7-26-2010 Osprey nest

The weather actually broke a bit today. It was cool in the morning (well, low 70s) and we walked instead of going to the gym at 5:30. Those days are coming to an end; it's almost too dark now. A refreshing breeze was most pleasant. After work, we took a walk down by the river and saw these birds, with white heads, on some pilings in the river, right off the new condos located close to our house. A fellow came by and told us it was a family of Ospreys and pointed out their nest on the pilings. We must have looked at it a hundred times and not seen it and had never noticed the birds either. Oblivious! They will leave soon for South America - looked like there were three or four of them. So we didn't have to go to Maine to see Ospreys!

By the way, note the sailing boats in the background - lots of them out on the river this afternoon.

7-25-2010 Richmond

In the morning we slept in, had breakfast at the Marriott Buffet and then decided to venture out. It was already high in the 80s by 10am but we thought we'd give it a try. We went down to the Capitol area and walked around the State Capitol building.

There was an old Gothic building nearby, the Old Town Hall, and we found a couple sitting on the steps by an open door. We asked if we could peek in (they were cleaners for the building) and they said yes, and then let us go in. We found beautiful decorations inside, really something to wonder at and no people around. Great!

Then we went over to St. Paul's Episcopal, the church of Jeff Davis and RE Lee, to see the Tiffany windows. There was a "Mass" going on so we stayed for it - just like our Catholic Mass, except for the lady presiding. Same words, same songs, same beliefs, except for that pesky thing about the Pope. And extremely friendly folks - we must have had 7 people come up to us after the service to introduce themselves and ask where we were from. After the service, there was a docent lead tour of the Church, to talk about the history of the building, the community and the windows. So we stayed there for quite awhile - and outside it just got hotter and hotter.

The Tiffany highlight of the Church is the glass mosaic of the Last Supper over the altar. This is a very unique Tiffany work. I have also put pictures here of three of the Church’s windows by Tiffany. Interesting stories on two of them. The first shows Moses leaving the house of Pharaoh to lead his people to the promised land. This window is right above the pew that has RE Lee’s name on it and it shows the reverence the South holds for Lee. The second is the inquisition of St. Paul by the Roman Herod Agrippa. Jeff Davis was in prison 2 years, just like Paul, and the portrayal of Paul in the window looks very similar to Jeff Davis. There is a pew with his name on it in the Church and this is the place where he was when word came from Lee that the Southern defensive line had collapsed and the retreat was on. The third window is just one I really like a lot, called the Kiss of Charity.

After that we went over to the Museum of the Confederacy and the White House of the South (J. Davis' house - it's actually grey, not surprisingly). We looked around the museum while waiting for a tour of the White House. Didn't go into the material in any great depth, just looked at the artifacts, clothing of the heroes and some just plain folks. It is interesting to see the history of the Civil War from the perspective of the struggle for state's rights and the preservation of language that's written into the Constitution (Article 4, Section 2, second paragraph – Look it up - hmmmmm). The war of Northern Aggression some in the South call it.

The tour of the White House lasted about an hour. It's in great shape having been restored and populated with returned furniture. Almost 70% of the original furniture has come back now. It was a good tour, but warm. Outside it was cooking.

We left Richmond for home at about 3. We stopped in Fredericksburg for dinner with Amanda and Sal. We missed the big DC thunderstorms and got back in at about 8pm. We drove up on Highway 2 and that was a very nice quiet drive with great scenery.

7-24-2010 Richmond

So last month, before all this heat started, I had found a bargain at the Richmond Marriott and booked a night. After all, Richmond should have some good stuff, right? Sue was up at Adelphi working this week and mentioned to one of the ladies there that we were going to Richmond. "Richmond????" she said. “Whatever for?”

Well there was a Tiffany exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond and we wanted to see that. And who knew what else. So after the Alexandria Farmer's market again (worked up a good sweat just walking down and back) we left Alexandria at about 10:30. THREE HOURS later we got to the Museum. Of course, I95 was a mess and so was highway 1.

