| Walkabout, September 2025 | |
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Play slide show — just for looking at the pictures. | |
| Taking advantage of our flexibility, we decided to head north in mid September. The DC area was still pretty warm and humid (it's getting better now) and we looked forward to cooler temperatures and new, fun things to see and do. We didn't want to drive up Interstate 95 yet again, so we started going west, out 270 to 81 and turned north there. |
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Our first stop was Corning, NY. We got in that afternoon and took advantage of the recommendation to check out dinner options in the old town section; conveniently, that was right across the Chemung River from our hotel. The next day we walked over to the Corning Museum of Glass, (our hotel was very convenient). They had rooms of artistic and functional glass from current times to thousands of years old. And they had lots of glass science exhibits about things like fiber optic cables to Fresnel lenses. (And we learned that Corningwear is no longer made because it was too good, lasted too long and it scratched flat or ceramic stove surfaces.) |
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| While that stop was planned, we'd never been and Sarah has been interested in the glass museum for years, we also happened to walk by the Rockwell Museum. No relation to Norman Rockwell, this was founded by some wealthy merchants in town, collecting art from the American West. It's now connected to the Smithsonian and was a very surprising gem to stumble upon. |
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| Leaving Corning nestled in what seemed like classic central/western New York state hills, we headed to Niagara Falls. Sarah had been there years ago, David had never been there. We walked around the falls as it was started to get dark. It's amazing to me that the State of New York had the foresight to buy up the land and turn it into a park. I didn't realize it used to be several private landowners who would charge folks to visit and see the falls. |
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| Of course, we had to go back the next day to wander around and marvel a bit more. I'm sure the rainbows are common on sunny days with all the mist kicked up; that didn't diminish them at all. We had fantastic weather for the whole trip — good luck or good timing. |
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| From western New York, we drove east and met up the next day with Hank and Sally on their little Spinnaker Island part of Hull, MA. They showed off Hull and the beautiful beaches they have and the next day they took us into Boston on the ferry. We wandered around the historic core and enjoyed the ferry ride back across the harbor to their neck of the woods. |
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| You can't wander Boston's streets without taking in some history from our country's founding — and wondering what the founders would think about the current state of the country. But one reason we wanted to get out of the DC area was to step away from current events. We focused on catching up with Hank and Sally, and enjoyed dinner with them and Brian and Marcus (who has become a Lego aficionado). |
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| After one more beautiful sunset on Hull, we continued north, up the coast. Of course we had to stop in at the LL Bean mother store (we found a couple helpful things to pick up and enjoyed lunch in Rockport). While the Acadia campgrounds were full, we found a spot for our tent in Lamoine State Park, which is just before the bridge to Mount Desert Island (Acadia National Park). |
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Acadia was another spot we were looking forward to. Sarah had never been in the park; David visited as a teenager with his parents. Unfortunately we managed to break a tent pole setting up the tent. David previewed that on the blog. We worked out a fix and set off the next day to the park. At the visitor's center, a very nice and helpful ranger suggested we visit Cadillac Mountain by hiking up The Gorge trail and then come back down the North Ridge trail. That recommendation was excellent, as she noted, the hike up the Gorge trail has few views and is a little steep while you're focused on going up, but on the hike back down on North Ridge, where you are presented with fantastic views, you're facing out, away from the mountain enjoying those views. |
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| Back at the campsite, we enjoyed a fire (banned in Canada we would find out) before bed. The next day, we documented the repaired tent pole as we took down the tent — the stick, duct tape, cord fix worked well and we had no overnight issues. We did leave the stick (so as to not accidentally transport any critters that might be living in it) and found a hardware store to stock up on tent pole repair provisions. |
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| We found this cool church with it's model next door on our way from Lamoine to Bar Harbor where we took the ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I'm sure the seas are not that smooth and glassy all the time, but we were not complaining, we really did have great weather for our trip. |
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| Before leaving Yarmouth the next day, we followed recommendations (again) and checked out the Cape Forchu Lighthouse. It's one of the few that allow visitors to climb up to the light. |
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On our way from Yarmouth to Elmsdale, we stopped in Digby for lunch and visited the small but informative Admiral Digby Museum. Another unexpected, fun, interesting stop. Elmsdale was not really our destination that day, we were staying in one of the domes at FlowEdge. Sarah was a little worried as we got more and more emails from the proprietor about how the domes worked. Our favorite was pointing out that you'll enjoy the bed best by pulling back the sheets and climbing between them. It seems really oddly specific; then we remembered the duvets in Iceland and it possible they had guest just getting under the blanket. |
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| We enjoyed the view of the stars through the large window overnight. And then headed to our next campsite in Fundy National Park. The tides really are all that! We arrived in Alma (just outside the park) at low tide. So we went to see what we could see including the fishing boats which were high and dry. |
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| The next day, we headed to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. This caught Sarah's eye as she was looking into what would be fun to do. They offer a tour by kayak around the rocks and through the arches (at high tide). That was cool but especially so after we had a bit of lunch and went back to walk around the spot we'd been kayaking over a few hours before. Really Crazy! |
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| On our way back to our campsite after Hopewell rocks, we went by the scenic route (it's really all scenic there) to go by Cape Enrage. It is another pretty spot at then end of another peninsula that made for lovely sunset colors. |
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| The next day we documented the improved tent pole fix as we packed up the camp and started the trip back home. We went by Saint John and checked out it's reversing rapid (and seals) on our way to Belfast, Maine where we spent the night by Penobscot Bay. |
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| The fog lifted off the bay as some rowers set out on their way to town the next morning. |
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| Before we left Penobscot Bay, we stopped by Fort Knox (the other one) and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory. More cool information and views. When they built the new Narrows Bridge, some of the construction crew told their wives how cool the view was; the wives suggested an observatory at the top of the tower. And they managed to add that in; it's a fantastic view. At the Fort (which was never really used), we learned about the design to trap attackers between the inner and outer walls and the crossfire they would face there. |
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| Our last cool, serendipitous discovery the next night was the Wellsworth Hotel in Southbridge, MA. We were just looking for a place for the final night of our trip that was within reasonable driving time of home. Southbridge seemed about the right place (and well away from the larger metropolises we were looking to avoid). And Google helpfully offered the Wellsworth as an option. It turned out to be a perfect bookend for the trip as it occupies the former site of American Optical — another glass company, complete with a couple small displays about their history and AO's ties to fiber optics (among other things). |
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Vacation notes:
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