Maine and into New Hampshire

On to Kennebunk!  Just wanted to see the town since we were so close.

Beautiful little canals - the tide here is tremendous - 12 feet or more.   You could see the water rushing out of the canal.

We did pass by the Kennebunkport home of the Bush family.  It was impressive off in the distance on a cliff overlooking  the sea.

But New Hampshire and the White Mountains were calling us!

We made our way on some back roads enjoying the scenery - to the entrance of the White Mountain National Forest.  Here's what the Ranger Station looked like:

There were some beautiful flowers near the station!

The National Forest was not blocked off since several normal highways cross thru it.  We traveled thru the Forest to the Crawford Notch State Park for a little hiking.


No little rainshower was going to keep us off the trails!   We picked a trail called "Frankenstein Cliffs".  We really just pulled off into a parking are, donned our ponchos and headed off.  The trail markers read that the "loop" was about 5 miles.

Wet but beautiful start.

It was very steep in places....the "cliff" in the name of the trail should have been a clue, haha.

Hard to capture the perspective, but it was a sharp grade!

Close to the top of the ridge.

And here is the "spectacular view" that we were greeted with at the top of the cliff.  If the fog had lifted, we would have been treated to a beautiful view of the surrounding colorful mountains.   We were pretty tired and damp at this point (several hours hiking to this point)!

From here, we drove a short way, actually into Vermont - staying in St. Johnsbury for the night.  (We had no reservations, we just found hotels as the evening came upon us!)

Starting out the next morning, we found this pretty view.

Since the morning  had  SO much better visibility, we decided to make the quick trip back to where we hiked yesterday to see a little of what we missed.....here is what Frankenstein Cliffs looks like.  Spectacular!   Now I can imagine the view we would have seen if not for the fog!!

And it's amazing that we hiked to the very top of this little hill in the rain!

More Maine trip!

A grey morning made for some more state park hiking.  Crystal clear water of the Casco Bay.

Quaint little towns across the bay.  Lots of empty mooring balls - I'm sure it's filled during the summer months.

Next we made a pit-stop at the huge LLBean complex in Portland.  This was just one of many of the different themed LLBean stores covering what appeared to be an entire city block!

Lindy with her prizes!

I had read somewhere that they had live fish in the store - and sure enough - this fresh water aquarium held many HUGE trout.  Beautiful fish!

Driving south from Portland, beautiful leaves!

Further south to Two Lights State Park...lovely shoreline.

It was chilly and breezy!!

One of the "Two Lights"....the other was similar and actually hidden in some trees and houses....strange.  Maybe that's why they needed another light!

On that chilly, blustery day, someone was having a "sprite-ly" sail close to the rocky shoreline!  Note that the sails bear the "Poland Spring" insignia - which is a brand of bottled water you may recognize.

Right on the shoreline, there was a little restaurant overlooking the ocean.  We were hungry and thought it seemed like a good place - you win some, you lose some.  This one was a loser....lobster stew was watery and the haddock sandwich was bland.  Cool setting though!

They did have cool old tools chained to the ceiling....Duane spied this "angle hand brace drill" that he said he'd like to have since it would come in handy in certain situations.....all for today!

More Maine Touring

Continuing our free-spirited tour of Maine we headed out for some more hiking further south.

Hiked trails at Camden Hills State Park to the over-look of the quaint little town of Camden.

After hiking down another trail, everyone napped....

Thought this big boulder was worth a photo....just perched on a fairly steep hill.  I would not want to be below when this thing next decides to roll!

Reid State Park was next on our tour.  Beautiful coast line!

Apparently this is the right time of year to visit because we were the only ones in sight!

Along the shoreline, someone (kids maybe) had built a little "structure" out of driftwood.  Dick and Lindy posed, joking that this would be their "summer home".....

Discussing something important, I'm sure....

We used up all available quarters to view the shoreline looking for moose!

Ended the day in the quaint little town of Bath.

Last up for the day was a yummy ice cream treat!