Author: brombergblog

Well, no time for blogging on the trip….or when I got home. My sister and niece were there when I got home; my brother and wife arrived the next day — then left two days later, but daughter Melissa and husband Karl and oldest grandchild Kathryn all arrived Sunday night for the eclipse on Monday (which was spectacular from our home).

Anyway, my foot kept me from going on excursions the next two days. So Kathryn and John went to Kochi and saw the castle.

The next day John and Kathryn went to Beppu where there were many natural hot springs.

It’s orange/red from the soil or rock of the area.

The following day was at sea and then we arrived in Seoul, Korea. The most important temple there is Jogyesa Temple, built in 1395. It was beautiful! Many Asian visitors dress in their historic formal dress….fun to behold!

We went to another nearby temple but I have forgotten the name. It was colorful!

The next day was another sea day as we traveled to Shanghai, China. We had been there before but LOVE that city. First thing was a city tour which was fine since we had not taken one before. You will notice that I like flowers and really appreciate how much they use flowers! By the way, it was really cold and also windy. We walked along the Bund, looking at the buildings from Old Shanghai.

Below is a view across the river to the Pudong area of Shanghai, formerly a meadow, and developed in the last 20 years or so as the space-age business and financial center of Shanghai.

And then we went to Chinatown.

And into the Yu Garden — beautiful!!!

We took a picture of the cutest little boy flirting with me.

We took a picture of Kathryn on the crooked bridge.

We headed to a library known as the “White House” in the French Concession that could only be entered from the front steps; they went in and I waited in the cold!

We headed back toward the ship and saw some nice after dark views.

And the nice views of Pudong from the ship and back to the Bund on the other side.

Our favorite waiter, Sherwin. He wishes his last name were Williams, he said!

Our last stop on the cruise was in Kagoshima, Japan. It is mostly known for its access to Sakurajima. Sakurajima is a stratovolcano formed from layers of lava and ash.  It is still an active volcano and about 60,000 people live on the island where it is located. We were told by our guide that the people of Kagoshima only do their laundry on days when the wind is blowing the other way from the volcano; otherwise their clothes would be covered in ash before they dried! We had to take a ferry to get there.

And we saw a couple getting wedding pictures taken.

One fact about Japan we learned along the way from lectures on the cruise is that Japan is composed of four major islands, has a land area approximately the size of California, and has a population of 122 million people; however, because of numerous high mountain ranges only approximately 30% of the country is plateau and habitable. This results in incredible density in Tokyo and other metropolitan areas.

A c ouple more meals, Easter along with the Easter display with a big bowl of jelly beans, and disembarkation ended our cruise.

We were then picked up at the cruise terminal to begin our next adventure-three days in Hakone, Japan for more cherry blossoms, Mount Fuji and other interesting sites.

See you then,

Beth

On March 18th we boarded our ship and got settled in our suites. We did have dinner reservations at Pacific Rim, their Asian Fusion restaurant. It was very good.

On the next morning we arrived in Nagoya. We chose to go to the headquarters of Toyota. At first, Toyoda manufactured looms for spinning fabric.

The company passed to the inventor’s son.

Below are pictures of early trucks and cars.

Followed by a display of various robots and Toyota’s. automated assembly line. A number of interesting and ingenuous inventions.

John found an interesting little girl visiting the exhibit with her mother.

Afterwards, Kathryn introduced John to vending machines found everywhere throughout the country with both hot and cold drinks of every variety imaginable. John opted for a can of hot dark coffee.

Above is a pick up your pet’s poop sign that amused us.

And then that evening the weather got bad; it was VERY windy and the waves were over 9 feet. The captain announced that it was too rough to dock in Osaka so we stayed at sea the whole next day — all excursions to Osaka were canceled. We had been to Osaka on a cruise some huge number of years ago, but we didn’t see it then, opting to take a bullet train to Kyoto instead 🙂

I know, the waves don’t look too bad in this picture, but the waves did hit the windows when we were having breakfast the next day. We attended a lecture that morning about Japan. The lecturer was a former US diplomat stationed throughout Asia and was very interesting and informative.

