About Us

Nancy Hauswald | Owner

Nancy has been creating and managing both “land” and “afloat” Road Scholar programs since 1996 from her office in Belfast, Maine. Beginning in 2012, she will be managing several additional educational travel programs that are under the auspices of Coastal Discoveries alone. Previously, she was the director of seminars for the U.S. Naval Institute at the U.S. Naval Academy, a freelance writer for nautical magazines such as WoodenBoat, Classic Boat, and Yachting, and a freelance editor for McGraw-Hill. With her husband, she lived and cruised full time aboard a classic wooden sailboat for eight years. She graduated from Valparaiso University (Indiana) with a degree in theater, and is a devotee of American musical theater. She is the proud stepmother of five “children” and step-grandmother of 14. Whenever time and money allow, she loves to travel to France, England and Italy.

Beanie Einstein | Office Manager

Beanie sidled up to Coastal Discoveries in early 2008 as a helpmate to Nancy, using her organizational skills to create and manage new office systems to complement the rapidly growing business. Because of her background in the medical field, including a career as a nurse in Washington, D.C., and, following that, as the owner of a seasonal cottage rental business for 15 years, she brings s sharp focus to her varied duties. Like Nancy, being near or on the water is very important to Beanie. She and her husband, Blair, and Gizmo, their pup, live in the waterfront Victorian village of Bayside (just a few minutes from Belfast), except when they sneak away for a few months each winter to their beloved houseboat in Key West.

Jim Millinger | Mariner, Lecturer

Jim is a Maine native who first came to know Portland (Maine) Harbor during his college summers as a captain on passenger vessels of the Casco Bay Lines. After college, service as a naval officer, graduate school, and teaching in universities and college programs on both coasts, he has returned to the Maine coast. In his early retirement, living on Chebeague Island, he skippered powered and sailing passenger vessels out of Yarmouth, Bath, and Bar Harbor. He now lives in Topsham. Jim is a docent and occasional lecturer at the Portland Harbor Museum, an occasional lecturer at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, has led discussion groups on “The Literature of the Sea Voyage” for the Maine Humanities Council, and has just recently completed a nine-year term as a trustee on the board of the Maine Historical Society. In addition to his Ph.D. in history, Jim holds a Master Mariner’s License and a Commercial Pilot’s License in airplanes (land and sea) and gliders.

Fred Stonehouse | Historian, Author

Fred has authored 30 books on Great Lakes maritime history. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Haunted Lakes series are regional best sellers. Wreck Ashore, The U.S. Life-Saving Service on the Great Lakes is the predominant work on this subject. Fred has also been a consultant for both the U.S. National Park Service and Parks Canada, and an “on-air” expert for National Geographic, History Channel and Fox Family. He won the 2006 Association for Great Lakes Maritime History award for historic interpretation in recognition of his many contributions to the field and was named the 2007 Maritime Historian of the Year by the Detroit Maritime Historical Society. Fred teaches Great Lakes maritime history at Northern Michigan University and is an active consultant for numerous Great Lakes-oriented projects. He is also President of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association. Fred has been the on-board historian (Rochester to Chicago leg) for the Road Scholar Adventures Afloat program – Historic Waterways of North America: The Great Lakes, Hudson River and Erie Canal every year since the program’s debut in 2007. For more information, visit frederickstonehouse.com

Megan Pinette | Historian, Museum Curator

Megan is a graduate of the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, and has lived in Belfast, Maine, since 1984. She and her husband Dennis were part of the wave of young artists, musicians and writers who helped make Belfast the “culturally cool” community it is today. Her interest in Belfast history was sparked while volunteering in her son’s fifth grade social studies class which was studying local history. Since that time, her projects have involved writing a history column for a local newspaper, serving as photography editor for the book The History of Belfast in the 20th Century,” and creating The Museum in the Streets walking tour. She has been President of the Belfast Historical Society & Museum since 2002 and serves as curator of the museum. Megan wears several hats with Coastal Discoveries – she is a frequent lecturer on local history for several of our Road Scholar programs that take place in midcoast Maine, and is a group leader for many of the same programs.

Bitsa Bull | Adventures Afloat group leader

Bitsa (a nickname for Elizabeth) has worked with Elderhostel/Road Scholar for 7 years as a coordinator on the Adventures Afloat programs on the Erie Canal, New England Islands and the Coast of Maine. After 15 years as a librarian, Bitsa has semi-retired to devote time and energy to painting. She lives in Rockland, Maine, with her husband and Adventure Afloat lecturer, Sam Ladley. Her passions are cooking and eating, gardening and, of course, painting. Together, she and Sam have renovated 8 houses and plan to design and build a duplex in the near future.

Sam Ladley | Lecturer

A Maine native, Sam Ladley has been a lecturer with Elderhostel/Road Scholar Adventures Afloat programs on the Erie Canal, New England islands and the Maine coast for 11 years. He typically speaks about colonial settlement, Native Americans and maritime history of New England, but also addresses whaling, Erie Canal history, island life and other contemporary and pertinent topics. Sam received degrees in history and public speaking from Emerson College in Boston where he met his wife, Bitsa. He has worked in many and varied capacitities as a lobsterboat sternman, corporate media technician, fly fishing pro, house renovator and profesional kite flyer. Sam makes his home in Rockland, Maine, with his wife. He also has a very popular and successful school program. Visit Sam online.

Nan Feeny Lance | Group Leader

Nan is a retired school teacher from the New York, Vermont, Massachusetts border area. She loves golf and kayaking in the warm weather, and snowshoeing and reading during the cold months. She is a fan of singing, movies, and musical theater (you might want to try to stump her with a Broadway show tune) all year round. She also is crazy about her three grown children: Erin, Krista, and David. Nan is the Assistant Leader on the Coastal Discoveries Adventures Afloat program “The Historic Waterways of America: The Great Lakes, Hudson River and Erie Canal,” and the Group Leader on some of the Coastal Discoveries “land” programs.

Margaret Weiland | Group Leader

Margaret lives in the beautiful Taconic Mountains of upstate New York. She loves to travel and meet new people and very much enjoys leading Road Scholar programs. She is the Group Leader on “The Historic Waterways of America: The Great Lakes, Hudson River and Erie Canal” Adventure Afloat program. She designed, manages and leads the terrific Road Scholar program that takes place in Troy each May and October, and she often leads the very popular “Exploring Historic New England Seacoast Towns” program that takes place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In her free time, Margaret enjoys singing, watercolor painting, gardening, paddling and her feline companions. Margaret is also a clinical social worker with a private practice in Troy, New York, and a professional photographer. View her photography on–line at margaretweinlandphotography.com.