First we got some food and shared a table with two Richmond ladies who sounded really down South. They told us about the old Museum. One was going to an art class in Santa Fe in September. Friendly folks.

We toured the Museum - the show was worth the trip. Found that Tiffany's company did many, many Church windows - they had a whole division of the business for that, almost mail order. So we probably won't go out of our way to just see Tiffany windows in Churches anymore, with the exception of one Church in downtown Richmond. There were also lamp collections, design sketches, vases and other glass figures. It was a fairly big show and we really enjoyed it. The fact that the Tiffany window we saw in Staunton was signed by Tiffany turns out to be very special, since usually the staff did the windows - of course they were pretty top notch artists.

It was 4pm by the time we got out. We decided to just head for Church. We went to the Cathedral downtown. It was big but otherwise as expected. Then we got some food at Panera and then headed to the hotel. We found we had valet parking included in the special rate and we could also have taken the shuttle to dinner. Oh well, us rubes are just not used to these luxury places.

7-17-2010 Discretion is the better part

Given the heat and the fact that we were gone all last week, we decided to temper our travel ambitions this weekend. We walked down to the Farmer's Market in the morning (Saturday) and got lots of fruit. There's a lady there selling the BEST coffee and I look forward to that.

That evening we went to a Wolf Trap show. We drove there, rather than Metro, since we were unsure about getting home and spending time in train stations very late at night. It was, as it has been for so many days, very hot and humid. We had gotten tickets in the back of the "indoor" sit down area. The show was the National Symphony Orchestra playing Rogers and Hammerstein, with three soloists, 2 men and a woman. It was a very good concert, the sound system was great but... Boy! was it hot. After the first 15 minutes, Sue and I got up and moved to the unpopulated section in the back so we could spread out. That helped a lot and many other folks did so also. We got out about 10:15.The concert had started at 8:15.

7-16-2010 Help I'm melting

This heat and humidity is really something. Today I started to go into the office with short sleeve shirts - still a tie but no coat. I left two coats, a dark blue and a tan one, in the office and they will have to work with whatever I wear in. I can get sweaty just walking down to the bus stop in the morning or standing on the metro platform. Nonsense.

7-12-2010 Maine Day 9

We left the hotel at about 8:30 and headed out to the Portland light. Thought we would try to see if we could get some better pictures. While it was hazy in the distance, it was a nice day, you could see the light and the ocean and it was quiet - no people around. Walked around the Ft. Williams park, among the ruins of the forts there, took lots more pictures. Even got another lighthouse - the Ram Island Ledge light. Eventually it got hotter and the humidity started to climb.

Back to the airport- got through security by 10:30 for our 12:20 flight. Sue’s lasting impressions of Portland: While the town may not be so great, the area around it is very nice. It would not be the place to spend winters. Sue asked me if I felt like I had had a vacation – No, we were too busy on this trip to call it a "vacation", but I think we had completed another step on our mission while here – to see the East Coast and get a good feel for it. It was a good trip.

7-11-2010 Maine Day 8

First activity was to take the Western Promenade walk along Portland's bluffs along the river. We had bought a brochure for this hike yesterday – it listed some of the more famous houses in the old area on Portland’s southern plateau, with an emphasis on architectural styles. It was warm but not too bad, sunny with hazy skies. The oldest building was built in 1799 and was now a split condo. The owner of one side of the condo talked to us from her upstairs window – she was surprised that her home was on the Old Houses walk. It was good exercise.

After a pit stop at McDonald’s (the ladies pot was out of order so I had to guard the door for Sue and another lady), we headed for lighthouses. First up was the Portland Head light. It was on the site of Ft. Williams, a park, and there was a fair crowd there. And the fog was there. We bought a picture of the light on a pretty day and walked around a bit. We had lunch there with a Salsa band playing in the background from some event. I finished my last beer that I had bought in Bar Harbor – with all the ice I paid for to keep it cold, it probably cost me $15!





