Lincoln, Delaware

What a great time we had with Aunt Dots! But today was our morning to leave. We left at the crack of 10:30 this morning, after loading up our rolls of hose and our electric cord, hooking up the car, and waving so long to Auntie Dots.

We went on 287 for most of the way, taking the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River. The trees were gorgeous in all their "peak" splendor, traffic was moderate and sane, and the miles flew by. We had lunch at Subway along the way, got fuel twice, paid lots of tolls.. hey, it was a good driving day.

We are at the Cedar Creek Landing Campground at Lincoln, Delaware, tonight. We arrived just after sundown, so, in the dark, it was hard to see the place, but we got things hooked up and leveled ok.

Here's a photo of some post-drizzle leaves on the Hartford Statehouse lawn:

Hartford, CT

Yesterday, Jack and I drove up to Hartford. It was an easy drive -- less than an hour from Madison. Once we were there, we were greeted with gray cool skies, and .. the Statehouse! I shot these photos there. Notice the statues in the first one particularly:

The weather cleared up while we were inside, so that's why the last photo here has a better sky. What a beautiful monument to the people of Connecticut! We loved the statuary, the gold, the paintings... the whole place is magnificent!

After we took photos inside, we walked to the Wadsworth Atheneum, a great art museum. Here, we enjoyed paintings, sculpture, and furniture created by the greats. I loved the whole museum but I think that my favorite part was the special exhibit of the Moderns.

The Old Statehouse was next on our list. It's just what you think -- the building where the state used to perform its legislative functions before the "new" statehouse was built. The old one is now a museum with displays and exhibits showing Connecticut's history. We liked it!

Today we relaxed a bit. We'd decided that it was time to retire Auntie Dots' TV, so that we did! Replacing it is now a fine new LG TV from WalMart*. We ate at neat places all day: Hidden Kitchen for breakfast, Whitfield's for lunch, and the pizza place up north on 79 for dinner. We have been very well-fed!

Madison, CT

I'm writing in purple in solidarity for the GLBT kids who are bullied and need a ray of hope. It gets better, kids! I wasn't horribly bullied, but I did have a very difficult childhood/teenage life, and I can tell you that it does get better. Things do change.

We spent a third day in Providence on Monday, taking photos of the Statehouse, which was lovely. We then went to Providence Center and milled around a little before calling it a day.

Tuesday, we left Bellingham and drove all the way to Madison, CT. (I'm kidding about "all the way." It's just over 2 hours!) We're now parked in my Auntie's driveway. We had some great soup with Dots, rode around town and showed Jack the lay of the land, enjoyed some ice cream at Ashley's (YUMMY!) and then just talked and rested in the evening.

Today, all 3 of us went to the Hidden Kitchen for a delicious breakfast. Then Jack and I went to Mystic Seaport, a historic seaport town with plenty of exhibits and demonstrations. We both took plenty of photos, so expect to see some of those soon. In the meantime, here are some from Portland, Maine:

Visiting Friends

We're still in Bellingham, which has proven to be a dandy starting point for adventures in surrounding areas. Yesterday, we went to Providence to see my friends Pat and Alan. Pat took us to the Botanical Gardens, where we enjoyed a walk around and shot some photos. Here are a few of them:

Next, we went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called 1149 Restaurant, in Seekonk, MA. I ordered the swordfish, Jack got the ribeye, and Pat ordered the stuffed shrimp. What a feast we had! Such beautiful food, and so delicious!

 This is Pat with her beautiful pumpkin soufflee:

 And this is my beautiful and delicious chocolate concoction:

Today we went back to the area, and visited with Joanne. We began by having a delicious brunch at T's. Then we drove around and looked at some sights of Warwick. We parked and shot some photos down at the pier, then took a walk through the community, admiring old buildings and looking at the river which was hugely flooded last spring. It was great to catch up with Joanne and to visit her town. What a nice day this was!

Freedom Trail

Yesterday we arrived in Bellingham, Massachusetts at the Circle CG Farm Campground after an easy 2+ hour drive from Saco. We took part of the afternoon to wash clothes, and then took it very easy the rest of the evening.

This morning, we did our usual slow start before we got into the car and headed off to Boston. Here we found a parking lot near Boston Commons and embarked upon the "Freedom Trail." This is a path that is painted red or bricked along the sidewalk, leading tourists like sheep around to some of the more famous historic spots in the city. HERE is a link to a listing of the sites we saw.

We liked the whole thing, especially the churches (Old North Church and the King's Chapel) and burial grounds. The USS Constitution was quite a sight to see, as was its museum. Oh, and the State House! This was our 6th state capitol building to photograph!

The weather was pretty perfect for us. The sky was cloudy most of the day, and it was a bit windy and cool, but the promised Nor'easter held off till about 10pm, when they had told us it would hit. It's raining now.

The walk is 2.5 miles from beginning to end, but, once you reach the end, you have to get back! We accomplished this by riding the T. Slick and cheap, it seemed like an "I Dream of Jeannie" thing. Blink! And we were back at Boston Commons.

I have not yet looked at my photos from today, but here are some more from Maine. This is the breakwater that we took to get out to Bug Light, near Portland:

Some bittersweet:

Lighthouse Tour

This gingko tree was blazing a gorgeous yellow against that blue sky:

City Hall in Saco, Maine was on our historic Main Street walk:

The Parish Congregational Church where we went on Sunday:

Bug Light:

What a great couple of days we've had! Monday we did a little historical building walk in Saco, Maine. It was on Main Street, where there are many historical and beautiful buildings. The tour we took was one that Jack found on the internet HERE. The day was wonderful!

