September 29-30, 2013 We have stayed the last two nights with friends at their beautiful home (we sleep in the guest house) on an island near Yarmouth, Maine. It's been a heavenly two days: toured the Casco Bay in our friends' boat, walked around the island preserve, visited the shops in Portland, and just enjoyed being with our friends. What a gorgeous part of the world this is! We've been pampered here and it's going to be hard to leave tomorrow!... read more

New Bedford, MA, is the whaling capital of the world. When we began planning this trip, New Bedford was on Joe's list of places he wanted to see. We were the first ones into the NPS visitor center this morning to get maps and information and then walked around the old town admiring the granite stone roads, the architecture of the old buildings, and the whaling influenced shops. The Whaling Museum is a first class operation. We spent over two hours there learning about the whaling industry through the ages. The docents were all intelligent and well-spoken people that were excited about whales. We had lobster bisque and clam chowder at the Waterfront Cafe and then went to the harbor to view the Ernestina, a schooner launched in 1894. So it's now 49 down and one ... read more

September 25, 2013 The weather was a little better this morning for our drive and short walks in Acadia NP early in the morning. I love the stone bridges and the carriage paths. It would be such fun to actually ride in a horse drawn carriage in this park, but I'm sure Joe would prefer riding his bicycle. We drove through most of Mount Desert Island that has both parkland and private land, all beautiful. In the town of Northeast Harbor we picked one of the multiple bakeries and had some delicious blueberry scones with our coffee. The people on Mount Desert Island have a nice lifestyle...in the summer. I'm sure most of them aren't there in the winter. We did love Acadia NP and can certainly see why a few of our NPS friends that ... read more

September 23, 2013 The weather cooperated so today found us on Grand Manan Island after all. On our way to Black's Harbor, NB, to catch the ferry we took a detour in St. John to take a better look at the "Reversing Falls." I won't go into the physics here, but it's quite interesting. We had read that to bring the car on the ferry it was a "no reservation, first come, first served" type of thing. But when we got there we found you COULD make a reservation and we were put into a line of vehicles labeled "no reservation." But, we did get on, along with many construction workers and maybe four other tourists, it's pretty late in the season for this vacationland. It was a 90 minute beautiful ride and we are so ... read more

September 21, 2013 Breakfast is late (8:30) at the Rendell-Shea Manor on weekends, so Joe and I spent the extra time rearranging our clothes and putting the necessities in one small bag for the overnight ferry back to Nova Scotia. We'll leave everything else in the car. Breakfast was good with blueberry pancakes, lots of fruit, yogurt and granola, juice and coffee. It was a sunny warm day which made it all that much harder to leave Newfoundland. To all of you reading this that hope to visit some day, allow a minimum of two weeks to see this wonderful island. I know I keep repeating myself about this, but the people are what we'll remember even more than the beautiful scenery. Even the young people were eager to visit and share stories and give information. ... read more