Red Apple Campground and Kennebunkport, Maine

On Saturday, September 29, we arrived at Red Apple Campground in Kennebunkport, Maine.  It is very quiet here since the campground has mostly seasonal residents in park models.  Our site is level and shaded.

Several residents have already gone south for the winter!

Notice a car in our driveway instead of our truck? Turns out the truck has a radiator hose malfunction.  We were told by 2 Ford dealers and a local repair shop that they were booked until next week.  Fortunately Prime Ford in Saco, ME was able to see us that afternoon and when they had to keep our truck overnight, they provided a loaner for us to get home.  They were super friendly.  We highly recommend them!

One of the unique things about Red Apple Campground is that they deliver freshly steamed lobster to your door at dinnertime if you place your order in the morning.  Sunday evening we ate fresh lobster.  It was delicious!

Kennebunkport is a charming seaside town.  It's actually 2 towns (Kennebunk and Kennebunkport) right next to each other.  The coast is mostly rocky but there are small sandy beaches in the area.  Dock Square is the heart of Kennebunkport and is filled with boutiques, restaurants, candy stores and ice cream parlors.  The town has many beautiful old buildings.  Here is a sample...

The shopping area--

Some homes in town--

Ocean Avenue is a scenic drive from town that follows the coast.  We wanted to see waves crashing on rocks.  We found the rocks but the waves weren't crashing.  We'll keep looking for them! 

On the drive we happened upon the Bush family compound at Walker's Point.  It consists of the main house at the tip of the point and several smaller houses.  Parking on the road is very limited so some people jumped out of their cars to quickly snap pictures.  We were fortunate to find a parking space so we walked along the road.

Bush compound

These are some homes in the Bush's neighborhood--

Next up we're walking the Marginal Way path in Ogunquit, Maine!

Littleton, NH and Moose Hunt

At the end of our drive on Kancamagus Highway we stopped in Littleton to do some grocery shopping.  Littleton only has a population of about 6,000 but it's a bustling little community situated on the Ammonoosuc River.  It was such a pretty town that we decided to go back another day and have some lunch on the river.  We ate at Miller's Café and Bakery.  Their food is delicious.  I had such a tasty bowl of roasted butternut squash soup that I went online to find a recipe and went back to the grocery store to buy a butternut squash!  My homemade soup was tasty but not quite as good as Miller's.  Their soup tasted almost like pumpkin pie!  John had the Yankee Flip, winner of Food Network's 50 best sandwiches.  It was pot roast, cheddar, garlic potatoes, red onion, green apple, horseradish, mayo and greens served on a pita.  Delicious!

The Glad Town!

The Littleton Diner has a bench for Republicans and a bench for Democrats.  We probably should have tried their breakfast--according to the sign in the window it was one of Food Network's 50 best breakfasts in the country.

We stopped by Chutters--a candy store with the world's record 112 ft candy counter-- 

Look at all the flavors of malt balls!

Fun store to visit

Memorial Bridge in honor of their citizens who died in battle

Playing musical chimes in the park

On the bridge crossing the river

On the way back to the campground from Littleton we were on the lookout for moose.  We saw many signs warning of moose crossings but we never saw one.

We did however, see a sign warning hikers/campers to keep their food in bear proof containers during the day and night!

Fortunately, these were the only bears we saw...

Wooden cutouts

Here are some other pictures from New Hampshire...

These are from Sugar Hill, NH.

These 2 photos are of Sugar Hill Sampler, a shop that sells NH made home décor.

Throughout the area we saw many motels and cabins for rent, but surprisingly no chain hotels.

We saw many houses with huge piles of wood in their front yards--getting ready for winter!

In one small town we drove through there were a lot of ATVs driving on the streets.  Later we passed by a parking area off the highway and saw a lot of pickup trucks all with ATV trailers.  There must have been an off-road event somewhere in the forest.

We hoped to see magnificent leaf colors but the trees were just starting to change when we left.  This was the best we saw close up.  Hope to see more color in Maine.

New Hampshire is a beautiful state--even though we had a few unseasonably warm days (isn't that the case everywhere we go?).

Next it's on to Maine!

Mount Washington Cog Railway and Kancamagus Highway

We rode the Mount Washington Cog Railway to the top of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States at 6,289 ft.  The railway is the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway.  It was built in the 1860's.  Today one steam engine is still in operation and the rest run on bio-diesel.  It's a 3-hour trip which includes 1 hour to sightsee or have lunch at the summit.  The average grade up the mountain is 25% with a maximum grade of 37.4%.  The trains ascend up the mountain at 2.8 mph and descend at 4.6 mph.  Each train consists of a locomotive pushing a passenger car up the mountain, descending by going backwards.  On a clear day you can see Maine, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts, the Atlantic Ocean and the province of Quebec.  The trains have taken over 5 million visitors to the summit since it opened.  Of course when we were there the clouds rolled in when we arrived at the summit.  It was still a beautiful sight.

The boiler on the steam engine is slanted so it remains close to horizontal on the steep track.

Our train waiting to descend

Almost to the top!

The trees aren't slanted--we are!

Weather observatory at the summit

The sun shining through the clouds

The clouds rolling in

Building is chained down because wind velocity of 75 mph is attained over half the days during winter.

Tip Top House is the last of the original structures built at the summit; a stone hotel built in 1853.

This is part of the Appalachian trail.  The visitors center has places for hikers to rest.

Ready to turn the brake wheel if we go too fast!

The Kancamagus Highway is a 34 mile scenic highway through the heart of the White Mountain National Forest that stretches from Lincoln, NH to Conway, NH. It is the highest roadway in the northeast, peaking at 2900 feet on Mount Kancamagus.  It provides several scenic overlooks perfect for picture-taking.