Day 117 (Sep 10) – PARTs I-III

PART I: FALL

You know how the first half of football season (and the school year) in the south still feels like summer?  It doesn’t in Maine!  I am blissfully happy right now.  The girls are in the camper because they are cold (roll eyes here).  Brad is in the woods metal detecting.  I am sitting in the sunshine under a blue sky with bits of wispy clouds blowing by.  The breeze is cool and bringing down tiny leaves all around me.  The sounds, the smells, the signs are everywhere.  It is FALL.  The trees have not started changing color too much yet, but it is close.  Summer is over in New England.   And it is wonderful.

PART II: Wicked Whoopie Pie

I don’t think I have blogged about Whoopie Pie.  Let me tell you, this is blogworthy.  We first came upon this magical little creation at the Lisbon/Littleton KOA in NH.  They were sitting innocently on the counter, a 4-inch chocolate cookie/cake sandwich filled with a large helping of thick, white icing in the middle.  It was prepackaged, but made by a local manufacturer.  Maybe it was an early Halloween trick (or treat) or maybe it was just my ridiculous lack of self-discipline, but it haunted me.  I kept thinking about it.  I let it get to me.  I ate one.  It was very good.  As we got into Maine, we started seeing them everywhere: gas stations, bakeries, grocery stores.  The best ones are the smaller ones that are chilled and made fresh in a bakery.  There are many variations such as choc cake with peanut butter filling, ginger spice cookie with pumpkin-ricotta filling.  I’ve looked through a few Whoopie Pie cookbooks and the combinations seem endless.  One book declared it the new cupcake.  They started in Maine, spread throughout the northeast and are making their way to a bakery near you!  At least I hope so!  Even though it started as a “Maine thing” the South is gonna love this!

PART III: Our Day

I will try to be brief since I have already been so wordy.  We got a campsite in Camden Hills State Park.  It is a lovely wooded campground with hot showers, electric and water hookups  and wifi!  We have not stayed in a state park like this.  After lunch and a short rest we drove up to the summit of Mt. Battie (780’) which is a bit smaller than what we were used to out west, but the view was amazing.  We could see Cadillac Mountain (the crazy one we climbed in Acadia), the town of Camden and its harbor along with many beautiful houses, churches, islands and boats.  Oh – and the Atlantic Ocean.  I would have lingered, but the others were ready to see the town up close.  We ended up in a used bookstore (Stone Soup) - again.  I need to stop going inside those places.  It was a tiny two-room store with books shelved from floor to ceiling and stacks everywhere on the floor.  It felt wonderful.  It was neatly organized though and I quickly found some Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson and Ray Bradbury.  (I have this memory of liking Dandelion Wine that surfaced with the end of summer.  I don’t even remember what it was about.)  We bought some produce at the market and some fudge at The Smiling Cow.  Dinner at camp, a nice fire and now bed.  Good night.

Camden Pics

Day 116 (Sep 9) – Saltwater Farm Campground

It rained hard during the night, but had pretty much quit by morning.  It was very drippy and wet, but not miserable for hitching up.  We left around 9:30 and stopped by the VC for the girls to turn in their Jr. Ranger books.  It was much busier in the VC than when we came in on Thursday.  The ranger said most rentals are Sat – Sat so the new tourists check in on Sunday to plan their week.  Despite the crowds lined up at the desk, the ranger took the girls and sat down with them for a long time.  She was very sweet.  They got patches this time instead of badges, but they didn’t seem to mind.

We still had to figure out where we were going.  I decided we needed some electricity and laundry facilities – and wifi since it had been a while since I uploaded blog entries.  I found a campground south of Camden where we can regroup and then head back to Camden Hills State Park tomorrow, hopefully.

We saw a Rare and Used Book Store/Antique Store that we had to stop at on the way.  Got the girls restocked in books.  We ate lunch in the parking lot and went on to the campground from there.

Leaving Acadia Pics

Day 115 (Sep 8) – Relaxed Acadia

Today started out just like the last three: so foggy it clings to you.  The mist hangs heavily in the air.  The temps here have not varied too much during our visit.  Highs are in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 50s.  It is perfect hiking weather.  As dreary as this morning felt, we were in no hurry to head out of camp.  I didn’t rest very well, what with Brad playing football in his sleep.

So we ate breakfast and played cards and did some math till lunchtime.  Then we ate soup, cleaned up and left with only a sketch of a plan.  The girls chose the Wild Acadia Garden and the Nature Center in the Sieur De Monts Spring area.  I picked up an interpretive trail guide and we began our tour.  First, we explored the Nature Center (small, but interesting) and then walked through the garden that was laid out so nicely by habitat (mountain, meadow, forest, marsh, bog, beach etc.).  Then we were led up to a Florentine style structure that was built long ago to enclose the source of the spring for protection, but still allow tourists to view.  There is a small museum on the native people in this area as well, but we chose not to tour it.  After that we were on our own.  We were right beside a mountain trail and decided since we are such pros now (HA!), we would give it another go.  We hiked up Emery Path and then cut off back down the Deidrich Climb to Jessup Path which led back to the Nature Center.  We didn’t know much about these trails, but just thought we would try it.  It turned out to be a great hike.  Don’t know how far we went (1.5 or 2 mi?) or even how long (hour or an hour and a half?).  Emery Path was a steep climb up granite rocks set like stairs.  It had switchbacks and beautiful views from Dorr Mtn.  Deidrich Climb was a steep descent down damp granite rocks also set like steps.  Some of us kept slipping (not me!).  At the bottom we came upon a body of water (The Tarn) with a sweet little waterfall.  We rested here for a moment before continuing on down Jessup, which was an easy dirt/leaf .3 mi walk back to the truck.

