Ahoy Matey, There Be Puffins in Maine

We had to get up at O’Dark Thirty, as my wife calls it, for a two hour drive back down the coast to Boothbay Harbor on Day 6 of our vacation. Would it be worth it? We would soon find out!

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

We arrived in plenty of time to get a good parking spot and find our cruise. It had been a long time coming; but today we were embarking on a four hour Puffin and Whale watch cruise!

We headed out of the Harbor on a cool but beautiful morning into the Atlantic Ocean. An added bonus was getting to see some of the many Lighthouses along the way. The first was the Burnt Island Light Station.

Next was the Ram Island Light Station

Lastly, the Pemaquid Lighthouse

They had the front roped off until we arrived at our destination. We were sitting right by it and poised to be first out when permission was given to go to the front deck.

Alas, we approach the Island known as Eatern Egg Rock!

 

Ahoy Matey! There be Puffins!

What is a Puffin you say? Why, it is a bird you silly Goose! Alright, lets dive deeper...

From Wiki:

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin, are found in the northeastern Pacific.

On land, it has the typical upright stance of an auk. At sea, it swims on the surface and feeds on zooplankton, small fish, and crabs, which it catches by diving underwater, using its wings for propulsion.

This puffin has a black crown and back, light grey cheek patches, and a white body and underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red-and-black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage.

The Atlantic puffin is a species of seabird in the order Charadriiformes. It is in the auk family, Alcidae, which includes the guillemots, typical auks, murrelets, auklets, puffins, and the razorbill. (Note: Most of these were present on the Island)

The Atlantic puffin is sturdily built with a thick-set neck and short wings and tail. It is 28 to 30 cm (11 to 12 in) in length from the tip of its stout bill to its blunt-ended tail. Its wingspan is 47 to 63 cm (19 to 25 in) and on land it stands about 20 cm (8 in) high. The male is generally slightly larger than the female, but they are coloured alike. 

 

Seeing Puffins was a thrill, but seeing some of the “relations” was a nice added bonus!

The boat slowly cruised around for about a half hour giving everyone on the boat plenty of opportunity to see the many Puffins!

This had been a great cruise thus far and I highly recommend Cap'n Fish's Cruises, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. At the time of our visit, they were the only ones offering both Puffin and Whale Cruise on the same tour. Most were one or the other.

https://www.boothbayboattrips.com/cruises/whale-puffin-combo/

Alright, let’s keep cruising as we go looking for whales!

We cruised for about 10 minutes when a Fin Whale was spotted.

As you can see from my collage above, you generally get bits of the whale. It is a rare moment when they come flying out of the ocean like you see on TV. The Fin Whale is the second largest animal on earth behind the Blue Whale. You do not see the tail come out of the water like you do with Humpbacks and other whales because it is too big to lift it’s tail out of the water.

From Wiki:

The fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), also known as the finback whale or common rorqual, is a species of baleen whale and the second-longest cetacean after the blue whale. The biggest individual reportedly measured 26–27.3 m (85–90 ft) in length, with a maximum recorded weight of 65.5 to 120 tonnes (72.2 to 132.3 short tons; 64.5 to 118.1 long tons). The fin whale's body is long, slender, and brownish-gray in color, with a paler underside to appear less conspicuous from below

Now my prized picture of the day was one that you might want to click and enlarge. When I really stared at this one for a minute noticing first the eye and then the mouth open and teeth. Way cool!

It is really hard to find them and get a captured moment like this. Whales go down and you never know where they will come up!

We only saw one whale today, which is better than none. We cruised back past all the Lighthouses and bid our farewell to the water and hello to lunch!

 

I had a Lobster Roll at Kaler’s and they had a chowder sampler where we got to try three kinds of chowder. Yum. BTW way, that pic was from earlier in the day. When we got out there were no spots and people everywhere!

We walked around town and went in a few shops before heading back to our AIRBNB on Verona Island. But, just after the bridge over to the Island in Bucksport, is the Buck Cemetery.

 

Buck Cemetery's most famous resident is Bucksport founder, Colonel Buck.

 

Legend has it that Colonel Buck condemned a so-called "witch" to burn at the stake - an ordeal which only her leg survived. So a curse was called down upon Buck by the poor victim's deformed son, who proclaimed that Buck's tomb would bear the mark of the witch's foot for all eternity. And so it does. Buck's heirs twice tried replacing the tombstone to rid it of the accursed stain, but to no avail. It just keeps coming back!

Incidentally, if you are ever in Maine, don’t be looking for Kroger, Food City or Publix - we never saw any! But we did see several Hannaford’s around Maine in our travels. We popped in for some breakfast Muffins and such to take back to the AIRBNB.

