One of my favorite places to visit in the area is the little town of Tarpon Springs. Drawn there originally by an arts and crafts show, we have now driven the 45 minutes north of St. Petersburg several times.
After living in Maine for six months, this little coastal town almost seems like home!
Tarpon Springs is the self proclaimed Sponge Capital of the World. You see, in the early 1900’s, it was discovered that the Gulf of Mexico was rich in varieties of sponges. This attracted Greek sponge divers who wanted to make a living in the United States.
Over the next 30 years, the Tarpon Springs sponge industry became the largest industry in the state of Florida. Even larger than the citrus crops or tourism!
In the 1940s, blight reduced the growth of sponges, and this profitable industry was nearly wiped out. However in the 1980s, new sponge beds were found. Now, Tarpon Springs is back to being a leader in the world’s natural sponge market.
Our first visit in Tarpon Springs included our friends and coworkers, Rick and Judy and their granddaughter.
I’m totally getting that selfie thing down!
This bustling little town is the home of many small and interesting shops. Of course, there are plenty of natural sponges available for purchase all over town.
And lots of great homemade soap shops. I’m a big fan of homemade soaps and having tried my hand at them before, appreciate the quality and amazing selection!
Soap shops, tourist items, t-shirts, you name it. This town has something for everyone.
Couldn’t find enough seashells? They have your back.
I won’t tell.
Dave’s favorite place in this town is the Hella’s Restaurant and Bakery. Their huge selection of Baklava, Spanakopita, cookies, pastries, and cakes is enough to get you in the door. Dave has gone their twice now and stocked up on Cannolis.
Awesomeness.
Yes, this town even has a Husband Day Care Center!
Hungry? Head over to Yianni’s Greek Cuisine Restaurant, right on the Sponge Docks! They offer traditional Greek cuisine and live music. My favorite is the Pork Gyro Platter with tzatziki sauce!
And amazing Sangria!
And I even found a boat named after me!
Tarpon Springs is a great little town for family fun. It is one of the many highlights of our stay here in the St. Petersburg area!
I’m currently juggling three websites, and this one seems to suffer a bit. My goal (hopefully soon) is to post twice a week on here. Currently, I’m really not doing well at that!
When we first hit the road, I thought I’d have tons of time to write. I mean, I quit a full time job that included a hour and a half commute each way. I should have tons of time, right? But we are work camping right now to help supplement our income. That requires at least 30 hours a week working for the campground for an hourly wage plus campsite.
My other websites, Suzy’s Sitcom and Daily Holiday Blog have taken off this year and I’m trying to keep up with them. Hopefully very soon we will not need the supplemental income provided by work camping. Not that I dislike working at the campgrounds, but I cannot somehow make more hours in my day!
Dave and our friend Judy on a rainy KOA day…
In the meantime, life goes on at the campground! We are currently in St. Petersburg, Florida for the winter, parked amongst the snowbirds from Canada and northern US. We will be here two more months and then will be moving onto the Grand Canyon in Arizona for the summer.
My sister came to town this past week to spend a few days with us. Here is a short video that I put together from her visit!
The winds were pretty strong and it felt like winter finally arrived in Florida. But we had tons of fun in spite of the the windy weather. We look forward to visiting with her again when she comes to Arizona!
Dave needs a haircut pretty badly. After taking a photo of him with his locks blowing in the wind, I couldn’t help myself. I had to make a romance novel cover out of it.
And then post it on Facebook.
Because that is what I do.
By the way, Buffy Dickenson is my make-believe stripper name. (Just put together the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on).
I’m a little behind on posts. We are currently in St. Petersburg, FL at our current campground job. Over the past month, we’ve traveled south, attended a beautiful wedding, and even had some major RV issues. Lot’s of ground to cover! So I’m going pick where we left off…
After leaving New Hampshire, we headed toward the coast to check out Boston Cape Cod KOA. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the manager who told us that Bar Harbor Oceanside KOA had won the Founders Award!
This is one of the top awards given out by KOA based on customer satisfaction. We were thrilled to be part of it! And how awesome to be recognized as part of a successful team!
