Two nation vacation

On the way up north through Maine we stopped in Freeport 

Never know when you're gonna need a good clove hitch, but at LL Bean for the first time ever we found some of their fancy outerwear on sale 

Bluebees! These guys didn't make it out of the car.

The Saint Croix Island International Historic Site commemorates French explorers who overwintered in 1604 on an island in the river between present-day Maine and New Brunswick. On the timeline of NPS early North American settlements, this would be after Fort Caroline (1564), St. Augustine (1565), and Roanoke Island (1585), but before Jamestown (1607).

Now it might have had brick, wood, wheat, and sheep, but Saint Croix Island lacks fresh water, which is one reason that the French lost 35 of 79 men that winter before abandoning for Nova Scotia, and why the island remains uninhabited today.

 And now to New Brunswick, where a combination of a strong US dollar and the misguided American sentiment that the Atlantic coastline ends in Maine led to a great beachside holiday

Poutine is French for "hot mess"

but the fries, cheese curds, and gravy were a hit with the family

and the Bay of FUNdy lives up to its name with enormous tides 

and enormous tidal flats to explore. And these aren't the smelly, buggy flats that you find on Cape Cod Bay. The constant turnover of the water keeps the beaches clean and accessible due to the houses being set way back. 

The strong dollar helped us afford the grand Algonquin Hotel

 The Fundy Bay aquarium had a touch tank

 where Erin discovered that her love of cucumber products extends to sea cucumbers

This 27 lb lobster was caught in 1962 in Maine and the card there cites the largest recorded lobster to be 42 lbs caught near Boston in 1957. The marine biologist told us that lobsters can live to be >100 years old and routine >1 lb eating lobsters are usually >7 years old. There aren't many animals out there that we eat that can outlive us, and I don't think that I will enjoy eating lobster ever again.

We met Dad's cousin Brad and Denise at the Swiss Chalet in Saint John 

 The girls met their 2nd cousin Callista

 Aaah, don't mess with Tessie!

One morning we drove on an unusual road and stopped to explore

and found softshell clams

They warn you to mind the tides when you drive on the seafloor road to Minister's Island

because when the tide is up the road is under 12 feet of water

There is a minke whale fin out there 

It drives like a boat 

 Back on the road

 to Campobello Island, where FDR contracted polio and returned for years to vacation. Ever seen a wheelchair accessible picnic table?

 Awesome beach with polished rounded rocks

Can't help but ask what that sport is on the bottom right? It looks like playing baseball lefthanded with a golf club.

Now we're in Bar Harbor, where it's OK to admit that those Canadian potato chips are as gross as they sound 

There were a gazillion people in Acadia National Park, but it was still beautiful

and hot, but Tessie hiked her first real mountain in the heat 

 and caught up on her New Yorkers

A surprising highlight of the entire trip was the dead jelly on the beach 

Erin and Tessie set aside their differences to climb the blocks

Erin successful bail from the overweight bike

Good luck finding a beach this empty in August in Maine!

Ever wonder how the ocean brings the thunder?