Anniversary Weekend!!!

Scott and I decided to take 4-day weekend (Aug. 14-17) for our anniversary this year. We booked a wonderful B&B in Cutler (www.cutlerinn.com) and made our preparations for the 5-hour drive. I had printed clues for all the boxes I could find along Route 1 from the Schoodic Penninsula to Eastport to Campobello Island.

We left Thursday morning and started out journey! We stopped at my parents after driving 2 hours for a bathroom break and lunch, then headed Northeast from there. We decided to make a short detour to Schoodic Point for our first box of the weekend. Scott hadn't felt well all day, so he stayed in the car while I walked the short hike to the box and stamped in.

We decided that would be the only box of the day, since Scott wasn't feeling up to it. We drove straight to the B&B and relaxed the rest of the night. We had each brought books to read, since the rooms didn't have tv's. It was so nice to go without tv all weekend, just read and explore.

Friday morning we got up and had a wonderful homemade breakfast cooked by our wonderful hosts. We decided to head to Lubec and Campobello Island for the day. We headed to Lubec and decided to go to Campobello Island for the first half of the day. We stopped at the Tourist Information Center first for a map. Then headed to Mulholland Light for our first box of the day, and our first ever international letterbox.

Then we decided to go to Roosevelt Campobello International Park for our next box. We knew we were going to be hiking a bit for this box, so we decided to just carry what we needed to and keep it light. We took the camera and out letterboxing clipboard, and headed out. Less than a quarter mile into the hike I stepped down off a wood walkway and into a hole. I twisted my foot and went straight down into the bushes, spilling the entire contents of the clipboard (it's one of those contractor clipboards that we can store our stamps, ink, paper, pens and our compass.) There was no way I was going to stop, so Scott helped me up and we kept going. As long as we didn't stop and sit for a long amount of time, I was fine. Otherwise, my foot tightened up and it took a few minutes to get going again. It took us almost 2 hours to get to our destination because we kept stopping to take in the view of Grand Manan Island and Lubec. We took lots of photos! The photo I posted with this blog is of Scott at the trail sign when we took a new path. We finally arrived at our destination "Ragged Point" and started our search for the letterbox. We looked for almost an hour, and I was ready to give up and go back, until Scott said "let me just do this my way." Less than a minute later he moved a rock and pulled out the box! MY hero!!!! I would've been soo upset if we hiked all the way in there, I twisted my foot, and didn't come up with the find, and it was definitely worth it. This was the oldest box we have ever found, planted back in 2001. It took us about 45 minutes to hike back to the car. So 4 hours later, it was really a great experience.

Our next stop was a quick lunch at the only takeout on the island, then off to East Quoddy Head Light and another box. East Quoddy Head light is not to be confused with West Quoddy light which is located in Lubec. East Quoddy is on on the eastern end of Campobello. We found our box and headed back towards the Roosevelt cottage and one more box before calling it a day. The fog had started to roll in and we made our way to the highest point within Roosevelt Campbello International Park for one more box. We ate dinner in Lubec and headed back to the B&B to relax and read, before falling asleep.

Saturday morning we, once again, had a wonderful breakfast. Then we headed out to Eastport to search for a couple of boxes and also plant one of our own. We decided to do a series for our Anniversary. We will be planting a new box every year on our anniversary weekend, wherever we are staying. Since we weren't yet letterboxing last year on our anniversary, so we decided to head back to Eastport, where we spent our first anniversary, to plant the 1st year box. We headed to Shackford Head State Park to find a 3 box series already planted and figured we'd plant this box somewhere in the park. We headed up to the Overlook for the first box and found the perfect spot for our's while we were up there. After finding the first box, we headed off to the second. The trail was pretty treacherous and since I had hurt my foot the day before, Scott decided that he would go down the trail by himself and look for the second box. He walked it twice and didn't find it. So we headed off to the last box and found that we were not alone. We headed down a path to Cony Beach and noticed that there were tons of red ants on the trail. When we got to the beach our feet and lower legs were covered with them, and we both were bitten. We knocked them off, thinking that we shouldn't have a problem since we were on the beach, but we were VERY wrong. They were crawling all over the beach, so we found the box, stamped in very quickly and ran back up the path to the parking lot (which BTW, was also crawling with red ants.) My pants were soaked from walking through the tall grass, so I ended up changing into my shorts right there in the parking lot and jumping in the car to keep the ants away.

We headed back to Lubec and went to West Quoddy Head state park for our final box of the day. We headed along the coastal trail and found the box and stamped in where the planter told, which had to be the best spot in the entire state park. It was like we were sitting on a royal throne and had the view to die for. After a long day boxing, and hiking and running from ants, we headed to Cohill's Inn for a wonderful dinner and drink. After dinner we walked along the town's public landing and took in our last view of Campobello, Eastport and Lubec and headed back to Cutler. Since we had dinner a little early, we figurd we would have plenty of time to hike to Western Head to plant our 2nd anniversary box. We got 3/4 of the way there and ended up turning around because it was getting too dark. We couldn't find a place to plant the box, since we were having a hard time seeing in the woods, so we decided to plant it the next morning before we left for home. Back to the room for our final relaxing night.

Sunday morning we were up early for breakfast, and then headed to the Bold Coast Trails in Cutler to plant our 2nd anniversary box. We planted it near the trailhead (it could actually be classified as a drive-by, since you can see the parking lot from the box.) Back on route 1, we stopped for 2 more boxes. We made our way back to my parents, once again for a bathroom break and to check out the town's art show (which I was showing a couple of photographs in) and then home to our own bed.

We had a great weekend, one I will always remember. I can't wait to see where we go next year!!