8/23/09 Hello from Portland, Maine where it currently is raining so hard I can't believe that we aren't being washed right off the blacktop parking lot here at the Elks Club!! It has to be because hurricane Bill has recently passed here and although the eye missed us, some of the side winds and rain have definitely hit this area. Earlier today our friends Kathe & Deborah drove us over to the coast (only a few miles away) to see some of the effects of Bill. Hundreds of people were over there watching big waves crash into the rocks along the shore. It was sunny and warm with no hint that heavy rain was coming.
There were lots of big waves but I didn't catch a very big splash:

Here is a picture of us at the Portland Head Light:

Besides having a nice visit with our friends we are waiting for our first mail delivery since early June. We have also been shopping at Sam's Club and one of the most complete supermarkets we have ever been in: Hannaford's. After the slim pickings in Newfoundland stores, and the high prices for everything they do have, everything in this market looks fantastic and seems like a bargain! In Canada, chicken costs more than almost every other meat and was often over $3.98 a pound. In Hannaford's yesterday it was 69 cents a pound. Quite a difference!
We have also been taking advantage of the availability of lobster here in Maine. Dinner last night was a lobster feast and although these are soft-shelled, so they aren't exactly jam-packed with meat, they are still delicious. And because they aren't full, they cost only $3.99/pound.

Prior to coming here, we stayed in Ellsworth and spent 2 days hiking in Acadia National Park. Luckily, the weather was mostly nice when we were there. It was fairly hot and humid but after complaining all summer about how cold and rainy Newfoundland was, we certainly weren't going to complain about hot weather! Here are a couple of pictures of us hiking there:


It is a very beautiful park but rather small and we were there during one of the busiest times of the summer, so it was packed with people. It is always much nicer to go to these kinds of places after school has started again.
If our mail comes tomorrow, we will head south to visit Nancy & Bob Colbert in Massachusetts. They have promised to show us around Cape Cod. Other RV friends might be in the area at the same time. More on these happy reunions in the next post.