 6238 ft but the road has an average grade of 12%.
We could see about 100 miles once we reached the summit. Usually you
could have expected high winds and much colder temperatures, but
yesterday, the wind was very light and the temp was about 40.
One interesting thing is that the car we happened to park next to was a
man who had become acquainted with a group of kids over here work for
the summer. These kids happened to be from Romania and Moldavia. He had
brought them over because some of them had never seen a mountain. Of
course, I had to practice my limited Russian and they seemed happy to
have someone here that even attempted to speak their language.
There was a little bit of snow on the ground but I was hoping for more.
One fascinating thing is the railroad that comes up the mountain. These
trains are steam engines and I can't imagine riding up or down this
mountain in the one car that they pull. They literally back down the
mountain.
I hope you enjoy the pictures as we certainly enjoyed the day.
Sunday, August 12, 2007 - Phippsburg, ME - We have been talking about doing
one of these cruises since we got here but every time we thought about it, the
weather would turn bad. Last night was the perfect night for it though - not
too hot or too cold.
We have learned, however, that whenever you are going out on the water
in Maine, you take a light jacket. It is always needed at some point. So where
did we go? On a 3.5 hour cruise of the lighthouses in the area. We saw 10
lighthouse in that time and it was really lovely. In addition to the
lighthouses, we saw two eagles, a great blue heron and a number of osprey
nests. The lighthouses are each quite unique from each other as you will see
from the pictures.
We traveled down the Kennebec River to the ocean. At one point, we went
through what they call Hell's Gate. This is a point where 3 area rivers empty
into the ocean. The entire area is one whirlpool after another. This is also
where the boat ran over a lobster buoy and got the rope caught in his
propeller. Interesting effect on a boat motor...NOT! Finally, he was able to
reverse the engine and untangle most of the rope.
I managed to get some water side pictures of Fort Popham which we
visited earlier in our stay here. So now we have pictures from both sides. In
addition, I got some really good pictures of Bath Iron Works Ship yard and the
Navy destroyers being built there. Of course, the whole purpose of this trip
was the lighthouses and I got some really good shots of them as well.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 - Phippsburg, ME - I know we have been a bit lax in
updating the web pages and that is because we have not been doing much outside
the mundane.
We have been working, visiting with friends, shopping, doing housework,
etc. But, finally yesterday we broke out of the rut and took a little day
trip to Portland.
We started our trip by taking the old Rt 1 instead of the interstate.
This took us through some small towns that are typical quaint (Jerry's has begun
to hate that word) towns. Our only mistake in this plan was that we took
KC with us and once we got to the Old Port area of Portland we realized that we
really could not get out and explore with him. There were just too many
people and he really doesn't do well in crowds.
So we decided to go to plan B - Mexican food!! We made our way out of
the crowded Old Port Area and over to the Maine
Mall and On the Border. YUMMY! It is as close to Tex-Mex as we have
found up here and so we sort of pigged out.
On our way back, we stopped at the office
complex and map store of DeLorme. They make maps, mapping software and GPS
products. Their offices are sort of a tourist stop as well because they
have a three story revolving globe in their front lobby and a very interesting
store. I took some pictures of the globe as best I could and can only hope
that I captured the magnitude of it. We spent some time looking at various
things in the store especially the selection of maps. Some of them were
just spectacular. We are not sure that KC enjoyed his day but we certainly
did. We will make another trip to the Old Port soon, this time without the
dog.
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