The Travels of the Agnew Family

Our vacation time is coming to an end so it's time to start driving home. Today we are leaving New Hampshire, driving through Vermont and into New York state stopping in Lake Placid for the night. As can be expected Ed insisted on doing some geocaching.


Looking for a cache brought us to this cute mini covered bridge.


Something doesn't look right here.


Lake Champlain divides the northern part of Vermont and New York states. This bridge is near the southern end of the lake where it narrows.


Looking across the lake at Vermont.


This statue was at a bait shop.


Another cache took us to this old train and caboose.


Another view across Lake Champlain.


Looking across Mirror Lake in Lake Placid.


An old church in Lake Placid.


I thought this building looked interesting --- not sure if it looks this because it is old or it was made to look old.


Getting in practice for winter behind the arean.

What do you do in the mountains on a rainy day? If you are a die hard hiker you can go hiking if not you can go for a drive, do a bit of geocaching and go shopping. Guess which one we did. Ed vetoed any chaches that were more than a few feet from the car especially if they involved a hill or rocks and he still managed to find 25 caches.

Eastern Mountain Sports is another large outdoor store in Conway NH. Ed and I were both happy to see that the items we were looking for were in our sizes and were discounted. On top of that if we spent more than $100 and signed up for their membership card (I see lots of e-mails in my future) we received an additional 25% off.


One of the geocaches was at this covered bridge.


The water was really moving.


This store is ready for fall.

This morning we woke up to the sound of wind and rain and the forecast says it's here for 2 days. Can't complain because we've had some pretty good weather. Today our destination is Gorham New Hampshire about 15 km from the Maine New Hampshire border.

We took the long way off of Mt. Desert Island which just renforced our desire to come back and spend a week here --- so much left unexplored, so many hikes left unhiked --- so many photos that need to be taken.


I think this is the harbour at Northeast Harbor --- if only I had some sun or at least good visibility.


A "raft" in the harbour.


We stopped in Somesville to get a geocache and in the description of the cache it talked about the most photographed bridge in Maine being in Somesville. Googling "most photographed bridge in Maine" brought up lots of images of different bridges but this bridge was in the first eight images plus scattered through the remaining images.

For the most part we drove lessor highways through some very picturesque areas but didn't stop to take photos as it was either raining or just to hazy to capture much more than a blur. Maine is definitely a place we would return to. The bad weather didn't stop Ed from geocaching, he managed to get 25 caches today.

One of us was up in time to catch the end of sunrise and their initials aren't EA.

Acadia NP is a hikers paradise as it it covered in carriage paths and hiking trails. Carriage Paths were created in the early 1900s in a hope to keep the automobile out of the park. The carriage roads can be used by horse drawn carriages, bicycles and pedistrians. Today we opted to hike several short hiking trails.

The first trails we hiked were South Bubble, North Bubble, Bubble Divide (we have a theme going here) and part of Jordan Pond trail. It's kinda grey and foggy so the photos are as spectacular as they could be.


From the top of North Bubble looking down at Jordan Pond.


I couldn't get Bubble Rock at South Bubble to budge.


Part way down this hill, Ed and I wondered what we were doing. Not really a hard trail except it was hard to find the trail with all the leaves. Then a 20 something basically ran down the hill ---- guess our age is showing.


I bought Autumn boots! Does this mean I need to buy boots for every season? BTW the boots are fantastic, they fit perfectly --- my feet don't slide going downhill and no sore spots. I'm sure I'll get use to the colour but brown would have been nice.


At Jordon Pond looking across the lakes at the North and South Bubble.

A Ranger told us that Emmery Path in the area of the national park known as Sieur de Monts (where Acadia NP began), has the original stone steps. We decide to hike a bit of history.

At the bottom of the path there were several vivid red trees. Part of the trail.


Another look at the stone path. This time a woman (not a 20 something) ran down the stairs as we walked up. I guess is not the age that showing but we're just out of shape. We'll have to work on that.


A resting spot part way up where I enjoyed the view. \


The view. Again it would have been spectacular if it had been sunny. Cruise ship du jour can be seen in the harbour. I checked the Cruise Ship schedule, ships begin arriving in April and the last one stops on November 1st this year with as many as three cruise ships in the harbour at the same time in September and October.


The harbour in Bar Harbor. It's a really cute town. Ed and I think that there's still a fair number of people around but I guess we are really at the end of the season as a lot of hotels/motels, restaurants, gift shops and tour companies are closed or in the process of closing.


Lucky for us Geddy's was still oopen. Ed said he had to have his Maine lobster tonight as we are leaving tomorrow. I had thought about lobster but couldn't resist my favourite, fresh scallops. I didn't feel like wine or beer tonight so I decided to have a Bloody Mary. This one came complete with iguana sunning on a wedge of lime.