We were welcomed back by a very concerned Deer upon our arrival!

And so went Day 6 of our vacation!

 

 

The scariest moment is always just before you start - Welcome to Maine

 

Welcome to Part 2 of Day 5 and Welcome to Maine. Our first stop was at the Old Burying Yard in York also known as the Old Parish Cemetery.

 

This cemetery dates back to the 17th century. It’s surrounded by a low stone wall with one has a special tenant - a grave of a witch. Mary Nasson died on August 18, 1774. To memorialize her, her husband Samuel had an image of her carved on the crown of the gravestone. It depicts Mary, or at least her upper half, as a loosely berobed woman with bugged eyes, a thin nose, a slightly upturned mouth, and a humped hairdo. Her epitaph simply states that she was a loving mother and wife, and her husband looks forward to when his dust can “mingle” with hers. The people of York claimed her to be a witch, a legend that popped up decades after Nasson's death. The legend arose because weighing down the sod of her grave is a granite slab, which, according to the later lore, was laid down as an attempt to keep Nasson from rising from it. Funny how these stories happen. Mary is still popular today as people from all around visit the grave and place items on the grave.

 

Up the road in Bangor, we came to the scariest part of the whole vacation - the former home of Stephen King! It was actually way cool and worth the detour!

 

Not far from the former King estate is the Mount Hope Cemetery.

 

Stephen King Connection: While not buried there, King often visited the cemetery for inspiration. He reportedly borrowed names from headstones—such as "Carrie" and "Georgie" (from George Tasker Blunt) —for his novels.

Film Location: The cemetery was a primary filming location for the 1989 movie adaptation of King's Pet Sematary, in which King himself made a cameo as a minister.

It is an interesting cemetery with some interesting things that are not graves like the Webber Waiting Room which allowed visitors to get out of the rain and wait it out.

Next is the Hill Mausoleum

The Amanda Skofield Memorial is one of the cemeteries most photographed monuments

 

Fannie aka Nancy Jones purchased a lot at the cemetery before her death in 1909. She was Bangor’s most well known Madam. She has no marker and is thought to be somewhere near this child’s grave.

 

A bit more modern and placed in early 1960’s as a Civil War Memorial for a Regiment of Volunteers that died in 1915.

 

Not much hiking today as we spent most of our time driving. We arrived at our AIRBNB on Verona Island just before dark. A big back yard with deer running about and beautiful accommodations!

 

Odiorne Point State Park, New Hampshire

Day Five we left Salem, Massachusetts and heading for Verona Island in Maine. In between was a drive thru New Hampshire. Part One of Two blogs for this day finds us at Odiorne Point State Park. We visited three sections of the park, the first being Battery 204. This is a park with World War II history. It contains concrete ruins and old bunkers from Fort Dearborn which was active in the 1940’s to protect Portsmouth Harbor.

Since you are at ocean level the Battery 204 hill is a mere 40 feet above sea level. A climb to the top finds a nice flat area with some of those concrete ruins.

 

Below it on both sides is a bunker or storage unit.

We went back up the road a short distance to a trail that lead back to the Odiorne Cemetery.

Excerpt from the park website:

“This may be the oldest cemetery in the state near where the first New Hampshire settlers landed in 1623. The Odiorne family obtained this land soon after 1660 when Portsmouth’s early settlers divided the town land among its key citizens. The Oriorne’s lived at "Pascataway" that historians believe was the first European site in New Hampshire, established as a fishing outpost in 1623 by David Thomson. For eight generations the Odiorne family farmed here. A plaque outside the graveyard reads as follows:

"Two hundred and eight-two years of Odiorne ownership led to the use of the family name for Odiorne Point State Park. During World War II, the property was a coastal defense known as Fort Dearborne."

The wording is elusive. In fact, the federal government took the extensive Odiorne property (and 17 other family houses) by eminent domain. When the war was over and the family attempted to recover its ancestral lands, the farm was given instead to the state of New Hampshire, a source of great heartbreak to the Odiorne family. Luckily for us at least, this scenic site at the mouth of the Piscataqua is now a well-maintained state park.

 On up the road is the third section with a relatively flat trail leading to Bunker Hill also 40 feet above sea level.

On top there are some concrete blocks with one having a water spout.

Dropping back down to the trail I came across the remains of a bunker. Sadly these old remains have been victim to graffiti

At the foot of another 40 foot hill is Battery Seaman

It has also been tarnished with graffiti!

 

A look at the other side

 At the top is another graffiti laden bunker

I am not sure what this was

On the way back I had a scary moment where I thought I was looking in a mirror!

A look at the bay

 This was a great start to the day. Next stop - Maine!