At the top of Penobscot Bay, this is the principal welcome to Downeast and Acadia. Or for those of us going the other direction, to the rest of America.
You can even go to the top, the equivalent of 40 floors, for a spectacular panorama.
Tag: Travel
We’ve come to appreciate the cruise ship visits
While Eastport has the deepest natural port in the continental U.S., that’s not often led to a lot of big-ship landings.
Cargo shipments, especially, have suffered over the past decade.
Last month, though, the city saw a record number of cruise ship visits, sometimes running one every other day over two weeks.
We’re getting what’s often termed mid-sized cruises, up to a thousand passengers, in contrast to the floating cities that might deliver five times that. Frankly, mid-size fits us fine.
One factor has been Bar Harbor’s reaction to being overwhelmed, down at the edge of Acadia National Park. And Portland, further down the coast, is a big city in contrast.
As a result, Eastport is being discovered as a place that offers a taste of a quintessential Maine fishing village without the hype.
As one younger woman said while walking past our home, “Today was AMAZING!” Imagine that, in a small town seemingly so far away from anything.
So far, these arrivals during the fall foliage season have extended our tourist season. The place typically shuts down by mid-September but these arrivals have extended that into early November. They’ve even given some, but not all, of our galleries and stores their best business days of the year. That’s a huge impact on a fragile, marginal downtown.
The landings also benefit the Breakwater and its workers, and let’s not sleight the purchases of junk food snacks at the IGA and Family Dollar by ships’ crews – sometimes up to another 600 people. They do load up.
We do enjoy seeing happy couples walking around our neighborhood with cameras in hand. Our conversations with them have been upbeat. Others have enjoyed bus tours to the Roosevelt compound on Campobello Island and the West Quoddy Light in Lubec or autumn foliage.
Economically, it’s an alternative to the Airbnb purchases that have been pulling housing away from working families, the very culture that’s a big part of the draw to our city. We do need more jobs that provide benefits, too, though that’s another big issue, one basically at the national level. I’ll save that for another time.
For now, let’s acknowledge what I’m seeing as a positive step, one that might even extend our spring shoulder season.
Forget Disney, give Pluto his due
Yes, the tiny one-inch ball with its moon Charon, at one-half inch, out on that branch.
We won’t get into the shock of the dwarf status revision within the lifetime of some of us, in part in consequence of the discovery of that moon.
As a further twist, the Aroostook system has two Plutos, one inside the Houlton tourism center, where it represents the orbs’ average distance from the sun (40 miles in the scaled version), and this one presenting its more current placement in its wildly elliptical orbit, a relative 33 miles from Presque Isle for the next 20 or so years.
In tune with Neptune
With a 21.3-inch diameter and placed 31.7 miles from the sun in Presque Isle and having many moons too small to be presented at this scale, this stormy mystery orb also hints at the vast span of our solar system.
By this point in the drive, I’m really struck by the emptiness of the solar system and the space beyond. It’s essentially a vast, overwhelming nothingness. These are like pins in the proverbial haystack. And then, take heed of the incredible balance of forward motion and the sun’s gravity holding each one in place.
Science can attempt to answer the “How” in our ponderings, but as for the “Why,” if one even exists? That would mean facing questions of religion or theology. I’m not even touching on the mythological dimensions of these specks in the night sky.
Is it all an accident or some intentional mathematical outcome? Hmm, is there a neo-Calvinist turn in this thinking? We have miles to go yet.
In my previous visit to Aroostook County, I remember my amazement at passing this puzzling presentation only to encounter Saturn about 20 minutes later. Now I know it wasn’t one person’s quirky obsession.
Uranus, if you’re interested
Supposedly my Zodiac identity, and likely not yours, the model sits 20.7 miles from the sun model at the bigging of the display. Here its diameter is 22 inches.
The reason for the angled arm that lifts the planet is to present the axis with its extreme tilt, pointing its North Pole permanently toward the sun.
And we think a midnight sun at the height of summer’s a big deal? How about the endless darkness at the South Pole?
When you stop to think about it, the labor and care supporting this solar system presentation is astonishing. Just whose flash of inspiration came up with the calculations of our central star and its orbiting bodies, starting by placing Earth a mile from the sun?
And then came all the craftsmanship not just with the heavenly bodies but also the concrete bases and metal arms plus landscaping and the willingness of landowners to make room for the displays on their properties and tourists poking around. In all, 700 volunteers were involved one way or another.
For a large county with a small population, it was a truly astronomical undertaking. And there’s more …
Unmistakably Saturn
Getting further out on our solar system journey, we come to the dramatically ringed planet. Sitting 9.7 miles from Aroostook County’s model sun in Presque Isle, its diameter here is 51.9 inches but the outer ring extends the diameter to 117 inches – nearly 12 feet.
Of its many moons, only Titan is large enough to be displayed on this scale.
Jupiter, by Jove
The largest planet in our solar system represents a gap between the cluster of planets closest to the sun and those beyond. At 5.2 miles from our model sun on our astro-scavenger hunt, we’re finally getting some size. This one’s a bit wider than a five-foot arm span – it’s 61.4 inches – like a really big beach ball. And its four largest moons are Io, 1.6 inches; Europa, 1.3; Ganymede, 2.3; and Callisto, 2.1.
Remember, this is a scale of one to 93 million. As inconceivable as that seems.
Ceres, as a surprise
At 3/8 of an inch in the scaled solar system – that is, a steel ball bearing – this is the largest object in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The model was erected after the rest of the Aroostook system was in place.
Did you even know about this body? Hate to admit, but I didn’t.
Mars without Martians
At 1.4 miles from the sun in our scale, Mars is about half the size of Earth and has two moons that are too small to be presented in this display.
The angled post in the crescent, as we were learning, represents the planet’s tilt in its orbit, the major factor that gives us our seasons.
By this point in our drive, we were beginning to catch on to what we were looking before rather than passing by and having to circle about. The game now became who would spot the next stop first.
And our moon
In our eyes, in the perspective of gazing from Earth, the sun and full moon appear roughly the same size.
Not so in an actual size comparison.
The model, 1½ inches in diameter, is a fiberglass covered golf ball. Remember how big the sun was, back in the science building?
My, what the miles can do.
Jnana's Red Barn 