The lecture was followed by a nice dinner at the French specialty restaurant, Chartreuse. We were not underfed.

We did dock the following morning on the coast 2 hours away from Kyoto. It was truly bitter cold and very windy! But we were off to the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. It is spectacularly beautiful. The gold areas have been redone with 24 karat gold — they are so shiny now.

When we got back in the bus it began snowing — amazing after all this sunshine. It didn’t stick — too warm — lower 40’s.

By now I had developed an infection in my foot -very red and puffy around the stitches- oh, yippee! No pictures this time. The ship’s doctor didn’t want me to go to Kyoto at all, but I was determined to see the Golden Pavilion. However, I stayed in the bus after that with foot up on the seat-except for a traditional Japanese Bento box lunch. John had mainly rice and soy sauce. Kathryn and I had little more.

John and Kathryn then explored the Nijo castle.

First cherry blossoms of the trip. The season is 10-14 days and varies slightly based on the temperature. It is far and away the busiest and pretty time of the year.

Between no internet while at sea and limited internet and free time while docked, blogging has been as very slow process! So I will pick this back up after Kyoto.

Beth

Hello All,

We decided to visit Japan — largely by cruise. John was afraid he would starve if he had to eat Japanese food while in Japan. So, after a plane to San Francisco and then one to Tokyo, we arrived for a three day pre-cruise visit to Tokyo.

It is surprisingly cold in Japan and the cherry blossoms are delayed due to the unusual cold. We visited to Tokyo National Museum and the Asakusa Sensoji Temple on the first day. The museum was established in 1872 and was full of interesting things:

Afterward we moved on to the Asakusa Sensoji Temple. To reach it we had to walk down a block or so long path with shops on either side of the street. It was a weekend and a holiday so it was jammed with people!

There was a performer on the street. We loved his monkey!

We went back to the ship, had lunch, then went to the room. A little later I tried to leave the room and had a freakish accident — my scooter drive handle became wedged into the door jam with my front wheel spinning rapidly. My right foot was stuck under the spinning wheel; the metal rim of the tire slashed through my shoe and slashed the top of my foot just above the toes. The cut is about three inches long then turns and goes down between my toes.

WARNING-the picture below is not for the squeamish-it is way too graphic. Unless you have a strong stomach-please fast forward through it. The ambulance came and at the hospital, 17 — yes, 17 — stitches!!!

The next day we visited the headquarters of Fuji Television with its great observation deck.

We took pictures of the skyline from there.

Next was John’s favorite stop, Uniqlo, to which Campbell introduced John years ago in New York City. However, this was the mother store-12 stories in the Ginza area of downtown Tokyo. John had a fine time-five t-shirts and a new jacket.

The Tokyo Tower….and the only cherry blossoms we had seen…..and a quick visit to Din Tai Fung- a Chinese fast food restaurant with soup dumplings and other goodies which we discovered years ago on a trip to China. There are actually a few outlets on the West coast of the United States.

That night after dinner we had tickets to TeamLab Planets. It was a fun place that Campbell had recommended to us. Different images and/or movies all around us as we went from room to room.

On our day of embarkation, we first visited the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the Emperor Meiji, the father of modern Japan.

The we drove to see the outside of the Imperial Palace seeing some fun things along with way.

A quadruple right-don’t see that everywhere.

Downtown Tokyo office building sculpture and then on to the cruise ship — but that’s for a later blog.

Beth

We were going to snorkel in Bonaire — that and scuba are what this island is known for! But my arm changed the plan. So we chose a glass bottom boat to see beneath the surface of the water. 

Bonaire has the smallest population of the ABC Islands– only 24,000. There are no buildings over four stories; it is a lovely island and has a small adjacent island called Klein Bonaire which is uninhabited and protected from development. We motored over to there and drifted along the coral shoreline.

John on the left.

Sea Slug

Interesting tubal coral.

Always a day for boat laundry!

Great name, then a rum cocktail….

Once ashore, we walked around the shops. I bought a beautiful piece of art glass but failed to photograph it…..so I’ll see it when we get home — we had it shipped!

