We made it home on Thurs. Sept. 3 and had a wonderful time. We had some bumpy roads and some road construction, but we made it with no problems. It was such a beautiful trip that we hope you all get the opportunity to go and see what it is like. That's it for this trip.

We just had to post one more PEI picture. This was a beautiful rock formation along one of the roads going to a lighthouse. Their rocks and dirt were so red and with the sun it was beautiful. We left PEI this morning and stared our trip towards home. We crossed New Brunswick and entered the states at Calais, ME. The trip through customs was very uneventful. She asked where we were from, what we purchased, and did we have any pets or firearms. She asked to come on board and only looked in the bathroom and left to check our passports and told us to have a safe trip. We then headed to Bangor, ME. and it was still pretty early so we went on to Canaan, ME. We are headed to Quebec to get our last province and then we will start toward Indiana. The weather today began with clouds, but has cleared up and is a beautiful day. We are a KOA campground which is really pretty. We are by the mountains and with all the rain they have had the grass is really green. The trees are beginning to change a little. They are yellowing and in some places you can see a little red. It seems fall is on the way.

We have had two fun days on PEI. We have traveled most of the west coast and the middle. We stopped to see the bottle house, which is made out of 25,000 bottles. There are 4 houses on the property that are made out of bottles. This is the bottle outside the property, which is also made out of bottles. We saw several light houses and it is amazing how red the dirt is here. There is a lot of agriculture here. They have beautiful fields of oats and hay bales. The terrain is rolling and green. It reminds us of home. They have a lot of dairy farms, and they are famous for COW ice cream. We, of course, had to try some and it was really creamy and good. We went to Cavendish, which is the home of Ann of Green Gables. That was an interesting little town. It is very touristy. We also went to Charlottestown. That was interesting as there are several old homes there that have been restored. We have really enjoyed our stay here. We had lots of rain last night and some wind from Danny. It did not bother us and we were out again today. It has been overcast most of the time we have been here. Would love to have seen it in the sun. They do a lot of fishing here also, therefore, we have once again seen lots of little villages. We were able to go to Wal Mart today. We haven't seen one of those in weeks. We will leave PEI tomorrow and head back to the states. We have had such a good time that we hate to leave.

Today we arrived at Prince Edward Island. We left Newfoundland yesterday. We were to leave at 7:30 p.m., however, we were delayed to 8:30 p.m. We were seated on the 8th floor of the ferry and the wind got up to 90 miles per hour. It was a REALLY rough trip. Most of the people on the ferry were ill. The waves were crashing up above our windows. We were all fine and we did not get sick, but we are sure glad that trip is over. We got off the ferry at around 2 a.m. and headed to the closest camp ground to spend the rest of the night. This morning we drove to PEI and went across the bridge. It is really long and takes about 10 minutes to get across. The island is really pretty and this lighthouse, Seacow Head, is by the bridge we crossed. The landscape is alot like ours. They do a lot of farming here and potatoes grown here are shipped all over the world. We hope to see a lot more of the island tomorrow. However, we are once again awaiting the arrival of tropical storm Danny, which is to hit here tomorrow with a lot of rain and we hope not lot of wind. We really like the island so far. That is it for today as I'm am sitting outside, 60 degrees, and in the mosquitoes.

Today we headed back to the ferry to return to Nova Scotia. We are to ferry back tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. We are staying in Codroy Valley at the same RV park we stayed at on when we went up the west side. This valley is the only fertile land on the island. We saw several farms, fishing villages, and, of course, a lighthouse. We had lunch at Codroy Cafe Plus. It was in a little house. There were places for 22 inside and a few outside. The place was like new and the food was very good. We then went down by the ferry to be sure we knew where to go tomorrow. The ferry schedule has been changed as we were to leave at 10:30 a.m. Hurricane Bill caused the ferry not to run for 24 hours, so now that have a backlog to work out. We then went further east to the end of the road to see another lighthouse, Rose Blanche Lighthouse. That is the one in the picture. It was built in 1871-1873 and is made out of granite. It sits way out on a point that is all rock. It is a beautiful setting. The lighthouse was operational till 1940 and then it was closed down. It deteriorated to the point that the tower was all that was left. The people in the village restored it to its original condition. It is furnished as it was when it was used. They have dishes, beds, and other furnishings from the period in the lighthouse keepers part of the lighthouse. The little village where it is located is another little fishing village. The terrain in this area is really different from any other that we saw. It is mountains with green ground cover, no trees, and big rocks. There are lots of little lakes and the ocean, which makes the setting beautiful. The weather today was overcast all day. We had showers off and on, but nothing heavy. It was really windy and when we were at the light house the waves were crashing into the rocks and splashing about 30-40 feet out of the water. What a sight. We have really enjoyed our time in Newfoundland and would like to return as there is still so much to see. Now we will be on our way to Prince Edward Island.

