Last day of Maine vacation

Sean and I decided to go for a hike.  We picked a place out of mom's hikes of Maine book and headed out Friday morning.  Unfortunately for us, we had to turn back from the original route to the trail because the road was closed.  Luckily we had the hiking book with us and picked another place that wasn't too far away.  Unluckily, while we were driving on Rte 2, I managed to hit an orange barrel on the side of the road and have my passenger side mirror pop off.  It's a long story but I feel it wasn't my fault!  I have mentioned how much I hate my car?

We made it to the Albany Mountain Trail which turned out to be in the White Mountains.  We ended up hiking a loop that took about 4 hours.  Along the way, I took pictures of an amazing variety of fungi.  Can anyone identify what these are?

At the end of the hike, we drive south to Lovell Maine, to the best Belgian Pub in the US.   I had some sour tasting Belgian beer (1869 Berliner Weisse)  that wasn't to my liking while Sean was smiling and licking his lips and making yummy noises through his two sour tasting beers!

On Saturday, it was a long drive home to DC.  We left the kids to stay another week where they attended the 4-H camp, run by the University of Maine.

Maine vacation - Part six

Back in Maine, on Thurs, we decided to go to Screw Auger Falls for a picnic and to Step Falls for a little swimming.   Both places are located in Grafton Notch State Park on the NH/ME border.

Hiking up to Step Falls

Looking down on one of the pools of water

Sean

Maine vacation - Part five

My kids love to fish.  More specifically, Brian loves to fish.  Lucky for them, their grandfather also loves to fish.  On Friday, he took them to Lake Umbagog in Northern New Hampshire to fish.  Four years ago, we went on a camping/canoeing trip in Lake Umbagog and it was beautiful. Mom hired her friend Polly from Mahoosuc Guide Service to take us camping and that was the only way to go!  Anyway, Grandpa JR owns a boat so he and kids headed off to NH and spent the day fishing on the lake.

Mom and I went blueberry picking in Wilton at the Blueberry Farm and then came home and spent the rest of the day on the porch.  Oh wait, that was just me, I'm sure my mom was busy cooking or something.

On Saturday, we headed to Augusta for the day to the Maine State Museum.  Mom wanted to see their exhibit on the sardine industry in Maine.  The last sardine canning factory in Maine (and the US) closed in April - at one point there used to be 60 or so sardine canneries in Maine.  What I found out was that Sardines are a specific fish in the Mediterranean and the fish called sardines in the US are actually herring and other small oily fish.  The Maine State Museum was very interesting as it focused on various aspects of Maine life such as timber, fishing, factories,  homelife, etc.  As we were walking through the exhibit about home life, my  mom kept pointing out all the things that she grew up with, living in northern Maine.

After the museum, we went to lunch in Hallowell and then visited the Viles Arboretum. 

On Sunday, Grandpa took Brian out on the Androscoggin River on the Pontoon boat for fishing.    Sunday night, Sean flew into Portland so I drove down to pick him up.

On Monday, we headed to Gloucester MA for a couple of days to visit my friends Julie, Michael and Miranda.  I met Julie when I was 17, at McGill University and we have been friends ever since.  She and I lived together for several years in Boston and I spent a lot of time in Gloucester with her, at her mother's house.  She and her husband have now inherited the house and are doing lots of renovations so it was like camping out.  Monday afternoon we went to a late lunch at Charlie's Place where I had haddock chowder and grapenut pudding.  I love Grapenut pudding!  It's a custard with grapenuts baked in.    New Englanders love their grapenuts.

After eating, we headed to Good Harbor Beach.  This is the beach closest to Julie's house.  It was COLD!

On Tuesday, Sean and I took a nice walk around Rocky Neck, the artist area, near Julie's house. We then went back to Good Harbor Beach for the afternoon.  For dinner, it was boiled Lobster!!  I love lobster and only eat it when I'm visiting mom.  (turns out, Sean took all the pictures in Gloucester, I don't have many!)

Emma and Miranda

Eating lobster

On Wednesday, we went to the Hammond Castle in Gloucester.  All the years I visited Gloucester, I never went here. It was a little strange to think that an inventor had this castle built for himself and his wife.    On the way back to Peru, we stopped in Kennebunkport for lunch.  We didn't see any members of the Bush family!