Maine
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| Piscataqua River
Bridge |
Over the bridge
into Maine |
Benji the water
dog |
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| Freeport, Maine |
Pemiquid Point
Lighthouse |
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| We made it to
the Atlantic |
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| Fog Bell |
Fresnel Lens |
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| Patton Pond |
Patton Pond Island |
Cute, colorful
cottages |
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| The King is alive! |
On the 25th anniversary
of his death |
The King and Queen |
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| Acadia National
Park coastline |
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| Frenchman Bay |
Two of 16 bridges
built under John D. Rockefeller's |
in Acadia National
Park |
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| Fred playing again |
Lois at summit
of Cadillac Mountain 1530 ft.-tallest mountain along Eastern coastline |
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| Fred playing yet
again |
Tidepools at low
tide |
Whale watching
vessel |
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| Thunder Hole |
Our Maine lobster
dinner in Bar Harbor |
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| Lois also had
blueberry pie - a Maine speciality |
Waves at Schoodic
Point |
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| Cloud right on
the water |
Basaltic dikes
made from magma |
Lunch companion |
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| We did not feed
him |
Bar Harbor Head
Lighthouse |
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Maine is a state of contrasts, the wild Atlantic seashore to the east and the wild desolate, wooded areas of the west. As you go west of Bangor, Maine, you soon find that there are only a couple of big highways. There are very few people west and north of Bangor, just forest, lakes and rivers.
In the "fog bell" picture, if you look closely on the right side you can see a large bell. The bell was used to signal the sailors of the rocks when the area was covered by fog. The combination of the tower, the red building and the bell are like a huge clock. The tower houses a pulley system that contains weights. Inside the red building there is a mechanism for pulling the weights up to the top of the tower. As the weights move down the tower, they power a clock work system that periodically causes the bell to ring. It works like a huge "grandfather" clock.
The fresnel lens above is just like the one
in the top of the lighthouse. The light can be seen for 14 miles.
The pictures labeled "Thunder Hole" is a feature of nature where a
softer material washed away leaving a cave back under the granite rocks. The
waves come rushing into the slot and slam into the hole making a real "thundering"
noise.
The main bay area, Frenchman Bay is named after the French explorer Champlain that came here is 1604. The bay area was also a favorite place for pirates to hide with the many coves.
Acadia National Park is mainly the island called Mount Desert Island. There are two smaller parts of the park to its west and east on separate peninsulas. Over the years families like the Rockefellers, Fords and Astors came to Mount Desert Island to visit and later they all built mansions on the island. It was these wealthy families that decided to donate the land to the government to protect the beauty. Rockefeller loved to build roads so he had the first 47 miles of roads built so that people could get to his favorite view points. In building the roads, he also designed and built 17 bridges. In 1947 there was a huge fire that destroyed 10,000 acres of forest and also all of the great mansions of the millionaires. The island still has some private property owners and they have all agreed that their properly will not ever be used for anything other than their homes. Two current owners are Julia Childs and Martha Stewart. Acadia National Park was the first national park created east of the Mississippi River.
The highest point on the island is a granite peak named "Cadillac Mountain", it is 1,530 ft. high, and is the highest mountain on the coast line of the Atlantic Ocean north of Brazil. From the top you can see for miles, it gives a wonderful view of Bar Harbor, the main port that is on the northern edge of the island.
On one beach that we visited, it was amazing. At the top of the shore the granite was in blocks. As you went closer to the water, about every 15 ft. the size of the rocks got smaller and smaller. As you reached the actual water, the pebbles were less than an inch in diameter. Years and years of tumbling in the surf has transformed the granite into round, smooth pebbles.
As you stand next to the lighthouses, you can imagine what it must have been like trying to navigate this coast line before modern navigation tools. It is neat to hear the many buoys that have bells on them, they ring as the waves move them back and forth.
As we toured Schoodic Point you could see very clearly where Mother Nature is still making changes to the coast line. The whole island is mainly pure granite and many eons ago, stress made cracks in the granite. Deep down in the earth, pressure pushed molten magma into these cracks. The magma cooled into basaltic, black rock. As you view the surface now, you can see the black dikes formed by the basaltic material. Since it is softer than the granite it wears away quicker and leaves deep cracks in the granite. This area also freezes every winter and that speeds up the cracking of the granite rocks.
Schoodic Point is also where we saw fog covering
the whole bay area. We were sitting on the cliffs in beaming sunlight while
mist of fog blew in off the ocean. You could not see more than 1/4 mile into
the ocean. It was mystical to sit there and listen to two ships pass out in
the ocean, their horns giving us a clue as to where they were, but their form
was hidden from us by the fog. I am sure they both had radar and could see each
other's outlines fine, but for us it was "two ships passing in the fog".
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