To celebrate our fourth anniversary, Kevin and I are up here in Acadia National Park. Kevin’s idea of paradise involves long views of water, and my idea of paradise involves big slabs of rock. Acadia has both!
We drove up on Wednesday. That was pretty much uneventful – no pictures, no witty anecdotes. We arrived late in the afternoon and got settled into our B&B, and then explored downtown Bar Harbor a bit. Our B&B hostess recommended a great restaurant, and Kevin got to eat his first of many giant sea cockroaches lobsters.
Day One
Thursday – yesterday – was our first full day here. We got up early and had a Thanksgiving Dinner that couldn’t be beat – no wait, I’m confusing our vacation with Alice’s Restaurant. Let’s start over. On Thursday, after a delicious breakfast at the B&B, we headed out for a cursory overview of the Park.
We wound up at Jordan Pond – thought to be one of Maine’s most pristine bodies of water. No fishing or body contact allowed with the water, the posted signs say…but then explain to me why they allow small-engine boats. Our brief exploratory hike got a little out of hand when we realized that hey – the sun was partially obscured by clouds – it wasn’t too hot – so why not go all the way around the pond? We had neither water, nor camera, so to give you an idea of what it was like, I’m going to steal other people’s pictures from the Google:
The two peaks in the distance are The Bubbles.
Another borrowed picture – most of the trail along the west side of the pond is up on logs, to preserve the delicate tree roots. Oh, one cool thing I noticed is that up here, starflower is just starting to bloom – at home, this happened weeks and weeks ago, in the first week of May.
OK, back to my pictures now. After the hike, we were hungry, so we had lunch at the Jordan Pond House, where “the tradition of afternoon tea …dates back to the late 1800's.” Lunch came with popovers, which I believe are an invention from the devil to lure you into eating a stick of butter.
We ate outside, under a tree. The weather could not have been more perfect – warm, not too hot, breezy…
After lunch, we drove around some more. We went all the way up the summit of Cadillac Mountain. This is the highest peak within 25 miles of the coastline of the Eastern seaboard. In the fall and winter, this is the first place to be struck by the rising sun in the U.S. Fast moving fog obscured most of our views, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.
Like so.
We paused for portraits.
Kevin’s posed next to a plaque honoring Stephen Mather, the founder of the National Park Service, and thus a hero of mine.
And I just did my usual attempt at a self-portrait.
On the drive back down, we pulled out into one of the many scenic view spots and took in the view…
Kevin collapsed in ecstasy.
That’s Bar Harbor, where we’re staying, in the distance.
Back at sea level, we continued our tour of the park. First, we visited Sand Beach…the only sandy beach on the island. The sand is made up mostly of bits of shell.
Kevin’s never happier than when his feet are in water.
And I’m never happier than when contemplating slabs of rock.
We proceeded to Thunder Hole, where a narrow inlet produces big booming waves.
Can you spot Kevin? White shirt, a space on either side of him.
I scrambled around on the rocks.
I navigated up to the top of the rocks on the other side of the inlet, the better to spy on Kevin.
I induced a total stranger to take my picture. Look at the wind filling up my shirt! I am not that…endowed, shall we say, naturally.
This is the beginning of the inlet…
And this is the back of the inlet.
Eventually, we made our way back into town, and explored some more on our bikes, looking for the perfect coffee shop. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone with decaf, because by the time we made it back to the B&B, we were toast. The nap fairies had colluded with the forces of gravity and ambushed us: we basically passed out cold. We woke up groggy and disoriented, and staggered into town. Our B&B hostess had recommended other restaurants, so we walked around to check out their menus. They looked like excellent places, but alas, they did not feature plain, unvarnished giant sea cockroaches lobster. Thus, after a two mile walk, we wound up at the same restaurant we’d gone to Wednesday night. No complaints! You know what Kevin had for dinner. I had filet. Yum.
And thus concludes Day One
Day Two
I got up early and went for a three mile run. I went back and forth a lot on the Shore Path, which is a, uh, path, right along the, uh, shore. Our B&B has direct access to it, which is a lovely thing.
Here is a borrowed picture of the Shore Path. I felt so creaky and stiff – I can’t believe I’m going to do a half marathon in a few weeks. Usually I don’t feel this crappy on runs. I think lack of sleep and the early hour might have had something to do with it.
Next up, we headed into the Park. We stopped off at one of the pullouts and tried to get a glimpse of peregrine falcons nesting in the cliffs. Rangers with telescopes were there to assist. I did get a glimpse of the 45-day old baby, resting up for a second between training flights. There’s a trail here – the Precipice Trail – that I am positively lusting to do, but because of the falcons, the trail is closed. Here’s a stolen picture of our view of the cliffs.
So, we continued onto the next best thing – the Bee Hive trail. Kevin came up to the base of the cliff with me and waited, as his knee didn’t really seem too keen on hiking on rocks. That was probably a wise move. This is a hike that apparently induces terror in people. For me, on the other hand? Sheer heaven.
Here’s a series of iffy-quality pictures from my cell phone.
The hike is basically right up the side of a big slab of cliff. None of is “technical”, but you do pretty much need the handholds provided.
Honestly, this makes me drool.
Occasionally there are parts where yeah, you really do want to be watching your step…
I’m sure there are folks who just go off-trail (see the blue blazes?) and try to go straight up…
That’s Sand Beach in the background…
OK, Kevin’s in this picture, and we’re waving to each other. He’s on a bare patch of rock to the lower right. He could see pretty much my entire progress up the trail, and could also hear the various exclamations of, well, not delight, exactly, of the other hikers. Things like, (please stop reading if you are more clean-living than I)
“JESUS CHRIST!” and “OH GOD” and “IF I HAD KNOWN IT WAS GOING TO BE LIKE THIS…”
In the meantime, I was just wishing the trail was about five times longer.
Alas, the summit came all too soon. That’s Cadillac in the background.
My original plan had been to do the same trail in reverse, but it was kind of crowded, so I decided to go the back way, instead. It was a mile or a mile and half, but very easy and fast.
It was lovely to see my boy again.
We proceeded onwards to the whole other half of the island. We found a spot for lunch. Do you know what Kevin had for lunch? Giant sea cockroach!
Then we went tooling around some more, and found a picnic area on the beach where we parked the truck and went for a little (six mile) bike ride. We played in the rocks on the beach.
All I can say about these pictures is, there are universes represented here about which I know nothing. What lives in those little shells?
How many kinds of seaweed are represented here?
Well, that was Day Two. It’s dinner time. Kevin is passed out next to me. Soon I’ll make little whiny noises and wake him up, and then we can go to dinner. We’re thinking pizza this time.
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