Last day in June

We have a heat wave now, very hot and will last into end of next week. So that looks good for visiting Prince Edward Island.

We went south to the border town of St Stephen today, and people talked to us about politics. All were anti Trump. He has put taxes on Canadian imports and they are retaliating. Then we saw people demonstrating at the border and one shook his fist at our New York reg car… and we are not American😜

Then we met some one from Boston who was fed up with the protesting and fed up with Trump. And we have brexit to contend with!

Do you like the lighthouse and the statue of the “time and universe”?

Well we found a nature park to explore. We almost had the whole place to ourselves and it was so lovely. There were meadows, forest and seaside areas, all natural and deserted. Ganong nature park was so pretty. We stayed there a long time.

We continued back toward Saint John and stopped at St. Andrews. It is an old colonial town and also had a blockhouse fortification with cannons. This is the one at Saint John

This is the one at St Andrews.

They were built of wood and for protecting the towns from invasion by the Americans in the 1770s

It has been hot all day and oh yes we found the illusive lighthouse near Saint John this morning and it was covered in graffiti and quite disappointing.

Hope you are liking my blogs and photos

Love and kisses to you all

So today we didn’t want to travel far after yesterday’s trip! We went to explore Saint John.

First we explored around the harbour. It was very foggy with mist rolling from the port into the town. Out of the mist and in a bit of sunshine it was so much warmer. The weather has been strange all day… more about it later..

We met this very friendly moose, weren’t we brave Louis Otis Alice and Xavi!outside the shopping mall we saw this artwork it made me smile!next we found the famous indoor market. I tried the local delicacy of dried seaweed called Dulce that they eat like crisps. It was disgusting. It tasted like school dinner green cabbage that had been stewed in salt for hours, I didn’t buy any!

The market was built on a hillside and not levelled so we walked down steeply and then back up. It was a lovely old building.

Next we visited an historical house owned by a loyalist. Many escaped as refugees from America after 1780s. All the furniture and belongings were kept by the same family over the generations and so it is true to how it was originally.

Next we tried without success to find a lighthouse but it was so foggy we didn’t see it, so we may try tomorrow.This is Martello Tower. A fortification to rebel the French and Americans.

It was now late afternoon and we explored a nature reserve that juts into the sea. There is a path all the way round and a dirt track for cars to follow. The sun was burning through and we sat on a rocky beach in the warm. The mist was rolling in over the sea.

This was the hottest time of the day but it didn’t last long for the skies blackened and we now have thunder and heavy rain with also a beautiful pink sunset, how weird is that!

Hope you’re enjoying the heat wave. We are supposed to be getting one here from tomorrow into next week, fingers crossed.

Xxxxx

We had rain today on and off and now it’s pouring all through the night.

We wanted to go up the coast to Fundy National Park area. It is a long drive but we saw 2 lighthouses, some flowerpot stacks in the sea, and marshland, and forests. We went along the scenic byway that is lovely but slow going. This was a very remote part of the coast and looked dramatic with grey skies. ( would have preferred sunshine and blue skies though!)

The stacks can be walked round at low tide. We really wanted to see them at low tide too. But we would have to wait 4 hours at least! Never mind ….

We talked to some interesting people about the environment and Trump and USA and effects to Canada and the world!

Hope you like the chairs I am sitting on. You see a lot of these everywhere in Canada.

We are in the east of Canada now. We left a town called Calais in Maine and crossed over the river (that marked the border) and entered Canada at a town called St Stephen.

We followed the scenic coastal road rather than going on the motorway and enjoyed the coastal views. A deer crossed the road in front of the car at one town. We saw many eagles in the sky.

We are having lighthouse withdrawal symptoms! Also there are no signs for lobsters here!

They mostly seem to be advertising blueberry pies, jam and wines.

We are treating ourselves to a steakhouse dinner tonight. The first one so far!

So it’s warm windy and about 72*f inland and about 65*f on the coast. The sea must be cold!

We are here for 4 nights and hope to see a “reversing tide” at falls view, more news later when we understand the tide times. Also we may go whale watching too.

Our best Western plus hotel has a pool. My mosquito bites are better and gone for now. All is good.

Love

On our last day here we travelled to the other peninsular, also in Acadia NP. It was very different. It was uncommercialised and natural. There were bays and small working harbours all along the shore line. The water was so clear and the surrounding rocks were flat and orangey coloured.As we travelled further on the beauty was so overwhelming. The sun was warm and there was hardly any people around.