I loved the colors of the town!

The next day was another sea day on our way to Martinique. We slept late, had a fancy breakfast and John and I had our free massages (payment for having to change rooms). And a big plus — I was able to just have a bandage put on my arm — no wrap in gauze wrap! Much more comfortable even though still no water. Oh well, who comes to the Caribbean and doesn’t get wet???

Next day we landed in Martinique, but we had to anchor and use a shuttle to the port.

After our arrival we were directed down to the house below to set up a taxi, we took to Habitation Clement where rum is made…..but there is also a wonderful sculpture garden and museum.

Chihuly above

And then into their museum.

A lot of the art below is representative of the slave trade.

Back to the ship and dinner.

And then we arrived in Barbados, the only stop on our cruise that we had been to before. We had talked about renting a car, driving around, etc., but we were so worn out sightseeing that we just lazed around the pool doing nothing. First of all, a glimpse of our packed taxi.

Then our first look out from the lobby when we arrived!

The waitress at the Asian restaurant loved John!

Our room’s opening onto the pool area:

And our final dinner at Nishi; we splurged and went out to eat. By the way, David Taxi is phenomenal; he arrives right on time, every time. His phone number in case you are in Bridgetown, Barbados is ‭1 (246) 245-1724‬; he does taxi service, touring, shopping. Nishi was also very good Asian Fusion food.

We had a great trip!  The next day was a LONG trip home to Austin. When we got to the house it was raining and John tried to open the door with our garage keypad and it didn’t work. Our driver and I were standing there watching John try it and try it. There had been days of severe freeze while we were gone. Finally, John took out the battery and then plugged it back in…..and voila! the garage door opened. We walked in our door at 2:00 a.m. the next morning which was 4:00 a.m. body time. It was worth it!

Beth

Our next stop was in Colon, Panama. From there we took a tour to see Panama City and our first stop was along a part of the Panama Canal. We were not in an area where there were locks; we had been through the canal years ago, but we did enjoy seeing it from the land and watching a ship go through it.

We learned from our guide on the bus that a second canal was built along side the first from 2007 to 2016 at a cost of $5.7 billion dollars funded by a consortium of 5 nations including the United States. As you may be aware, passage through the canal requires a reservation, a huge fee and often a wait of several days to a week with a reservation.

We moved on and saw some ruins of the original city which was built in 1519. There was glare on the bus window so the picture isn’t great.

It’s everywhere; it’s everywhere!

We drove through the city and we snapped pix along the way. My favorite building is called the Twister.

The building below was designed by Frank Gehry. If seen from the sky it looks like a toucan.

We stopped at the seawall to snap some pictures and then the next stop was for lunch at Bucanero’s and it was surprisingly good.

 

Our last stop was on the edge of the Colonial City which was where the cathedral Santa Maria de la Antigua is located. There were way too many steps for me to negotiate, so John and Tomi went to see it. Looks very beautiful!

We passed a couple of sights on the way.

And back to cocktail hour and sunset!

And then a return visit to the French restaurant. They have a fois gras appetizer that is a thin layer on the plate of fois gras circled by very thin slices of artichoke. Tomi and I love this and order it every time we go there — so far three times!

The next day was another sea day as we traveled back toward the east to Curacao. That day was only memorable because we just messed around on the ship while we waited for the Cowboy game….so excited! And we were able to watch it in the Astern Lounge with a gigantic tv screen. John and Bryan got there at 5:00 p.m. for a 5:30 start (Atlantic time). First row was already taken with some rabid Green Bay fans in front of us. Unfortunately, I got to watch them high five WAY too many times. What a brutally disappointing game!!!!! It was a painful three hours. We left for dinner with about five minutes left and the Cowboys scored two touchdowns — probably the best minutes of the game!

It’s hard to tell size but the screen is at the back of a big stage.

And then we arrived in Curacao. Our excursion was canceled so we just explored the city on our own. There is not a lot to say, but there was shopping galore, street art, sculptures and a small shower in the morning (during which we escaped into a gelateria). Below are views from our suite.

