KW's Week-end Update

KW here, Its's week-end update time.  Mrs. tour guide has kept us moving.  I haven't had time to blog. We are in Vermont tonight and tomorrow.  So I will start out by saying we are finally finished with he 13 original colonies. Today we add state number 46 and have just four states left to visit.  For those who do not know, we have Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Hawaii. Hey KW, yes tour guide, are you going to start telling everyone what we have done the past 4 days?  Keep your shirt on tour guide, I'm working up to it.  You have to get and keep your readers attention.  So with that said, away we go.

05.10.2018  Bar Harbor, ME.

Today we just walked around Bar Harbor.  It's a very nice little ocean town, a lot like Annapolis.  Did a lot of shopping in small shops.  Mrs. tour guide bought a long sleeve shirt with Bar Harbor Latitude and Longitude on the back.  She has one from Sanibel Island Florida.  I bought her a pair of earrings made from crushed sea shells.

Breakfast at Cafe This Way.


Fried egg and sausage on sour dough toast.


2 eggs over with organic turkey bacon and fruit.


Shopping.


Tour guide making a Bar Harbor penny.


KW & CJ make a new friend.


Mrs. tour guide looking for Sea glass.


Found some.


More searchers.


05.11.2018  Maine to New Hampshire

First stop at Walmart in 10 days.  Took almost 6 hours to go 211 miles on a long and winding road.  Hey tout guide, that could be a song.  How's this sound tour guide?  The long and winding road, that leads to your door, will never disappear, I've seen that road before.  KW, that's enough.  Paul McCartney already did that song.  Ok, ok, but I will keep trying and one day i will have a hit song.

05.12.2018  North Conway, NH.

White Mountain National Forest.


The Swift River is a 25.6 miles river in the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  It is a tributary of the Saco River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean in Maine.


This is one of the millions of white birch trees in New Hampshire.


On the way KW spies a dead moose in the road.  Hey tour guide, this could be a song.  Dead moose in the middle of the road, dead moose in the middle of the road, You got yer dead moose in the middle of the road, stinkin to high Heaven.  Please KW, you just have to stop it.  There is already a song to that tune.  It's called Dead skunk in the middle of the road by Loudon Wainwright III.  Well, I will keep trying, you never know when I will get a hit song.


Off to ride the COG Railway.  This sign was on the turn to the COG Railway.  KW was not paying attention and drove right past for about 6 miles.  After deciding he went to far, the tour guide turned around.  We made it with time to spare.


Groupie with our trainee brakeman.  Hey tour guide, isn't that the fellow at the gate as we drove in this morning?  Yes, Yes it is KW.


This is our train.  We were the first train going all the way up to the summit of Mt. Washington this season.  Mt. Washington is at an elevation of 6022 feet.


Ridding the train.


With great orientation to Mt. Washington and eastern White Mtns., this private, non-profit science and educational center is a working observatory designed to measure the unique and often extreme weather conditions on Mount Washington.






View from Mt. Washington to the Extreme Ski slopes.


Not a National Park Site, but Mrs tour got a couple of stamps.


Mean while back at the train depot KW and CJ testing out a sled used to come down the mountain back in the day (banned phrase). It was said that a man could get up to 60 MPH on the 3 mile trek down the COG.


Mrs. tour guide getting into the act.


05.13.2018  White River Junction, VT.

Off to Vermont.



Hey tour, which way do we go.


Stopping at White Mountain National Forest Ranger Station.  Mrs tour guide got a stamp.


This is the Taftsville Covered Bridge.  It is a timber-framed covered bridge which spans the Ottauquechee River in Taftsville village of Woodstock, Vermont.  Built in 1836, it's among oldest remaining covered bridges both in Vermont and the nation as a whole.


Marsh-Billings-Refeller NHP.


Mrs tour guide stamping.


KW&CJ getting their stamping on.


TTFN:

PS:
KW did not run over the moose.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse and More Hiking

Hey tour guide, yes KW, Mrs. tour guide would like to visit Bass Harbor Lighthouse.  OK then, off we go to the lighthouse.  Then we will hike the Jordon Pond.  Oh brother, more hiking, I just can't wait.  You do know you almost killed me yesterday with a 3AM wake up call and then 9 miles of hiking.  KW, don't be so dramatic.  Well I just hope it will be less today.

Walking to the lighthouse.


Hey Mrs. tour guide, there sure a lot of steps here.


Bass Harbor Lighthouse.


There it is !!


Ok CJ, I think I see it.


Why do we always look backwards at things.


Mrs. tour guide walked down a road to get this shot.  I think she may have ignored a keep out by order of Homeland Security and the United States Coast Guard.  Well, she wasn't arrested so it must have been ok.




