AZ girls A to Z Adventure

Wait that’s not right. Well plainly the rain falls in Maine. We woke to rainy skies but we headed into town (Bar Harbor) for breakfast and to hop aboard the free shuttle. Breakfast was at the delightful “Independent Café”. Next was a good/bad moment. Good: I am now the proud owner of a lifetime pass to all US National Parks. Bad: OMG – I’m old enough to qualify for a lifetime pass!!! We took the shuttle to the SW Harbor where we delighted in looking at a village on the bay, particularily all the smaller fishing and sailing boats. We wandered about the village for a while before heading back into town. More shopping and lunch – complete with root beer floats prepared us for  an afternoon of sightseeing and leisurely hikes. The rain kept us from any extensive hiking, but we were able to get out between bursts. We wended about hither and yon and reached the peak of Cadillac Mountain (which I still have trouble believing actually qualifies as a mountain at only 1500 ft) for sunset. The views were awesome and dramatic. I think we got some good sunset photos.
Earlier in the day I had cornered a local for a good restaurant with local brew and lobster, so after sunset we headed back down the “mountain” to the “Finback Alehouse” on cottage st. We both opted for brews from the Black Bear Brewing and gave them a thumbs up. Steamed lobster with fresh corn on the cob for Monica and I had the dinner special of wild mushroom and lobster risotto.
The musical score for today’s adventure consisted of offshore winds, the mournful song of the loon and the imaginary call of the mythical American Moose. (See wildlife sidebar for more on the mythical moose.)
It’s been a long day and tomorrow promises to be the same. To our friends and family back in AZ – stay dry and do not drive thru any low lying areas – you do not want to get caught by the ‘stupid motorist law’!!
Thus endeth day 6.

Ever since we left Niagra I have seen signs for leaping stags and Moose crossings. Although I haven,t seen any leaping stags, we did see a doe leap across the road. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that that the moose is a mythical beast – at least as far as the lower 48 goes. 2 years ago in Jackson Hole & Yellowstone I saw many similar signs and yet nary a live moose. I have decided that its a ploy to keep children and gullible adults occupied while driving. Let me know if you sed one outside of Canada or Alaska! The only other wildlife we experienced were black squirrels and seagulls in Niagra. Sea gulls there make a lot more sense than those totally lost ones that we saw 2 years ago in Utah & Colorado. In other wildlife news we have seen to the side of road (aka roadkill) a possum, a raccoon and a porcupine.
I am running out of chances for sighting a Moose as tomorrow we beginning heading south whereeveryone knows that a moose is just a myth.

You might by now be asking why Tish keeps referring to me and farms. Well, I have yet to figure out how-in-the-heck anyone could have made a living in farming here. We have covered at least 1000 miles so far and nothing in that area has looked like it is a farm. There are trees everywhere you look! I can see people being able to survive by hunting, fishing, trapping, maybe ranching, but certainly not by farming. Until yesterday I didn’t see any open areas of more than around 20 acres so how could they farm it? To clear an area would take a year of cutting down trees but at least they would then have wood to keep them warm. No wonder they had the saying “move West young men, move West!”