Bar Harbor is on Mt. Desert Island. Most of the island is home to Acadia National Park. In 1901 a public trust was set up that began aquiring land for public use then in 1913 another group tried to annual the trust. After three years of hard lobbying by George B. Dorr, the federal government established Sieur de Monts National Monument. The name was changed to Lafayette National Park in February 1919 when it became the first national park east of the Mississippi. It was not until January 1929 that it officially was named Acadia National Park. After spending one day in the park I'm very thankful for the all the work George Dorr did.

There is a 27 mile scenic drive through the park that includes a stop at the top of Cadillac Mt.


The views from the top of the mountain are spectacular, well except perhaps this morning. The sun was shining brightly but it was if we were in an airplane, we were looking down on the clouds.


There were less clouds when you looked down towards Bar Harbor. Your could see the cruise ship anchored off shore.


Don't know what this plant is but it is pretty, and I'm not talking about Ed.


Looking down over Eagle Lake.


There were 2 large huge beaver lodges in the beaver pond plus beautiful reflections


As we continued our drive, the clouds cleared and we could see many of the off shore islands.


Sand Beach is a geological rarity --- one of the few cold-water shell-based sand beaches in the world.


The rock on Mt. Desert Island is a pink granite.


Jordan Pond is a pristine pond and is one of the sources for the local drinking water.


Many trees have already lost their leaves but there's still lots of colour.


The clouds were coming back but we decided to drive back up Cadillac Mt. in hopes for a view. On the way up we pulled over to grab this shot of the sun reflecting off of Eagle Lake.


Not the clearest view but we can see islands this time.


Due to the cloud cover the sun was acting like a spot light and it was aimed directly at the cruise ship ---- it just sparkled.


We didn't get a colourful sunset but we did get a cloud show. For about 15 minutes we watched as clouds rolled by us.

We drove what is called the coastal highway from Freeport to Bar Harbor. I'd say about a 1/4 of the road was along the coast but it was a beautiful, relaxing drive that gave Ed the opportunity to geocache. The fall colours are past their prime but as fall was late this year we're seeing more than I expected.


We met this fellow along the way. A cache was in it's mouth.


A picnic area was along this lake ---- not sure why they called it a lake as the sign taked about the height of the water being dependant on the tides.


Another park. This one was filled with old bouys and markers.


Given the number of anchoring points in the bays, either a lot of boats have been pulled out of the water or this area gets a lot of visiting boats in summer.


Another beautiful view. The sumac has turned a bright red.


The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is a 2,120 foot long cable-stayed bridge.




Ed had a good day geocaching. We found 30 geocaches along the highway and this one was the most fun. The cache is called whirlybird and is a fake birdhouse. Took us a couple of minitues to figure out how to get the cache open.

Last night we looked on line for accomodations in Bar Harbor. The inexpensive accomodation was either booked, closed for the season or about to close for the season. We selected a hotel that looked like it had a discount from the one of the on-line booking sites and called it. In P-town we found out that the hotels may offer a better off season price than the on-line prices. Turned out we were correct, the hotel's price was less than the on-line price so we booked 3 nights. When we arrived in Bar Harbor and checked-in we were pleasantly surprised. Our 3rd floor room was huge (at least compared to what we usually get) and had a view of the water. The hotel has an outdoor and indoor pool and hot tub. I smiled when I got into the indoor pool --- had to be 86 to 88 F and the hot tub had to be 104 or 105 F. I think we got a really good deal .... now if only the exchange rate was better.


The view from our room.

I'm not really much of a shopper and Ed really only enjoys shopping at camera, hardware or electronic stores none of which are in town. So why I am excited about shopping? We are in Freeport Maine home of L.L. Bean one of the big out door stores and I need new hiking boots. Over the years a lot of other stores moved to town, so there's also lots of outlet stores here as well.


Some cute carvings.


And some other interesting carvings.


Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere. L.L. Bean was hosting a Pumkin Festival to raise funds for the Sunshine Camp, a camp for serious ill children and their families.


Interesting door handles.


Trying on boots --- yup I had two different boots on. I ended up buying the "plum" coloured ones even though I'm not sure about the colour but they were the more comfortable pair. The best part was the 25% discount when I got to the cash register.

Last evening we had trouble starting the car and this morning Ed's worst fears were proven correct. The car's battery had a dead cell. Good thing Ed (Mr. Contigency Plan) had an emergency booster pack with us. He started the car and we drove to the closest Toyota dealer, where Ed bought a new battery and swapped it with the old one.

Sandwich is a cute little town at the beginning of Cape Cod.


Ed loved the signs. What do you think you'd find in Sandwich Ctr, roast beef, tuna or ham and cheese? Do they only sell Ice Cream Sandwiches at the ice cream shop?


The Cape Cod Canal borders Sandwich. While we were walking along the canal we saw a tug boat hooking up to a barge and start pulling it.


