Baa Haabaa

This weekend Sue and I camped out on Mount Desert Island, the home of Bar Harbor. It was the first weekend that there has been rain and fog. It really limited the view, but it was kinda cool because it did make everything look very mysterious and and mystical.

We went to the top of Cadillac mountain first where you could see out over the whole town of Bar Harbor.

Then we went around the rest of the loop in Acadia National Park and saw Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Jordan Pond, and the Bubbles (two mountains; North and South Bubble). At Jordan Pond there was a restaurant that is famous for their popovers. Popovers are "hollow rolls made from egg batter similar to that used in making Yorkshire pudding" (according to Wiki). :) They were good but I am not so sure they were worth $4 a piece. Afterwards, we climbed to the top of North Bubble Mountain (yes, right after we ate... maybe not the smartest idea, but totally worth it.) At the top there was a nice breeze blowing and a bird gliding on the wind over the Pond. So nice and peaceful.

Thunder hole: waves crashing into a cave under these rocks

view of the bubbles from Jordan Pond

atop north bubble looking over Jordan Pond

I am really having a hard time capturing the color of the leaves with my camera so I have started collecting and pressing leaves that I find so I can put them in my scrapbook. However, I think this tree, which I got a few leaves from, came out pretty well.

After looking all around the park we went around the other side of Mount Desert Island. This area is the more residential area of the island. We saw the Bass Harbor Lighthouse which you can get a picture of from an "easy to get to" location, but I chose to climb out on some precariously placed rocks to get a cooler looking shot of it!

There were also tons of cute harbors (of course, it is an island). I can never get enough of these scenes. One place in particular was my favorite. It was called Seal Cove and the road to get to it was not on our map so we had to go exploring a little. We got there just as the sun was setting and boy was it gorgeous!

On Sunday, we decided to just look around all the cute shops in town. There was a farmers market and an art festival going on. The shops are really cute just like any cool touristy town, but there was this one called suncatchers that I was overwhelmed by when I walked in. There were so many sparkley things! It was amazing. :) The prices of these glimmering decorations were outrageous mostly because this was the only place in the world you can purchase any of their products. They don't even sell online.

Finally, we went to Schoodic point which is one of Sue's favorite spots in all of Maine. It is about an hour away from Bar Harbor, yet it is still a part of Acadia National Park. There are no throngs of tourists in this spot, though. We almost had the whole place to ourselves. It would be the perfect place to read and listen to the waves if it had not been so windy. I was so cold I had to sit in the car after a while and warm up. I would recommend going there sometime in warm, calm weather and I promise you will enjoy your day.

Simple life.

This weekend Sue was getting some friends and family together at her house for a quick clean-up of her garage. I was happy to help, especially since she has been so great showing me around from one end of Maine to the other. Plus its just fun sometimes to organize (even if it isn't your stuff).
On Friday, I went up there and hung out around the fire with Sue and Tammi (Sue's friend who is about my age). Tammi and I found out that we both enjoyed playing the guitar when I first met her my second week in Maine so this time I remembered to bring my guitar with me and we played and sang around the camp fire together.
Saturday, we cleaned and organized for a few hours and then we relaxed. In the evening, we had a game night. We stayed up super late playing "Bananagram" and "Phase 10" I didn't win at either of them (which is not unexpected), but it was hilarious just sitting around joking and talking all night.
The next day Tammi invited me to go to church with her, and she suggested that we sing one of the songs we had practiced at church that morning. My initial thought was, "She can just walk into church and ask to play a song during the service?" But it is a little country church with about 40 people in attendance, and the pastor was really nice and totally excited that we were gonna sing. We sang By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North; it was really fun!  Afterwards, I had lunch with Tammi, her friend Dave, and the pastor and his family at the pastors house. It is kinda hard to get used to this country hospitality where everyone welcomes you in like you are family when they have only just met you, but, geez, what a thing to have to get used to...  I'm not gonna complain. ;)

"A Day of Sunshine"

Well, I really can't say it enough... Maine is beautiful. When it rains it's always during the week and by the weekend it clears right up. On Friday, I bought a really nice, brand new, North Face, two person tent from someone on Craigslist for less then half the original price. Sweet! I also bought a sleeping bag from the store. It said that it was made for "cool weather" which meant 30-50 degrees. Who labels these things? "Cool"... 30 degrees is freezing... literally. Anyway, its a good thing I did by the thicker sleeping bag cause it got down to about 40 degrees at Bradbury Mountain State Park, where I stayed Friday and Saturday night. The park was great with lots of trails to hike and pretty views from the top of the mountain.