Today started partly cloudy but I donned my mystic moonstone necklace and felt confidant that the day would be a great one! Monica was dubious about the efficacy of moonstone but wisely said little? For our musical score of the morning we had Casey Kasem counting down the top 40 forty for 1976 … quick, what was the #1 song that year?
We left Watertown and headed out towards Lake Placid. We took the scenic route through the Adirondacks. The leaves were turning and in the higher elevations we saw some beautiful color – yellow, red, russet and purple leaves all intermingled with the green. By the time we got to Lake Placid, the temperature had risen to almost 60 and the sun was coming out. We managed to get a lunch table overlooking Mirror Lake and enjoyed some yummy clam chowder.
As we left the area we saw multiple reminders of the winter olympics. The ski jump tower was.positively frightingly tall! The continued journey took us through some gorgeous farmland enabling Monica to continue to enlighten me on the differences between South Dakota farms and upstate NY farms. I know much moreabout this topic before – although I confess, I knew absolutely nothing about it before this week…. truly a gap in my education, which Monica is sure to correct.
We finally came up to the beautiful Lake Champlain and the historic site of Ft Ticonderoga. By this time it was almost balmy and we had clear blue skies. The fort had been almoxt totally obliterated over time but it is well restored. I quite enjoyed my ramble. I learned about early mortars and how someone had the idea to make them small enough that a grenadier could light it and lob it by hand. Get it?
Grenadier – hand held object that would blow up when thrown?? Exactly! The beginning of the grenade!!!!
As an aside, let me note we drove variously east, south and north on 9N – again I have no idea how that is possible but we did not get lost. Also to add to the confusion NY has sections of road that are a “free for all” . I turned on this road and saw a 45 mph sign. Aftera couple of.miles, a sign proclaimed “end of 45″…. what does that mean!? Should I go 55, 25, 75 or just whatever feels good?
In keeping with our commitment to drinkonly local beer, as soon as we crossed the border into Vermont, Monica pulled out her smartphone and started looking for microbrews. She found an article from the BostonGlobe recommending the Blackback Pub in Waterbury so that’s where we headed.I had the Crop Idletype IPA & Monica had the Alchemist Heady Topper (which is actually an IPA as well). The jury came back in favor of the Idletype with a thumbs up!
From there we worked our way further across VT and eventually found our motel which was not only open, it also had our reservation in the correct name. What a relief.
And thus endeth the 4th day.
PS: the#1 song of 1976 was “silly love songs” by paul mccartney and wings

We woke up to rain today but intrepid adventurers that we are, we remained unfazed! We loaded up the car and headed for the Canadian side of the falls. We flashed our passports and we were welcomed into the foreign world of Canada… okay not so foreign. The views of the falls were nice but the rainy mist was in distinct competition with the mist of the falls. The rain did not interfere at all with some thoroughly enjoyable souvenier shopping, thank goodness!
Before we leave the Niagra Falls region it must be noted that for this section of our trip we opted for “oldies” music – a little nostalgia from the 60’s and 70’s to keep us rockin on.
So off we headed further upstate to Watertown and the St Lawrence river. We changed the channel and moved into a Country Music venue.I like a lot of Country music but I admit sometimes I get lost. Would one of you guys explain to me how comparing your love of a lady to driving with the windows rolled down is in some way a compliment? Oh well, I have always been a ‘live and let live’ kind of gal.
We arrived in Watertown to pouring rain, but decidedto check inbefore searching for the river. We went into the Best Western and I gave them my name and they said that they didn’t have a reservation and due to a wedding they were full! Oh no, not again! Fortunately, I had the reservation number. This is weird, Expedia had made the reservation using my middle name instead of my last name. They didn’t mess up my credit card number – just my name!
Fortunately the rain stopped and we headed north to the river. When we got to the St Lawrence via I81 we headed west in search of light houses. We traveled down the road which remained in sight of the river and enjoyed looking at all the interesting houses along the way. We eventually reached Tibbet Point where the St Lawrence river joins Lake Ontario … awesome! Wolf island prevents you from seeing across the river to Canadz and the lake is way big (one might say it was “great” big) so you can’t see across it either. The lighthouse on the point was a beauty and was truly a great photo op.
Before I take us to our final stop for the day at a local micro brew, I must ask the question ” who named (numbered) the roads up there?” We took rt 12 a ways west and later we were on 12E going west, until it changed and then 12E was going south, and eventually we had to get on 12F to go east…. holymoly – how do you not get lost?
Oh well, in keeping with our plan to consume only local brews during our vacation, we wrapped up our day at Sacket Harbor Brewery where we enjoyed some excellant beer and food. We again ate at the bar where we enjoyed chatting with the bartender. Although we didn’t become honorary cousins with this one we did get the nameof a restaurantin NYC where we should be able to get a local brew.
Well I had better call it a day, as we are off to Lake Placid and Fort Ticonderoga and more tomorrow.
And thus endeth the 3rd day.

