Saratoga Springs is a popular summer vacation spot. It has a long tradition of horse racing, and we saw horse sculptures as we walked around town.
This charming building is the City Hall.
We walked through the older parts of town, along tree-lined avenues with stately homes where we came upon this wonderful old Chevy.
An unanticipated highlight was the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. The building was designed by Antoine Predock and built in 2000.
The Tang is part of Skidmore University and some of the exhibits are curated by students. The I Was a Double group exhibit had several pieces we liked. Celeste Bousier-Mougenot's Untitled piece made music through the random movement of porcelain bowls striking each other as they floated in an inflatable wading pool.
This Sol Lewitt piece Drawing #1202 had a lot of depth.
This is a close up of the graphite scribbles that comprise the piece, which were made directly on the wall.
Another exhibit was a solo show of mixed media portrait paintings by Jeff Sonhouse. In Made Uptown he burned matchsticks to create the hair.
In Untitled (Racoon) the matchsticks weren't burned and look like a mask.
While in upstate New York we took a hike in Adirondacks State Park, up Kane Mountain to one of the remaining 28 fire lookout towers.
This is the view from the top of the tower.
In Cooperstown we stayed with Cindy and Earle Peterson. Their daughter Susan was a good friend of ours who died of cancer last year. (Here's our memorial blog about Susan.)
Earle drove us out to their family farm where only a small amount of hay is grown these days.
The land is now protected by a conservation easement and managed by The Greenwoods Conservancy. The Greenwoods mission is to protect the native plants and animals that live there, and to facilitate studies.
Earle and Cindy, along with Susan and her brother Jim as kids, had spent summers in this cabin. It felt good to have time with Susan's parents and share memories of her.
The dinner bell on their porch was rung with a horseshoe.
While in Cooperstown we went to the Farmer's Museum. Showcasing the culture of the 1850s, there were many interesting buildings like this blacksmith shop. There were smithers inside showing how the old trade techniques.
These tools were used by coopers to make barrels.
This goat had his eyes on a hops vine that was being harvested.
He knew that once the hop flowers had been removed from the vine, the leaves would be given to the goats as a delicious treat!
From upstate New York we drove east through Vermont and New Hampshire on our way to down east Maine. We stopped for this great view in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Either the chairs were big in Vermont or Pete has shrunk.
We stopped in Portland for a meal at Eventide Oysters restaurant. We started with fresh Maine oysters.
Their delicious snapper crudo was served with Japanese flavors of blackened garlic and shimeji. Notice the oyster shell shaped bowls and plates.
We ate our first lobster roll (not pictured) and loved it. Their green salad had picked onions and carrots, and we also enjoyed their coleslaw (left) and house-made kimchi.
Even the bathroom even had an oyster shell shaped sink!
We stayed in Harpswell, which is group of islands north of Portland. It was fun exploring the islands. This area is named Giant's Stairs for the enormous basalt rocks that were formed over 200 million years ago.
Evidence of lobster fishing was all around us in Maine.
These dingies are used to get out to lobster boats.
We saw lots of lobster traps piled up.
And there are hanging old floats that add color.
We learned that a float color combination is specific to a lobsterman, and the colors are handed down through a family. This makes it easier to identify each other's traps.
We love lobster and because we were in Maine during lobster season, we were able to eat some every day! Just down the road from our Airbnb in Harpswell was this seafood store. We bought grilled lobster tails and chowder.
We left Harpswell and headed up the coast to Acadia National Park. Along the way, we stopped for a tasty lunch of steamed clams, a lobster roll, corn, and a couple of beers.
Acadia National Park is located on an island and surrounded by other small islands, the area was incredibly beautiful.
Named Mount Desert Island in 1605, it's extremely rocky without much soil, making it difficult for trees to grow on the mountains here.
It was also challenging for us to hike on the mountains, as the trails go over boulders.
Rock cairns like this one marked the trails.
We learned about Acadia from watching the Ken Burns' film The National Parks, America's Best Idea, which is an incredible documentary. The film showed how George Dorr donated his land on Mt. Desert and persuaded other wealthy land owners to do the same. Dorr is credited as the father of Acadia National Park and became the park's first superintendent.
We went on a ranger-led birding walk one morning. Ranger Todd took us to a pond so we could learn to identify the ducks and gulls in Acadia.
In the woods we heard and saw lots of songbirds. This is a downy woodpecker.
