Enjoying Eastport, Maine

Our day trip was to Eastport, Maine.  It's main street parallels the waterfront.  There is a deep water fishing pier that you can drive out on and watch fishermen as you are scanning for whales.  The only fish that were caught while we were there were Longhorn Sculpin...an evil looking but pretty fish.  Great care has to be taken to get them off the hook as there are many sharp spines on the skull.

The city puts on a nice 4th of July fireworks display over the water.  At that time, a U.S. Navy ship is docked at the pier where you can take a tour of it.  The pier is where you can board the Sylvania W. Beal, an 84' two-masted schooner that we boarded for a sail.  On our trip, we sailed past the Old Sow whirlpool that has taken many lives.

A few of the birds we scoped out were:  Common Loon, Common Eider, Common Merganzer, Black Scoter, and Surf Scoter.  This was before we entered town.  They were quite a distance from us but today I have my Cannon 2ti with me.  I have cropped the pictures...so we shall see what turns up.    

                                                                

                                                                    

And of course, the Lupines are blooming.  They resemble bluebonnets.  Lupin beans (seeds) are commonly sold in a salty solution in jars and can be eaten with or without the skin.

We stopped at our favorite place to eat for a cup of clam chowder.  The restaurant is named Chowderhouse.

On our way back to Calais, we crossed the 45th parallel.  At this point, standing next to the granite stone, we were half way between the Equator and the North Pole.             

      

There are a dozen chunks of red granite set on the right side of highway 1 going toward Calais.  They are milestones that were set out around 1870 by a fellow who owned pacing horses which he liked to time as he commuted between Robbinston and Calais.  He tied a rag to one of his carriage wheels, and his farmhand would count the number of times the rag whirled by.  Pike knew the circumference of the wheel, he also knew when a mile had passed.  Each stone had the distance in miles chiseled into its three foot high face.  Fancy mile markers huh.  Are we there yet?