We were up and left early after a breakfast featuring
homemade blueberry waffles. Today we
were headed back to the USA. The drive
continued to be beautiful and then we crossed over into Maine and the north end
of US Highway 1. We had been at the
southern end of that highway in Key West Florida. This is a big country! Showing that we were really in Maine, the local McDonald's was serving Lobster Rolls. We certainly don't have that in San Diego.
Our stay in Maine was brief, about 45
minutes, because we then went back into Canada to go onto Campobello
Island. The big clam to fame of this
island was it was where the Roosevelts had their summer home for many years. Much of the island is now a joint US and Canada
Historic site.
Patti had read that they were doing special "Tea with Eleanor"
events and had made a reservation for us to attend. Eleanor Roosevelt, both before, during and
after being the first lady, loved her teas and so this was a fitting way to
share information about her. She loved
the teas because of the conversations it allowed her to have, not focused on
the food. She preferred simple fare of cookies, so as to not take away from the conversation.
What we didn’t know was that the core of the presentation would be
two amazing park ranger storytellers who brought Eleanor and her
accomplishments to life. We and the
rest of the adults and children at this event.
Some of our favorite stories focused on Eleanor and Amelia Erhard
slipping out of a dinner event to go for a night flight while wearing evening
gowns. We also learned that she did a 6-week tour of the southern pacific at
the height of WWI visiting military hospitals and having personal conversations
with wounded soldiers. All four of the Roosevelt
sons served in the military in this War, and one had been wounded. She knew as a mother how worried she was about
her sons, and when she returned home she wrote personal letters to the wives and
mothers of the young wounded soldier she had met. There were many other amazing stories, and we
were left with even more admiration for her.
From about 1900-1930 this island was a playground for the
rich. There were two big luxury hotels there and they sold lots for people to
build their cottages. It reminded us of timeshares that we now have available to use. The hotels and most of the cottages are now gone. But there are still three that were saved and
we got to visit all three of them. These houses were so nice. The Hubble Cottage had a moon-gate window
overlooking the water.
We also got to tour the grounds and the “cottage” where the
family stayed during the summer months.
It was lovely and quite touching
to see things like the room where FDR began
his recuperation from polio, and the game room where the children played checkers
and Parcheesi. This was really a lived-in home, and virtually all of the furniture was original to the Roosevelts when
they lived there.
We then crossed back into the US for our third boarder
crossing of the day. We now had just a
two hour drive to Southwest Harbor on the island where Acadia National Park is
located. As we neared the Park, the
traffic built up tremendously. Once on
the island, we immediately turned towards what is known as “the quieter side,”
away from Bar Harbor. It is always
shocking after being in quiet wild areas, to move back into traffic jams. We stayed in a small hotel right on the water
in a quiet area. Although our room was
tiny, it was fine for one night, and the view was lovely.
We took a short walk looking for a restaurant that ended up
being closed, but saw some very scenic views worthy of photos.
We when drove a few miles to a restaurant on the water and
had a nice meal watching the boats and a storm moving through. We so enjoyed seeing dramatic skies, something we don't get to see much of back home.
The evening was quiet, and then we caught the end of the sun
going down just off the back of our hotel.
Beautiful!
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