Moooooooo...and a couple of Baaaaas

Kim LOVES animals ! Deer, cats, dogs, sheep, geese, ducks.....well, you get the picture. A couple of her real loves are cows and goats. So, in honor of my wife's love, we're publishing some of the, over one hundred, photos she's been taking.

Most of the cows we saw were Holsteins. (Holsteins (also known as Holstein-Friesian cattle or Friesian cattle) are a breed of cattle known today as the world's highest-production dairy animal.
Originating in Europe, Holsteins were bred in what is now the Netherlands and more specifically in the two northern provinces of North Holland and Friesland. The animals were the regional cattle of the Batavii and Frisii, two tribes who settled in the coastal Rhine region around 2,000 years ago.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holstein_cattle


Sit back and relax and just enjoy these wonderful animal photos (and some terrific foliage colors in the background).

Everyone wanted their picture taken.

Ooops...this one was too fast for Kim's camera !

Uh Oh...The Bull spotted us taking pictures of his lady friends.......better get outa here quick!

These look like real cows right?

They make up a school bike rack ! Clever huh?

We came upon one herd that were all laying down...everyone one of them ! Maybe the farmer put something in their food to help them relax?

Check out the background colors ! We got to see miles and miles of this.

What a sweet face.

More "relaxing" cows.

During one of our drives to see the fall colors, we see these baby goats in front of a country store selling goat products. We come to a screeching halt, turn the van around and go back and look out the window at them. I just turn off the engine and let Kim talk to them for as long as she wants.

As soon as we come up to the barn, everyone comes out to greet us. LOVE those ears.

Well, a different blog post but really nice to see all the dairy cows out in the fields with all the colors happening around them. Two for the price of one.....cows and colors.

Next post we'll show off those spectacular colors.

Kim and Steve

Acadia National Park - Maine

There are just so many photos (over 1,000) that we took of Acadia National Park, including some of the nearby towns. This post will be just a few samples of how beautiful it is.

At high tide, we watched the waves crashing for about an hour.

Typical coast harbor.

From the top of Cadillac Mountain...looking north.

The only sandy beach in the park...guess what it's called? Sand Beach ! The water was about 51 degrees when we were there. Brrrrrrr.

I love the way the ocean sparkles in the sunlight.

Notice the rocks piled up near the water? They're called Cairns....they are here in the park to designate hiking paths.

Closeup of the Cairn.

Coming to Acadia National Park has been a life-long dream for Kim. She certainly looks like she's enjoying her visit.

Notice all the white dots in the ocean? Those are all buoys that are hooked to a lobster trap on the ocean floor. There were thousands out surrounding the land.

This is a lobster boat retrieving traps. They will leave the harbor around 3am to start their day. They'll pick up maybe 200-300 traps and ferry them to the docks, unload, then go back out for the remainder. 

The long empty docks are where the lobster fishermen come to empty their traps.

Here are two boats unloading. First they put rubber bands on the lobster claws (you don't want those claws to get you!) and load them into the plastic bins.

Next, the fisherman will make sure each bin is properly loaded. You can see the lobster in his hand.

He next drags the loaded bin over to the rest of them....hard work.

You can see a couple of things here. One, the blue bins waiting at the end of the dock. He's dragging a new one towards them. Two, after they get the dock lined up, they'll put them into the water. You can see a number of them along the edge of the dock. This is to make sure the lobsters stay fresh. Lastly, after they're done for the day's catch, they'll take all those OUT of the water, load them onto their boat and over to the main dock to be loaded into the large reefer trucks to deliver to the customers. Fun to watch but this is a LOT of work!

One day we took a nice hike in the forest. Kim has her fancy hiking pants on today.

Not much sun gets in here...moss everywhere.

Look how this tree has twisted over the years.

Who can guess what this is?

Tour boats come into the park via Bar Harbor....what a site ! 

Look in the foreground and you can see a strip of land going out to the island. This is low tide where people can hike out there.

This is heading towards high tide. You better make sure you get back to the town or it's a six-hour wait until the tide turns again.

View from Cadillac Mountain looking at Bar Harbor or....as they say it here "Bah Hahbah"

A moment to contemplate life...ooohhhhmmmmmmm.

We like to do puzzle in the evenings while listening to music. This was was tough...took us three nights...but it's perfect for this autumn time of year.

Nattie likes her special bed in the front of the coach while we're travelling.

And Hobbes too...he's probably saying, "Food? Do I smell food"?

That's it for Maine. We've been here about a month....time to head back to Vermont to watch the leaves changes into their spectacular colors. We'll become Leaf Peepers !

Kim and Steve