Today we had pancakes from the FMCA rally with fresh blueberries as the topping. We then headed north to check out the scenery. The highway followed the gulf all the way. Sometimes the cliffs drop down to the water and other times there were beaches. There are very few sandy beaches. There are lots of pebbles on the beach. We stopped at 2 arches that were formed by the water. It was neat to see the white water splash up under the arches. The water is green and deep blue. It is really beautiful. There is no trash lying around to detract from the beauty. Also there are very few gas stations and their grocery stores are pole barns with few windows. They sell everything in them, e.g groceries, hardware, auto repair items, etc. We went to Port Richie, which is as far north as we went, to a lighthouse. It was way out on a point and was really neat. It was very windy there and the white water splashed up high on the rocks. We also ate lunch here at Anchor Restaurant. The front of it was shaped like the bow of a boat. It was in the harbor. Many of the boats were dry docked as the lobster season is from May to July. They are now jigging cod. They serve cod cheek and cod tongue. We have not been brave enough to try either. However the cod is great. The terrain going north changes alot. Farther north is mostly permafrost and no trees. Coming back south there was one area that had beautiful bright pink flowers on both sides of the road. It really looked pretty with the evergreens and water in the background. This is a beautiful island. The weather today was great. It was sunny and in the high 50's. We saw 4 moose today and one was a bull moose (bullwinkle). Hopefully you can tell the picture is a moose. We stopped at the Western Pond, which is part of the National Park. There is a fjord here. You can take a trail back and then a boat ride. We walked part of the trail, but didn't have enough time to go all the way. We have had another wonderful day.

Today we went to Wood Point, NS. It is a working fishing village. As you can see the road is narrow and the buildings are right on the street. We watched the lobster boats and other fishing boats. There is also a lighthouse here. We took pictures of it. We also had a piece of pie and coffee at the Old Loft Restaurant, which is on the second floor and overlooks the St. Lawrence Gulf. Bill and I had fresh blueberry pie with ice cream and Dianna had Partridge Berry pie with ice cream. Partridge berries taste like red rasberries with out the seeds, or tart cherries. They are about the size of blueberries or cranberries. They grow in bogs here. They are a wild berry. They also have a wild fruit called bakeapple. We haven't tried them yet, but they have them in jams. We then returned to Rocky Harbor and went back to the lighthouse there to see if the person on duty there had a cross-stitch pattern for the nautical alphabet. She had made a postcard of it, but no cross-stitch pattern. We then went back to the harbor at Norse Pt. The big sail boat had left. We saw it out in the water and it had 3 of its sails up, but there were several more that weren't up yet. We then headed back to the coach. This was a lazy day. We slept in and had a big breakfast before we headed out. Dianna was having Post Office withdrawals, so we stopped by there to mail some photos to Owen. The time difference here is 1 and 1/2 hours ahead of home. That takes some getting used to as well. The weather today has been beautiful and sunny. The high was probably 66. We had a couple of gusts of wind last night and a shower that did not last very long nor was it a hard rain. That will all we felt of tropical storm "Bill."
We had another good day.

Today we traveled to Rocky Harbor, Newfoundland. We will be staying in this area for 2 more days. This is a little fishing village on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is on the west side of the island. We were quite surprised to see this sail boat tied up in this little village. Also there was a black mink lying on the pier. You can see the black spot in the picture. This boat is used to take people out for a week at a time on a cruise. This little town is really quaint. There is a little lake in the middle of town plus the gulf. We had lunch by the water in a little restaurant that served fresh cod. It was really good. Bill and Dianna also got the french fries with cheese and gravy. They are both hooked on this regional dish. We also traveled to several other little villages. They are all in little coves and the water is so blue and clear. The mountains come right down to the water and the rock looks like slate. It is beautiful. We saw a moose today along the side of the road eating grass and another red fox. We also saw a bald eagle sitting close to the road. We are out of the way of the hurricane. We will have some rain tonight and some wind, but the worst of it will be on the east side of Newfoundland and we are on the west side. We are in the Gros Morne National Park. The drive up here from Codroy equals the drive on the Cabot Trail. They are both really spectacular. The weather today was overcast and in the high 60's. We are all having a good time.

