Cohill’s Inn, situated on the Bay of Fundy, offers just nine sleeping rooms; Chloe and I slept comfortably in Room 6, called the Lubec Channel room.  Beneath a high sloped ceiling, windows open to the fresh sea air, we huddled under a warm quilt as the day dawned at 5:01 this morning with a crisp 55-degree breeze blowing gentling through open window.

As I got ready to start my day, I was very perplexed when I noticed the time on my phone as 6:15 AM yet my computer showed 5:15 AM.  Strange, huh?  Well, apparently my phone thinks we are across the bridge in Canada where the time is one hour ahead.  When I look at google maps on my phone, I can clearly see that I am sitting in Lubec, ME so T-Mobile, what’s up with that?

Whatever the time, Chloe and I were up, out, and about shortly after.  We walked all over this town, marveling at picturesque cottages, high up on hills overlooking the bay, churches with towering steeples, cozy little bed & breakfasts, quaint little eclectic shops, and the sea all around us. Construction seems to be going on all over…it looks mostly like remodeling, refurbishing, or just fixing up as opposed to new construction.  You can see Chloe gazing in awe at what lay before us.

We walked back to the room for a quick rest and a cappuccino, then decided to go further afield and got in the car.  Our first destination was the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse.   Despite its name, it is the easternmost beacon in the United States, one of only two still-standing U.S. lighthouses with red-and-white bands, and one of the first stations to be equipped with a fog bell and, later, a steam whistle.  A fascinating article about its history can be found here:  www.lighthousefriends.com.  The surrounding park is beautiful, and Chloe and I took advantage of some trails.

When we had our fill of this park, we drove around for a short while and then made a decision…

I mentioned yesterday that I almost drove into Canada by mistake.  Later yesterday afternoon, I purposefully drove in as I decided to make sure Chloe’s papers met their requirements.  I figured if there was an issue, I had two days to get it fixed.  I drove into Canada successfully and called Cindy and Jerry, my good friends and Causeway neighbors who reside in Canada, just to tell them I was standing in their country.  I didn’t stay long as I wanted to get checked in to my hotel.  But, I thought that the island was worth a visit.

Campobello, a 15 square mile Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy and site of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s long-time summer home, lies 10 miles across open ocean from mainland New Brunswick but a mere 300 yards from the U.S. mainland at Lubec, Maine.  Well, I decided to go back to Canada on purpose and got in the short line to Campobello Island (part of New Brunswick) and crossed the Franklin D. Roosevelt Bridge.  After a few cursory questions about what we were carrying in the car, we were granted admission into Canada.

I quickly encountered the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, a combination indoor/outdoor site that includes the FDR summer home and a 1,133-hectare (2,800-acre) natural area. The Natural Area’s gravel roads offer you an experience similar to that enjoyed by the Roosevelt family when they came to Campobello. During that era, a system of carriage and surrey drives provided access to points of interest in what is now Roosevelt Campobello International Park or Herring Cove Provincial Park.  Top down, we explored the park’s many roadways (all extremely narrow and dirt or gravel) and even experienced some of the shorter hikes.  My car is filthy!

We walked around FDR’s summer residence and decided to stop for lunch at The Prince Café in the park.  That salad you see is full of fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, pecans, and goat cheese, all topped with poppyseed dressing.  It was yummy!

We then decided to explore further and discovered the Head Harbor Light Station and, as we visited as the tides were coming in (at about 3:00 PM), we got these pictures.  Just so you know, today, at 5:29 AM the tides rose to an impressive 21.75 feet yet at 11:46 AM, low tide was at 2.30 feet so, as you can see, in a space of just six hours, the tides change almost 20 feet!  I can certainly understand the posted warnings about climbing down the ladders and walking across to the lighthouse.  If I didn’t have Chloe with me, I may have made plans to come back at extreme low tide to see about crossing (as long as other people were there with me.  I’m not brave enough to do something like that alone).  It’s probably just as well.

Driving back into the United States, I, of course, had to go through the Border Patrol gate where I found the agents (both yesterday and today) to be very friendly, informative, and welcoming.

So, I am here in Lubec for another night then tomorrow morning am off to Lutes Mountain in New Brunswick.  Chloe is completely out of it.  She crashed once we came back to our room and has been like this for the past hour or so—I guess she got a little too much exercise today.

After Chloe napped for a while, we went down to dinner.  This inn’s restaurant reminds me a little of Martine’s in New Hope.  It’s a small bar with just a few dining tables but I’m not talking about appearances…it’s the ambiance and the friendliness one feels when you walk in.  Lots of locals show up and tourists such as myself are accepted and included in conversation.  The wait staff remembers you (and I have only been here one day) and it’s definitely a feel-good situation.  So, tonight, I ordered the lobster roll (I am in Maine after all).  Look at how much chunk lobster meat was included!  I know that today I walked more than five miles but if I keep eating like this, I’ll have to walk ten miles!

So, people in Maine use some unusual words but one in particular aroused my curiosity: “downeast”.  What does it mean and where did it come from?  On www.downeast.com, I found this explanation:  As Colin Woodard explained in his book The Lobster Coast, “the prevailing winds on the Maine coast blow from the southwest in the warm months, so ships from Boston were able to run downwind as they sailed along Maine’s north-easterly-trending coast.”’  Ok.  That may be an explanation, but I’m still confused.

Despite that, I found Maine to be a treasure with its rolling mountains, craggy cliffs, fishing villages, picturesque waterways, and the amazing array of seafood found everywhere.  Some interesting facts…Maine is both the northernmost state in New England and the largest, accounting for almost half the region’s entire land area. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other state (New Hampshire to the west).  It is also the easternmost state in the United States in both its extreme points and its geographic center.  Maine has the highest percentage of French Americans among American states and consider French to be their secondary language.  Maine is the least densely populated U.S. state east of the Mississippi River. It is called the Pine Tree State; about 83% of its land is forested, the most forested cover of any state.  I think I can attest to that last fact as I drove through Maine for many hours with the sweet smell of pine permeating my senses.

“Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”                 Eleanor Roosevelt