Little tug, big barge.


Sandwich also borders on the Atlantic Ocean. It's hard to say how big the beach is as the tide was coming in.


One of Massachusetts fish hatcheries is in Sandwich. These big boys are brown trout.

About 20 miles north east of Sandwich is Plymouth, the spot where the Pilgrams landed and settled.

Plymouth Rock lost much of it's size as tourists would bring hammers and chisels and help themselves to a piece of the rock. If the rock was it's original size it would have filled this structure.


Jabez Howland House, 1667. It's the only house left in Plymouth where the Pilgrims actually lived.


The post office.


Church of the Pilgrimage. The stone church is the first church in Plymouth.


Pilgrim Hall.


Down at the docks a boat was unloading his lobster catch.


Not sure what type of bird this is but he's cute.


Walkerton has fishes around town, Plymouth has lobsters, all nicely decorated.

After visiting Plymouth we continued our drive around Boston as our destination for today is Freeport Maine. Unfortunately our timing wasn't very good.


It was rush hour in the Boston. Part of the drive was OK as we first headed toward the city but once we passed the half way point we joined the traffic heading away from the city. Ed took this photo not to show the traffic but to show we were in Burlington.

This morning we said our farewells to P-town and started down the highway. Today we were looking for geocaches and windmills and we were reasonably successful on both accounts. We found four windmills today and they all looked almost identical to the one we found yesterday. Guess that's what happens when they are made during the same time period at the same place.


An oxen would be attached to the bar so the blades could be moved to catch the wind.


The windmills are in different town parks. This one was with a one room house and a black smith shop. It also had a fish perched on the roof.


This windmill has a swordfish wind vane on the roof.


and this one's roof was smaller than the others. Ed found his way to the middle of the labyrinth. We've only seen a couple of labyrinths in our travels but we thought this one was well done.


The lighthouse and coastguard station in Chatham. We saw a couple of girls walking in the water here, so I stuck my finger in ---- it was cold!


We also saw a number of cute harbours on our drive.


The summer hustle and bustle at the beach is gone replaced with dog walkers and off season tourists.


This fellow was on sentry duty sitting on a post by the parking lot. You had to get pretty close to him before he'd fly away and then it was only a couple of minutes before he was back.

The motel owner recommended Marshland Restauant and Bakery so we decided to check it out. Ed ordered one of the specials --- Pork Schnizle with apples and sourcraut. His face was priceless when his food was brought to our table --- the vegetable was squash and we all know how Ed feels about squash. I think squash and sweet potatoes are the only vegetables he won't eat. I ordered meatloaf and also got squash ---- it was wonderful. In fact the entire meal was very good especially the Lobster bique.

Another sunny day and this time comfortable temperatures. First stop is Fort Hill and Captain Penniman House.


A Whale Bone Welcome. Captain Penniman placed the jaw bones of a whale whale bones like a gate when he built his house in 1868. Today's bone are the third set in this location.


Not far from Captain Penniman's house is a large marsh.


More marsh near this boat ramp.


Did you expect photos of windmills on Cape Cod? This is the Eastham Windmill that was built in Plymouth in 1680. It was moved in 1770, then 1793 and again in 1808 ending up in it's current location. What was once a farm is now a park.


It always amazes me how these chubby little birds can stand on one very skinny leg.


Ed and I were the first to leave human footprints on this stretch of beach. We did see these interesting impressions in the sand.


The Atlantic was very calm today, just a bit of a wave before the water hit the beach.


Running on water? Nope Ed caught him as he slipped off the board before he disappear under the wave. This fellow had been paddling away on his paddle board, occasionally paddling on a wave.


Houses perched on a hill at Corn Beach. The story goes (or at least how I remember the story the National Park Volunteer told me): when the pilgrims landed they found a stash of corn on this beach and proceeded to take it and use it. The natives watched and about 30 miles down the road (at what is now known as First Encouter Beach) the natives attacked.

This morning we booked our motel room for another 2 nights --- guess that means we like Cape Cod, Provincetown and the motel.

It's still quite cool but the sun is shining so all is good. It's interesting to people watch with this type of weather at the beach. There's still a few die hards who are in their shorts and sandals. For once I'm in the in between category but probably only because Ed said I wouldn't need a toque or scarf.


The Highland Light.


Coast Guard Beach.

We went for a long walk at Race Point Beach.


We saw a number of seals swimming along the beach. They are quite cute and seam to be people watching they way we are seal watching.


This guy looks like he's planning to get into some kind of mischief.

Several flocks of birds were hanging out on the beach. For whatever reason they seemed content to stay in one spot as long as people didn't get too close.


Ooops I think I might have taken one step to many. The terms flew about 10 feet further along the beach.


I think these little guys were just resting.


At West End Marsh there is a rock dyke. Good thing we walking near low tide as it gets covered by high tide.


