FLORIDA: U.S. Highway 1 - "Key West, Florida to Fort Kent, Maine".

U.S. 1 (also called U.S. Highway 1, and abbreviated U.S. 1) is a United States highway which parallels the east coast of the United States.
It runs 2,390 miles (3,846 km) from Key West, Florida in the south, to Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border in the north.

U.S. 1 generally parallels Interstate 95, which is significantly farther inland (west) between Jacksonville, Florida and Petersburg, Virginia. It connects the major cities of the east coast of Florida, including: Miami, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Columbia, South Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, DC; Baltimore,Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts, Portland, Maine, and onward north to Fort Kent, Maine.

In Florida, where signs for U.S. Highways formerly had different colors for each highway, the "shield" for U.S. 1 was red.
Florida began using the colored shields in 1956, but during the 1980s the MUTCD was revised to specify only a black and white color scheme for U.S. Highway shields.
As such, Federal funds were no longer available to maintain the colored signs.
On August 27, 1993, the decision was made to no longer produce colored signs.
Since then, the remaining colored signs have gradually been replaced by black-and-white signs; at present, there are a few rare colored ones still in place.

Since I was born and raised in Key West, Florida, I had past this sign along the bay side of the island numerous times and I have always wanted to see the "end of that rainbow" Aka - "Fort Kent, Maine", and in September of 2006, I was finally able to travel to Maine and view the U.S. 1 sign that read; "U.S. 1 - Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida".

I was quite pleased, and I found Fort Kent, Maine to be quite charming!

Maine : First Cruise Ship to arrive in Bar Harbor for 2007.

The vessel 'Maasdam' was the first cruise ship of 2007 to stop and let off passengers in downtown Bar Harbor, prompting many shops and restaurants to open their doors.

More than 90 cruise ships are expected to bring more than 130,000 passengers to Bar Harbor this summer and fall, a small portion of the millions that travel onto MDI and into Acadia National Park every year in highway vehicles.

Most of the cruise ships will visit after Labor Day, however, when schools start up again and the number of tourists who drive onto MDI declines.

Maasdam, which can carry as many as 2,200 passengers and crew members, is expected to visit Bar Harbor 17 times through the end of October.

Memorial Day — long recognized as the unofficial start of Maine’s summer tourist season — still two weeks away, not all seasonal businesses have opened up their doors.
The signs of activity are there, however. Workers have been painting and cleaning business facades, while shop employees and deliverers have been stocking the stores and restaurants in anticipation of opening up.

Year-round residents and return visitors will spot a few new retail businesses in Bar Harbor this year and will recognize one popular spot that is coming back after an absence of a few years.
Miguel’s, a longtime popular local Mexican restaurant, is opening again after going through a recent series of owners and even having its menu and name changed.
Local shop owner Veilleux, said Saturday’s sale was a success and hopes to do it again next year.

The weather, Mother’s Day weekend and the Maasdam’s visit all came together to make Saturday seem like a busy mid-summer day, she said.
"It definitely affected our sales," Veilleux said of the cruise ship’s stop. "It almost felt as if we didn’t have a spring."

Bar Harbor, Maine: "The Dorr Museum" - Shell shockers

Sitting on a little bench in front of a flat-screen TV at College of the Atlantic’s George B. Dorr Museum, Lynn Havsall, a zoologist and manager at the Bar Harbor museum, watched a video loop of a green sea turtle, camera affixed to its shell, paddling evenly across the ocean floor off the coast of Hawaii.

"I can feel my blood pressure lowering just watching it," said Havsall. "You think of turtles as being very slow, but sea turtles can move incredibly fast. They’re perfect swimmers."

At the Dorr Museum, the humble terrapin is the subject of a kid-centric exhibit called "Turtle Travels," which will run through Sept. 10. The show is on loan from the EcoTarium in Worcester, Mass., and is the first traveling exhibit the museum has hosted.