It has been a while since we have had a good internet connection. We have been through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia. We were able to see the tide come in and go out of the Bay of Fundy. That was really interesting. This is where they have some of the highest tides in the world. Some of them are 45 to 50 feet. The water rises about 14 feet in one hour. Quite a site to see. We also went to Halifax. This is a big city with lots to do. Unfortunately, we did not spend enough time there. We went to Peggy's Cove. It was really a neat little fishing village and a beautiful lighthouse. There were lots of tourists there. We counted 5 tour buses at one time. This was on the Atlantic side. We then went back to the bay side ad traveled along it for a ways. Somehow we got off of the road and was on a road that was full of pot holes and gravel. We traveled on this for a while in the dark and then got back on the correct road. We saw a deer on the side of the road and a porcupine in the middle of the road. Not much fun driving at night. We left here and headed to Baddick, NS. Here we did the Cabot Trail. It took all day and was beautiful. The cliffs going into the ocean were something to see. Today we took the ferry to Newfoundland. The ride over was 5 hours and the water was really calm. It was a big cruise ship, with not quite all the luxury. We really enjoyed it. Newfoundland is different. It has lots of mountains and rocks. No trees. There is a little agriculture, but mostly fishing villages. We plan to head north on the west side tomorrow. We hope to miss the tropical storm that is to hit NS tomorrow night. It should then head to St. John, Newfoundland and we are on the opposite coast. That is all for now. Will post again when I can. We are all fine and having a wonderful time. The weather has been great since we left home. Hope it stays that way.

We have had 2 and 1/2 beautiful days in Eastport, Maine. We are at the eastern most city in the US. It is a quaint fishing village and is just across the bay from Canada. We can see the bay from or coach and the tide changes are very dramatic here. It comes in a 5 feet per hour and when it is out the area really looks bad, but when it is in, it is beautiful. We came through Pembroke, Maine, which is halfway between the equator and the north pole. We have been to the East Quoddy Lighthouse a couple of times, one when the tide was in and you can't walk to it then, and once when the tide was out, and Bill went up and down the ladders and across big boulders to get to it. Dianna and I watched the whales in the bay while he got all hot and sweaty getting to the light house. This light house is in Canada on Campobello Island. We also went to the West Quoddy Lighthouse, which again you cannot get on the rocks to see it from the front until the tide is out. Again Bill did his rock climbing act to get the photos. While we were in Canada, we went to see Franklin D. Roosevelt's summer cottage. He was three when he first went there with his parents. The flowers here are spectacular. We really enjoyed it and the house, of course, is huge. This has 34 rooms, 18 are bedrooms and 6 are bathrooms. It has 6 fireplaces and while he lived here there was no electricity. This is the house in the picture. The time in Canada is Atlantic time, which means they are 1 hour faster than we are. We also went to Michais, which is the Blueberry capital. They were having a festival and we drove through, but as most places here there was no place to park. So we went to the Blue Bird restaurant and ate and, of course, had Blueberry pie. It was wonderful. The waitress then told us where we could go to get fresh blueberries. It was a working blueberry far. They use a rake to pick the berries. This is a very back breaking job as they are low to the ground. This farmer had pattened a picker that could be used by a tractor and also a machine for cleaning the rough off the picked berries. We bought blueberries and froze many of them. This farm has 45 acres of wild blueberries. Today we went to Calias, which is at the border of New Brunswick and Maine. We will head up there tomorrow and on to Nova Scotia. We have had wonderful weather. It is the hottest it has been here for quite a while, 84. There normal temperature is low 70's. We have had a wonderful time here and seen many little villages and lobster fishing is one of the main occupations here. We regret that we will be out of cell phone range for the next two weeks, but hopefully we will find internet access.

