7/6/06 (Thursday): The good times continue! Today Wiley, Bruce and David went fishing (very early). Then Cathy brought Mag and Katelyn and Senior over and we went to the breakwater and joined them. Senior walked out on the breakwater a good way (cane and all), then we set him up with a chair and we left the guys and us gals walked out to the lighthouse (except for Mag, who opted to sit on a bench and people watch). Cathy found a lobster trap float, which she’d been looking for. She’s so talented—I fully expect her to do something great with it!

We left the guys and went into Rockland for lunch at the Rockland Café (chili for everyone except Katelyn, who had a crabcake sandwich). Then we did a little shopping. We had to leave around 1 PM so we could get back in time for the lobster cruise.

We had some ice cream on the dock while we waited for the lobster cruise. Wiley got to talking to one of the employees for a schooner that does day trips, and he wound up getting him to offer us a free trip in exchange for promoting his cruises (this is the deal we got from the lobster cruise guy). It’s a great deal, because people are always coming into the office and asking me what’s fun to do in the area, and if we’ve done it ourselves, I’m happy to promote it. So if you come up to see us, Lucie, we’ll take you for a cruise on a two-masted schooner!

The trip on the lobster boat was really cool. It was an old lobster boat, but it was fitted out with a video camera. He went out a long way, past the light house that we can see from the campground (Indian Island Light). Then he pulled up a couple of lobster traps and put them on a table in the boat. He got one lobster and a couple of crabs.

He told us all about the life cycle of lobsters and the process of catching them.

Katelyn was the only one on the boat to be allowed to hold the lobster!

While we were cruising out to see some seals, Louise flew onto the bow of the boat and walked up to the window. She paced back and forth peering into the window at us until Captain Al got out her herring. Captain Al said she appears the first day he puts the boat back in the water every summer. She doesn't visit any of the other boats, she just likes him!

Then we went around Robinson Rock (a small, rocky island about 2-1/2 miles off the coast) where we saw harbor seals. My camera didn't have a big lens, so I couldn't get a picture of them, but we could see them quite clearly. They were swimming in the water and hauled up on the rocky island. He told us all about the seals. They roam many hundreds of miles searching for food, but always come back to the rock they were born on to breed. He also had videos of seals from all over the world.

Then we cruised past an island where the bald eagles were nesting. We actually saw an eagle chick in the nest. Finally, we went past a sea bird rookery. The whole trip was just fascinating!

We ended the day with a fish fry, clam bake and lobster boil. The guys are cooked the seafood, I made a pasta salad, Cathy made the garlic bread and Mag husked the corn on the cob. We had another campfire. Life is good!