And then the lovers’ locks that we had seen in Paris-the so-called Punda Hearts.

The bridge above is another picture of the Queen Emma Bridge, also known as the “swinging old lady”- it swings horizontally and resides parallel to the dock when a ship needs to pass.

The bridge below is the Queen Juliana Bridge – a four-lane road arch bridge crossing the St. Anna Bay in Willemstad, the capital of Curacao (reaching a height of 56.4 m (185 ft.) It is the highest bridge in the entire Caribbean. The length of the bridge is 500 m (1,400 ft.). Amazingly, it was built 50 years ago.

And then we were back on board the ship!

And dinner, John deciding to photograph his carpaccio….

The excursion that was canceled was to visit the Cathedral of Thorns in the evening. I am enclosing a link to it to show you how spectacular it is and how disappointed we were not to see it! https://www.codaworx.com/projects/the-cathedral-of-thorns-curacao/  It would have been a wonderful experience!!!

We enjoyed these three days (except for the football game); hope you have too!

Beth

We had arranged for a private car for Cartagena to take the four of us to see the sights. The tour company showed up with a 20 passenger bus. We loved it, spread out all over and enjoyed the commentary of our guide Carlos. Plus, every time we back into the bus it was frigid — yay! It was 90 degrees out.

We started our day with a climb up to the top of the mountain to the Convento de la Papa. It was built in the 17th century by Augustinian monks. And it has the best views of the city.

We next stopped in front of the Castillo de San Felipe, built in the 1600’s and it is the greatest and strongest fortress built by a Spanish colony.

Our next stop was in Getsemani, the very colorful and hip part of the walled city. It was filled with street art and colorful houses. We loved it and you are going to get to see a whole lot of street art!

There was another church whose name has escaped me.

We next went to the Iglesia y Convento San Pedro de Claver. The convent was founded in his honor, a Jesuit priest who spent his life ministering the enslaved people brought over from Africa.

We were all very hot and exhausted after all that. We met later for drinks and dinner.

We were also in Cartagena the next day, but our ventures only took us as far as the dock — there was a zoo and aviary which we visited. First of all, I finally got around to taking pictures of our suite. And, first, in the hall.

Then we went to the aviary and zoo. Behold the giant anteater.

And back to the ship and outside bar!

As I was getting dressed for dinner I noticed that it was hot in the room; I looked and the temp was set on 20.5 and it was 24.5 — way too hot! I called for service. My call was returned a few minutes later and was told that it would take too long to repair and we needed to change rooms. Poor John! He packed up everything except clothes while I was eating king crab legs and waiting for him. To the credit of the butlers and John, we were moved to another room after an hour or so. However, we were going to need our passports the next day — I had no idea where they were! So John now went through every suitcase, 3 big and 2 roll-aboards. In that process I also noticed my large purse was missing and also nowhere to be found. Now, understand that we had already gone through the room we left, opening every drawer, etc. Our butler had done the same thing before we did. 

After a LOT of chaos and stress, around 10:00 pm, John went to the old room with the butler found my large purse with passports inside in a small corner cabinet and returned to our new room relieved. Thank God! John was afraid we would be staying in the islands!!

All is well and we have moved on…..with all our documentation (now in the room safe)!

Beth

Howdy All,

John and I were awakened by our alarm at 3:45 a.m. on January 5th. Our suitcases were already closed; we grabbed some coffee to go; our driver arrived promptly at 4:30 a.m. and we were off for our 7:00 a.m. flight to Miami. That was the only nonstop flight from Austin in time to make our departure from Miami.

John made me laugh out loud on the plane. He really, really hates eggs — doesn’t even like to discuss them. So he ordered a charcuterie plate for breakfast…..but it came with two halves of a hard boiled egg perched on the back of his tray. He fixed that the best he could, hiding them behind his cracker wrapper! Cracked me up!!!

And then it was on to our cruise. We were headed to a new cruise line that only began in August, Explora. Their first ship is Explore I and wow is it beautiful! We are headed on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise but one to amazing and different ports. We have been joined by Tomi and Bryan Storey, with whom we have shared lots of travel. We had requested rooms across from each other — instead we are far fore and they are far aft, quite a long way. We don’t visit one another, instead meeting wherever.