To]day we rode the trolley around Acadia National Park. It is a beautiful park with sand beaches, mountains, water, and evergreen trees. We were glad we took the trolley as the traffic, car, people, and bikes, was terrible. We same some beautiful scenery. We had lunch at Jordan's Pond. It is really a lake. This location is where a woman lived a long time ago and she would make popovers and give them, along with tea, to hikers that passed by her house. Today they have a restaurant there, pictured here, and they still serve popovers. They are like a cream puff shell, only the have more egg in them and are not as firm as cream puffs. They serve them hot with butter and strawberry jam. The are terrific. We then walked down to the pond and on the way we walked through a wild blueberry patch. There were several people picking them. Bill took pictures of the blueberries. There are also so many beautiful flowers around the restaurant. Many I have never seen before. The background for the pond is mountains. It was quite a scene. We then took the trolley back to Bar Harbor and sat and watched the boats for a while. This was very relaxing. We then headed to the grocery, ugh. We then returned to the coach and are fixing our dinner. The weather today was cooler and overcast, but it didn't stop us from having a good time.

Today we took a boat cruise, Lighthouse and Nature, and the weather was perfect for picture taking. The harbor was filled with yachts, lobster boats and sail boats. We passed several huge houses, one being Martha Stewart's house. You could only see the 4 chimneys on her house, but we did get a good photo of John D. Rockefeller's cottages. This is also the location where Nelson Rockefeller was born. We passed 5 light houses, three of them were privately owned and 1 was owned by the Conservatory. The Conservatory one was boarded up. There were lots of sea gulls at many of them. The water was beautiful and as pictured above, we saw many sail boats. There were having a race. Notice the hills in the background. This island is very big and the water is very blue. Although at one point we looked in the water and it was red. They are having a "red tide" now. We also went by Thunder Hole, which spouts water. They saw it spouts about 1 time every three years, but by the advertisements you would think it was comparable to "Old Faithful." We did see about 4 seals in the water, but we were not far enough out to see the whales. They have several sharks in the waters here also. We had dinner with Dennis and Anna Carey. This is there last night here and they are heading home. We will miss them. We came back by the harbor before returning the the coach and the sail boat with the red sails was out and the sun was hitting it just perfect. Bill took several pictures. We had a very good day and look forward to more sightseeing tomorrow.

This is the little restaurant that we ate at on the pier in Port Clyde. The green building is the General Store and the little white building behind the umbrellas is where the food is prepared. They have a big outdoor pot on a burner that is used for clams and lobster. All the fish they serve is caught right here. Really some fresh fish.

We have had a couple of very nice days here in Rockport, Maine. Yesterday we went to Port Clyde, which is a small fishing village. Here we saw the Marshall Point Lighthouse. It was surrounded by lots of big rocks and Bill climbed them all to get the best shot available. It was really peaceful there and really pretty. We then went to the harbor and there were lots of lobster boats there. They cannot fish on Sunday per a state law. There was a small General Store that we looked around in and then we ate at the Dip Net, which was a little restaurant on the pier. We had a lobster roll and Dianna had a lobster salad. It was really good and fun to sit out under the umbrella and eat lunch. We then went to a Maine Cheese Store, but we weren't impressed with the cheese. So we left it all there. We then went to Camden State Park. Here is the highest place in the area, Mt. Battie. We drove to the top and looked out over the little town of Camden, all the islands around, and the coast line. It was really pretty and you could see a long way. We then went to the harbor, another quaint fishing town. There were lots of sail boats there and also some big boats that travelled there to eat at the little restaurants. The houses around the coast in all these villages are just gorgeous. Some are for sale, but we passed them by for our little Del Webb house on the pond.

Today we ventured to Fort Point Light House. It is in a state park where an old fort used to be. There are lots of old forts here. This lighthouse is privately owned, but we could take pictures, which we did. It was really pretty sitting by the sea. We then went to Castine, Maine, to see the Dyce Head Lighthouse. It, too, is privately owned but was nice to see and photograph. Castine was founded in 1631 and is one of the oldest villages in North America. It is also the home of the Maine Maritime Academy. The school has a huge ship, cruise sized, for their students to learn on and some of them live there. The harbor is really cute. It is small but nice. We ate at the Breeze Inn and again sat by the sea. The weather cooperated again for our lunch. We then went to a new bridge that has the only observatory at the top. We went up 400 Ft. in 50 seconds on a high speed elevator. This equals 42 stories. The view from there was amazing. This is located in Fort Knox and we toured it also. It was used in the 1812 war. Quite an interesting day. It rained a shower on our way back to the coach, but is nice and sunny now.