 Saturday, I drove into Portland and looked around the "Old Port" area which had all kinds of quaint shops and museums. BUT, the best thing was the Portland Head Lighthouse! It was a beautiful, crisp, cool day with a breeze coming off the water that was to die for. There were paths that meandered along the rocky coast with the lighthouse in view. And, come to find out, one of my favorite poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, would come to this exact spot to write, and it is believed he wrote his poem "The Lighthouse" based on the Portland Head Light.

O gift of God! O perfect day:
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!

Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much. 
"A Day of Sunshine" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On Sunday, I drove to Booth Bay Harbor and visited a couple historic sites. It was nice to relax and read sitting on a bench overlooking the water with the lobster boats coming a going.

During my travels I found the perfect house! It was at the very tip of Booth Bay Harbor on Grandview Ave. What a view it was too. And its only listed for one and a half million dollars... not too bad. ;)

other pics from the drive:

Follow-up

I have had a couple people ask me about my decision to stay in Maine or move on to Tennessee and I thought I would fill everyone in. I have decided to move on to Tennessee. I told my boss and she was understanding about the fact that the reason I became a traveling PT was because I wanted to travel. :) I am hoping for an assignment near Nashville, TN. Unfortunatly, there are no jobs available there right now, so I may end up in Knoxville or really anywhere else in Tennessee for that matter. I am working with my recruiter now to get that figured out.

Also, another thing, I was looking at a list of activities going on in Maine for the month of October. For Halloween there is a fright night at... yup, you guessed it... Fort Knox. I told you that place was creepy. :)

State Parks and Relaxing for Labor Day Weekend

This weekend I spent Saturday and Monday visiting different state parks around the area and Sunday was spent reading, meeting new interesting people and just general relaxation at Sue's lake house.
On Saturday, I went to Fort Knox State Park where they have an old fort, obviously, and a new bridge that was built with an observation tower at the top. This tower is 437 feet high. From the top you could see the little town of Bucksport across the water and a number of mountains. The sound of the wind at the top was pretty cool. There were huge gusts every once in a while that would come howling through the vents (probably the after effects of Earl).

Fort Knox was an interesting place to explore because they really had not done a lot of renovating or making it tourist frinendly. I am pretty sure the state came in, called this a state park, put up a couple information stands and left. This fort was built into the side of a hill so parts of it were under ground. The walls of the fort were covered in mildew and in some parts there were no lights. Even though I saw it in the middle of the day it was pitch black in certain areas and just really eerie in others. I have to admit I was scared. There were not a whole lot of other people there and I was alone for most of my exploring, but I could always hear noises and other footsteps... probably just my imagination playing tricks on me, but still. Creepy.

After Fort Knox State Park I went for a ride (which turned out to be a little longer then expected) to Holbrook Island State Park. It was really pretty with nice easy walking trails and a cute little harbor.

By the way, I am on this state parks kick because they have a cool system where you can get a stamp in your "Maine Parks Passport" book every time you visit a different park and it is like a little treasure hunt to find the stamp and you have to unlock the lock box with a code. It's fun. So far I have 4 stamps. :)

On Sunday I stayed with Sue and we took a ride around her lake and saw a beaver dam. First one I have ever seen...

and we went to visit an Amish community where they have a little store and hand made furniture that is really beautiful. (I would have taken more pics of the people and their spiffy outfits, but I thought it might be rude.) In the store they had skylights in the ceiling instead of regular lights, and their cash register was a serious antique. It used a hand crank to operate.

Finally, on Monday I visited yet another park where I think I may try to go camping one evening. It is not to far away from my house and it was very pretty. This one was called Peaks-Kenny State Park.

So I have done a ton of outdoorsy things since I got here. I think next weekend I am going head down to the big city...Portland.