And speaking of great campgrounds, Boston Cape Cod had lots of green space and large shady RV spots. We made ourselves at home and pulled out some maps to check out the area.
We wanted to see the beach and decided to start with Nobska Point Lighthouse. The Nobska Point Light is located at the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. It overlooks Martha’s Vineyard and Nonamessett Island.
The light station was established in 1826, and the current tower dates to 1876.
If you don’t know by now, I simply cannot pass up a lighthouse photo.
Or a fun bird photo for that matter. It was rainy that day and the ocean was full of white caps and foam which made for a cool background in this seagull photo.
After a day of perusing the beaches, we stopped at the local diner.
One of the many things I love about the New England area is all the vintage diners. Yummy food served quickly and in a nostalgic atmosphere. This diner, interesting enough is called “Dave’s Diner“. Easy to remember, right?
While it looks like a vintage diner, it was actually built in 1998. The diner colors, layout and decor were carefully chosen to create the fun and colorful look of the 50’s era.
And the food was delicious!
Of course, no trip to Cape Cod would be complete without a visit to Plymouth Rock, right?
Upon entering the town of Plymouth, we saw this impressive structure along the shore. The rock was waiting for us inside! We prepared ourselves to be duly impressed. This rock had seen so much history!
Here is where the pilgrims first stepped onto shore from their ship, the Mayflower!
Well…it must have been a small ship. Or the rock shrunk. Or something. I wasn’t prepared for how small it actually was.
And it turns out after some research that no historical evidence exists to confirm this rock as the Pilgrim’s actual stepping stone to the New World. Plymouth rock is more of a symbol of the courage and faith of the men and women who founded the first colony in New England.
And that is okay with me. Even if it was slightly underwhelming.
According to my research, the rock as it exists today is estimated to be only about 1/3 to 1/2 of it’s original size due to being broken and chipped away at by 18th and 19th century souvenir hunters.
Oh, and notice the scar across it? Apparently sometime in the 1800’s, it was decided to move part of the rock to the center of town where folks could better enjoy it. That part was eventually moved back to join the rest of the rock a few years later, and “frankensteined” back onto the other half.
We might have been a tiny bit disappointed by the rock, but the replica of the Mayflower definitely made up for it. And the beautiful sunset behind it.
Red skies at night means “sailors delight”.
New England was beautiful. Someday, we hope to return and spend a bit more time there. But time was going fast. We had to be in Atlanta by November 1 for my daughter’s wedding and then onto our new job in St. Pete.
So we hit the road again.
The dog’s snagged their favorite spots in the front of the coach, and we set out for our next stop, Lake Hopatcong, NJ.
New Jersey, you say? What the heck is in New Jersey? Well, you just might be surprised…
We officially left the state of Maine on October 2. What a fabulous six months we had! We met so many wonderful people and enjoyed an amazingly beautiful area of the country. And now the adventure continues!
Dave wanted to check out the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Faith was much more interested in seeing if there were any roadside hotdog stands.
Since Dave was driving, those hotdog stands would have to wait until another day…
It wasn’t too long and we left the state of Maine and all it’s Moose Crossing signs behind. Did we ever see a moose? Well, no. Lived there six months and the closest I got to a moose was this sign.
And I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t see a Fall leaf change too. Fortunately, we got to see plenty of colorful trees on the way to New Hampshire. Fall is definitely here!
Dave wanted to ride the Cog Railway to the top of Mount Washington. So, we chose the closest KOA, which happened to be Twin Mountain KOA. This was a beautifully maintained privately owned campground at the base of the White Mountains.
We enjoyed talking to the owners who told us that they purchased this particular campground sight unseen several years ago. Since then, they had done many upgrades including beautiful private tent areas and even a caboose as a “cabin” rental!
It is the world’s first mountain climbing rack and pinion railway. It is the second steepest railway in the world with an average grade of over 25%, and a maximum grade of 37.41%!
The three mile trek up Mount Washington takes about 40 minutes as you ascend to the summit peak at 6,288 feet above sea level.
The Cog Railway originated in 1852 when after becoming lost near the summit of Mount Washington, Sylvester Marsh decided to create a better way for people to reach the highest mountain peak in the Northeast.