The suites were, of course, not ready so we went to have lunch. 

We got settled in our rooms and then we took a goodbye U.S. pic as we left the harbor.

The food on this ship has been truly amazing — the best cruise ship food I have ever had! You are going to see a LOT of pictures of the four of us either drinking or eating. Unfortunately, I poisoned myself on our first day — drinking all day then topping it off with two Bailey’s on the rocks. I haven’t done that in many years. It was fun at the time, but not so much that night later or the next day!!

We then had two days at sea to reach our first port. I think I slept a lot on our first “at sea” day, but I did wander around and take some pictures of the ship.

This is an infinity pool at the back of the ship.

Tomi and I think that chandelier looks like a bunch of HUGE diamond baguettes. It is really gorgeous!!!!!

On Sunday afternoon we watched the Cowboys vs. GreenBay game on John’s phone thanks to YouTube TV. The quietest bar is where we went.

Yes, it was a tiny screen, but it was better than nothing. We had a great time! We went to Sakura for dinner after the game.

On Monday, January 8th, we landed in Aruba — it was my birthday, double 7! It turned out to be fabulous and not so fabulous. It began at breakfast with me opening my card from Allan Hillman. Allan was John’s roommate at Columbia (not Colombia) and a member of the Columbia bridge team. After breakfast we went ashore.

We walked about a block on the main street. The sidewalk was tilted and John had moved the wheels of my scooter to a narrower setting so it could enter our suite. I was going along and, it seemed in slow motion, the bike and I fell over onto the walk. Many tourists and the shopkeepers all came out to help, offering me alcohol (hell no!), then hydrogen peroxide (she talked me into that) – it should have been another hell no! Anyway, many paper towels later with a lot of blood on the sidewalk, I ambled back to the ship with a 2″ x 2″ tear on my right arm. Welcome to Aruba.

Undaunted, we went to the butterfly farm. It was pretty cool!

We did enjoy our Aruba experience in spite of the fall. We enjoyed the French restaurant, Fil Rouge, for dinner. The waiters sang to me after dinner and presented me a special cake — after we had eaten our desserts.

I have no idea what’s wrong with my videos; why they only show half of the picture some of the time! 

Anyway, on to Santa Marta, Colombia, where brother Walt had sent us the name of a birding expert who referred us to an agency in Santa Marta. Sadam, the birding expert, was waiting for us on the dock and then we went on a 1 1/2 hour ride up the mountain. The last half hour on the WORST road ever! We arrived at a building with a long back porch and 3 or 4 hummingbird feeders, which is mostly what we saw — not the experience we were hoping for!

I did have a much better video to include, but it was 13 seconds and WordPress didn’t want to upload it. So it was back down the horrible road and back to the ship….and, later, dinner.

This is enough for now. On to the next stop, Cartagena, Colombia!

Bye for now,

Beth

Back again!

And so is the sun!!! On a side note, the clouds were not the only cause of limited viewing for the prior couple of days — the wildfires in Canada were a main cause. Didn’t know that until on the news.

It was a beautiful day and the Schoodic Peninsula was really special. This is a MUCH less visited part of Acadia that is nearly an hour away. It is not on Mount Desert Island, but on the Maine mainland (pun intended).

We could not believe that it was so different from the rest of the park — or that it was so wonderful. Take a look and see if you agree.

We drove by the building below. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. personally acquired and donated 11,000 acres of forest, shore land and scenic areas to the Park. He also financed, had constructed and then donated the 51 miles of Carriage Paths to the Park, to ensure that the automobile would not undermine its natural beauty and tranquility. Today the paths only are for bikers and hikers. The building is now a science and learning center.

And back to our driving, stopping and photographing.

Lobster traps and buoys below.

And I just thought this was a bizarre house. The back of the house faces the street.

Time for a very late lunch stop. More lobster!

By the way, the high today was 76 degrees, so we ate outside!!!

