Morning Has Broken

 Here in Maine

Contrast

 

 

 

Two photos I've taken in recent years.  The top one is in Monument Valley, on Navajo land along the Utah-Arizona line, about a five hour drive from our house.  It was along the 17 mile drive you can take on an unpaved, very bumpy road through the valley.  Definitely worth a visit.  We'll be returning.

The photo on the bottom is taken on Great Cranberry Island in Maine, which is only a few hundred yards off of Mount Desert Island.  It looks across the channel connecting the Atlantic with Southwest Harbor.  On the far side is Seal Harbor.  The mountains, all in Acadia National Park are, starting on the far left, Norumbega, Park, Sargeant, Penobscot, the Bubbles, Pemetic, and Cadillac.

Towns

Every year when we are in Maine, I wonder about the town names.  So many of which are of foreign cities and countries and not those from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, or derived from the Bible or Greek history.   And it's not the entire state.  Almost all are concentrated in a limited area, inland from the coast, not in the top half of the state, and not beyond a line about 10 miles east of Augusta/Waterville in the central part of the state.

In addition to the towns shown in the photo above (from the Maine Public Radio story linked below), we have:

Moscow

Belgrade

Palermo

Rome

Vienna

Lisbon

Warsaw

Etna

Dresden

Many states have a few towns with these names, but not all of them, and not in such a concentrated area.  It turns out there are a variety of reasons for the names (most of which are from the first half of the 19th century) as described in this MPR story. 

Just as these names peter out a few miles east of the Augusta/Waterville line, we run into a trifecta of unusual names, or at least unusual is such proximity - north to south along twenty miles of road are Unity (named in 1804), Freedom (1813), and Liberty (1827)!  It's a nice drive.  Try it if you are in the area.

Sunrise

 From Thursday morning.  In Maine.

Maine

Drove cross country to arrive in Southwest Harbor last week.  Koji enjoys the early morning view.  As do we.

On The Island

After 36 years of vacationing on Mt Desert Island we bought a place here this winter.  Located in Southwest Harbor between Manset Village and the Seawall it's a 120 year old farmhouse and it certainly looks the part of a rustic Maine dwelling complete with tilting floors.  We are just finishing a month long stay.

Our view is of the Atlantic ocean and the harbor of Southwest as well as the mountains of Acadia National Park. 

Rain On The Roof

A lazy day in Maine.

I Was Going To Write A Post

. . . but keep getting distracted by the view.

Mount Cadillac

From our trip to Mt Desert earlier this summer.  Looking north toward the Maine coast from the summit of Mount Cadillac.  Bar Harbor is down there somewhere on the far right along the shore.  (Scroll along the bottom to see the entire photo.  It won't look nearly as good on a mobile device.)

Acadia

We spent last week in Maine on Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park, staying at our usual rental in Somesville in the middle of the island.   We still love going up there after 30 years.

The Island has the only mountain range on the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. as well as the only fjord on the East Coast (Somes Sound, the fingerlike intrusion into the center of the island).

You can see a long way from some of the mountains.

Mount Desert has a lot of rocks.  Hard rocks - that's why the glaciers didn't wear 'em down.

The village of Seal Harbor with the fog bank coming in.

Our favorite place to eat.  The operator of Keenan's Kitchen used to own a restaurant in Bass Harbor, closed it and then left for a few years.  He came back last summer with this truck.  Specializes in Cajun and BBQ.  Have some of the shrimp & sausage gumbo (mine also had lobster thrown into it). You can find him on the pullover about 1 mile beyond the turnout for Bass Harbor and just before the turnoff for Bernard (there's only one road in the area so you can't miss it).

There are smaller islands just off of Mount Desert.  This is from the dock on Great Cranberry as we were waiting for the mail boat to take us back to Mount Desert (you can see the tallest peaks, Cadillac (to the right) and Sargeant (in the center).   And below is looking back from the dock up Great Cranberry's main street giving you a glimpse of the stir of daily activity.

Bar Harbor is the biggest and busiest town on the island.  I'll spare you the downtown crowds and instead show you this deceptively tranquil picture looking from the harbor side park onto the harbor.