Kelly Trips and Tours

This morning we woke up in our beautiful yellow room with Clyde sitting on the settee.  Breakfast was in the dining room with several couples.  We enjoyed good conversations and Bill had cereral, pumpkin muffins, bacon, pumpkin pancakes with homemade apple cinnamon syrup, and fruit.  Karen had a special breakfast just for her.  We then set out on our journey to Bar Harbor with sunny sky's and a little chill in the air. We found our way to the Portland Head Lighthouse.  The rocks and ocean around it were dramatic. There was an interesting museum attahedc where we learned about lighthouses and this one in particular.  There are 65 historic lighthouses along the Maine coast and all are run by the Coast Guard.  This lighthouse was built on 1791 with a $750 grant from the federal government.  It has been modified several times and has worked all that time with the exception of a few times when it was turned off during wars to prevent the enemy from finding the coast.

Our day started with breakfast in the main house, circa 1899. The food and view were wonderful although it was still a bit blustery and cold. We decided to take the scenic route up Highway 1A along the coast. Our first stop was in New Castle, NH to tour the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse located at Fort Constitution. Fort Constitution has been an active military position guarding the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor for nearly four hundred years, and may be the oldest continuously occupied military site in the United States. The good news was the clouds were gone, the sun was out and it was a pleasant 64 degrees. Unfortunately, it's only open on Sundays to tour. After walking around, we ate lunch on some park benches facing the inlet (left over pizza from yesterdays lunch) and an apple we picked up at breakfast this morning. We reached todays destination about 2 pm. Kennebunkport harbor is georgeous! We checked into the Captain Lord Mansion, a beautiful mansion

Our New England "leaf peeping" trip began today. We arrived Boston last night and set out today on our 2-week driving tour. The leaves are just beginning to change so not much color yet, but we expect more color as we travel north. Our first stop was Salem, MA. to visit the Salem Witch Museum. The audio-visual presentation was based on actual trial documents and was interesting to hear the history of how it all started and the actual trials in 1692.  Many people innocently lost their lives amid a hysteria over witches. Being in Salem a month before Halloween, there are lots of activities taking place, decorations, ghost tours, and many businesses with witch themes. After lunch, we stopped at "Singing Beach". Its name is based on the sounds coming from the sand which are more of squeaky variety than the melodic. Nonetheless, when you shuffle your feet on Singing Beach's dry sand you hear the distinct creak of the sand.  It was cold (only 57 degrees)