One more toy plane ride and then I'm home

Of course I had to fly Cape Air - what I now not so affectionately call the Toy Plane Airline - from Augusta to Boston before catching a connecting flight to Seattle.

Interesting enough, due to possible weather situations, Cape Air called me and asked if I could take an earlier flight in hopes of avoiding bad weather in both Augusta and Boston. Uh, yeah!! I had to check out of Glenmoor by 11:00, and the flight wasn't until 2:30 pm, so I decided to drive to Augusta early and maybe see the capital building. I had a REALLY hard time saying goodbye to the coast. Really.

This is my last view of the beautiful coast before heading inland.

It's right at the end of the Glenmoor By the Sea property.

Augusta State Capital. Nice building; lots of cool displays, like the Civil War flags.

View from the porch on the 3rd floor.

I had about 30 minutes before heading over the hill to the airport, and thinking that because it's such an incredibly small airport, I wouldn't need to be there more than an hour before, and that would still give me time to return my rental car, I decided to visit the museum next to the Capital Building.

I thought the displays were very interesting, although I didn't even see half of the museum and I didn't have time to read everything.

Apparently making butter has been a big deal in Maine for a long time.

Never knew there was a company in Maine that made pianos.

Now, that's a snow shovel!

I like this map because it shows all the places I've been on this trip - 

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, cutting a corner of New Brunswick, and Maine.

Hull fragment from the shipwrecked St. Mary.

A true "icebox"

Harvesting ice

So, I'm sitting at the teeny, tiny airport watching these clouds come in as the TSA is totally and completely rummaging through my suitcase - including my dirty underwear, taking out all my souvenirs and unwrapping the fragile ones, and literally "wanding" everything. I mentioned to one of the agents that I had never been through security that was so intense, especially since I had TSA Pre-Check, and she explained that it was because they are so small they have time to do it and because new guidelines are coming out and they are following them now. My goodness, that kind of security will make lines a lot longer and a lot slower.

Finally got on the toy plane with the most unfriendly pilot in the world, and got off the ground. Again, it's cool to be able to see so much below when you're on such a small plane, including two additional very remote lighthouses. It was a bumpier ride than my first one, and by the time we landed I was shaking. I'm not sure I'll do that again!

A Beautiful Ending to a Beautiful Vacation

Not a lot planned for today. I was hoping to go to Acadia National Park, but despite the halt in the rain, it was quite foggy. It was a bit of a drive to the park and I didn't want to get there and not really be able to see anything. So I just had kind of a lazy day, driving around looking at the beautiful scenery and finding one more lighthouse.

Forrest Gump movie fans might recognize this one. In the movie, during the scenes where Forrest is running back and forth from coast to coast, he runs down the Santa Monica Pier, turns around and runs all the way to this lighthouse on the Atlantic Ocean. It's the Marshall Point Lighthouse

I wasn't comfortable walking down the walkway all the way to the tower because three men were up in the light area working on the fog horn. It was a pretty little area. There was a man painting, another man was setting up his tripod for pictures, and there was a lobster trap sitting on the rocks. So Maine!

I was seeing a lot "For Sale" signs the whole time I was in Maine, but a lot of the places for sale were bigger homes that could be turned into establishments such as bed & breakfast places. When I saw this little blue house, I slammed on the brakes, backed up and just stared. It is perfect! The backyard backs up onto a small bay. I immediately fell in love. I took a picture of the "For Sale" sign because the brochure box was empty. I'm totally going to call and see how much it is.

My sailing excursion got changed from a day trip to a sunset trip due to the inclement weather (it was supposed to get much better by late afternoon), so I had a little time to do some more nature sight-seeing. The Camden Hills State Park was not very far away from where I was staying, and I knew that Mt. Battie was in that park. I figured I'd go see if the weather had cleared up enough for me to see anything from the top.

Beautiful view from the top, including a fabulous view of the Camden Harbor. Lots of boats. And the leaves up in this area were definitely starting to turn colors. In a couple of weeks, this area will be aflame with golds and reds and oranges and yellows.

