I'm typing this by a fire I built in the pit in the backyard. Finally, the wood dried out enough. I started it after the kids went to bed because by the time we got home from dinner, it was too late to start the whole fire/s'mores thing. We are eating in tomorrow night for the fourth, though, so we will definitely do s'mores with the kids for dessert. Will only lasted about five minutes out here before heading inside to watch tv, but I've been enjoying the fire outside on a beautiful night.
Beautiful night followed by a beautiful day...finally! We've seen some amazing things all week, but today was extra special with blue skies. This truly is such a beautiful part of the country. Eleanor slept in this morning, so Will took Ethan out to fish at long last. They did not catch a thing, of course, but at least he got to try. A fisherman coming in gave them some herring and said to try that as bait instead of the lures. They may try again tomorrow.
Eleanor and I spent the first part of the morning cleaning up, having breakfast, and packing up a lunch for the rest of our day. Actually, she spent it in her pajamas watching the Disney channel while I did those other things. When Will and Ethan got back, about 10:30, we hit the road, and drove to the other side of the island to the Park Loop Road so we could drive up to the summit of Mt. Cadillac. The views were pretty awesome, with Bar Harbor down below, and we stopped a couple of times on the way up for pictures. Mt. Cadillac is the highest peak on the eastern seaboard, apparently, which made us think this drive would've similar to that of Pikes Peak. Not so much. It was really only 15 to 20 minutes, which was okay by us. We hiked around at the top for a bit before driving down to find a place for a picnic. We ended up at site with tables and we ate our sandwiches (side note...pretty sure I am listening to some coyote howl right now...don't worry, they don't sound close) and then Ethan and I did a short hike around the picnic site.
From there, we hit the Park Loop Road again and drove a little ways to Sand Beach. This is the only sand beach along the ocean here, and one of two public beaches. The other, Echo Lake, is near our cottage, and we were there our first full day. That one is obviously freshwater. Sand beach is salt water, has waves, and is supposedly very cold. It was cold, no doubt, but it really didn't feel any worse than Lake Michigan. All the guidebooks make it seem like it was such an accomplishment to swim in it, but there were plenty of brave souls today. Will and I didn't put our suits on, but the kids did and had an absolute blast. Ethan got right to work building a city, and Eleanor ran back and forth from the waves and back. She was undeterred by the frigid water. Ethan, right before we left, discovered the water as well. The cold was enough to keep them from going in too far, which was fine by us because we had no desire to venture after them. And we loved sitting there watching them with the jagged cliffs and rocks off to either side. We stayed for at least an hour and a half before deciding it was time to go.
On the way out, we saw a helicopter hovering near the mountain, and we used binoculars to see rescuers on the cliffs. It would seem someone fell or had some kind of accident. This was on a section that could only be climbed with ropes and equipment. Scary. We moved on, sending good thoughts to the hiker(s), and stopped at our last stop of the day, Thunder Hole. This is a spot where, at high tide, the water rushes in to this alcove type thing and produces huge waves and a thunderous sound. Unfortunately, you need to be there at the right time, but we were not. Oh well. We snapped some pics and moved on.
After missing another turn (it can get confusing...), we took a bit longer than expected to get back to our side of the island. The kids really needed a shower, but we decided to go right to dinner and the shower before bed since we were not going anywhere fancy. We went to yet another lobster pound, this time Beal's, owned by our cottage owners family. I intended to get a lobster roll, but Eleanor announced she wanted to eat lobster with me, so she picked one out for us to share. Ethan got a hot dog and Will a haddock burger, which he enjoyed. The lobster we got was okay. I felt much more confident with this one. But, sadly, Eleanor took a big bite of the tail, chewed for a while, and the decided she didn't like it so spit it out. I was enjoying mine until a got a bit of the yucky liver stuff that's in the body. I told Will it tasted like taking a bite out of the ocean, but not in a good way. Just like salt water fishiness. And that taste didn't leave my mouth. Bottom line, I wished mid gotten the lobster roll.
We came home to showers and bed, and now you're all caught up.
Haiku of the day:
Sunny skies at last
Cadillac, Sand Beach, and more
Fire to end the day
1 comment:
Sounds like a great day! Hope you have more sunshine for the rest of your vacation. Really excited to see these pictures!
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