After lunch and a call to Amanda, we headed South for the two lights at Port Elizabeth. Still fog. And now it was raining. Then north to the two harbor lights, the breakwater and the “bug” light. Got em all, but it was wet.

Next stop was the Victorian House, a huge brownstone building built in 1850. We took the tour and I bought some postcards – words can not do it justice. The guide said 90% of the furnishings were original, the walls were original, the rugs, the gasoliers, all of it was like the real thing. We couldn’t imagine living in the place. This house has been shown as a museum since the early 1940s. It was a good tour – we got to go in most of the rooms of the house.

It had stopped raining by the time we got done so now we were at loose ends. We didn’t feel like taking the walking tour of the old port town, where all the new shops are. So we took a drive to the west, out into the countryside. We headed for this "Sanctuary" listed in the AAA book. When we got there, we found it was a little beaten-down grass path into a forest, at the end of a gravel road – no signs, no marked trail. We decided the idea of ticks was unappealing so we continued to drive west, ultimately deciding to head to the big lake to the west of Portland. By this time it was sunny and nice.

We saw a sign for a covered bridge on the way and turned down a narrow lane. When we got there we found it was a popular swimming hole. Talked with a local couple enjoying the river there. They had kayaked it yesterday. They told us about winters in Maine (temperature not above zero in February, 3 years ago shoveling 140 inches of snow off their roof), summers and fall (lots of lakes and rivers, great water activities, great sea food – the fellow got hungry talking about the good restaurants). A fun stop.

As we continued back on our way to the Lake, we noticed more and more traffic coming the other way. The road was also lined with stores, shops and family activities – Good Lord, we were on the road to "Myrtle Beach" and it was Sunday afternoon! To top things off, the skies were getting black and when we got to a town close to the lake, one could see the edge of the rain sheet in the air. It just dumped! We pulled off to let the leading edge go by and then found a way to turn around to get back to Portland. Now we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic out in the middle of the woods. Arrrgg. Well as frustrating as it was, the traffic picked up and thinned out. We got back to Portland and checked into the Hampton by the airport. Walked over to Macaroni Grill in the big shopping center next door. After that, back to the hotel to squeeze all our stuff into bags.

7-10-2010 Maine Day 7

We left the Holiday Inn and headed to downtown Bath to find a breakfast place. We saw signs for the Farmer’s Market and walked down to its location by the river. Bought some carb goodies of course. No fruit in the Market – just breads, vegetables and meats. The place we aimed to go to for breakfast didn’t look so cool, so we headed up the hill and found another very busy breakfast café (Mae’s Café). While waiting to sit, a very talkative guy, Bill, introduced himself and his wife, Sue, and then quizzed us about where we were from. Turned out they sat next to us, so the discussion continued onto things to see and do in the Bath area. He and Sue had celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2005 in Acadia and it had rained the whole time they were there. Made us realize how fortunate we have been. Another turn of fortune – just heard this morning that President Obama is taking a week’s vacation in Acadia next week – wouldn’t that have tied things up remarkably! Sue had this cute story of how all of Bill’s shirts have a hole in the side of the sleeve from her pulling on his shirt to get him to stop talking and give people a break. They were a fun couple – hope we turn out that way – we’re close!


We hadn’t been planning on it, but after hearing Bill and Sue talk about the Maine Maritime Museum, we decided to stop and visit it. Went in at about 11:00 and left at about 2:00. Standard museum time for us. It was raining when we left – the skies had turned very black while we were inside. It was very overcast and rain on and off the rest of the day. Sue drove to Brunswick (I had a bad headache) and drove around the Bowdoin College campus (home of Chamberlain of Gettysburg fame). Got a sandwich at Subway and were off to Portland.