Had a quick, and very delicious, bowl of clam chowder before heading down the dock to the Schooner Appledore for my sunset sail. The weather was much improved and there were a lot of big, white, fluffy clouds hovering on the horizon that promised a good sunset.

The Appledore II is a 68 foot wooden schooner (sailboat) and she is beautiful. Gorgeous. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her, with sails up, from the shore, but when she came in to pick us up, her sails were down. Beautiful wooden floors, masts and boom.

A real treat, for me anyway, was being able to see the Curtis Island Lighthouse that you can't see from land because not only is it on an island, it is located on the backside of the island. We sailed right by it!

Mark Island (on the right) is an old growth forested island. It's a protected island and there really wouldn't be any place for a boat to land anyway.

It was pretty windy and choppy on our way out of the harbor, but as the sun began to set things seemed to calm down. We certainly had slow, smooth sailing all the way back. Cheese, crackers, veggies and fruit were offered onboard, as well as drinks. I had a really nice time talking to some of the other people on the boat, mostly all couples. It's fun to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories.

Arriving peacefully back to Camden. What a perfect way to end a vacation.

West Quoddy Lighthouse

So many of these latest vacation posts may be out of order and are certainly dated incorrectly. That's because sometimes I start a post and don't finish and post it, so when I finally do get it posted it posts with the post date and not the date that things actually happened. Oh well.

Since my first full day in Maine was spent in the "neighborhood," and I knew I was going sailing on Thursday, I decided Wednesday would be my day to do the one thing I knew for sure I wanted to do. I'd been up the coast of Maine many, many years ago, but only as far north on the coast as Bar Harbor. I wanted to see the lighthouse up in Lubec, Maine, the furthest point east of the contiguous United States. It was going to be a 3-hour drive just to get up there, but I'm almost always up for a road trip.

West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine

Isn't it beautiful? I loved that it was so foggy and windy when I got there. I love that it's so different from so many of the lighthouses I've seen so far on this trip. And the fog horn could be heard. It was the perfect lighthouse experience.

If you take a look at a map of Maine, you'll see that this lighthouse is indeed the easternmost point of the U.S., but it's also the furthest on north on the coast of Maine. There is a whole lot of Maine north of the coast, but the general consensus is that part of Maine is basically Canada! Lots of French spoken up there, and very remote. 

I had a wonderful conversation with some of the park guys in the little visitor's building. Two of the guys were "summer" guys - only come to Maine in the summer. But this guy - who would be the perfect Santa Claus - lives in Lubec year round, and he's lived here all his life. He says when he's gone for more than a couple of days he gets homesick to come back to Lubec. He spends a lot of his time in the winter removing snow! I learned that a lot of people who live in Maine during the winter have a winter job of removing snow!

This guy told me that there was another lighthouse I could see in Lubec, but the lighthouse was actually in Canada! He gave me directions and told me where to go to get a good view. 

This is the Mulholland Point Light on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. It is literally across the Quoddy Narrows that you can almost swim across. Looking to the right is the little bridge that takes you from Maine to Canada.

For such a remote area of the state, the foliage is still alive and thriving. It's very green and wild. In fact, I found my perfect Christmas tree!

I found a little restaurant in Lubec to have lunch, and how could I pass up fresh lobster? So far, a lot of the little places I've found to eat have had great food and even greater views. Every time I was seated, I asked to be seated near a window or even, weather permitting, outdoors. Every little harbor view or grand ocean view, reminded me of why I love this part of the country so much.

Lunch view - a quiet fishing harbor

This was my favorite lobster roll - nothin' but lobster and a little mayo. It was perfect!

The weather was predicted to be very, very wet and windy, but I'd made it all the way up to Lubec, the lighthouse and lunch, and the weather held. BUT, it did not hold on my drive back to Lincolnville. Sometimes it rained so hard I almost pulled off the road because my windshield wipers couldn't wipe fast enough. Several people did pull off. Then it would taper off only to turn into a deluge once again. It was a wild, white-knuckle drive south.

It was wonderful to see some of the leaves already changing into their autumn colors.

Besides eating a lot of lobster, I had my fair share of scallops also. And this restaurant did not skimp on the portion of scallops. I was stuffed when I was done eating!