Happy Birthday To Me

For my birthday trip this year I picked Canada. We're only a couple of hours from the border.

Shaker magnet.  Under the "snow" it says Canada.

We left the RV early in the afternoon and crossed the border into New Brunswick about 2 hours later. Our first stop was the visitor center where we picked up maps and information for the New Brunswick area.

Crossing the border.

Since it was already getting a little late in the day we drove another hour to our hotel. We checked into the Holiday Inn Express in St. John, New Brunswick.

My birthday is July 11 (7/11). Interesting, our room was 711!

The room was very comfortable.

The next morning we were up early to drive an hour back to St. Andrews. We had reservations with Island Quest Whale Watching Cruises.

Island Quest Whale Watchers

We arrived a little early and had time to walk around this beautiful town.

We were told the boat would hold 44 people. There was a large group that had canceled late the evening before and left us with only 6 other people on this trip.

Our boat.

We had plenty of room to move around!

 Skipper Dan and Mark

Mark on the upper deck

The day was beautiful and perfect for our trip. Smooth seas and sunny skies.

Smooth waters

As we headed out of the harbor we noticed thousands of Moon Jellyfish in the water. They were on both sides of the boat as far as the eye could see.

Moon Jellyfish

Even though this was a whale watching trip, we saw other wildlife too.

Harbor Seals

Harbor Porpoises

Bald Eagle

We passed many private islands and a couple of lighthouses.

Island Cabin

Lighthouse

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. At the upper end of the bay the tides can exceed fifty feet.

As the tides go in and out they create amazing tidal swirls that make it look like the water is boiling.

We only saw one type of whale, the Minke whale. Unlike Humpback whales, Minke Whales do not come out of the water with a big splash. We followed what we think was a single individual for  30 minutes and saw it about a dozen times.

There were other whale-watching boats in the area, so this whale was getting plenty of attention!

Minke Whale

After leaving the whale, our guide Mandy brought out a small touch tank.

We had a nice relaxing trip back to the dock. This is a busy harbor with both working lobster boats and pleasure boats.

After lunch we headed to the Fundy Discovery Aquarium.

The entry had a very nice large aquarium with Salmon and other fish from the Bay of Fundy.

There was a very nice "touch tank".

 Ten-ridged Whelk

It's a very small aquarium and it didn't take us long to see every thing.

Seahorse

There were other things to do that we did not partake in such as marine themed films, walking the beach trail, watching the seahorses being fed.

We had a long drive to our next hotel and were ready to get back on the road.

Next time: Prince Edward Island

Our Site

We arrived at Green Lake National Fish Hatchery 7 weeks ago. We have been very busy both with our volunteer jobs and sightseeing.

We visited this hatchery in 2011 when our friends Jane and Lynn were volunteers. Mark remembered the volunteer RV site and knew we would like the area.

When we accepted this volunteer gig last November we were told we would be the only volunteers. During the last 8 years we have discovered that we like being the only volunteer couple!

Our site is about 1/4 mile from the Hatchery. We sit on a hill well above Highway 180 so we don't hear a lot of traffic noise.

We have a wonderful shady spot.

Our Site.

Mark has put out a smorgasbord of bird feeders and we have a lot of birds visiting them. We also have a small watering/bathing area.

Purple Finches have enjoyed the sunflower seeds, along with Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and American Goldfinches.

Purple Finch - male

We do have a squirrel problem. The pie plates keep the smaller red squirrels and the chipmunks off the feeders but the larger gray squirrels are able to climb over.

I bought a pretty hanging basket to entice the hummingbirds. All of our hummingbirds here are Ruby-throated, and we've seen several females and one male at the feeder and in the flowers.

After we arrived we were told that the maintenance staff had requested another volunteer couple to help with maintenance. So, a few weeks later another couple showed up. They are very nice, and most importantly, quiet. Our sites are far apart and other than hearing a few soft woof, woof's from their cute little dog, we don't even know they are here. There is also a mobile home on this site. There is a fresh-out-of-college young man living in it that is doing a short internship at the hatchery.

This is our view coming up the driveway.  The motor home straight ahead is the other volunteer couple and the mobile home on the right is the student intern.  We are tucked away on the left.

This is a day we were mowing so normally there is not a truck and trailer sitting in the middle of the road!

So, even though we are not the only volunteers as we had expected, everything is turning out to be okay. We don't work the same work days as the other volunteers and, so far, we haven't worked with the intern.

We requested to work on at least one weekend day so that we would have more time during the week for sightseeing. Our work days are Thursday - Saturday and we like having 4 full days during the week to get out and explore.

We have been to a lot of places but have been too busy to blog. I probably need to quit crocheting so much in the evening and do more blogging!

I have found the local Project Linus coordinator and have already donated 10 afghans.

Teri

Green Lake National Fish Hatchery - Feed, Clean, Repeat...

First of all, apologies for the delay since our last blog post. After our long journey from Texas to Maine and almost daily blogging for two months we both sort of just burned out on blogging. But, we're back!!

We arrived at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery back on May 11th. This hatchery is devoted to the restoration of the endangered Atlantic Salmon to their river habitats in the Northeastern United States.

Atlantic Salmon have an interesting life cycle in that their eggs are laid in freshwater rivers, where they hatch and the fry/parr/smolts spend 2-3 years before heading out into the Atlantic Ocean. Once in the ocean they migrate to the North Atlantic where they spend 1-3 years feeding and growing into adult fish. Mature fish migrate back to their home rivers, swim upstream to traditional spawning areas, and lay/fertilize eggs. Unlike Pacific Salmon they do not die after spawning, and some individuals are able to return to the ocean to repeat the process. Due to predation and other factors it is believed that fish seldom spawn more than twice.

The entire life cycle is represented at the hatchery. The eggs hatch in February, so we were too late for that, but we did arrive to find 56 fiberglass tanks full of 1" long salmon. At this life stage they are fed nearly constantly with a combination of automatic feeders and hand feeding.

All of those black spots you see in the front tank are Atlantic Salmon. There were about 15,000 fish in each tank!

The food that they eat at this age looks like dust. The biologists constantly monitor the weight of the fish and adjust feeding rates, food size, water flow and temperature, etc. to keep the tanks healthy.

We were shown how to hand-feed the fish on our very first day. The hand-feeding is done hourly to supplement the automatic feeders and make sure food is distributed throughout the tank. The automatic feeders drop food in one spot and that favors the fish that congregate there. The hand feeding broadcasts food into different areas.

The food is oily and smelly, and we found that if we didn't wear a latex gloves our "feeding hand" would smell like fish food for the rest of the day. So you see a lot of "one-glove" wearing folks at the hatchery!

You can see that both Teri and I are have long-sleeved shirts on under our official volunteer T-shirts. Between the 50-something degree water circulating throughout the hatchery and the cool outdoor air temperatures the hatchery building stays pretty cool, especially first thing in the morning!

We've found the small staff (5 employees) to be friendly and easy to work with. Stay tuned for more from the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery and the coast of Maine. 

Mark

The Road to Maine

We left our house in Medina, Texas on Friday, March 2, 2018 and traveled to Weslaco, Texas. We were going to stay in Weslaco for one week but with spring break starting the next week we decided to just stay put for another week (miles traveled 309).

We spent the two weeks visiting friends, playing disc golf and checking out all the birding hot spots.

March 9, 2018 we traveled From Weslaco, Texas to Pleasanton, Texas (miles traveled 215).

This was a 2 night stop over to get us through the weekend.

Monday, March 18, 2018.  Pleasanton, Texas to Burnet, Texas where we stayed at Inks Lake State Park for four nights (miles traveled 139).

Mark played a lot of disc golf, had lunch with a friend and we visited his mother. We've volunteered at Inks lake two winters and have stayed in the park numerous times.

Thursday, March 22, 2018. Burnet, Texas to Athens, Texas (miles traveled 215).

A short 2-night stop to play a new disc golf course.

Friday, March 24, 2018. Athens, Texas to Homer, Louisiana (miles traveled 195).

After three weeks we finally left Texas. We stayed at Lake Claiborne State Park where Mark played 2 disc golf courses.

Louisiana State Line

Tuesday, Match 27, 2018.  Homer, Louisiana to Toad Suck, Arkansas (miles traveled 204).

We left Louisiana a day early to avoid impending weather. Turns out Toad Suck was having bad weather also. We visited the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs and Arkansas was the 26^th state Mark played disc golf in.

Arkansas state line

Saturday, March 31, 2018. Toad Suck, Arkansas to Branson, Missouri (miles traveled 151).

More disc golf, freezing weather, and tourist spots.

Missouri state line

Thursday, April 5. Branson, Missouri to Columbia, Missouri (miles traveled 206).

Clydesdales, disc golf, snow, birding, and a new water pump.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018. Columbia, Missouri to Cape Girardeau, Missouri (miles traveled 220).

Extended our stay because of strong winds.

Sunday, April 15, 2018. Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Wildersville, Tennessee (miles traveled 200).

Stayed at Natchez Trace State Park where we stayed in 2011. Very cold and windy.

Tennessee state line

Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Wildersville, Tennessee to Crossville, Tennessee (miles traveled 222).

Weather still cold and windy.

Friday, April 20, 2018. Crossville, Tennessee to Greenville, Tennessee (miles traveled 140).

Our first time at Smokey Mountain National Park. Mark played the #1 disc golf course in Tennessee.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018. Greenville, Tennessee to Lexington, Virginia (miles traveled 222).

Disc golf between rain showers.

Virginia state line.

Thursday, April 26, 2018. Lexington, Virginia to York, Pennsylvania (miles traveled 247).

Stayed at Gifford Pinchot State Park with 2 disc golf courses in the park. Extended our stay to accommodate all the factory tours we wanted to take.

Pennsylvania state line

Thursday, May 3, 2018. York, Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York (miles traveled 215).

A short stay with lots of rain.

New York state line

Sunday, May 6, 2018. Binghamton, New York to Brattleboro, Vermont (miles traveled 202).

Disc golf, cheese and maple syrup.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Brattleboro, Vermont to Freeport, Maine (miles traveled 201).

More birding and disc golf.

Maine state line

Friday, May 11, 2018. Freeport, Maine to Ellsworth, Maine (miles traveled 146).

We have arrived! Green Lake National Fish Hatchery.

Miles traveled pulling RV: 3649

Mileage put on truck: 7773

States spent at least one night in: 10

Disc golf courses played: 24

Factory tours: 9

Tourist Attractions (not including parks or wildlife refuges): 5