The National Park offers a Ranger led cruise on Wednesday mornings on the “Sea Princess”. There’s a cost of course, but it’s pretty minimal and we haven’t met our entertainment budget for this month yet. 😊
We arrived to the Northeast Harbor early and walked around, discovering a bakery with fresh made, still slightly warm donuts! There were several kinds to pick from, and we both chose blueberry. Oh! Were they good!!! We savored them on a park bench.
This is the place!
The Colonel’s Bakery.
(why is this pronounced Ker-nal???)
Seen these before? : )
We especially liked the part where they don’t cater to “emotional service animals” . Good for them!
Another unique item in this town. Blaine says this is a fire suppression system for the gas pumps.
We were on time for boarding, but when we showed up, everyone else was already on board! We got what we thought would turn out to be good seats – right in the center, facing the back, but with unobstructed views out either side.
Then, at the last minute a rather large gentleman came on and sat next to Blaine, partially blocking that side and the Ranger came on board and took up residence in the opening beside me. Rats! There are now 67 souls on board including 3 staff.
The cruise goes to the Little Cranberry Island. It’s an island where only 70 people live year-round and 90% of them are lobstermen. I hope some are women, otherwise that’s quite a ratio – 63 men to 7 women??? Hmmmmm . . . .
Along the way, we passed Bear Island and its lighthouse. Courtney (the Ranger) said it was probably originally Bare Island because there didn’t used to be trees on it, but somebody along the way spelled it wrong and here we are! She knelt down so I could take a picture.
We saw seals – some of us more than others, but the captain always spun the boat around so people on both sides could see some of the things. There were also birds (gulls, loons, cormorants, eagles and oprey), and a cow! But it turned out it wasn’t real. It was life-size and standing in one of the ‘rich people’s’ yards.
At Cranberry, we visited a museum where I stumped the Ranger working there. There were these dates engraved on the front of the steps and I asked what they were because they just seemed odd to me. He didn’t know, but while Blaine and I cruised the museum, he found out. The dates aren’t a range, they’re individual dates. The first is the date the island was firsts settled, the second, the date the museum was built. 😊
View from where our boat was docked
The Islesford Museum
A few items we found interesting:
Some scenes from our walk around:
An old (probably mid 70s) Thunderbird
1940’s truck – – still in use!
And of course, lobster traps and buoys everywhere
The bouys are specially painted in each man’s specific color and pattern so they can tell them apart
This boat just brought back lobster. We didn’t get to see him unload though. Time for us to leave. : (
The cruise also took us along the shores of Somes Sound where the rich and famous hang their hats.
This is a Coast Guard ice-breaker. According to Courtney, they’re not usually around this area this time of year.
The oldest house on the sound – 1891
A story.
An osprey made a nest in their chimney. They removed it. It came back the next year and built a nest in the other chimney. They removed it and put it on an osprey pole. The osprey never returned.
The osprey pole
Most (all?) of these boats are International Ones. Built for racing and made to exact specifications.
The most expensive house on the sound – recently built for $40M.
We also learned a few things about lobstering. One of the most startling was the size of the largest one ever caught – a whopping 45#!! We also learned that lobsters want cold water. That’s why they’re so abundant in Northern Maine where the water temp hovers around 57 degrees in the summer. Brrrrr!!! But Maine’s waters are warming ever so slightly and the lobstermen are concerned their bread and butter will migrate into Canada.
Then we learned something astounding! Courtney told us where people came from! Don’t get excited . . . it’s not really Adam and Eve we’re talking about here. According to Indian lore, the god Glooscap (remember him) knew that Birch trees had a heart, so he shot an arrow into one, splitting the tree in half and thereby creating a man and woman. She didn’t say how a tree turned into a person . . .
We had heard from several people that Thurston’s is the place for lobster. It’s near here, and Blaine wanted to try lobster from a real Lab-sta Pound. That’s the Maine pronunciation. 😊 I don’t know what makes steamed lobster different from one place to another, but it actually was the best we’ve had. Of course it was also the most expensive . . . and the busiest . . . and the freshest! They pulled it live right out of the bin in front of us when we ordered, sent it out back, steamed it and brought it to our table along with the rest of our dinner. But how in the world anyone ever found it in the first place is beyond me. If we hadn’t had it in the GPS, there’s absolutely no way we’d’ve found this out of the way place!
Can you believe this?
There’s one other ‘family style’ one also with only one room.
For this big of a place?
Waiting
Here they are!
Lobsters, cole slaw, an ear of corn and blueberry spice cake.
The Indians were about to finish up record breaking Game 21, so we sat in the Jeep with Blaine’s phone and Indians app playing Tom Hamilton and used the restaurant’s wifi to listen to the last 4 outs! Wow!! They did it!!
Listening to The Game!
Look at the size of those claws!
We’d eaten a lot. We had some nervous energy and excitement. We had to walk at least some of it off. Bass Harbor Lighthouse was on our way home, so we took a few minutes to check it out. There were no really good views of the light, but Blaine managed to get a shot of the front and back at least. Or more accurately – one side and the other.
There he is! Taking the shot!
We could hear something that sounded like church bells. Turned out it was this buoy.
AND – we were able to sit and enjoy the water and rocks once again! There were two short trails (Ship Yard and Wonder Land – who could pass up trails with names like that??) As we watched from one of our observation stops, we saw a tall ship crusin’ by! (I’m certain it has a proper name, but I don’t know what they’re called)
Easy-peasy for once!
These trees are so straight and so tall! I couldn’t get it all in the picture!
We were told (somewhere) that these are the reason shipbuilding was so lucrative around here – they had these for masts!
Isn’t nature marvelous?!?
This cut tree shows how the branch grew from it.
It’s where knotholes come from.
Here comes a wave!
(and the next two pics)
And if looking at pictures isn’t enough, you can watch a video! : )
We spotted this little guy on the way back.
He’s actually chipmunk orange. I don’t know why the color didn’t come out right.
See the little pine cone pieces?
Pretty harbor along the road home
INDIANS UPDATE: An American League Record Breaking Game 21!! Can they keep going??