Alert! AZ girls suffer hypothermia in the NE!!!!! Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration but we left AZ in 98 degree weather and today in NY state the high was only 58! Being the hardy souls that we are we donned jackets and forged on to the good times. Monica picked up PA and NY as states she had never before visited. I picked up something new too … when was thelast time you saw a vending machine for Live Bait!!!!???

Then off we headed to Niagra Falls. As we approached the area, Monica pointed out that we could already see the rising mist over the falls. Of course I said , no way that was smoke from some industry. And thus began one of the famous Monica/Tish debates …. much as I hate to admit it, I am forced to say Monica won this one… I am  still having trouble accepting the loss!
The Falls are incredible! My last visit had been in 1960, so although the falls were not much changed, my perspective certainly had been. The power of all that water is truly awesome… and beautiful. In order to gain the full experience, we donned our fashionable freebie ponchos and boarded the famous Maid of the Mist. We braved the upper desk where there was no shelter and headed into the tempest. At first it was no more than a gentle mist, but further in it got really wet! We were as one with the waterfalls! A mystic moment… communing with nature… okay it was just wet! Put it on your list…. well worth the trip. Check it out – the sun came out at just the right time:

We wandered about the park and enjoyed the view of all three falls from assorted vantage points and wrapped up with a trip to the gift shop … a must on vacation!
And finally it was time for BEER!! My vacation must! Our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the park and many restaurants were within walking distance. We opted for an historic B&B that also had a bar/restaurant attached – Red Coach Inn. It was awesome! We enjoyed a local brew… Woodcock Amber Ale before enjoying some well prepared seafood. Monica went for the salmon pasta and I enjoyed salmon cooked on cedar plank with a maple-pecan butter sauce!!! Yummmmm. We sat at the bar to eat, which turned out to be a great choice as we were soon considered to be long lost cousins of the delightful bartender, Stephen.
The walk back to the hotel was even enjoyable as we happened to be there on a night when an outdoor blues festival was being held – in fact we can still hear the performers enjoying themselves from our hotel room. And thus endeth day 2 of our great American road trip.

It is the end of day 1 ( or really early on day 2) and we are safe and sound in Scranton PA. Of course an adventure or two followed us through. We each got up at 0300 in order to make our 0620 departure. All seemed well at that time.Boarding went well, we found our seats (not together) and then sat…. and waited … and waited. Finally the pilot announced that apparently when the plane arrived on wed, ithad hit a small bird and they needed to make a minor repair. “What?” You say…. “Why didn’t they fixit before departure time?” we assume that was to promote the mystique of air flight. My seat mate was an airforce pilot and he asserted that itmust have beenabig friggin bird to damage enough for the delay we had. To add insult to injury it was determined that they had to send a photo of the damage to Atlanta so someone there could determine the severity of the damage. Where will the trend of working remote stop?! Anyway to makeour lives easier (?) They made us leave the plane and then 30 minutes later let us back on. Wait it gets better…. we all quicklyboard and then we wait…. and then wait some more. Next thing weheard was that we had a generator issue.  sigh! All in all we waited around for 3.5 hours…. yeesh what a great start to a vacation. To give credit where its due, Delta automatically rebooked all of us with new connecting flights. of course, although we made our new flight, our luggage did not. So we killed an hour and a half so itcould catch up with us. Our first nights stay was bookedin PA so we boogied out & headed west. What with construction and one missed turn off (I swear it was the navigator, not the driver) we arrived at our motel to surprisingly empty parking lot anddark lobby. I didn’t expect a full lot on a Thu night in Sept in Scranton, but we also did not expect an empty one. Sure enough, a sign on the door said that they had to close. Great! Thank god for smart phones … another motel was found less than 2 miles away. So here we finally are after a long long day. Watch for news on Friday of us wreaking havoc onthe Maid of the Mist!