Utter Loonacy: September 2011

There Once Was a Puffin

Oh, there once was a Puffin
Just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island
In the bright blue sea!

He ate little fishes,
That were most delicious,
And he had them for supper
And he had them for tea.

But this poor little Puffin,
He couldn't play nothin',
For he hadn't anybody
To play with at all.

So he sat on his island,
And he cried for awhile, and
He felt very lonely,
And he felt very small.

Then along came the fishes,
And they said, "If you wishes,
You can have us for playmates,
Instead of for tea!"

So they now play together,
In all sorts of weather,
And the Puffin eats pancakes,
Like you and like me.

by Florence Page Jaques

That's the poem my dad used to read to us kids when we were little - one of my all-time favorites. At long last I got a first-hand look at puffins during our trip to Acadia National Park in Maine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the trip was three weeks ago, but late is better than never, right? A rotator cuff injury and ensuing surgery has kept me occupied but I'm back to typing (don't tell my dr.) and it's about time I shared my Acadia photos.

Deer feeding in front yard

Bald Eagle, just down the road from our cottage

It was a great week for the most part. Two rainy days - but that just gave us permission to be lazy, and a day's postponement on our whale/puffin watch due to fog. We took a bike trip on Acadia's Carriage Trails - although the route was a loop, I swear there was much more uphill than down. It was only about 10 miles but plenty for my taste.

On Thursday we drive up Route 1 along the coast to the Moosehorn Wildlife Refuge in Calais. I have to day it was very disappointing. All the staff were "in the field" and nothing was marked clearly so we had no idea where to hike. On top of that we saw very little. I did however learn the proper pronunciation of several of the towns: Calais (cal'-ass), Ellsworth (ales-worth), Machias (ma-kye'-us), and Lebec (le-bec': OMG something that's pronounced the way it looks!)

At the end we agreed it was an enjoyable trip with beautiful scenery but one we might not do again for awhile: there's just too much traffic and tourism for our taste.

The trip up took 2-1/2 hours more than planned due to 30 mph traffic on the INTERSTATE for gosh sakes! For the return we decided to go west through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, entering New York State at Crown Point. It was just as long time-wise but oh so much more enjoyable!

(P.S. Blogger has changed their composing interface - making it incredibly difficult to place pictures uniformly...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!)