Still no great plan, so we drove down to Southwest Harbor on the other side of Mt. Desert Island (and Somes Sound).  This is a teeny, tiny Bar Harbor.  We were looking for Beal’s Lobster Pier and found it!  One lobster roll, one haddock burger, a hot dog, a BLT and side of fries later . . . we were all full and happy.  On to Little Notch bakery for a whoopie pie (Carmen), blueberry scone (me) and crusty loaf of French bread (dinner tomorrow).  We got some milk and blueberry preserves at a little market on Main.  Then back to Beal’s to pick up a chocolate chip brownie for Audra.

As we were pulling back into camp, I remembered that we had planned to attend the ranger program in the campground (Imagining Acadia – how it all started) for the girls to finish up their JR books.  Fortunately, we had 45 min.  Perfect timing.  I took the girls to the amphitheater while Brad listened to football in the truck.

Tonight we are supposed to get a significant amount of rain and continuing through the day tomorrow.  A ranger mentioned it being from the hurricane, I assume Leslie?  Surely Isaac is gone by now.  But we have been without wifi and cell service for the past three days.  No news.  It may be messy leaving in the morning.

Acadia Day 3

Day 114 (Sep 7) – Acadia Diversity

I did not get up early enough to go sit and look at the ocean.  I did have a great night’s sleep.  The temp was perfect.  After breakfast we went back to Sand Beach with the girls in swimsuits so they could get as wet as they wanted.  It was cooler today and very foggy, but that didn’t bother them.  I did not swim, but waded in the cold Atlantic Ocean. At first, your feet ache, then they go numb and the water feels fine!  There were full-grown “adults” out swimming in the water.  I don’t know how they did it.  The girls got pretty wet, but never actually got down in the water.  Audra got cold and gave up before Carmen.  We had to drag Carmen away.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile so genuinely for such an extended period of time.  She had a ball playing in the seaweed, sand and waves.

The girls changed into dry clothes and we drove on down Park Loop Rd to the Frabbi picnic area for lunch.  Then we continued on to Jordan Pond House, which I think is just an old teahouse left over from the hoity, toity days in the early 1900’s.  We perused the gift shop and looked over a hiking map to figure out where we needed to go.  The ranger we talked to yesterday gave us no hiking info other than we should definitely buy a trail map.  This is the first park that hasn’t had some sort of simple brochure on hiking trails.  So we picked a trail out of the blue that went up Cadillac Mtn.  (And of course, we did not buy the map).  When we finally located the trail from the parking area (Bubble Pond), we started up the trail and quickly realized this was the least trail-like trail we have been on the whole trip.  There were blue blazes on rocks and trees every few feet.  It is more a mountain climb than a trail.  We almost stopped once when we had to cross a wet, slanted 35 ft. slab of granite, but we persevered.  After that it wasn’t quite as treacherous, just super steep.  We went on for a while, but turned around before reaching the top.  It was more than we were prepared for.  Sweet Audra was hiking in a skirt.  We had to sit and slide down several wet rocks.  By the time we got back down, we had wrung out the back of her skirt several times.  Both the girls were still wet in the seat when we got back to camp tonight.  We all loved it.  (Well, I’m not sure Brad did).

Then we were headed back around to Bar Harbor, so we were on the lookout once again for Lobster Rolls.  Brad had seen some for $10.95.  We found them at the Lazy Lobster along with a very nice man who explained to us how to recognize good lobster meat and the difference in pricing.  He was so helpful that we bought 2 lobster rolls, 2 cups of clam chowder, 2 cups of lobster bisque, one hot boiled lobster and one slice of blueberry pie.  And we remembered to take pics!

Carmen wanted to shop some more (funny because she is the least patient shopper in the family), so we walked around for a bit till we ended up back at the Internet Café to use their restrooms.  While we were there we bought some coffee, tea and hot chocolate.  Then we sat and sipped.

We shopped (this was all window shopping and dog-petting – lots of store dogs here) a little more on the way back to the truck and then drove back to camp.  It was a day of diversity: from beach to mountain to town.  We are exhausted, but it has been one of our favorite days.
Acadia Day 2

Day 113 (Sep 6) – ACADIA! NP

We finally made it to the east coast.  It has taken a good three weeks.  I count our eastward trek starting from when we left Bismarck on Aug 19.  It feels like we’ve accomplished something in just getting here.  Now we can start Part II of our trip:  The east coast descent.

We got a nice little campsite in Blackwoods Campground in Acadia.  Mossy rocks and mushrooms abound.  Perfect for the girls' tiny pewter figures.  We booked two nights, but will probably try to get a third.  Today we did a little bit of everything.  We walked to an ocean overlook from the campground.  We drove to Sand Beach, the only sandy swimming beach in the park.  The girls played in the edge of the crashing waves.  I have never seen waves like this.  They are huge and high and loud.  Then we walked the Ocean Path venturing out onto little lookout spots ever so often.  These are beautiful views.  I could sit and watch the waves crash onto the rocky shore for hours. Then we drove up to Bar Harbor (small town right outside Acadia) hoping to find some lobster rolls for dinner, but they are very proud of their lobster rolls (wanted $14-$18 a piece) and I know we can get them for close to half that.  So we opted for a pizza place I had read about on-line, Rosalie’s.  There were locals there and a honeymooning couple who said they were told to not miss it.  It was very good, very fresh.  Then we shopped a little – of course, mostly in a bookstore.  Brad bought some more watercolor pencils, a biography of LBJ and Audra a sketchbook.

The girls want to go back to the beach tomorrow and I want to go back to a rocky place looking out over the ocean and just sit.  There are other places to go too.  This is why we may end up staying an extra night.  Loving Maine!
Acadia Day 1