The End of July brought a trip to Maine to photograph Puffins; But I get ahead of myself… This is my story of The Maine Puffin Trip
The Maine Puffin trip
Getting up at 0330 on a Saturday morning is NOT what I consider fun…but it was necessary in order to catch my flight from San Antonio to Newark NJ. For some reason, my TSA “known traveler number” isn’t working… I need to figure that out, because I really don’t like walking thru security in bare feet. I wore sandals with no socks… Silly me. Oh well, I will learn (but I didn’t…did the same thing coming home). Landed in New Jersey and was picked up by a dear friend Eva, the principle instigator in this whole trip. She said “I have an extra ticket to go see puffins…you up for it?!” And here we are.
Sunday morning found us on the road REALLY early, but not as early as the airport. I now have a few new states that I can cross off my list of “have been to”, although we treated Connecticut similar to Nebraska or Kansas…. “Passing Thru”. Goal: Maine. We did make it to main on Sunday… and got a couple Lighthouse pics along the way! (look for albums in the gallery for “Lighthouses of Maine” soon to come). Further travel brought us up to the very tip of Maine… Lubec Maine, which has a border crossing into Canada. I have never officially been to Canada so this was exciting. Border crossing was uneventful overall, but did learn that they now have an app…. the app is NOT designed for day crossings as we discovered later. It wants lodging info…we wanted 2 lighthouses and back for dinner. Eventually, we got 2 lighthouses, but no dinner as ALL the kitchens in town had closed 30 minutes earlier (think 8pm closed kitchen, we arrived at 8:30pm and went hungry for the night). Oh well… we lived.
The BIG DAY! (Maine Puffins)
Wednesday begins the Maine Puffin Trip focus! The boat ride was driven by the Tides. It was a bit of a “sleep in day”, but not really. We had BREAKFAST to get. Can’t miss 2 major meals in a row! Breakfast was had then off to meet the boat and Capt. Andy of Bold Coast Charter Tours (boldcoast.com/index.htm). We were at low tide and the dock was totally dry. Had to load into a dingy to get out to the main 40 foot boat that would take us 10 miles off-shore. Once everyone was settled, safety briefs given, away we went! Temps were in the 70 degrees range, minimal wind, bluebird skies, and calm seas. Was a great trip out to the island. we then had to “jump off the big boat into an even smaller dingy that had been towed with us” for the trip to shore. Slick with seaweed, that portion was exciting. We were then lead/escorted up to the puffin grounds where we got a close up look at a baby puffin that had wondered under the walkway. Researcher grabbed it, showed it to us up close, then pointed it back to where it needs to be. Then, off to the blinds/boxes. 90 minutes later, hundreds or thousands of shutter clicks later, we were returned to the boat for a final boat “lap around the island”. https://chrisnelsonphotography.com/home/puffins-2/ There were some seals playing around and more birds. then back to the mainland. A fine ending for my Maine Puffin Trip focus!
Next Leg of the Trip
Once back to shore it was “balls to the wall” headed towards New Hampshire…. Oh, wait, let’s take a detour to Acadia National Park and see Bubble Rock and Jordan’s Pond! Great! Would have been less eventful, except we got behind a garbage truck. WOW! It splashed liquid on the vehicle that gave us a distinct rotten fish/poo pond smell. Oh, the stories that could come out of THAT portion of the trip alone…. WOW! Anyway, rest assured, we did arrive at destination around 0230 in the morning. Thursday morning was a trip to the Caterpillar Lab to do some Macro Photography of…. Caterpillars! thecaterpillarlab.org. Had a great time visiting and got to see some great and cool insects and caterpillars.
Towards the End
The last days of the trip were spent visiting New York City (Friday) and Pennsylvania (Saturday). In New York City, I was able to see the 9-11 Museum 911memorial.org/visit/museum, The Oculus or World Trade Center Transportation Hub, The Vessel hudsonyardsnewyork.com/discover/vessel, The Edge edgenyc.com/en Brooklyn Bridge, and did some skyline night shot of NYC from Brooklyn. On Saturday, went into Pennsylvania to visit Longwood Gardens longwoodgardens.org/visit Some of it was closed due to “re-imagining”….so, under construction. but we did see some beautiful flowers and sights. Flight back to Texas involved more barefoot in the airport and a safe arrival home. Was a FANTASTIC trip. Be on the lookout for various photo albums/galleries from the trip!!
