Travel Snaps

The Driftwood Inn Resort, Vero Beach

I’m currently staying at the Driftwood Inn Resort in Vero Beach, which is designated an historic site here. The original buildings were built in the 1930s completely of driftwood. The entire resort is decorated with all kinds of found objects picked up in various travels by the original owner, Waldo Sexton. Today, the Inn has expanded into a “resort” timeshare and there are additional buildings flanking the originals. The Driftwood is located right on the beach and today I spent a good hour in the ocean, dodging waves. The surf here is pretty ferocious at the moment, but the water is incredibly warm and the week so far has been beautiful and sunny. We had a rain storm the other day that started just as I was coming out of the ocean, so I walked along the beach while it poured.

Shenandoah National Park

Today I drove Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. I took quite a few pictures, but I wasn’t particularly happy with any of them, except for these two scenic photos and the one of the deer. On the led screen I could not see that the guy in the red jacket was in the photo grgggh. Maybe I will try my hand with photoshop.

As for the deer, I don’t know why I get excited about them. I live in New England. We see deer all the time. But I guess it was that a lot of the deer today were young and they looked so cute. Of course, all the best photo ops took place while I was driving and couldn’t stop. There was one place where a fawn was peeping his head over one of the old stone walls, but at that point I had about 5 cars behind me. This guy here —— was not facing me when I approached in the car. So I stopped the car in the middle of the road, hoping no one else would come up behind me. When I rolled the window down to stick the camera out he turned around and started coming towards me, instead of bounding away like I had expected. Another moment and he probably would have stuck his head in my window looking for treats!

The drive itself was very pretty, but it doesn’t approach anything like the spectacular scenery in other National Parks I’ve visited. It’s easy to understand why. Unlike most of the National Parks out west, which all started out as preservation efforts for particular sites, the creation of Shenandoah NP was entirely commercially driven — all about keeping Eastern dollars east of the Mississippi. So the developers spent months frantically hunting around the area looking for a suitable location. And then they lied about the fact that people lived in what is now Shenandoah NP. So over the course of 10 years or so, the govt either bought out or evicted 2000 residents. The Governor of Virginia arranged to make this easier by signing an authorization to unilaterally condemn all structures within the areas they wanted to develop. This wound up going all the way to the Supreme Court, and they of course ruled in the governments favor. Of course, evictions are not a new story when it comes to the history of our National Parks.

The promoters were looking to bring a Western-style park to the East, but since its birth didn’t resemble the births of the western parks, we didn’t get anything resembling those. I think Acadia Park is probably more what they might have had i mind. Too bad they wanted a park that was close to DC because Acadia is up at the top of Maine LOL

Skyline Drive is 109 miles long and I drove the whole thing. I ended up staying on that road just about five hours. I was surprised it took that long, but I guess I got out of the car to look at the view more often than I thought. There wasn’t much traffic in the park, which was nice. The whole time I was driving, in my mind’s eye I could see what it will look like in a few weeks — as more of the leaves have changed color. I bet it will look extraordinary then.

As you exit Skyline Drive at Rockfish Gap, you immediately enter the Blue Ridge Parkway, but as it was so late, I decided I needed to put on some miles. I headed back to the Interstate and tonight I’m sleeping in North Carolina. I drove just over 300 miles today and they were easy miles. It makes such a big difference not having to deal with the congested northeastern cities.

Eats

These are all mobile pics taken during various trips - Cafe du Monde in New Orleans for beignets, the Automat (RIP) that used to be on St Marks Place in NYC and a delicious cupcake from a bakery in Charleston, SC

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The Toy Museum

I took this photo yesterday. I was driving down Rte 1, slowly heading towards NH when I passed this place. Another mile down the road I decided not to skip it and u-turned.
 
When I walked inside the proprieter popped out of another room and said he’d just started a tour and did I want to join it? So I figured what the hell and said yes. Then he told me it was 5 bucks! Hmph!
 
Well two hours later, I’d say I got my money’s worth :)

Sand Beach, Acadia National Park

This is the view from Sand Beach in Acadia NP. It’s the only sandy beach within the park and despite the fact that it is only about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, there are plenty of people braving the water. But of course, you can’t see them since I hate having people in my photos *g*

I waded in a little bit and it wasn’t too bad. Actually, I didn’t think it was as cold as the water at York Beach in southern Maine. Despite the fact that the day was pretty overcast, I ended up with a slight sunburn on both my nose and shoulders.

Above Sand Beach, there are a variety of walking trails and I took some photos from other vantage points, so I’ll try and post one or two once I start going through them

Bar Harbor Sunset

Just testing out my camera a bit. This was taken in “landscape” mode. I think there’s actually a bit more light here than I was seeing through my own eyes.

Acadia NP & Bar Harbor

The first shot is from a town on the way into Bar Harbor, which I can’t remember the name of at the moment. This auto dealership only sells vintage cars, all in primo condition. I also took a couple of Holga polaroids which turned out awesome. I’ll post them when I get back to Boston and my scanner.

The little white house? That’s my cottage. *g* My mother says we used to stay in these sorts of cottages on the Cape when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it so it never happened. I have some pics of the interior as well, which I will post tomorrow. It is very cute and snug. And actually the noise from the highway has calmed down a lot. Tomorrow night I’m moving to a motel down the road because it is quite a bit cheaper, but I’m glad I decided I needed to experience a “cottage”.

Let’s see… a few pics from my drive through Acadia NP. And yes, I did stop in the middle of the road to take that shot. I am soooo glad I did not listen to the people who told me Bar Harbor and Acadia NP would be too crowded this time of year. And that I ignored advice to take the bus into the park. Pffft! I’m here to DRIVE. The roads were frigging perfect. And so was my start time of about 4:30 p.m. Still plenty of sunlight for hours, a gorgeous day and hardly any cars on the park loop road, though there were plenty of people in the park.  Oh yeah, so glad I do not still have the Beetle. The switchbacks were pretty mild most of the way up the mountain (to the summit of Cadillac Mountain), but the last one was a doozy and the Charger handled it wonderfully. I don’t even think it changed gear. It treated that incline like it was driving on a level road. I love my car :)

While in the park, I stopped at the Jordan House restaurant at Jordan Pond. This is one of those restaurants where everyone is like, “Oh you must eat there if you go into Acadia NP.” Because of the popovers. Which are unbelievably delicious. I had three of them. Oh, and I had a 1 1/4 lobster for $21.95 *g* Hahahahaa. And it’s even cheaper at the takeaway lobster pounds. The one behind the cottages charges $16.95 for a 1 1/4 lobster and all the fixins’. I am having lobster again tomorrow night. And maybe for lunch too!

The final shot of the sunset were taken at the waterfront in Bar Harbor. While at LL Bean in Freeport I saw these little tripod dohickeys which can be bent and shaped in all sorts of positions and can be wrapped around poles and such. Very handy. Great buy for $22 and the only reason I was able to take that shot. Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll probably post up more pics tomorrow. I took a ton.

Ogunquit Museum of American Art

This art museum on Ogunquit, Maine has a gorgeous property. The shots of the ocean were taken at the backside of the museum.

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York Village, Maine

These are the pics from my first day’s drive up the Maine Coast. I’m going to post them in a few groups, so I can keep each town together. This first set is from York Village, a cute little colonial era village. They had a bunch of museums that are probably worth visiting, but I didn’t feel like taking the time.

I spent most of the drive on a combination of Rte 1, 1A and Rte 9. Starting from York Village and finally ending up in Freeport. Tomorrow I head up to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.