Last Day in Maine

Bonjour! We have just crossed the Canadian border and are on our way to Montreal! I do have to rewind a bit to fill you in on our last day in Maine!

Yesterday, we spent the entire day on the water in Bar Harbor. We took a morning cruise on LuLu’s Lobster boat in search of grey /harbor seals and lobsters. We had a wonderful captain named John who was extremely knowledgeable on the area. He was great with all of the kids on the boat as well. He took us out a couple of miles and then the kids were able to watch seal pups playing on the rocks at Egg Rock Light House. There was also a young bald eagle there for us to see. The seals were swimming in the water right next to our boat. The girls were in awe! Captain John told us that the seals were safe from sharks because the water temperature (40s-50s) was too cold for them. The girls were relieved! We then moved onto Captain John’s lobster traps. He explained to us that each “lobsterman” has his own, specific colored buoy. They are allowed to have 800 lobster traps and may drop them anywhere they wish. During the summer, they pick up the lobster traps every 2-3 days. Since the days are much shorter in the winter and the bait in the traps isn’t eaten as quickly, the lobstermen only pick up their traps every few weeks. Maine is the largest lobster resource in the country accounting for more than 85% of lobster sales. Captain John taught the kids (and adults) a lot about lobsters. I’ll share some cool facts with you: Lobsters molt once a year. If a claw gets caught while backing out of their shell, they will leave it and will grow another claw in their new shell. A lobster who has lost both claws is called a pistol. A lobster who is molting will hide from predators behind rocks until its new shell has formed. It will eat its old shell while it is in hiding. Captain John told the kids that it would be like eating your own toe nails and finger nails for a few weeks. They loved that idea! He taught us the difference between males and females and showed us how to measure them to see if they were long enough to keep. We learned that lobsters have thee pair of antennae. They also have two different types of claws: one is a shredder and the other one was the crusher. They look different too. The kids got to blow on the pinchers and watch them shut quickly. They were also able to touch the tails. Captain John told the kids that he was the Lobster Whisperer. When he said the word “butter”, the lobster went limp in his hands. The kids were amazed and the parents were cracking up! You could tell that he really enjoyed his job!

For the afternoon, we had a quick lunch of PB and J in the camper bus and then boarded the Friendship V ship for a whale watching tour. The tour has been cancelled the past few days due to bad weather. We were the first tour out in a few days, so they warned us that it would be pretty rough out there. They also mentioned that since they hadn’t been out in a few days, they weren’t sure where the big whales were located since they tend to move around when the weather takes a turn for the worse. Twenty five miles and four hours later, all we had seen was three people vomit, the Mt. Desert Light House, more gray seals and a ton of birds flying around. It was very disappointing. The girls and I even did our Shamu chant that we learned at Sea World to encourage the hump back whales to jump out of the water. It didn’t seem to work! We just couldn’t wait to get off the ship! What made it worse was when the captain apologized, he said that they see large whales 97% of the time and we were just on the unlucky tour. THANKS! We did get a voucher for tickets aboard their ship if we ever come back to Bar Harbor.

I didn’t want to leave Maine in a funk, so Tony stopped at a lobster pound for one last bite of sweet meat! That did seem to cheer me up a bit! We both ate lobster rolls. It was then off to New Hampshire for a night of camping. Tony drove five hours to our campground - Coleman State Park. According to the map, it looked like it was right off the main road. We were in for a big surprise! We spent almost an hour driving through complete darkness and some of the time even on a gravel road. It became sort of comical! The best part was when Tony spotted a moose running on the road in front of us. We drove behind it for about a half mile. It was hilarious! We woke up the girls so that they could see it! I swear that it was so much better than the four hour whale watch. It was the free, four minute moose sighting! We were trying to talk Tony into driving along side of it so that we could get a picture of Tony right next to it, but he felt that the moose was acting a little “squirly” and was afraid that it might run into the camper bus. I swear that it looked like a larger version of our old dog Duncan! It was raining out and the moose’s legs were sliding underneath him. It was quite a sight! I tried to get a picture, but you can’t see anything! You’ll just have to take my word for it! It finally made a run for the woods and slipped away in the trees. So far, I think it’s the highlight of our trip!! When we eventually found our campsite, we quickly pulled out our sleeping bags and crashed for the night. Before falling asleep, Julia heard Tony sneeze above us and swore that it was the moose outside. What a night!!

As we speak, we are about 25 miles away from Montreal. The girls were so serious when we had to stop at the border and show the border patrol our passports. He peeked in the back window, looked at the girls and asked - “Are those your child?” Once we claimed them as our “child”, we were able to proceed. Maddie just tried using her French cheat sheet, that she and Tony made, to order french fries in a McDonalds. It was too cute! The cashier just smiled and started speaking English to her. Maddie was so shy and embarassed! The girls were happy to report that Canadian french fries taste exactly the same as back home! I’m excited to see the city of Montreal! I’ve heard that the underground city is amazing! I’ll try and take some good pics! Au Revoir! Aimee

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