Havsall and her art professor colleague Dru Colbert were instrumental in bringing the show to COA, and felt it spoke to the school’s mission.

"We liked this exhibit because it deals with environmental issues," said Colbert. "The biggest threats to turtles here in Maine are people building in wetlands."

"It’s also great for kids," said Havsall. "It’s interactive, so kids stay interested, and parents get a closer look at things than they normally would."

"Turtle Travels" explores these issues through a series of hands-on stations, that educate about turtle anatomy and the different habitats that they live in. Several illustrated panels along the wall show the ways that turtles appear in mythology around the world — from the story of the African trickster god Anansi being outsmarted by a turtle, to the Native American myth of the giant turtle on which the Earth rests.
Naturally, one of the most popular stations is the tank of live turtles, on loan from the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor. Swimming around in the U-shaped aquarium is a spotted turtle and a brightly colored painted turtle, both of which are native to Maine.

"The kids really love that one," said Havsall. "You can get underneath it and look up at them and see the bottoms of their shells."

There are seven species of turtle common to Maine: snapping, musk, eastern painted, spotted, Blanding’s, wood and eastern box turtles. Spotted and snapping turtles are easy to find, while Blanding’s and wood turtles have been marked as species of special concern — the wood turtle in particular, thanks to its ornate shell, which makes it a prime target for those looking for a pet. One little-known fact is that several species of sea turtle actually make their way into the Gulf of Maine."In the warmer months, you sometimes get green sea turtles or leatherbacks, though they stay pretty far out," said Havsall.

Both Colbert and Havsall think turtles of all kinds — land and sea, from Maine and from across the world, are an excellent way to explain ecology to kids.

"They are the vehicle through which we explore these issues," said Colbert. "Turtles are so tied to their habitats that when we build in wetlands they show very dramatically the effect it can have on the environment."

The Dorr Museum is open by appointment through mid-June, when it is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday until Labor Day.
For information, call 288-5015 or visit www.coamuseum.org.

Bar Harbor, Maine - "Cat’s early-afternoon arrival pleases tourist groups".

Bay Ferries’ decision to have the Cat arrive in the early afternoon in Yarmouth from Portland and Bar Harbor could have a beneficial impact on tourism, says an industry spokesman.

Bay announced several months ago it would change the 2007 sailing schedule for its high-speed ferry between Yarmouth and Maine. Two of the changes, a slightly shorter season and a decision not to increase sailings to Bar Harbor to two a day during a period in summer, were done to ease a tight dry-docking schedule in May and to save money.

"At the start of the season there are a couple of factors in play," Bay president and CEO Mark MacDonald said in an interview. "We always have a timing issue in May because that is when we dry-dock the ship. It is booked for a certain amount of winter work until the second of May and then comes to the shipyard in Halifax and this year we have some fairly major technical work going on. It is routine but still time consuming so it will be in dry dock for two to three weeks."

Bay previously started its Yarmouth season in late May but this year won’t start until June 1. Passenger levels last May were low.

Doug Fawthrop, spokesman for the Destination Southwest Nova Scotia Association, a partnership of tourist groups, said Monday the change in the arrival schedule will be positive, since the Cat will arrive in Yarmouth in the early afternoon instead of the evening.

"I guess we come from a school where anything we can do that is in the best interest of the customer is always the right thing to do and that’s (arrival change) in the best interests of the customer," Mr. Fawthrop said.

He said some accommodations’ operators may have benefited "marginally" from the evening arrivals, but they are only part of the industry.

"Restaurants suffer under those circumstances, gift shops and all other levels and components of the tourism sector ... so the early day will benefit more people. At the end of the day this is about total (spending) and I think this will help that."

Mr. Fawthrop said it is important to note that Bay offers one- and two-night overnight packages from Portland and Bar Harbor. Few people would be inclined to purchase the one-night package if they arrived in the evening and had to be back on the boat early the next morning.