After an ice cream stop in downtown Bar Harbor, we went back to the room for the Cowboy game and some packing to leave Bar Harbor in the morning.

We drove south backtracking over some of the same areas.

I wanted you to see how much the color had changed over the last couple of days.

We passed a sign that made me laugh out loud. I had to turn around to get the picture. I never saw it four years ago, but think it still applies today…..even if I don’t agree!

We stopped in Belfast for lunch at Nautilus Grill on the water.

And then we drove into Augusta hoping to see a few things. But it was Monday so lots were closed. The state capitol building was a drive-by.

So we proceeded to Manchester to Fielder’s Choice Ice Cream. It was a home run by any standard. Then we went to Maine Cabin Masters headquarters and retail store. To prepare for the trip we had watched a few episodes of Maine Cabin Masters on HGTV.

I had seen Stonewall Kitchens products in lots of shops along our way, much to my amusement as it is from Stonewall, Texas. So I laughed as we drove by their headquarters in Maine!

John drove for awhile and I went on Hotwire to find a stop for the night on our way to Boston. I was looking for a motel, but John picked a resort in Cape Neddick, the Cliff House. It was fabulous!

And the view from our balcony.

We had a drink in the bar pictured above and met a nice couple from Pennsylvania. After chatting some and texting her one of my pictures of the fall foliage, she texted me back telling me that her name was Beth and she would love to get my blog. Figure the odds of that! She is now on the list with all of you :). Maybe we will get close enough to them in PA someday to get in touch.

The sky in the above picture went from blue to pink to light blue. I’m not sure it all comes through in the picture. It was really pretty!

In the morning we walked to the fire pit, ordered some coffees and a carrot cake muffin for me (which I ate that night on the plane) and basked in the sunshine, warmed by the fire and overlooking the ocean. Life was good!!!

We then walked around the property going as far as possible for me on the cliff walk.

And then it was time to start heading south. We had been to Essex in 1997 when our son Campbell graduated from Andover. John remembered that we had liked the clam strips back then but we had been educated on this trip that the whole belly clams were better. So we went back to the same place and ordered one order of each. We still like the clam strips as well — blasphemy!

We moved on to Salem to go to the Salem Witch Museum. It was interesting but no photos allowed inside!

One final note — at the airport John found yet another t-shirt that he wanted. Unfortunately they did not have his size!!!

So long until the next trip,

Beth

Hi Again!

I once heard that the then director of the National Park System was asked what his favorite park was. He answered that Acadia, unequivocally, was the best park! I have wanted to see it ever since then.

However, first we had to drive there…..passing some interesting things along the way. We passed a beautiful bridge.

Then Fort Knox, below the bridge.

Our next stop was for lunch — guess what? LOB-STAH! And it was the freshest, sweetest yet!!!

We passed this sign along the way. Mac-LOUD is what Carla (my sister-in-law) calls my very boisterous family 🙂

We arrived in Bar Harbor on yet another beautiful sunny day. We moved into our room for the next four nights at the Bluenose Inn.

The room was lovely…..but the view from our balcony was amazing!

Click on the video below to play.

We shopped and went by the waterfront on our way to our dinner restaurant — yet another delicious meal!

We awakened on Friday — our day to visit Acadia — and this was the view out the window. WHAAAT????

Actually it was worse when I first got up; I just didn’t take the picture right away!! Where did our sunshine go???

But it was off to Acadia anyway. We did have a lunch reservation in the park.

We went up the Cadillac Mountain Road; the views were wonderful.

We had made reservations for the Jordan Pond House restaurants about six weeks or more before we left and the earliest time we could get was 2:30 pm. The restaurant is famous for its popovers…..so we each had a popover to start, then I had a lobster filled popover and John had a salad and then ordered a dark chocolate fudge over vanilla ice cream filled popover. All were wonderful!!!

We had spent most of the day but had only done a portion of the park. And then it was getting colder and so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we headed back to the park to see the remaining portion of the park and then some.

