OUT DOWNEAST

Interesting term, downeast. We have all heard it but did you ever wonder the meaning? It all has to do with Boston and the prevailing winds back in the days of the big sail ships.

On Monday & Tuesday, the 16th & 17th, we took a little overnight trip to Eastport, Maine. Eastport advertises itself as the eastermost city in the United State but-Lubec, Maine advertises itself as the easternmost town in the US. I guess it is semantics. Lubec is more due east. When in Eastport we stayed overnight at a bed & breakfast. This was a first for us. Pleasant experience it turned out to be. We stayed at a place called the Kilby House. Wish we could say we had a water-view but wanted a private bath. Out in the hallway of this 2 story home there was a water view. The gentleman that owned it said he bought it in a forclosure sale & it looked like it was falling down. He has totally refurbished the house and has period antiques as furnishings.

EASTPORT KILBY HOUSE VIEW FROM HALL

BED WITH DOOR TO BATH SLIGHTLY SMALL CLOSET

We went touring the small town of Eastport. Have you ever been to a mustard factory? Rayes has been open since the 1800s. It even made an issue of Martha Stewarts magazine. They have about a jillion kinds of mustard there. It is made on a grind stone and mustard seeds from Aroostook county Maine (where Dwayn was born). As a boy working on the local farms, one of the chores was pulling the mustard weed out of the growing crops. Funny, huh? While wondering the little shops in town I discovered I was an artisan. Note the price! What a surprise to me.

RAYES MUSTARD PAT, THE ARTISAN

The following day we left Eastport and drove to Lubec, Maine( remember the most easternmst TOWN,ourstination was Campobello, the summer white house of FDR. No border problems as you can still go over with picture ID only. Also while there we went to the East Quoddy lighthouse, it is accessible at low tide only and we were at high tide so only a picture.

LUBEC TO CANADA "THE COTTAGE"

(RIGHT TO LEFT)

EAST QUODDY LIGHTHOUSE

OK, enough for this time. I wish there were a better way of putting these pictures in. Everytime one is added it is at the top and you have to drag it down & rearrange everyting again.

BRIDGE TO CANADA

CASTINE

On the road again! This is a view of the road we took heading southeast towards the Atlantic. You go for quite sometime before seeing any signs of human habitation.



In the town of Castine Maine the merchant marine acadamy is located. This is the USST Maine, the T standing for training. We were pretty lucky as the ship had just returned form a two month cruise a couple days before we arrivied and was leaving in a few days for an overhaul. It is one mighty good sized ship.The other picture is of a classroom building on the grounds.


We had a great lunch in this restaurant on the water. Castine is another one of the quaint New England towns. To our surprise, the was only really one "tourist type" store in the town. They do like the tourists though and there were plenty of restaurants.


There are obviously a number of types of boat in the waters near her. The first shows from barge to sea kayaks. Sea kayaking is a big sport around here. We could haved rented a couple next door to where we ate but we are not senile yet! The middle picture is one I caught just before the 4 masted schooner sailed out of sight.




The waters are so blue in this area and it was a beautiful sunny day as we wandered around the town.




On the way home we came across ths rock wall. That is another thing New England towns are known for. When the land was (or is) cleared they have to have somewhere to put the rocks so they became property line wall. Rocks seem to breed in Maine. Dwayn says you clear a field in the spring & there are more there the next spring. We are really enjoying the summer here rediscovering Maine. You know how it goes, when you live therre you never seem to go exploring. We are surely making up for it this summer. Until next post, so long.

BAXTER STATE PARK

On Friday we took off on another day of sightseeing with Connie & Pete. This time we decided to go to Baxter State Park. Baxter is one of the country's largest state park. Over 204,000 miles of wilderness with only two roads leading in or out and they are dirt roads. Many beautiful sights but this is more a hiker's park.

It took about 3 hours to complete the drive through the park. It was kind of interesting that here in the middle of tourist season, there were so few people. We did not see probably more than a dozen other cars the whole time we were in the park. We did see a cow & calf moose but too late to get a picture-they scrambled up on the road in front of us (thankfully a good distance in front) and took off on the other side. Saw a couple white tail deer also. There are black bear in the park but we did not see any.The unusual thing about this park is that NO pets are allowed into the park, so if you come-leave Fido at home.

Baxter Park is home to Mount Katadin, Maine's largest mountain. To any from out west who read this I want you to know what the east refers to as a mountain is really a large hill. I don't know the story behind it but Katadin is an indian name. See the rise in the distance in this pic?

Along the road we stopped at a pond that looked interesting. Lots of old downed branches. You might say, a photo op. As we went further we discovered a beaver lodge. Those furry little creatures work real hard fixing up their home & I imagine this one was decorated in the lastest beaver decor. 'Course I suspect that the decor has remained the same since the beginning of beaver time.

It is hard to imigine that there are so many trees in one place. By the end of the trip Connie was saying "trees, trees and more trees". So I thought that for the last picture on this page, I would show you the road and a sample of the scenery that was along the road for most of the time we were in the park.