"From Bar Harbor there is also a significant day-trip component so I think it gives Bay Ferries an opportunity to provide more benefit to the Nova Scotia tourism industry."

From June 1 to July 10 and Sept. 3 to Oct. 9, the Cat will leave Bar Harbor four mornings a week, Monday through Thursday, and return three afternoons a week, Monday through Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoons, it will leave Yarmouth and go to Portland. It will operate between Portland and Yarmouth from Friday through Sunday.

From July 11 to Sept. 2, sailings between Portland and Yarmouth will increase by one a day.

The vessel will do the Bar Harbor-Yarmouth run Monday through Wednesday, go to Portland on Wednesday afternoon and operate between Portland and Yarmouth from Thursday to Sunday.

All departures from Yarmouth will be at 4 p.m. and from Maine ports at 8 a.m.

Earth Day - BAR HARBOR, MAINE - "Bar Harbor college goes all out for Earth Day".

Some schools have homecoming weekend; College of the Atlantic has Earth Day.

"Earth Day is the only celebration that COA has really stopped everything to recognize," said Milja Brecher-Demuro, coordinator for the school’s festivities, which were held Saturday, April 21. "Since the beginning of the school, that’s one that we’ve celebrated, for the main reason that it speaks exactly to what COA is about."

Thanks to phenomena such as Al Gore’s documentary, >"An Inconvenient Truth," the environment has been an especially hot topic over the past year. Now more than ever, the issues that COA students study are at the forefront of national consciousness.
"There’s been a lot of questioning about what’s gone wrong. We are looking to celebrate what’s going right, and what’s beautiful about the earth," said Brecher-Demuro. "We’re looking at the forward thinkers, and those who have worked to help us have a smaller footprint on the earth, and to have it last as long as possible."

To that end, the theme for this year was "Home is Where the Earth Is: A Celebration in Renewing Community," and events focused especially on community involvement in making Earth a cleaner, better place to live.
There were several additions to the usual lineup of lectures, workshops, children’s activities and food, including the first "COA-Palooza," featuring an evening of music from COA students and alumni.
Keynote speaker Cathy Johnson, North Woods project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine and a 1974 COA alumna, gave a talk about the future of Maine’s North Woods. Lectures about environmentally friendly parenting, midwifery, alternative education and socially responsible retirement planning were held as scheduled.
Earth Day this year also functioned as an alumni weekend, with former students from around the country invited to attend. Some of these alumni were part of the photography exhibit at the Ethel H. Blum Gallery, while others were participating in the daylong alumni film festival at McCormick Hall.

Florida Keys - 'ROCK STARS' TO RULE THE FLORIDA KEYS REEF DURING UNDERWATER MUSIC FESTIVAL

Beautiful music is made underwater, pretending to play faux musical instruments. This year's theme is 'Rock Stars.' Participants in the Underwater Music Festival at Looe Key Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary have fun prancing and pretending to play music during the six-hour subsea radio broadcast.

LOOE KEY, Florida Keys - Rock legends are to celebrate the "key of sea" in Lower Keys waters Saturday, July 14, as divers portraying Sonny and Cher, Elton John, David Crosby and even a mermaid Madonna rock the reef during the 23rd annual Underwater Music Festival.
The scuba-diving superstars are to "perform" beneath the waves during the offbeat underwater event, which draws as many as 600 divers and snorkelers each year to explore the colorful diversity of marine life that characterizes North America's only living coral barrier reef.

The underwater songfest is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary located approximately six miles south of Big Pine Key. Staged by local radio station WWUS 104.1 FM, it features the station's selections broadcast underwater via Lubell Laboratory speakers suspended beneath boats positioned at the reef.
The playlist typically includes ocean-themed ditties such as the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine, " Jimmy Buffett's "Fins" and even an authentic humpback whale song.

Photos by Bill Keogh/Florida Keys News Bureau.