We had downloaded an audio tour for the car when we entered the park and we had listened the day before but now took the normal one-way tour of the park. This side was even more beautiful so I will apologize now for how many pictures are in this blog. (Also, John takes a lot of pictures too….so I have to include some of his as well!). The much enlarged picture above is the Egg Rock Lighthouse — very different from the normal lighthouse — the viewing area and light emerge from the middle of the house!

In honor of Dianne Feinstein…..

It was a long walk down (and back up) so I took pictures from above and John went down to the beach.

Click the picture below to see the video.

John continued on to the Thunder Hole below.

Then out of the park and headed to Northeast Harbor for a quick look, lunch and more views.

And lots of fall foliage; the temperature had been lower the night before.

And that finished our tour of Acadia for that day!

We had a reservation at Gayln’s, probably the nicest restaurant of the trip. It was great and the blueberry apple crisp dessert was amazing!

We had one more day in Bar Harbor but this is enough blog for now.

More later,

Beth

An interesting tidbit about Maine: Dallas Metropolitan Area is approximately six times the population of Maine!!!

When we left Portland we went straight to the L.L. Bean Outlet in Freeport. John did a little shopping.

We continued on to Brunswick and went to the Bowdoin College Campus. Unfortunately, most things were closed since it was Monday, but we liked the campus.

The nearby wooden church was pretty interesting.

In Bath, our next stop, we saw the Marine Maritime Museum and the sculpture of the Wyoming, the longest wooden ship ever.

Inside the museum was a room dedicated to women photographers. I, of course, loved it!

Also, an exhibit of the Bath Iron Works:

We drove through Wiscasset and Damariscotta.

Our last stop of the day was at the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.

And John’s pic of me taken from the lighthouse.

The Pemaquid Lighthouse is on the Maine quarter.

View of our dinner locale below:

And the bagpipes were played in the late afternoon as the sun got lower.

And after sunset!

In the morning we drove a short way for breakfast at Deb’s Bristol Diner in Bristol.

I didn’t come close to finishing and John ate a little of the blueberry pancakes.

We didn’t buy the sign above but would love to have it on our porch!!

We continued on north toward Rockland but stopped in Cushing to see more of Bernard Langlais whom we had seen earlier on the trip. We really liked his wooden sculptures. A docent at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester told us the name, the town & the address of where this was.

And my very favorite — Tricky Dick!

We passed this truck who had been put out to rest, but enshrined for all time!

We stopped at a lobster shack in South Thomason which was written up as having the best lobster roll in Maine…..but they were closed for the season 2 days before we got there! The views were nice though.

John said “Oh, man! I would have so bought that!!!” Maybe…..

We arrived in Rockland and went to the Farnsworth Art Museum. We first went to see the works of Louise Nevelson.

Then we were treated to a large collection of works by Andrew Wyeth. Some were well known, but the large collection was on loan from Japan and had not been shown in the US before. They were works done in and around the area of Cushing, Maine. Here are both ones in the museum’s collection and those on loan from the Japanese collection.

The painting below is Christina’s World, one of Wyeth’s most famous. The house in the background of it is the Olson house where Wyeth lived for some time and was the subject of many of his works.

The following is a photograph of Wyeth and Olson, the owner of the Olson house where Wyeth lived and painted for an extended period. The house is in Cushing and is currently being restored but not yet available for viewing.

There were other fun things:

Grandma Moses:

and Dale Chihuly:

We ended the afternoon with a stop by Rockport Marine Park. By the way, the weather forecast was for lots of rain. So far there was eight days with no rain and mostly bright sunshine and low to mid 70’s in the afternoon. WOW!

We checked into the Camden Riverhouse Hotel for the next two nights. More beautiful weather! And in the hotel lobby there are big glass jars full of candy and in the evenings, there are the fixings for s’mores and a fire just off the lobby where they can be roasted. We did enjoy one each night.

The lighthouse below was way out this jetty.

And just around the corner, more views. I love the Canadian geese basking on the swim island.

We drove into downtown Camden to shop for awhile and then have lunch…..and shop some more! Fun afternoon!

A park downtown had an interesting statue.

Next stop, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

Beth