Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor) at Seawall Camp Ground 9/14 - 9/22/2021 Travel Tour

                                           From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com                                                                                                                Tim and Linda Bunyan

Staying at Seawall Campground (Recreation.gov) for 8 nights $120.00 paid in full.

Bar Harbor (settled in 1763) is a walk-through time town on Mount Desert island along Maine's Frenchman Bay. 

 It serves as a gateway to the mountains and cliffs of neighboring Acadia National Park.

Bar Harbor is a summer haven for the rich and famous, attracting the Astors, Fords, Morgans, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Carnegie.  Today it is a vacation destination for everyone.  Celebrities (Martha Stewart and Susan Sarandon and others) have summer homes here.

Tim and I strolled by the many t-shirt shops and restaurants in Bar Harbor to Barrack Obama's favorite Ice Cream!  Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, it truly is a fearless flavor and is delicious.  We sat on the front porch to enjoy our ice cream.

Hinckley Yachts.   For nearly 100 years Hinckley has created a unique legacy in yachting.  

This service Harbor yard (1928) ranks as a world-class service facility.  Yachtsmen want their boats to have the highest level of care and service.

  Hinckley operates a facility for vessels up to 80 feet.

We discovered a noteworthy special exhibition for artist Harold Haertel's extraordinary bird carvings at the Southwest Harbor Museum.   Contemporaries with Wendell Gilley they each had an intense interest in nature. 

 Starting making decoys and began carving birds full-time as a second career.

Harold Haertel was an artist who made his own patterns, carved by hand and painted with oils.  His son, To

m (also a carver) shares stories and Harold's work.

Roadrunner made for W. Gilley.

Bike Ride on Mr. Rockefeller's Carriage Roads and Bridges: One of our top favorite bike rides on our travel tours.  Fortunately, for us, Rockefeller donated the property to eventually become part of Acadia National Park.  Between 1913 and 1940 Rockefeller financed the construction of a system of beautiful carriage roads and granite bridges on Mount Desert Island.  

Carriage road signs are necessary on this 45-mile property 

One of 16 historic carriage road bridges John D. Rockefeller built on Mount Desert Island.

Over forty-five miles of carriage roads. The bridge designs are built of granite blocks and detailed architectural stonework.

 Tim and I biked several days on these automobile-free roads.  With a well-refined sense of landscape design; built the carriage roads and bridges to blend harmoniously with the natural landscape. 

GateHouse was built in a rural French estate style where gatekeepers are notified to open the gate to allow carriages onto the roads.

Jordan Pond is picturesque, 

located within Acadia National Park with a 3.6-mile shoreline.  Jordan Pond Bridge (1920) 20' arch spanning the confluence of Jordan Stream and Jordan Pond.  Tim and I biked around the pond and returned to the carriage roads.   Jordan Pond is famous for serving tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House.   Stunning with a beautiful view!

Mailboat ferry from Harbor Town Dock to visit Cranberry Island.  Named for the wild cranberries that grow there in the Fall.   

  The population is over 300 in the summertime, but the year-round population is only around 40.  Mostly fishermen who fish the shores for the ever-popular seafood, lobster.General Store, the school and library, Post Ofice, Whales Rib Gift Shop. 

 Tim and I walked along the 1-mile hiking trail beginning at the rocky beach in a beautiful, secluded cove and brought us through a luscious forest filled with bright green moss, spruce trees, and quiet serenity.   There are 3 generators on the island to support those who live there in the winter.  

Cranberry Islanders are lobstermen, boat builders, painters, carpenters, caretakers, cooks, postmasters, merchants, artists, writers, librarians, teachers, boat captains, mechanics, gardeners, bookkeepers, town em, employees, pastors, marathon race directors, homemakers, and volunteers.  Some people commute to jobs off-island, others telecommute.

Full-service post offices operate on Great Cranberry island; every morning by mail boat/ferry.

Heading East to the outer reaches of the U.S. to Lebec, Maine.

Waterville, Maine Elks Lodge 9/13 - 9/14/2021 Travel Tour

 From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com    

 Tim and Linda Bunyan

From the Family Farm in Galway, New York through Stockbridge, MA, and now north through New Hampshire to the Elks in Waterville, MA.  We have reached to north/easter distance of the U.S. to stay in Acadia National Park.

Here is a Service Plaza Center along the freeway (the next fueling option is 38 miles) for fueling and refreshments.  This stop has a McDonalds as their restaurant.

This plaza is named Charlton Plaza on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The eastern coast is near Portland, Maine.  Lobster Roll sandwich along the ocean.

Portland Head Light a must-stop.

Brick Oven B&M Baked Beans factory is a historic cannery building in Portland Maine.  Constructed in 1913 in the East Deering neighborhood.    The company announced the closure of the more-than-100-year-old factory to improve productivity and reduce costs.  Burnham & Morrill Co. started canning food at the factory back in 1867.

Road side signs.

Entrance to the Waterville, ME Elks Lodge.

We are in Maine!

New York Family Farm, Auburn, Ma to NormanRockwell Stockbridge, MA 9/07 - 9/12/2021 Travel Tour

  From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com      

                                                        Tim and Linda Bunyan

We depart the Family Farm in Galway, New York on our course VIA  an overnight at the Elks Lodge in Auburn/Webster, Maine.  We stay in Waterville, Maine to Acadia National Park at Seawall CG which is 400 miles from the farm.  

The rest stops/fueling stations along the freeway are called: Service Area.  Attractive with parking in the nature area or at the restaurant and also fueling.

The FAMILY FARM  Galway, New York  Hume, Christine, and Kyle live here.

We are here at Hume and Christine's for a few days.  Hume has us park right in the front yard.  Makes for convenient visits and electrical cord hookups.

Kyle let me ride in the tractor !!

Hume and Tim are at the roadside flower mart to get flowers for Christine.

The Old Scotts Church. circa 1880 (West Charlton United Presbyterian Church)  founded by Scottish immigrants on the National Register of Historic Places. Tim's grandpa Bunyan helped erect the steeple.

Kyle mowing the hay.  He has many acres throughout the county 

Dining with Hume, Christine, and Tim.

Mike sent me a photo when I was a flower girl at Karen Klaus's wedding.  Mom sewed the dress.

I was about 5 or 6. (I will need to ask Mike the year Karen and Chet were married..then they moved to Alaska.

Sweet Rose Elizabeth at about 2 months old.

Christine, Hume, and Tim out front of their house with Kyle's dog.

Goodbye to the Family Farm for this year.  We will stop at Norman Rockwell's museum where he also lived in Stockbridge, MA. on our way to ME.

NORMAN ROCKWELL, American painter and illustrator. 

Collection of the artist's original and largest collection of his work on display in his hometown.

He lived here for the last 25 years of his life.  The current museum building was designed by 2011 Driheaus Prize winner and New Classical architect Robert A. M. Stern.

Marriage License, 1955 oil painting created for the June 1955 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.  Praised and considered one of Rockwell's best works. due to the use of light and dark. gifted to the Museum (we purchased a print for Keith and Sara as they have announced their engagement and wedding plans this year.)

Norman Rockwell's studio.

Self Portrait

The Post has published his covers for over 40 years. 

Rockwell's paintings tell stories of ordinary people.

Rockwell quote: "Because you can't explain a Post cover, there has to be total communication.  If it doesn't tell a complete story; if words are required to fill up holes in the story, it won't do a Post cover."