Good morning. It has been a while since we have had access to the internet. We are currently in Rockport, Maine, and it is really cool in temperature here. Since our last post on the blog, we have been to the Minute Men National Park and saw the sculpted Minute Man, which was done by the sculptor whose house we visited in Stockbridge, Mass. We also saw the house that the "Little Women" lived in, which Louisa Mae Alcott wrote about. We saw where she grew up and also Nathaniel Hawthorne. All very interesting as the Revolutionary War information. From this location, Littleton, Mass., we drove to Hampton Beach, NH. and had dinner with Larry Robinette. While he is working here, they have a condo on the beach. It is really lovely and the view that night was gorgeous. The full moon on the water was beautiful. We had a wonderful dinner at the Ashworth Hotel and a huge ice cream cone afterwards. We really enjoyed our time with Larry. We then went to Scarborough, Maine. Here we were able to connect with Anna and Dennis Carey. We had dinner with them 3 nights while we were there. It was sure fun to spend some time with our Del Webb neighbors. While here we saw several beautiful lighthouses, Portland Light and Nubble Light for a few. We went to the LL Bean original store and also visited Booth Bay, which was a cute little town on the water. Yesterday we went to a couple of lighthouses here. They were nice but not as pretty as the last ones we saw. We ate dinner last night at Pizza Hut. It was a nice change as we have been eating a lot of fish. We also tried lobster rolls and they were good. We are waiting to get a little farther up in Maine to try the real thing....The weather has been great. We have had a shower a couple of days, but overall it has been nice a sunny. It is cooler here. Only to get into the low 70's today, but no rain. We have been very fortunate as they have had lots of rain in this area this summer. We'll try to post more as we go on.

Yesterday we travelled to Stockbridge, Mass. to the Norman Rockwell Museum. It was wonderful. The estate the museum is on was purchased for this purpose. Norman Rockwell never lived there. They moved his studio, intact, to this location. It looks exactly as it did when he worked there. All of his artist tools and easel are still up and drawings all around. We walked around the grounds which are georgous. It overlooks a river and is on a hill. The museum is wonderful also. It is full of his prints and the guides were very informative. In the basement they have all of his Saturday Evening Post covers displayed. There sure are a lot of them. From his museum we went to Chesterwood. This is the home and studio of Daniel Chester Fence. He is the one who sculpted the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. He also did many sculptures of the Minuteman. He worked with Mr. Beacon, who did a lot of work for the Chicago Worlds Fair. We were also fortunate enough to watch the guest sculptor, that was working there on Sun. His name is Chas Fagan and he did the statue of Neil Armstrong which is on display at Purdue University. It was really interesting to watch and listen to him as he did his work. We also did some genealogy work in Bennington, Vermont. We returned to the coach via New Hampshire, which means we have only one more state to go to enable us to say we have seen all 50. We had a good time the past two days and the weather has been good. It did rain on Sun. but today is wonderful. I'm still working on a way to add pictures, but not having a lot of success yet.

July 31, 2009
We are in Sandwich, Mass., on Cape Cod. We have been here two days and have been all around the Cape. The traffic is very heavy and we chuckle at the "Thickly Settled" signs. The weather has been great and we have seen several lighthouses and photographed 2. We have seen several wonderful beaches. We toured the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory which was fun. Today we toured an Art Museum and saw the blowing glass. They had some beautiful glass pieces. We also went to Plymouth Rock and toured the Mayflower II. That was very interesting and I would never have survived the trip from England in that ship. We also saw the rock. It sure is not what I expected. It is much smaller. We saw some cranberry bogs, but, of course it is too early for them to be doing anything in them. It has been a very interesting trip so far and the weather has been great. Tomorrow we head to Littleton, Mass. Hopefully we will have access to the internet and I'll post more information.

East Lime, CT. We are having a wonderful time and have seen many things. We went to Mystic Seaport and saw the antique boat parade. That was something to see, many beautiful sail boats. We also went to Newport, Rhode Island, and saw all the famous houses, Astor's Summer Place, Breakers, Marble House, etc. We also took a boat cruise and we saw many fabulous yachts. Some had helicopter pads on the yacht and indoor cargo for their dingy. One of the yachts belonged to Johnny Depp. We also saw several lighthouses. We had lunch at the Newport Creamry at the original location. There are two of them in Newport and we had an "Awful Awful" shake. It was buy one get one free. It was huge and delicious. Today we went to New Haven, CT, and did some geneology. We found a few things. Tomorrow we head out for Sandwich, Mass. where we will go to Cape Cod. More later.