Went first to the Visitor Center by the water, which was quite a chore, since there were no signs on the building. We found some walking tours to take tomorrow and then headed for 4:30 Mass at the Cathedral. When we got there Mass was already started – some folks told us the time had been changed just this week to 4 and said we could go to another nearby Church, St. Peter’s, at 5:15. So we poked around the downtown for awhile, went to Mass in the very stuffy old church (5 parishes banded together to act as one).

Then out to the Holiday Inn Express – nice place even if the rug is soaked by a leaking air conditioner in the room. I washed my final set of underwear so I’d have something for Monday. Dinner at Uno Chicago Grill, back to the room to watch Johnny Dep in Public Enemy. Ice Hockey tournament in town – lots of kids, noisy early but they settled down.

7-9-2010 Maine Day 6

Got a late start since the Farnsworth opens at 10. We got to the front door just as they opened it. We wandered in the main gallery then went to the Wyeth Center and then the Farnsworth home. I really like the illustrations of NC Wyeth, Andrew’s father – he did the Swiss Family Robinson and Treasure Island pictures that seem so familiar. In the Farnsworth house we saw a bedroom dresser set just like the one we have from my Mother’s collection. After the Farnsworth, we stopped at Atlantic Baking and got sandwiches.

Then it was off down the peninsula to see two lighthouses – the Owl’s Head Light (the picture with the stairs) and the Marshall Point Light. It was on and off foggy at the first – we could see a wall of fog just offshore. It is very strange being in fog and still being hot. We had lunch at Owl’s Head, sitting in a bench and watching the sea. The Marshall Pt. Light was very foggy.

After that, we drove back out to highway 1 and headed towards New Harbor where our Puffin Tour was leaving at 5:30. On the way we stopped at the Maine Prison workshop store. It was full of carvings and other wood products. Sue got a schooner and I got a lighthouse painting on a wood plaque. Some very fancy schooner models were there.

We got to New Harbor and still had time to head down to the Pemaquid Light. That was most neat, the fog had moved out and the views were great.

Back to New Harbor and the boat. The fog had moved back in and we were told that the trip would be bouncy (3-4 foot waves) and very foggy. It was. Sue did OK but she was queasy and felt the trip still the next day. We got out to Eastern Egg Rock and cruised around it and up and down the western side a few times, watching the sea birds fly around, land in the water and take off. The shacks on the island are blinds for the biologists who spend all their time there - dedicated! I got a good view of a few puffins. And one picture of something in the water that was a puffin and not a gull, a buoy or something else. She couldn’t look through the binoculars at all.

It was 7:30 by the time we were driving out of New Harbor. We stopped for dinner at the Moody’s Diner right next to Hwy 1. Great old place, I had a steak and we shared Blueberry pie and ice cream. Mmmmmm. It was 10:00 by the time we got to the Holiday Inn in Bath.

7-8-2010 Maine Day 5

We left the B&B at about 8:30 and stopped at the Visitor Center on our way out of the park so I could get a stamp for my National Park passport book. Just got it on a paper slip. As we neared the water to cross to the mainland, the fog made its presence known but it dissipated once we were over. We turned onto Highway 1 and headed South – took a picture of the Ellsworth City Hall – very decorative. We had been looking for the Big Chicken Barn that the B&B’s hostess had written about – a huge building filled with stuff on the first floor and books on the second. We almost drove by it but stopped in time. What a collection! But very neat and tidy. I was looking for a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird, but could not find it.

We took Rt 175 down the Penobscot peninsula to Castine – we had heard it was very Victorian. Well, it wasn't a go-to sort of place for old houses, but it was picturesque and the weather was beautiful. It was a quiet nice small water town. Had lunch there at a good little café and then went to the Dice Head Light nearby. On the way out, we stopped at Ft. George where earth works are left from Revolutionary era forts.

Next stop was the Observation tower on the Penobscot narrows bridge and Ft. Knox. Went first up the tower – largest in the Western Hemisphere and – the only one in the Western Hemisphere also. Other 2 in world are in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The tower is one of the two vertical supports holding up the highway bridge that crosses the Penobscot. The view from the top gave us a good look at what Maine is – lots and lots of trees with a few places of habitation. We went through Ft. Knox pretty fast – it had never seen action and it was in very very good shape. Beautiful stonework on the walls and tunnels.