We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but there were charming views.
At the southern tip of the park is Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
In Bar Harbor we looked at the colorful boats.
There were many historic buildings and houses, typically painted white with black shutters.
We found a lobster pound that served delicious whole lobsters.
These lobsters had just been pulled from the tank and are still alive.
The cook at the Travelin' Lobster works over three boiling pots of salted water.
A lobster pound isn't quite a restaurant, but they did have picnic tables where we could eat freshly cooked lobsters, mussels and corn.
Here Pete is removing the tail, and is sampling the meat from the tail fins. We liked it so much that we ate here twice!
We rented a tandem bike and spent a day cycling on the crushed stone carriage roads. Riding in Acadia was a highlight!
Between 1912 and 1940 John D. Rockefeller financed the building of 57 miles of roads and bridges on Mt Desert because he liked to tour the park by horse carriage.
Rockefeller gave most of the roads to the national park, stipulating that they must be well-maintained and used only by horses, bikes and people (no automobiles). They were an amazing way to see the park!
We road up Day Mountain and had a picnic while enjoying the view.
By the end of the day we had ridden close to 40 miles through forests and by ponds on the carriage roads.
We enjoyed watching the sun setting and a beautiful full moon rising.
One afternoon we went paddling in a sea kayak along the western side of Mount Desert Island, which is much less developed and known as the "wilder" side of the island.
Our kayak tour was during the full moon and this caused extreme tides. We went out at low tide. You can see how low the water is as this picture shows the high-tide line along the rocks.
These orange sponges are usually under water, even during a regular low-tide.
This is a mussel farm. The mussels grow in cheesecloth sacks that are attached to these ropes. It takes about three years for the mussels to be large enough to harvest.
It was close to sunset by the end of the trip, and Pete got this lovely shot looking across to Bartlett Island.
Our kayak guide suggested we eat at Finback Alehouse in Bar Harbor.
Their lobster mac-n-cheese was good.
As was the Bissell Brothers draft beer.
We would have enjoyed having another week to explore Acadia, but it was time to move on.
We are heading to Nova Scotia. We drove through Reversing Falls Park where high tide causes the water to flow up river.
Along the way we stopped for more lobster rolls at a road-side eatery. Two rolls for $10. What a way to celebrate day seven of our lobster fest!
This charming building is the City Hall.
We walked through the older parts of town, along tree-lined avenues with stately homes where we came upon this wonderful old Chevy.
An unanticipated highlight was the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. The building was designed by Antoine Predock and built in 2000.
The Tang is part of Skidmore University and some of the exhibits are curated by students. The I Was a Double group exhibit had several pieces we liked. Celeste Bousier-Mougenot's Untitled piece made music through the random movement of porcelain bowls striking each other as they floated in an inflatable wading pool.
This Sol Lewitt piece Drawing #1202 had a lot of depth.
This is a close up of the graphite scribbles that comprise the piece, which were made directly on the wall.
Another exhibit was a solo show of mixed media portrait paintings by Jeff Sonhouse. In Made Uptown he burned matchsticks to create the hair.
In Untitled (Racoon) the matchsticks weren't burned and look like a mask.
While in upstate New York we took a hike in Adirondacks State Park, up Kane Mountain to one of the remaining 28 fire lookout towers.
This is the view from the top of the tower.
In Cooperstown we stayed with Cindy and Earle Peterson. Their daughter Susan was a good friend of ours who died of cancer last year. (Here's our memorial blog about Susan.)
Earle drove us out to their family farm where only a small amount of hay is grown these days.
The land is now protected by a conservation easement and managed by The Greenwoods Conservancy. The Greenwoods mission is to protect the native plants and animals that live there, and to facilitate studies.
Earle and Cindy, along with Susan and her brother Jim as kids, had spent summers in this cabin. It felt good to have time with Susan's parents and share memories of her.
The dinner bell on their porch was rung with a horseshoe.
While in Cooperstown we went to the Farmer's Museum. Showcasing the culture of the 1850s, there were many interesting buildings like this blacksmith shop. There were smithers inside showing how the old trade techniques.
These tools were used by coopers to make barrels.
This goat had his eyes on a hops vine that was being harvested.
He knew that once the hop flowers had been removed from the vine, the leaves would be given to the goats as a delicious treat!
From upstate New York we drove east through Vermont and New Hampshire on our way to down east Maine. We stopped for this great view in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Either the chairs were big in Vermont or Pete has shrunk.
