Planning a trip up along the Maine coast this spring or summer? Maybe a trip to Arcadia National Park?
Lot’s of exciting things to do in that area. During one of our visits we went to Bar Harbor and went out on the large New England ground swells to do some whale watching. The seas were calm that day and the local seal population was mostly all basking along the shores as we entered the Atlantic Ocean in our quest to watch the Humpbacks dive for food.
Our guide was a seasoned whale watcher with graduate degrees in Marine Sciences. She had been following the Humpbacks along the Maine coast for more than seven years and knew the names of all that we saw that day. She had pictures and drawings that identified them individually.
Here are a few pictures of our adventures that day. You can click on any of them to make them larger.
The last one was taken from Cadillac Mountain of a four master you can also take a day cruise on.
It sometimes seems like I procrastinate nearly forever before I start one of these Boat Ride postings. I write two or three outlines and cast them off for just winging it.
On this particular trip up into the north country, Linda’s sister and her husband were once again traveling with us. We made reservations at the Mill Creek CG right on Lake Huron. Beautiful CG with all the nice amenities. But, this is about just one day out of our two week stay. On a beautiful early morning drive up over the bridge, we headed for Sault Ste. Marie, MI, where we were going to look around and take the Soo Locks boat tour.
Here is a link to the Mill Creek CG and a picture of our parking site.
http://www.campmackinaw.com/home.htm
This link for the Soo Locks is very informative and will tell you much more about them than I will.
http://www.soolocks.com/index.phtml
When we arrived at Sault Ste. Marie we drove right out to the locks to see what the boat ride schedules were and purchased our tickets.
In one of the rooms where we got our tickets there was a large aerial view of the locks. I took a picture of it and cropped it down to what is depicted below.
These pictures were taken while browsing around, waiting for our particular boat to arrive.
In this next series of pictures we have already boarded our boat and are underway. As luck would have it our boat was coming out of Lake Superior in one of the American locks. So our trip up into Lake Superior took us up thru the CDN lock and we would return thru the American lock system.
Because it was a weekday our boat was not full and we could move around from seat to seat on upper or lower levels. The first picture depicts our truck in the parking lot. The first CG picture is on the American side and the other CG is on the CDN side.
Because it was a weekday our boat was not full and we could move around from seat to seat on upper or lower levels.
After our boat ride we explored the little city of Sault Ste. Marie. The shopping was good and prices were reasonable. Later we had dinner in a quaint little restaurant serving a variety of CDN and American dishes. I had a dumpling stew, it was delicious. I wish I would have remembered to write down the restaurant’s name.
If you’re ever up in this part of MI we all would highly recommend this very interesting boat ride and visit to the twin Sault Ste. Marie area.
Click on the pictures to make them larger. All of the links are active. Click and browse.
The Fast Eagles
Cal & Linda
With Guests
Barb & Tommy
During a three week stop at Rapid City, SD we parked at the RV park at Ellsworth AFB just east of the city. The recreation department at the AFB ran all sorts of tours to all of the nearby attractions. They had a fleet of passenger vans and drivers that were excellent tour guides as well. They would pick us up at the RV park and return us there at the end of the day. It was very convenient and much easier than driving around rubber necking.
http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/milcamps/33-south-dakota/172-ellsworth-afb-famcamp
Our train ride on The Black Hill Steam Train started in Keystone and went to Hill City and returned. It was an all day affair and very enjoyable with a nice layover in Hill City that allowed enough time to do some shopping and have lunch.
http://www.1880train.com/
There was a singing group that met the train in Hill City. One of the conductors had served on the USS Midway and saw my hat and we had a chat. There was a clear stream close by so I looked for gold. No luck. Just about everyone took a picture of our head conductor. There was a long line at the snack station but it moved alone quickly and everyone that wanted a snack got served. As depicted in the pictures it was a beautiful, clear, summer day for sight seeing.
We took lots of pictures and here are some of them. Clicking on them will make them larger. The links are active, just click on them to browse.
The FastEagles
Cal & Linda