Then last evening, we went to dinner with our new friends Deb, Don, and David, at their house. Deb made a fabulous lasagna (the best we'd ever had!), a tasty salad, and a YUM banana pudding. We really enjoyed our evening with them and we KNOW that we'll be seeing them again.

Today we were cold when we awoke! It's been a bit chilly right along, with lows dropping into the 30's. We have been sleeping with no heat, so, while we're toasty under the covers, getting out from under them is challenging.

We opted for a lighthouse drive today, and what a perfect day it was! We drove up around South Portland, and saw 6 lighthouses! We were able to walk up to all but 2 of them, and there was a museum at the Bug Light. (I said "BUD Light!" LOL) I've shown you photos of one of them above. When my internet connection is better (grrrrr), I'll get more posted!

Dinner tonight was at Bufflehead's just south of Biddeford, which is just a bit south of Saco. One cool thing about this part of the country is that everything is very close! None of this driving 20 miles (or 60) to get to the next town!

Saco Rhymes with Taco

We went to church this morning at the Parish Congregational Church here in Saco. We were cheerfully greeted and treated to a fine service. The message was "Bloom where you're planted," and it resonated well with both of us.

Afterward, we had cake in the Fellowship Hall. Then Deb, Don, and Lia invited us to go with them to breakfast. Why, yes! We enjoyed a fine breakfast with them at a nice diner. Then we were off to explore Saco on our own.

Cabela's is one of our favorite spots, and the Saco store is great! We loved sauntering through the aisles. I picked up some nice fuzzy slippers!

Dinner... well, I'm just a bit embarrassed to say that we ate at the Clambake Restaurant again! This time, we shared a Fisherman's Platter, ending up with half of it leftover for tomorrow. We really enjoyed this day!

Seafood in Saco

Yesterday, we spent another day in Acadia. The weather was great, though cool, with just one really big blob of clouds which came in and obscured the blue of the skies for just a bit, before departing.

Our first stop was the Jordan Pond House, where we enjoyed a 3-mile walk around the pond (really a lake!). We also walked a bit along one of the carriage trails and shot a few photos on both walks.

The Jordan Pond House is a restaurant known for its tea and popovers. We didn't have tea, but we got popovers with our lunches. Jack had a roast beef sandwich and I had the chicken curry salad. Both were delicious, and the blueberry crisp which followed was delightful, too.

After lunch and a stroll through the gift shop, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. What views we saw from there! This is the highest point along the Atlantic coast, and they claim that the sun rises there first. That also means that it sets first there, but they don't mention that!

We stopped at Hannaford's and picked up provisions for supper. The menu was chicken livers with onions and tater tots! Yummy! We don't have chicken livers often, but, when we do, we both love them!

We got going today at the crack of 10, sort of our standard time. One stop at Lewiston filled our tanks and our bellies (chili) before we were on the road again. We drove just about 3 hours total, before arriving at the Saco KOA. This is a beautiful campground, with many amenities. One of their amenities is a good map of the area, and a nice campground host who recommended a good restaurant.

That good restaurant? The Clambake Seafood Restaurant at Pine Point, ME. I got the fried scallops and haddock, and Jack had lobster, shrimp, and scallops. Both came with potatoes and salads, and there was PLENTY of food. My plate would have fed 3-4 Janees. And it was great food! Very casual, as you can read on their site, but no tipping. Really fun. Great evening!

I ♥ ME!

These are photos that I took yesterday at Acadia National Park. I realize that I told you that it was cloudy all day and .. it was! I used Photoshop to change the weather for my photos!

Today we awoke to a chilly wind rocking our little RV, but we were cozy inside. We decided that it wouldn't be safe to hike as we'd planned, so we chose to go shop prowling instead. I bought a new brown fuzzybear jacket, matching hand-knit merino wool fingerless mittens, a yellow hoodie sweatshirt with magenta "Maine" across the front, and a T-shirt that says

I ♥ ME

This made me laugh when I saw it, and I expect it'll make me laugh everytime I wear it!

We did get more wind this morning, and by afternoon, it was sprinkling rain, but that didn't stop us from our explorations of Bar Harbor's neat shops and galleries! We had lunch at a little place called Rupununi -- an American Grill. Jack had a lobster roll and I really enjoyed their buffalo chicken sandwich. We both had clam chowder, and I ate most of the slice of blueberry pie! (Maine is famous for their blueberries, too!)

We gave up on the shopping at 4:00 and headed back to our RV. There is a man who comes to this KOA to cook lobsters for the people every night during season, and tonight was no exception. So Jack took him up on it and I finished up the delicious chicken salad. Great Day!

Acadia National Park

Here are some photos from our walk in Acadia today! The rain held out till after we were nearly back, and it just sprinkled a bit till we got into the car. The walk was from Sand Beach to Otter Cliffs and back -- about 3 miles total -- and an easy stroll. Tomorrow I'll give you more of the water and rock pix. My connection is so slow tonight that I'm just going to post 5:

So, yeah, we had a great time! After it started to rain, we decided to get back on the Park Road long enough to take the cutoff back to Bar Harbor. We had intended to do some shop prowling, but it was POURING by then, so we rethought things and opted, instead, to have an early supper before returning to our campground.

The Chart House in Bar Harbor served Jack lobster, and me the "Mixed Grill" which was a piece of swordfish, a slice of tuna (medium rare), and scallops. All was very tasty! An apple crisp with ice cream and caramel sauce will be something else for me to diet off when I get around to dieting again. ;)

It has stopped raining now, but it's very windy. This will likely usher in some even cooler temps. Today we had a high of around 60, which felt chilly.