We stopped in Portland for a meal at Eventide Oysters restaurant. We started with fresh Maine oysters.
Their delicious snapper crudo was served with Japanese flavors of blackened garlic and shimeji. Notice the oyster shell shaped bowls and plates.
We ate our first lobster roll (not pictured) and loved it. Their green salad had picked onions and carrots, and we also enjoyed their coleslaw (left) and house-made kimchi.
Even the bathroom even had an oyster shell shaped sink!
We stayed in Harpswell, which is group of islands north of Portland. It was fun exploring the islands. This area is named Giant's Stairs for the enormous basalt rocks that were formed over 200 million years ago.
Evidence of lobster fishing was all around us in Maine.
These dingies are used to get out to lobster boats.
We saw lots of lobster traps piled up.
And there are hanging old floats that add color.
We learned that a float color combination is specific to a lobsterman, and the colors are handed down through a family. This makes it easier to identify each other's traps.
We love lobster and because we were in Maine during lobster season, we were able to eat some every day! Just down the road from our Airbnb in Harpswell was this seafood store. We bought grilled lobster tails and chowder.
We left Harpswell and headed up the coast to Acadia National Park. Along the way, we stopped for a tasty lunch of steamed clams, a lobster roll, corn, and a couple of beers.
Acadia National Park is located on an island and surrounded by other small islands, the area was incredibly beautiful.
Named Mount Desert Island in 1605, it's extremely rocky without much soil, making it difficult for trees to grow on the mountains here.
It was also challenging for us to hike on the mountains, as the trails go over boulders.
Rock cairns like this one marked the trails.
We learned about Acadia from watching the Ken Burns' film The National Parks, America's Best Idea, which is an incredible documentary. The film showed how George Dorr donated his land on Mt. Desert and persuaded other wealthy land owners to do the same. Dorr is credited as the father of Acadia National Park and became the park's first superintendent.
We went on a ranger-led birding walk one morning. Ranger Todd took us to a pond so we could learn to identify the ducks and gulls in Acadia.
In the woods we heard and saw lots of songbirds. This is a downy woodpecker.
We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but there were charming views.
At the southern tip of the park is Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
In Bar Harbor we looked at the colorful boats.
There were many historic buildings and houses, typically painted white with black shutters.
We found a lobster pound that served delicious whole lobsters.
These lobsters had just been pulled from the tank and are still alive.
The cook at the Travelin' Lobster works over three boiling pots of salted water.
A lobster pound isn't quite a restaurant, but they did have picnic tables where we could eat freshly cooked lobsters, mussels and corn.
Here Pete is removing the tail, and is sampling the meat from the tail fins. We liked it so much that we ate here twice!
We rented a tandem bike and spent a day cycling on the crushed stone carriage roads. Riding in Acadia was a highlight!
Between 1912 and 1940 John D. Rockefeller financed the building of 57 miles of roads and bridges on Mt Desert because he liked to tour the park by horse carriage.
Rockefeller gave most of the roads to the national park, stipulating that they must be well-maintained and used only by horses, bikes and people (no automobiles). They were an amazing way to see the park!
We road up Day Mountain and had a picnic while enjoying the view.
By the end of the day we had ridden close to 40 miles through forests and by ponds on the carriage roads.
We enjoyed watching the sun setting and a beautiful full moon rising.
One afternoon we went paddling in a sea kayak along the western side of Mount Desert Island, which is much less developed and known as the "wilder" side of the island.
Our kayak tour was during the full moon and this caused extreme tides. We went out at low tide. You can see how low the water is as this picture shows the high-tide line along the rocks.
These orange sponges are usually under water, even during a regular low-tide.
This is a mussel farm. The mussels grow in cheesecloth sacks that are attached to these ropes. It takes about three years for the mussels to be large enough to harvest.
It was close to sunset by the end of the trip, and Pete got this lovely shot looking across to Bartlett Island.
Our kayak guide suggested we eat at Finback Alehouse in Bar Harbor.
Their lobster mac-n-cheese was good.
As was the Bissell Brothers draft beer.
We would have enjoyed having another week to explore Acadia, but it was time to move on.
We are heading to Nova Scotia. We drove through Reversing Falls Park where high tide causes the water to flow up river.
Along the way we stopped for more lobster rolls at a road-side eatery. Two rolls for $10. What a way to celebrate day seven of our lobster fest!