Lobster Floats.


On the way to Acadia National Park.


Hiking the Jordon Pond Path.


This is a Loon.  The picture above had one when I took the picture.  As you can see, no loon.  Every time we tried to get a picture of one, they just dove under the water.  KW decided he must have been in the Loon witness protection program.








Wow, tour guide, this is a long log plank path.


Yo-ho-ho Matey, we are walking the gang plank.  KW, you are not a pirate. Well, shiver me timbers, it sounded good when I said it.  KW, that's enough pirate speak.  Aye Matey.  Come on Wench, oops, I mean CJ, lets get walking.


As seen on the path.


KW, what are you doing.  I have to pee tour guide.  Didn't you just read that sign?  Guess not, what did it say.  Lakeside ecosystems are fragile and easily damaged. Stay on the path.  Well, eek, i have to go, so my eek go system is fragile.  KW, it is Ecosystem.  Oh ok, but I still have to pee.


Hey tour guide, check it out, I'm on a zip line.  KW, that is not a zip line, it is part of a don't walk off the path rope.  Well, it looks like a zip line to me.  Ok KW, you are upside down, how do you expect to land at the other end?  Well, I hadn't thought that far.  KW, just get off and back on the path.  Hum, tour guide, can you untie my legs?


Whoa, tour guide, stop, look over there, those are snakes and I do not like snakes.  KW, you need new glasses.  Those are tree roots.  Well, they could have been snakes.


No, KW, I am not peeing.




We stopped at the Fabricate Scrapbook and Quilting store.  Yes, KW, Mrs. tour guide bought some new scrapbook paper.


West Street Cafe.


Maine crab cakes.  Maryland, you have no worries, you're still the best crab cakes any where.


Hey tour guide, Mrs. tour guide is eating fish tonight.  Yes she is, and it was her idea.  She is having Fresh Broiled Haddock.


I had Baked Stuffed Haddock with shrimp and scallop stuffing.


Desert was Lemon Cream Cake.


TTFN:

Hi HO Hi HO, its a Hiking we will go...But first

Hey tour guide, why are we awake at 03:15 AM?  We are off to watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.  It's the first place to watch the sunrise in the US.  Oh now I get it, Mrs. tour guide wants to do this, so we are all awake at o'dark thirty.  KW, just get dressed.

Dawn.


Mrs. tour guide, why are we watching the sun come up backwards.


CJ, I'm not sure this is worth getting up at 3:15 AM, but it is awe inspiring.


Tour guide, look, here comes the sun.  Hey, I think this could be a song.  Listen to this tour guide.  Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo).  Here comes the sun, and I say it all right.  Stop right there KW.  Oh great, I guess it is already a song.  Who beat me to this one?  The Beatles KW.






Hiking the ocean path in Cadillac Mountain in Acadia.










Looking for sea glass on Bar Island.


Low tide.


High tide.


Mrs. tour guide, KW & CJ getting stamps at Thunder Hole and Cadillac Mountain.






PS:

Acadia National Park has many claims to fame.  It was the first national park east of the Mississippi.  It's the second most visited east of the Mississippi (more than 2.4 million visitors last year).  It's the only one to boast miles of carriage trails fit for and built by John D. Rockefeller Jr.  But possibly the best reason to visit Acadia, on the wild and rocky coast of Maine, is the sight of sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the Eastern Seaboard.

Many visitors believe the 1532 foot peak on Mount Desert Island offers the first sight of sunrise in the continental United States.  They're right some of the time.  For half the year, roughly from the second week in October through the first week of March Cadillac's height and costal perch make it the first place in the easternmost state where the sun appears.

For the rest of the year, Cadillac's sunrise is not first.  That honor goes, from late March through mid-September, to Mars Hill (a 1748 foot mountain) near winter, the sun rises farther to the south.  Sunrise moves along the horizon during the warmer months.

Dawn occurs before sunrise, before the top of the Sun reaches the horizon.  Astronomical Dawn is the point at which it becomes possible to detect light in the sky, when the sun in 18 degrees below the horizon.

Awe inspiring: arousing awe through being impressive, formidable, or magnificent.

Bar Island: is a tidal island across from Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine.  The uninhababited island forested mostly in pine and birch is now part of Acadia National Park.  There are walking trails on the island.  At low tide, the island becomes accessible by foot or by all terrain type vehicle across a natural gravel land bridge.

Today we hiked 9 miles, 20,550 steps, and 26 floors, hills, rocks, etc climbed.  KW is worn out.

Hey tour guide, we are tired.  Thanks for these robes to relax in, but couldn't they be a little smaller?


TTFN: