All those little things have to get done

Wednesday & Thursday August August 7 & 8, 201
Acadia National park

 

 

WEDNESDAY

Sometimes you just have to take a break even if the weather is beautiful. 

We know there is rain predicted for the next two days and we should use this beautiful day for a hike or a paddle or a bike trip.  But we just feel lazy.

 

 

So we sleep in until 8:00.  And have a big breakfast of BLUEBERRY pancakes.  I work on plans for where we will go after we leave here so David can determine how to get his Zometa shot on our way back south.  That particular drug is very hard to get on the road because it is an infusion and must be done under a doctor’s supervision so if you are away from your regular doctor it requires some doing.  Some of you will remember that’s why we stopped for his appointment at Dana Farber in Boston on our way to Acadia.   He needs the shot at the end of September or beginning of October and we will be south of Boston by that time I’m pretty sure.

Anyway, I also do some overdue cleaning and do the laundry.

 

 

 

Good thing we decided against the bicycle ride we were going to do this morning.  David goes out to get my bike out to put the rear view mirror on it and finds that it has a front tire blow out.  What?   It didn’t blow out while I was riding it.  I had no idea.  So it has happened since we’ve had them just waiting for us to use them again.  

 

 

 

Is the tire just too old?  Should I look for DOT dates on bike tires too?  It sure doesn’t make sense to me. We call the Bar Harbor Bike Shop to see what sorts of tires they have that might fit my bike.   Guess we’ll add that to our list for tomorrow.   Too lazy to make a special trip into Bar Harbor today. 

 

 

David does finally get the mirror mounted after all of that.

Does this seem the way of things to you?  We start out to do one thing and then something else happens that must be done now and then we do or do not get back to the original thing we were trying to do.

The day zips by and I feel like we don’t have much to show for it but all these little things and the blog post, of course, do take time.

 

 

 

THURSDAY

 

Today has some of those  ‘little things” in it too but first the fun.

 

 

Sure enough, it starts raining before we wake up today.  But that’s OK we’ve planned to go to the original Abbe Museum and the rain won’t matter for that.  

 

At a break in the rain we jump in the car and head out for the Bar Harbor bike shop to drop of the bicycle and pick out a new tire to have mounted.  Mission accomplished but it starts raining while we are inside so we decide to leave the bike, have them mount the tire and we’ll return to pick it up later.  Hopefully the rain will stop by then.  No picture of the shop, too much rain. On to the Abbe.

Last week, we visited the newer Abbe Museum located in Bar Harbor.  It is a wonderful museum and we just loved it so we want to see the original Abbe located at Sieur de Monts Springs.   If you’d like to read the post on the original Abbe, you can find it here.

 

 

Things are dark, dreary and wet when we walk up the path from the Sieur de Monts Nature Center but no matter.

The Abbe was founded in 1927 and opened in 1928 as a trailside museum by  Dr. Abbe, a New York surgeon, to house his growing collection of Paleo Indian artifacts.  It was one of the first museums built in Maine and the only one devoted solely to Maine’s Native American heritage.   It is one of only two trailside museums remaining in the National park System and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

In 1931 Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who summered on Mount Dessert, donated her extensive collection of Wabanaki handicrafts to the museum to expand the museum’s focus beyond stone-age artifacts.  Most of those are currently housed at the Bar Harbor Abbe location.

 

 

The museum is very small and I can see instantly why they needed an expanded building.  It is one large main room with 4 exceptional dioramas,  created originally in the 1950’s,  several display cases housing the original artifacts and information boards along the walls.   I just love the huge beautiful old windows on the East and West Walls.   They have been fitted with a light diming material that restricts the sunlight while still enabling us to see the view outside and enjoy the beauty of the old windows themselves.

 

 

 

 

I have never paid too much attention to these ancient tools but today I had all the time in the world and it was fascinating.   How clever and resourceful our ancestors were.  I discover what an art making flaked stone tools was.  I wonder how many of us could discover this method on our own.   In all of their crafts and tool making, Nothing went to waste. 

Most of these artifacts were found in the coastal area of Maine and a majority on Mount Desert or neighboring islands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could go on forever with what I learned in this little museum from its displays but I’ll just mention the dioramas which were superior.

Contrary to popular belief Native peoples did live year round on the coast of Maine.  These dioramas were done in 1958 by Curator Wendell Hadlock.  The fabulous backdrop paintings were draw by Edgar Crockett Rockland.

There are 4 dioramas depicting what archeologists believe were typical seasonal scenarios for these people.  I am really sorry that my pictures do not do justice to these really amazing works of art.  The originals are of course 3D which my pictures can not show at all.  The detail is amazing.

 

The spring diorama depicts a family repairing a damaged canoe and collecting early spring plants.  The use of the red cloth indicates trade with early Europeans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer on a coastal island was a time of plenty.  Time to repair and replenish tool kits, to harvest and preserve the abundant marine resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fall diorama explains that it  was a busy time to harvest the resources needed to sustain the community through the long cold winters.  Fish were netted and smoked.  Deer and caribou hides were used to create warm clothing, footgear and bedding.  A variety of plants were collected for foods and medicine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the winter diorama temporary skin windbreaks have been set up to shield fishermen spearing fish through the ice.  The woman uses a pack basket to carry the catch back to camp.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not the only one really enjoying the dioramas.  They alone are worth the trip to this museum but there is so much more here to be learned and appreciated.

 

The rain has stopped when we leave the museum and walk back to the car.  We pass the Sieur de Monts spring with its ornate cover. 

 

 

 

We head for Bar Harbor for our afternoon rainy day museum visit at the Historical Museum.  They don’t open until 1:00 so we stop by the Rexall Drug Store so I can get a copy of the Islander, the weekly newspaper of Bar Harbor.

What a discovery.  This is a cute little old fashioned drug store with a soda fountain where they will whip up any ice cream delight you want and you can get a sandwich as well.   There’s a counter with stools and tables by the window.   I just love these old drug stores.   There are too few of them remaining.

 

 

 

 

At the check out counter I see something for sale that reminds me of my friend Pam and her Golden Retrievers.  Hope she’s reading. Thinking of you Pam.

 

 

 

Next stop is the Historical  Museum housed in a former convent.  A not so conspicuous sign asks you not to take pictures but I sneak in a few without my flash.

The museum is pretty much devoted to the history of the town of Bar Harbor.   They have all kinds of “old stuff” given to them by the citizens.  There are books of original pictures and newspaper clippings of the fire of 1947 which destroyed many of the “cottages” of the wealthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the newspaper clippings from 1916 tells about the town voting to change the name from Eden to Bar Harbor.

 

At one point there were 45 dairies on Mount Desert Island.  This display says it has bottles from 43 of them.  I can’t imagine 45 dairies on this island.  That’s a LOT of cows.  Of course there weren’t anywhere near as many trees then.

 

 

 

 

We are the last two in the museum when it closes at 4:00.  The rain has stopped so we head off for our next to the last errand, picking up the bicycle.

Everything looks great until David takes it out to put it on the car.  Tire is rubbing on the brakes.  Back in she goes, easy fix and we get her on the car and head for our last stop, the Hannaford Grocery.

The prediction is for more rain beginning again tonight and going all day tomorrow.  So I doubt there will be a bicycle trail to give the tire a test run.

We’ve run out of museums, so who knows what we’ll do.   Maybe we’ll just sit inside and listen to it rain.   I do love a metal roof of any kind in the rain and the fiberglass sounds nearly as good.