We drove on to Camden where we stopped to walk around. Saw the park designed by Olmstead (of Central Park and 1897 Chicago World's Fair fame) and walked down Chestnut St. to see the old homes.

We also saw a group of fixed up Sears Roebuck homes – the mail order houses. We drove next to Rockport, to see the Andre the Seal statue. Got a distant view of the Indian Head Light on an island at the entrance to the Harbor. Tried to see more but couldn’t drive to the water – private property.

We decided to head back to Camden to drive up Mt. Battie to get a view of Camden Harbor but … the fog rolled in just as we were turning into the State Park, so nix on that idea.

On to Rockland. We stopped in the downtown and walked around – Sue not impressed – she thought it was dumpy. The Farnsworth Art Museum (home of the Wyeth collection) was closed by then and would open tomorrow at 10am.

We headed for the Hampton in Thomaston and found that our reservation for the next night was going to cost us a lot more than we had been told on the phone. Imagine - $205 for this very ordinary Hampton stuck by Hwy 1 in the middle of nowhere! We canceled that second night. We thought we’d stay in the area more, but we will just head South when we get done with the boat ride tomorrow evening.

We went back into Rockland to the Snow Marine Park where we searched high and low for the Rockland Harbor Southwest Light. I finally spotted it way off in the distance (with the binoculars).

We had dinner at a restaurant (Amalfi) close by and after dinner walked to the edge of the harbor where I took a picture of the Rockland Breakwater Light.
Back to the hotel for the night after Sue got her chocolate fix at Rite-Aid.

7-7-2010 Maine Day 4

Great breakfast again, with Blueberry pancakes – I got 4 of them, kind of puny but good. Walked down to the square and took the 9am bus to Sand Beach. Walked across the beach (the longest stretch of sand in Maine and it’s not very big) and hiked up the Great Head trail. Rock scrambling at the start. There were views on top and we could see the fog offshore coming in. It got quite close to the shore and then backed out again. It was sunny, with blue skies and not too hot – great day, blessed again. A group from Portland showed us what a blueberry bush looked like (we had been walking through them without knowing) and showed us the little bitty blueberries. (See the picture) There were some ripe ones. On the way back to the bus stop, we walked down a very pleasant forest lane – the weather was very nice – perfect!

The bus took us back to Bar Harbor – got there a little after noon. We walked back to the B&B, stopping at the Church with the Tiffany windows. That showed us that not all Tiffany windows are created equal. They did not seem to match up well with what we saw in Staunton. Our next trip was across the bar to Bar Island – low tide was at 1:20. You can see the exposed bar in the photo. There was a cruise ship in port dumping about 2000 people into town, so the bar was well populated. Turns out that cruise ships show up every day or so and sometimes there are 3 or 4 in port. Walked to the top of Bar Island – hot and cold, near the water it was cold enough for a sweater.

Back in town we went to the Jordan café, apparently known for its blueberry pancakes and all day breakfasts – which I got. Goooood. At the B&B, we spent the afternoon (about 3 on) reading about Maine and planning our next legs, reserving a room in Thomaston. Had one of the beers I bought the other night. We did this all out on the patio – nice. Dinner was at the “This Way Café” we had heard about from some folks at the B&B – I had an eggplant Sheppard’s Pie, which really wasn’t but it was good. Sue had almond crusted Halibut also very good. And blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert – we are so bad. Walked downtown for Sue to get a book – she finished the one Sal had given me for Father’s Day. Took the path along the water at dusk and back to the B&B. The picture is one of the four masted schooner coming back into harbor at sunset with the fog drifting over the islands in the background. What a place!

I got internet service on the Blackberry today for the first time on the trip, so checked mail – that had also helped us find the next place to stay.