A TALE OF A WHALE

Another trip this week. We went back to Bar Harbor & took a whale & puffin tour. I am trying something new this time and will put pictures at the end of the text.

The tour started in downtown Bar Harbor-what a difference in the amount of people since we were there in May! We got underway (like the nautical term?) at 9am and returned after 1pm so it was a nice long trip. The boat we went on was a catamaran and goes fast, the wake was quite pretty to watch behind the boat. The tour guide was excellent, had been doing this type of tour for over 30 years. He can tell the types of whales from long distances away by the water that comes out of the blowhole-each kind has a different pattern.

First we went out to an island called Petite Manan to see the puffins. They are cute little sea birds that are normally not seen near the shore. The have big orange beaks and feet. Not only do they fly, when they go under the water for food, they actually fly underwater too using their wings the same as in the air. Petite Manan is one of only 3-4 breeding places one the Atlantic coast-surprise, this breed is called the Atlantic Puffin. They were all over the place swimming & floating around but any picture you see is a zoom shot because they stay away from the boats.

After watching them 10 minutes or so, we heading further out to sea, the beginning of the Bay of Fundy.

The whale is a magnificent mammal (it gives birth). There was a humpback whale named Arrowhead that decided to spend time with us. The other whales in the area besides the humpback are Minke & Right whales & of course the big Orcas. Arrowhead was about 45 ft long and weighed something like 60,000 pounds. That's a lot of body to keep fed. We got lots of pictures but mostly it was wanting to get a picture of the tail as it dived. I tried but got only water but you will see that Dwayn got a nice one. Might have been in the 80s in town but it was downright cold out to sea. Sweatshirt & jacket definitely needed.

Check out the pictures below & click to enlarge. I will add the rest of the trip in a couple days.

THE END OF A TALE OF A WHALE

MAINE BLUEBERRIES

I know, I know-it has been awhile. Our touring has slowed down some. Earlier this month we did another overnighter to Calais, ME & St Stephens, NB. We went because there was a Chocolate Festival in St Stephens. The home of the very popular Ganongs Chocolates is in this town. There are a couple short videos to watch and some displays to look at but-most of all, there a platefuls of the chocolates around the rooms for sampling. We tried our share and are proud to report we left there without buying ANY candy at all. In both Canada and Calais I was able to do some genealogy research as my family were all in that area in the mid 1880s. Do not find much, a great-grandmother's obituary & some middle names. Got some tombstone pictures in the Calais cemetery. Just a couple nice days. It is blueberry season now & we got to see some pickers in the field. The Maine blueberries are the small low bush type, tiny but so sweet.

You can click on the picture to make it larger and see the tool used to get the blueberries in. It is sorta like a rake/shovel combo. They walk along with it at ground level sorta scooping the berries in. The ideal day is a windy one to blow away the weeds and stuff. After they fill a container it is taken to a winnowing machine that sorts the rest of the weeds & stuff from the berries then they go into, I think they said 26 qt boxes. These pickers get paid by the boxes they pick. Used to be mostly teens doing it but of course like everything else now migrants come in & pick the crop. So, again the kids miss the oppotunity to learn 1. about the past & 2. job ethics. It is backbreaking work no doubt but most of us survived it. Mine was potatoes.