One Hundred and Forty Years later, The Mount Washington Cog Railway is a National Historic Engineering Landmark! The vintage steam engines, replica coaches and biodiesel locomotives are well worth the visit.
We loved the running commentary from the brakeman on board who filled us in on the history of the railway, the mountain, and other fun facts. And then there was the cool optical illusion of the trees and structures along the side of the tracks being extremely tilted. (When in fact it was us that was tilted!)
And then there was Mount Washington! The summit was cold and clear and we could see for miles!
In fact, in the photo above if you look where the sky meets the land on the horizon, there is a strip of blue there. That is the Atlantic ocean!
Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft (1,917 m).
The mountain is famous for dangerously erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory actually recorded a windspeed of 231 miles per hour (372 km/h) at the summit. This was the world record for most of the 20th century.
Like most big mountains, it makes it’s own weather and conditions at the top are often poor. We were fortunate to arrive on a clear day as more often than not, clouds cover the peak.
At peak of the mountain, there was a museum to enjoy which included an exhibit titled “Extreme Mount Washington“. This video is a bit about the exhibit and the crazy weather that Mount Washington loves to share.
And here above the clouds is the Appalachian Trail! One of things I’ve always wanted to do is take that trail from Georgia all the way to it’s end point in Maine on Mount Katahdin. I didn’t realize that not only did you have to tackle that huge mountain in Maine, but you had one quiet a bit larger just a state away!
The state of New Hampshire dressed up and greeted us with beautiful leaves, amazing weather and a wonderful start to our trek heading south.
Dave has a good idea every now and then. But don’t tell him I said so.
We are now on our way south, heading to St. Petersburg, FL for our winter destination. I wanted to put together a final post on the beautiful area of the country that we had the pleasure of living in- Bar Harbor, Maine.
One of the questions that I was asked the most while working at the front desk of the campground was, “What are the best things to do in Bar Harbor?”
Well, I have the answers for you, at least from our point of view. These are the things that you should really not miss if you ever get the chance to enjoy the coast of Maine.
Cadillac Mountain
Cadillac Mountain is located in the nearby Acadia National Park and at 1,530 feet, it is the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard. There are various hiking trails to the summit, some more challenging than others. There is also a paved road to the top.
From the summit, you can see most of Mount Desert Island. On a clear day, it is a beautiful site to see!
At certain times of the year, Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. Getting up to see a sunrise from the top of the mountain is a common attraction.
Sunsets there are beautiful too.
Schoodic Point
Schoodic Point is the only part of Acadia National Park that is located on the main land of Maine rather than on Mount Desert Island. For that reason, Schoodic is a much more secluded, less crowded opportunity to actually see some wildlife. Because of the fact that it is located away from barrier islands, you can enjoy the crashing of the waves from an unobstructed Atlantic Ocean.
It is about a 45 minute drive from the tip of Mount Desert Island, but well worth the time. From Schoodic, you can see the peak of Cadillac Mountain and enjoy another beautiful Maine sunset.
Schoodic is where we ran across several huge porcupines. I’d say they were as big as my VW Bug, but I’d be exaggerating just a tad. Suffice it to say, they were huge!
Restaurants
Nearly everyone that checked in at the campground asked me, “Where do the locals go?” As visiting “locals”, we soon discovered our favorites:
Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound– in Maine, any place that sells lobster by the pound is called a Lobster Pound. Imagine that. There are many of them all over Mount Desert Island and the mainland. They all compete with each other, sell similar items and their prices are very similar depending upon the varying prices of lobster. Trenton Bridge has the advantage of a great view and awesome Maine atmosphere.
Chart Room Restaurant– This restaurant is located right along the water on Route 3 headed toward downtown Bar Harbor. Because they are not downtown, they are not usually as crowded as those in Bar Harbor. You can eat right on the water and the food is just amazing. Loved their Stuffed Haddock. They also serve steak for those of us that are a bit tired of seafood, and of course, lobster!
Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium located on Main Street in Bar Harbor has lots of fun flavors in their homemade ice cream selection including Dulce de Leche, Bubblegum, (KGB) Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream base ice cream with a Grand Marnier fudge swirl, Rum Raisin, Root Beer Float, and many more!
Oh, and Lobster icecream! Yes, I tried it. Imagine butter pecan with little chunks of meat in it… yeah, that. I have to say that it wasn’t my favorite, but at least I can say I tried it! Ha!
Blueberry Hill Dairy Bar- If you love soft serve, good prices and lots of ice cream for money, you can’t beat Blueberry Hill Dairy Bar. It is located off of Mount Desert Island in the little town of Ellesworth right on Route 3.
It was one of our most frequent stops when going back and forth to Ellesworth for groceries. While the ice cream is fabulous, the folks that worked there never seemed to like their jobs much. I have to say it was a very surly group of individuals. Cash only. No samples. Make sure you know what you want when you get to the window.
In spite of the help, the ice cream was awesome! And well worth the stop.
Mussel Fishing
Hadley Point is a great place to go if you love mussels. In the state of Maine, you do not need a license to go mussel fishing. Simply wait until low tide. In Maine, the tide drops 10 to 20 feet depending upon where you are. This leaves quite a bit of the seaweed covered rocks exposed. Put on some boots march out there, and start lifting up some of that seaweed. Underneath you will find mussels!
Place them in a bucket of salt water, add about a cup of cornmeal and let them sit overnight, stirring them and adding fresh water every now and then. This will get them to spit out any sand. Rinse them and then either steam or boil them with garlic.
A true Maine experience!
Whale Watching, Lighthouse Cruises
The town of Bar Harbor is the base for many different boat tours including Whale Watching, Lighthouse Cruises, Wildlife cruises, Schooners, Lobster Fishing and more.
Which one is the best?
Well, we think they all have their good points. Pricing can be as much as $50 per person, so be prepared. Decide what you would best enjoy and take advantage of the opportunity to get out on the water. You will love it!
Oh, and take a warm jacket and some anti-motion sickness meds with you just in case. It is at least 20 degrees colder out on the water and windy too!
Acadia Park Loop
Acadia National Park offers much to do including hiking, biking, kayaking, rock climbing, and more. For those of us that love to watch nature in action, it is a fabulous place to go. The Acadia Park Loop is a 27 mile road beginning at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center (near Route 3 on the northern side of the island) and connects the Park’s lakes, mountains, forests, and rocky coast.
Baxter State Park
Want a chance at seeing a moose? Head about 2 hours northwest of Acadia to Baxter State Park in central Maine. It is worth the trip. Miles and miles of wilderness where the opportunity to witness wildlife is at its best.
If you love to hike, you can climb to the top of Mount Katahdin which is Maine’s highest peak at 5,267 feet (1,605 m). This mountain is also the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
Some things to note: Baxter State Park has restrictions- no pets, no RV’s, no motorcycles, no large trucks. It is remote, so little to no cell phone coverage.
West Quoddy Lighthouse
The little town of Lubec is the home of the beautiful West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. But even more interesting, Lubec is the easternmost town in the contiguous United States. Since we have already been to Key West (the southern most point); it seemed fitting!
A visit to this beautiful lighthouse and the area around it is a must-see!
Pemaquid Lighthouse
Located about 2 hours south of Acadia is Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park. And…it is the lighthouse on the Maine State Quarter, making it the first lighthouse to be featured on a piece of US currency!
Coincidentally, this particular lighthouse is a top destination for weddings with its beautiful rocky cliffs and crashing waves. The lighthouse is one of the most photographed on the Maine coast.
So there you have it! Unfortunately, the list leaves out so many things. I could talk on and on about how much there is to see and do in the area. We are currently on our way south, and are already missing it. Who knows? One day we just may return!
It is so hard to accurately describe how beautiful it is here in Bar Harbor, Maine. Over the past five and a half months, I’ve done my best to document some of the sights and sounds of the area. We have made so many wonderful friends here at the Bar Harbor KOA and will miss every one of them.
Here is a compilation of some of the highlights of our time here along with my friends and coworkers who made the time that much more enjoyable.
