Hurricanes, Salmon and Lobsters.

We survived Hurricane Irene by spending the night in a Wallmart parking lot with about 12 other RV’s.  We had high wind and rain but no damage.

The next day was bright and sunny and we found the Craig Brook national Fish Hatchery in East Orland, Maine, the oldest Atlantic Salmon hatchery in the United States. 

It has been recently redesigned to meet the need for sound science in fish culture.  Young salmon are captured each year in seven rivers and brought to the hatchery to be raised as parent fish.  Their offspring are raised separately by river population and released as fry into their parent’s home river. 

Using state-of-the-art technology, each salmon is genetically analyzed, tagged with a microchip and database tracked by computer.  This allows biologists to identify individuals, determine spawning partners, and preserve the unique genetic makeup of each river population.

Biologists release two million juvenile salmon each year to restore populations in Maine’s largest river, the Penobscot.  They also raise and release up to 1.5 million juvenile salmon in the six other rivers with endangered populations.

Biologists from all over the  world have come here to learn this new technology.  Unlike Pacific salmon, Atlantic salmon don’t usually die after spawning. They can return to the ocean where they journey to Greenland to feed for two or three years before returning to the same river where they were born four or five years earlier.

                           The museum is crammed with all kinds of fly fishing artifacts. 

Heading south to the town of  Wiscasset, we came upon Red’s Eats, a tiny red-and-white shack sitting beneath a Siberian Elm along the always snarled traffic on Route 1.

Open since 1938, it is almost universally recognized as serving the best lobster rolls on the Maine coast and the perpetual line of customers snaking out into the street testifies to that. 

You order at the walk-up window and then chow down at one of the tables on the back deck.

This gal offers free battered shrimp to customers while they wait in line to place their order.

More than one whole lobster is crammed on a toasted hot dog bun and served with melted butter and fries.

It’s Been a Berry Good Trip

With time steadily slipping by, we reluctantly head south toward the U.S. border.
Once again, we pass through Fundy National Park and witness it’s extreme tide changes.

 These boats gently rest on their cradles, patiently waiting for the incoming tide to lift them up to the waiting dock.

                               We found one last harbor for the night, Dipper Harbor.

This is a real lobster pound, a holding pen where lobsters are unloaded from the boats and held until they are sold and shipped to market.

These two boats are scallop fishers, with on-board shucking stations.

 This apparatus is lowered and dragged along the sea floor to snag the scallops. 

It is periodically hauled up and it’s catch is dumped in a large tray and taken to the waiting shucking crew.

                                  We had one more beautiful, peaceful sunset--

              --and awoke to the same view with a foggy, but spectacular sunrise.

The fishermen were happy to talk with us, as they said it’s unusual for outsiders to come to this out-of-the-way place.

 Lobster season is now closed here and traps and floats are stored on floating docks out in the harbor.

Our last day in Canada was uneventful except for this big blueberry we came across along side of the road.  With picking scoop and bucket in it’s hands, we couldn’t pass it up.

 The wild blueberries tasted better than any we had before and we now have a pie and basket of berries to eat.

 These gals are removing any damaged berries and stems or plant parts that don’t get packed.

                          It didn’t look as though it was a very exciting job.

 But they were having fun and get to eat all the berries they want to eat.

We were greeted at the border by the Acadian, American, New Brunswick and Canadian flags.  We passed our border inspection at Calais and slipped into Maine where hurricane Irene is expected to make landfall tomorrow afternoon.

Anne of Green Gables

 It’s hard to spend any time on Prince Edward Island without becoming aware of Anne of Green Gables or Lucy Maude Montgomery.  The author was born in this house in the small town of New London. 

The house still stands in the same place and is in the same condition as when she lived there.

 Lucy often visited this nearby home of her aunt and uncle.  She eventually moved here and was married in the house.  This farm and the pond below the house is the setting for many of her books. 

Green Gables has become famous around the world as the inspiration for the setting in the classic tale of fiction, Anne of Green Gables.

L. M. Montgomery lived nearby with her maternal grandparents and came to know this, her elderly cousin’s farm, through her explorations of the woods and lanes around it.

The house and grounds are preserved as described in the novel and the house is furnished with items authentic to the era of the novel.

                         She is buried  next to her husband in the nearby cemetery.

                                           Guess who’s coming for dinner!

   This will probably be our last dinner out before heading back to New Brunswick and the U.S.  Scallops in garlic sauce, and the rest was all-you-can-eat  40 ft. long salad bar, seafood chowder, mussels, dessert and beverage.