Leaves and Lobster

Leaf-Peeper is such a silly moniker. The word makes us smile, so why wouldn't we want to obtain that title for ourselves if we could?  (Don't answer that.). We could, so we did. 

Thus, for the second time this year we joined an Escapees trip.  Escapees is a camper's organization that provides many services, among with different sorts of trips.   We gathered in September in  Ellsworth, Maine for Leaves and Lobster, a tour of sorts around Mount Desert Island, Maine.  Mount Desert is Maine's largest off-shore island and is home to Bar Harbor, Maine, several small towns, Acadia National Park and a lot of very fancy summer cottages.  Ellsworth is not on Mount Desert, but  excellent public transportation and excellent Escapees transportation made it very workable.

We both kicked off and wrapped up the week with lobster picnic dinners.  Bill loved it; good thing since he ate both his and my lobsters. At both meals. With gusto! 

  

Between the two lobster feasts we whale-watched aboard the Atlanticat.

She was underway in the Gulf of Maine for about 4 hours before intersecting with several gray humpback whales hanging out along the German Bank. We don't know enough (or any) ocean geography to know what or where that is, so we were told that it's a ridge just south and east of the Bay of Fundy, off the southern coast of Nova Scotia.  So by some definition, these were, at least at that  moment, Canadian whales.  

The whales are hard to photograph -- they move too fast.  I didn't get any decent pictures and did as I did when I found myself in a school of Orcas off the coast of Alaska years ago; I just put the camera back in my pocket and enjoyed the experience.  The picture  below was taken by our newly-met fellow camping friends -- Sharon and Bob Shaffer.  

Bob's photo of a whale tail (fluke) 

  

Bob and Sharon on the right.

Didn't Bob get a good picture of the whale's fluke?   It turns out that the underside of the fluke is unique to each whale, and thus they can be recognized when seen again. And they are named.  You can meet a few of them on this NOAA website, including Rattan and Chromosome.

Another day we boarded the Sea Princess, a smaller craft designed just for Northeast Harbor.   

The Sea Princess is a private boat that usually has a National Park Ranger aboard to narrate.  Not so that day -- the government shutdown that would turn out to be the longest in American history had begun.  Lucky for us,  Sam, a fantastic and knowledgable volunteer narrater filled in. Thanks, Sam.  

A light house viewed from the Sea Princess.

We went ashore to walk the hilly hamlet of Isleford, on Little Cranberry Island. Imagining what life and culture might be like there was our favorite part of the trip.    Only ~60 people call this home all year round, but it is so charming, I was ready to move there.

Besides what's purported to be fantastic lobster rolls, the island is famous for its Congregational church, built in 1816 for a congregation that dates from 1706.  Those long-ago dates made sense to me when I remembered that Congregationalists evolved from our earliest European immigrants -- the Pilgrims and the Puritans. We imagined an early whaling settlement, but we learned that this was not so, although it certainly was and still is a fishing village.

The ceiling of the church is said to be built in the shape of an overturned lobster boat, but we didn't get it.... What we did see was fabulous church architecture with this soaring space to receive whatever communication one wants to send heavenward.  It felt like a sacred space. 

There are stained glass windows made of sea glass and an approriately sized pipe organ as well.

The island has a sweet little school that provides K-8 education.  We  saw children playing outside and Internet sources tell me there's fewer than twenty students and 4 teachers.  High School kids have to head to the mainland for school.  The Internet is happy to share that these kids get high test scores, whatever that means in Maine.  In my mind this sounds like an idyllic elementary school.  I was worried about privacy issues, so this is an Internet picture:

The Government shutdown did not close the beautiful Acadia National Park, it just took away all its rangers.  The restrooms were open (but not being cleaned) and the road up the iconic Cadillac Mountain was closed.  Nonetheless, we boarded our tour bus for a lovely drive  through the park, seeing an American fjord, and lovely boardwalks.

We wrapped up our tour time with a stop at an old Mount Desert tradition-- popovers at the Jordan Pond House.  Its sort of a cross between gift shop/casual dining/ big lawn that no one was using/ fancy tea room.   We were seated with a lovely view and a tiered serving tray of petit fours and other high tea fancies.  In my eight years of eating plant based food, this has happened only once before: when I asked for something without dairy, the waiter, who did not bother to consult with his chef, said, in mostly these words,  that I was just out of luck.  Bill liked the experience better than I did.

About Ellsworth, Maine -- not much to talk about:

•  the Campground for the stay -- Timberland Acres.   3.5/5.  Well cared for, had its own restaurant and laundry.  But only one  bathroom facility for 200+ sites.   Sites were narrow, but OK. We noted several campgrounds on Mount Desert itself, too.  Recommend trying to book there first. 
• Great plant based eating in the Conscious Cafe in Ellsworth.  A couple of fellows seem to do all the cooking, and they are pretty good at it! 

• And great grocery shopping in nearby Blue Hill at the Blue Hill Coop

• Best and most accessible beach we found:  A beach along Newberry Neck Road between Ellsworth and Blue Hill, near the town of Surry.  It sports what appeared to be a very popular lobster dock bar.  We didn't go in because the line was too long.

Summary for Leaves and Lobster: 4.5/5. Great community, great organization -- Organizers pivoted and did the best they could once the government shutdown started.  5/5  for Escapees.  According to all who eat such things, the lobster was great especially for the second lobster meal.  Traffic on the Island and especially in Bar Harbor was as bad as Seattle or Dallas or D.C. Plus poor Maine had a drought last winter;  the leaves were fine, but not up to their reputation. Or maybe leaf- peeping just isn't as nifty as we expected.   Still, we'd recommend this trip for others if they haven't done it before. 
  

Then we were off to walk the last three Capital Volksmarch cities on the Continental US. We are in a 'goal to go' situation, with only Honolulu left to walk to finish 51 walks in US Capital cities.    Airline tickets have been purchased!  

  WOYAYA