The main tourist street in Provincetown. Lots of shops and restaurants though a number of them are closed as it is now low season for the area.


An interesting bit of sky line seen from the beach and old floats from lobster traps.


Sunset. My initial feeling was something was wrong as the sun was setting in the direction that I thought was east. Looking at a map I realized the cape has an interesting bend in it so yes everything is right with the world and the sun was setting in the west.

The first destination for today is Woonsocket RI. Yup, Ed is after geocaches in Rhode Island. The GPS gave us a choice of highway driving or back road driving, so as I had first shift of driving I choose back roads. Roads in Connecticut are anything but flat and straight, so it was a pretty drive, though a little slow. After find four caches fairly quickly in Woonsocket we set the GPS for Provincetown Massachusetts right at the tip of Cape Cod. I've looked at the maps so I should have known, but Cape Cod is a lot longer than I expected.

As we were driving along we saw a sign for the Cape Cod National Seashore, so we stopped. The park is quite large and has a surprising number of private residences within it's boundaries. I think the park was established in 1960 so it makes sence that there are so many private residences.

It's cool, with a cool wind and overcast today, but we stopped to check out a lighthouse and the beach. No one was sunning on the beach today, though there were a number of people and dogs walking like Ed and I. The seals looked like they were enjoying the day as they swam near the beach.


A shot of the lighthouse through the provided picture frame. The beach by the lighthouse is wonderful. Unfortunately the bank is deteriorating at rate of 10 to 15 feet a year. The lighthouse was moved a number of years ago so it is not in danger of falling of the cliff.


The three sisters. These lighthouses (the lights are missing off of two of then) stood along the coast for a number of years. They were replaced the lighthouse in the previous photo.


My art shot.


Ed's art shot.

Provincetown is cute town with a large dock and lots of fishing boats. The motel we are staying at is about a 10 minute walk from the downtown area.


A little patch of blue sky allowed a streak of sun light that only lasted a few moments. Looking across the bay catching the moment of sun.


The Public Library and the Pilgrim Monument

We chose the restaurant we ate in tonight by the true and trusted method of seeing how many people werre inside eating. Let me tell you they had good reasons for being there. The food was amazing. Ed had a fish platter that included 2 big juicy scallops, 4 large shrimps and a big piece of fish along with home cut fries and restaurant made coleslaw and tarter sauce. I had fish curry to die for. We were told that the chefs are from Nepal (the reason I chose the curry) and you could taste the asian influence in the coleslaw and the tarter sauce.

Drove for about five hours today ending up in Enfield Connecticut. The majority of the drive was on the interstate so it was a little boring. We decided to make the short detour into Connecticut so Ed could get a geocache in Connecticut. We found five caches fairly quickly which made Ed a happy camper.

Our last vacation was in May when we flew to Ireland so in my opinion we are due for another vacation. As we have a big trip book for February we decided a car trip was in order. After consulting the great oracle (geocaching website) we decided on the New England area. Even though we've seen parts of New England Ed has not geocached in New England. All of trips to this area were before December 2010 when Ed was introduced to geocaching.

Yesterday we decided that given the price of hotels on Saturday evening where we were hoping to end up and the fact that we weren't organized we decided to delay the trip by a day. This morning when we checked out the weather forecast for tomorrow we saw weather warnings for high winds. So guess what, we got our act together and left home about 2pm and drove four hours to Batavia New York. We won't have escaped the winds but they shouldn't be as strong as the ones in Ontario.

Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving but we decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner ---- turkey with all the trimmings ----- today. This year we invited my mother, brother, cousin and her husband. We had a great visit and a great dinner. My cousin brought a treat she found in the liqour store --- pumpkin whiskey. Ed who doesn't like pumpkin even enjoyed the whiskey and said if he has to have pumpkin it'll be in whiskey.

Once again we attended the Cinderella Carriage Car Show at Pumpkinfest in Port Elgin. This year the weather was perfect --- sunny and about 20 degrees (68F for you non-celsius people). The show deserved a beautiful weekend as the weather has been pretty awful the last few years. The show is on both the Saturday and Sunday. We opted to go on the Sunday which means fewer cars but also fewer people. Apparently, on the Saturday the roads were full of cars but you could barely walk down the street. Ed would not have been a happy camper as crowds aren't his thing.


Like the contrast, old sheriff car with new police officers. The fellows who brought the car were dressed in old sheriff uniforms.


In the last couple of years the cars on display include newer hot cars. We talked to the owner of this corrvette for awhile. This car puts out 1300 horse power if he runs it on methanol, 1000 horse power if he runs it on regular gasoline. He also had a nitrous oxide bottle in the back for those times when he really wants it to go.


Now this is an oldie.


Another relatively new car. Victor admiring the Ferrari. The car has an appropriate license plate ARMNLEG.