I even did some scary rock climbing! Although it doesn’t look too scary on the photoMaine blueberry ice cream is yummy!Here are more images of the flat orange rocks and iris grow there tooWe saw another lighthouse

We ended the day back in Barr Harbour and this is the Margaret Todd sailing ship. xxxxxxx love you all xxxxx

Lazy day at Acadia National Park.

We woke up to rain for a change. We headed into Barr Harbour to buy me some trainers and have a coffee. The coffee was very nice but very expensive. ( dad says Matthew remember St Marks Square prices? Well it was almost there, won’t go to that place again!!)

Louis and Otis see if you can spot Grandad and Grandma in any of these photos…

We explored more of the Acadia Mount Desert area and gradually the rain and grey skies cleared. By afternoon we had sunshine and blue skies again. We had haddock sandwich for lunch! Then we went to sand bay and relaxed in the sun.

Eventually we went round the loop road and up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. It had almost 360* views of Arcadia and well worth going up there.

We spent a lovely early evening around the coastal walk at Barr Harbour and now we are back at the motel and doing our washing!

We had a long but relaxing day

Hope you are all enjoying the heatwave in Britain and hopefully Netherlands

Xxxxx

We are now near Acadia National Park.

We had a good journey here and have left the rain and impending thunderstorms behind us. We have warm sunny weather again and a nice motel. We were wondering what it would be like but we’re pleasantly surprised! Our room is very big and clean. There is a swimming pool and a guest laundry, so we have all we need. We did a little loop of the park this afternoon and it is lovely. There were lots of visitors though as it is the weekend and the schools ave all just broken up for summer. It should be quieter tomorrow I expect. There are beaches and walks along and into the hills.

I’m a bit wary of walking through woodland at the moment as my leg has loads of nasty bites on it. Trust me!

We took a few photos today and hope you like them. We are both sticking to our diets so far so good. New England has been good so far.

We are noticing more French speakers here as we’re closer to Canada.

Hope you are all ok, keep in touch

Love from both of us xxxx

It is market day in Bath. There were farmers stalls and jazz players, people signing petitions about Trump keeping children apart from their parents (illegal immigrants) it was very much a community event. The coffee shop nearby was a real part of the local community too.

So today we set off to find more lighthouses, it seems that’s the done thing round here ha ha!

We parked the car and walked a mile to a disused lighthouse. We walked through woods near to the river and saw ground squirrels, deer, wild turkeys,osprey and mosquitoes. They found me very tasty as usual!

As we got back to the car it started to rain slightly so we set off for Portland a huge town and port. We wandered around the port and then it started pouring down. We set off for nearby Cape Elizabeth and captured more lighthouse photos. It’s the first rain we’ve had and the temperate has dipped by 20*f !

I’ve sussed out how to upload photos at last! Hope you like them and the others that I’ve managed to include in past blogs this week.

It was the longest day yesterday and the sunset here at 8.20pm ! Much earlier than in Thornbury.

Today we visited 3 Maine lighthouses. All completely different and in different environments.

The first one was Pemaquid. It was built on top of long lines of rocks that were good fun to clamber over. There was lots of ops for photography and we had a seafood omelette here. Crab,lobster and prawn in a 2 egg omelette mmmmmm!

Grandad asked for a 2 scoop ice cream. We each got enough to feed a family! We learnt our lesson, only ask for kiddie size in future.

Next we went to owls head lighthouse. It was high above the path and had wooden steps up to it. From the viewing platform we were so lucky to see a cutter sailing ship with all sails full with the wind.

6 miles away was another lighthouse.Rockland Breakwater lighthouse We had a miles walk along a causeway across the harbour to reach it. It was good fun walking all the way right into the sea. When we reached the lighthouse it was too scary to walk up the steps as it was high tide and we didn’t risk falling into the water. Again we saw sailing ships and chatted to people who loved the way we speak! They guessed we were Australian.

A tiring day but delightful, we’ll sleep well with the exercise and sea air.

A market day tomorrow and another lighthouse or 2 xxxx

We weren’t sure about going to this botanical garden but it was well worth the money and journey. We spent 5 hours there surrounded by beautiful landscaped gardens with different themes. The children’s garden was sheer delight for all ages. We went for a long walk through the woods down to the estuary, all part of the gardens. There was a bus back up the hill but we walked back too. We are doing so much exercise!

On the way back we followed a track through woodland with our car to a little lighthouse. It was a mystery tour to find it.

Again we have warm sunny windy weather. The views are amazing over the rivers and inlets. We visited Brunswick too, the nearest town to our hotel . Photos as and when?!