We had brought our passports along so that we could go to New Brunswich, Canada and visit FDR's summer home, Campobello. It was right across the bay, but we couldn't get there from Eastport. We would have to drive to Lubec to cross the International Bridge into Canada. It was about a 35 to 40 minute drive to Lubec on not so great roads.
Customs into Canada was just on the other side of the bridge.
Pulling up to the customs window.
Campobello is a shared National Park between the USA and Canada. We saw a short film before going to the grounds. I had no idea that FDR's parents bought the property when FDR was a baby and that he spent many summers there sailing, swimming and enjoying the out doors. I knew that he did that, just never connected it to this place. This is where he was when he realized he had polio. He also spent summers here with Eleanor and his children.
The house and grounds here are beautiful. The house doesn't look all that large from the outside, but is quite a big house, although the rooms are small by today's standards.I believe the tour guide said 33 rooms. I took a LOT of pictures, too many to post on the blog, but these are a few.
This was a large sitting room. Eleanor like to sit at this end near the fireplace with her knitting.
The dining room was good size. They had a large family and there was a little side table on the left for 2 off to the side for the 2 boys that always acted up at the dinner table. The table is set with their simple everyday dinnerware.
The tour guide has been giving tours here for 40 years and knew the Roosevelt children personally and knew a lot about the family and the house. He did a wonderful job giving us a tour and lots of information. The kitchen had 2 stoves, one wood which was used the most and a kerosene one that smelled up the house and wasn't used very much.
There was a small eat in kitchen area.
This was a 3 story house with beautiful stairs and more that one set of stairs per floor.
A pretty roomy bathroom for the day.
One of the many bedrooms, They had a couple downstairs where FDR stayed when he had polio and many bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs. They had guest rooms, the children's rooms and all of the servants had their own room upstairs. This was quite unusual in the day since most servants stayed in the attic or basement.
FDR like to lay on the chaise lounge and look out over the bay. I can't blame him for that one.
You could look across the bay at Lubec and Eastport and it was a terrific view.
The back of the house had a large screened in porch and another open porch. What a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the view.
The lawn had a gorgeous dahlia garden. These were the most perfect dahlias I have ever seen and each one was a different color.
After visiting FDR's home we drove down to the end of the island which wasn't very long and it only took about 40 minutes. At the end of the island was the lighthouse we had seen from the lobster boat when we went on our little whale watching cruise. There was no fog today and the views and lighthouse were spectacular.
You could only access the lighthouse at low tide when you could reach the bottom of the stairs.
Lovely views and a perfect day.
Afterward, we drove back to the other end of the island in search of the other lighthouse which was right next to the International Bridge and facing Lubec.
Back through the US Customs we went and in to the little town of Lubec.
Lubec seemed even smaller than Eastport and they were having a Pirates Festival here too. When we stopped for lunch all the waitresses were dressed in Pirate garb and there were Pirate flags flying.
Not sure what kilts have to do with Pirates?????????
Love all the old buildings here.
It looks like the town hardware store has had a face lift. Gotta have a hardware store.
We saw the Lubec Brewing company, but it was a dud. Just a few locals sitting on sofa's chatting and a few bottles of beer in a cooler. Disappointing.
On the way out of town we saw Monica's Chocolates. HUMMMMM. She has a unique story. Monica is from Peru and didn't speak English when she moved to Lubec, Maine with her husband. He subsequently passed away and so she had children to support. She began making chocolates to support herself and her family using recipes she had learned as a child in Peru. A true American success story. Her chocolates are wonderful and she greeted us at the door with free samples of her bonbons. Yum. Of course we had to buy a couple for later.
Monica's
Also, in town I ran across a knit shop with some gorgeous yarns. These are my next 2 sets of socks to knit and something to do while we are riding. How perfect is that?
Next up ------Bar Harbor.
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