One of the "main" reasons for going to Maine is the lobster. Every restaurant serves it, but the best are simple, no-frills "Lobster Pounds." You pick out your live lobster from a tank, and they boil it right on the spot. Boiled is the only way they come. While we expected to find cheap lobster, we didn't. Even the lobster pounds get between $10 and $12 per pound, which is about what the Kroger around the corner gets for them. Lobsters for sale run 1 1/4 to about 2 pounds. This one is about 1 3/4 pounds.

Lobsters were once much more plentiful and were considered "trash" food. Poor people ate them because they were cheap, and they were fed to prisoners in some locations. They were even used for fertilizer!

Another purpose of our trip was to photograph light houses. This was a little disappointing because many of them were hard to access or were too far out of our way. The Bass Harbor Light shown here is easy to get to, but hard to photograph - unless you have a boat. For this shot, I had to climb with my gear out on the treacherous rocks. The newspaper headline, "Georgia Photographer Falls to Death at Bass Harbor Light" flashed through my mind more than once.

Bar Harbor on the left, with a cruise ship making a port of call. This shot was taken from Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the east coast. The size relationship is interesting. Bar Harbor is still a lobstering town, but has gone "tourist." There are many shops and restaurants. Some restaurants were pricy, but there are also less expensive sandwich, pizza and coffee shops.
We stayed in two nice B&Bs here, one before going across to Nova Scotia, and one after our return. Both were nice, old homes, but by making our reservations on short notice, we were on the third floor in both!

This is a tourist schooner in Bar Harbor returning in the evening from its last voyage of the day. For a reasonable price, you can get a nice two-hour cruise in the bay, with full sails. This is not an old boat - it was purpose-build for taking tourists. Thus, it is made of steel, and has very little finished work down below. The masts look like wood, but in fact are steel pipes painted brown.

Here, some volunteers help the crew (red T-shirt) hoist the sails. This appeared to be a lot of work, so I didn't get involved - I just shot photos. Two of the deck hands were quite small, yet obviously very "fit" young women. They could probably hoist the sails by themselves if they had to.

After walking the shops once in Bar Harbor, we spent most of our time in Maine at Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. Both are on the west side of Acadia National Park. These towns are not touristy. They are lobster towns, and little else. This photograph, taken at Thurston's Lobster Pound, shows the plastic storage containers holding live lobsters awaiting shipment anywhere in the world. I asked a lobsterman if theft from these containers is a problem. He replied that not much - such theives are dealt with harshly. Thurston's buys 3/4 of a million pounds of lobsters a year from lobstermen, at roughly $5.00 per pound. Before you quit your job and head to Maine to be a lobsterman, be aware that you can't just buy a boat and set your traps. Lobstering is very tightly controlled, much like NYC taxi drivers. Also lobstermen in Maine work year round - 20 below zero, snow, 30 knots of wind.

Now for Nova Scotia! We took the "Cat" Ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, NS. The Cat is a high speed catamaran ferry that holds 900 people, 200 cars and 14 RV or buses. The scene here is of the Lunenburg dock area. Long a ship-building and fishing village, Lunenburg is one of the most scenic villages we've ever seen.

Peggy Cove Light - the most photographed lighthouse in Nova Scotia. This one is easy to get to, and even has a post office in the bottom. It was actually very crowded when I took this picture, but I didn't want any people in it. I waited until there was no one standing in front of it nor on the rocks, then took the shot. PhotoShop took care of rest.

Peggys Cove is the most quaint, authentic fishing villages and harbors I've ever seen. The town consists of a few houses like the one here and a church. The rest is devoted to lobstering.

We fell in love with Mahone Bay. The three churches along the waterfront are its much photographed signature.

While we were there, Mahone Bay was celebrating their 9th annual Scare Crow festival. Most homes and businesses were decorated with life-sized "scare crows." Apparently there were prizes awarded, but other than having a good time, we could discern no other reason for going to all that trouble.

Some had a theme, like the wedding of Charles and Camilla shown here (We were wondering about the figure in the tree behind "Prince Harry's" right shoulder. Diana?)

Here, a potter stands beside "herself". Many people made scare crows that represented themselves, as is the case here. Others were made of flower pots and even trash cans.

I hope you have enjoyed these few images from Maine and Nova Scotia.