Rochester to Belfast, ME

After leaving Rochester we stopped at the overview of Taughannock Falls, and then did the short hike up the gorge through falling autumn leaves to see this magnificent falls closer up.

Taughannock Falls

We continued North East to Cape Vincent, stopping briefly to see the Tibbets Point lighthouse, which looks out over Lake Ontario and marks the start of the St Lawrence River. It is also the start of the area known as Thousands Islands, an archipelago of over eighteen hundred islands straddling the US/Canadian border in the mighty river. We based ourselves at Alexandria Bay to spend the morning at the extravagant Boldt Castle on Heart Island, now a major tourist attraction where the restored castle tells its history and tragic story. We also took a sightseeing boat trip on the river, crossing briefly into Canadian waters - our third trip over the border - though no passports required this time.

Boldt Castle (file photo)

Back in the car heading east again and past Lake Placid, home to several previous winter olympics, we took a short ferry ride on Lake Champlain, crossing into the State of Vermont and stopping in Burlington, the largest city in the state. It was a bit wacky here, amongst other things home to the worlds tallest filing cabinet, and winged monkey statues on roof of the railway station. A little less wacky was the factory tour of Ben and Jerry's ice cream where we saw a batch of "Cherry Garcia" being made, and learnt about the honorable ethics behind this company.

Morse Farm all set for Halloween

Another stop that day was the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, with 200 years of history making maple syrup. We learnt a lot there too, like how the trees are tapped when the sap rises up in the Springtime; that it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make just 1 gallon of syrup; and how the different grades are naturally created during the short season. We also had a great chat with Mrs Morse (senior) in the shop, who also let us taste all four grades from this year's production. Very yummy they all were too, and though we know several people at home who would have liked some it was prohibitively expensive to send back by post, sorry folks !

The view from the Notch Train on the Conway Scenic Railroad

Onto North Conway, where we had booked a scenic railroad trip up into the mountains to see the colours of the fall foliage, which has just peaked. The scenery was truly stunning and hard to really capture in a photograph.

As if Sel needs the instructions !

Heading still further east and crossing into the state of Maine, we finally saw the sea again when we reached the island of Mt Desert, which is home to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Its a touristy destination catering to cruise ships going up into the Bay of Fundy, and they make the most of the plentiful lobster in these waters with every eating establishment promoting lobster - whole or picked, boiled or fried, in a roll, as a salad, a pizza topping and even lobster ice-cream. It was here that we celebrated our third wedding anniversary with a Shore Dinner which is a local staple favorite comprising a bowl of New England Clam chowder, a whole boiled lobster, and finished off with a piece of Maine Blueberry Pie. To burn it off we hiked to the top of Cadillac Mountain, where the views are spectacular, and being the highest peak on the entire east coast is also the very first place to see the sunrise in the entire USA each day.

Breathtaking panoramic view over Bar Harbor from the top of Cadillac Mountain

The Observatory is at the top of the right hand tower (file photo again )

On route to Belfast where we are now, we stopped at the Penobscot Narrows Observatory, the tallest public bridge observatory in the world with an incredible view over the area, and also Fort Knox, an impressive granite fort built to defend Maine from the British and now a historic site, not to be confused with the famous bullion depository in Kentucky.



Our next stops will be around Boston and Cape Cod and we are aiming to be in New York by the end of October. The trip meter on our GPS shows that we have driven over seventeen thousand miles to date, which we reckon is pretty good going considering we have just passed our 6 month milestone. The States may be getting smaller in size on the East Coast but there is probably more to see and do here than ever, so we've still got plenty more to get through.

Edit: Facebook Photos just added CLICK HERE !