June 27 - Loon and Whale

We had another exciting day, starting with an early morning hike. We drove to a pond on the south side of the park in search of loons. Well, they were there, and they put on quite a show for us!! There was a male and female and a baby. The little baby rides around on its mom's back (you can kind of see it in the photo with the two adults - the black blob on the right loon is the baby). If that wasn't cool enough, they decided it was time for baby's breakfast and we watched the loons dive down and bring the baby food for about 20 minutes. It was so amazing. We also stumbled upon (or it upon us) a weasel or mink carrying a rather large frog in its mouth - breakfast time for everyone! We had to leave, as our breakfast was calling us! We had an orange poppyseed scone, strawberry parfait, and we shared lemon souffle pancakes and crab strata (a crustless quiche). We skipped lunch we were so full! There is an island about .5 miles away, and during low tide, a rocky bar is exposed and you can walk over to the island and take a hike up a small mt. and get wonderful views of the town. The photo shows Bar Harbor, and our B&B is just in the closest trees. It's been great to be able to walk everywhere and not have to worry about getting in the car. We went back to the B&B to get ready for our whale watching tour. They took us 20 miles out to sea. We saw a few finback whales (as seen in the video), seals, birds. It was COLD too - in the 30's or 40's. We came back and got ready for dinner. We were having our evening appetizers with other guests, and all started chatting. We all got the idea to look at each other's rooms. That was fun! We concluded that although our room is the smallest (and least expensive), it was the best decorated, coziest, most unusual room We love it. We went to the Bar Harbor Inn for dinner and had a local cheese plate for an appetizer (we were VERY hungry at this point), Mike had lazy man's lobster (already taken out of the shell), and Sara had lobster pie. They even had a "palate cleaning" course between the appetizer and main meal - a blueberry sorbet. A perfect evening.

June 26 - Tour of MDI

Because Sara is so sore she can hardly walk, we decided to do a driving tour of the island with a few short hikes. We started with a delicious breakfast of a wild blueberry muffin, melon ball fruit salad, and creme brulee french toast with applewood smoked bacon.... YUM! We drove into Acadia and visited many of the sites and enjoyed the breathtaking views. We also drove by large mansions and harbor/lobstering towns. It was neat to see the other side of the island. On one hike, we walked down to the ocean and Sara fell asleep on a rock. It was wonderful! We stopped by thurston's lobster pound for lunch - lobster stew and crab rolls. We came back to the B&B and took a cat nap, and headed out for dinner overlooking the ocean. Mike had fried haddock, whole-belly clams, scallops, and shrimp, and Sara had lobster ravioli. The raviolis were dyed black from squid juice. We then enjoyed a leisurely walk along an oceanfront path. The weather has been great, and we've had some time to just relax.....

June 25 - Bah Hahbah (Bar Harbor)

We had a beautiful view of Mt. Katahdin from the farmhouse in the morning as we were packing and getting on our way. After our harrowing hike, we felt a bit connected to the Mt., and it was kind of sad to go. It was a nice drive down to Bar Harbor. We stopped at Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound for our first whole lobsters. You just go and pick one out and they throw it in boiling sea water. 20 minutes later - yum! (poor little lobsters!) We stopped at Sweet Pea winery on the island (MDI so we are told - Mount Desert Island). We drove into Acadia and over to the Jordan Pond House - a park restaurant known for their "popovers". It was so BEAUTIFUL!!! We were sat outside on the lawn overlooking the mts. and a lake. We both had lobster stew and popovers - the best $20 soup we'd ever had. :) The weather was great so we drove up to Cadillac Mt. and enjoyed a stunning view of the harbor. On to the B&B. Very nice. Many common rooms, lots of space to spread out. Afternoon tea, evening wine and hors de voures (sp??). We are eagerly anticipating our 3 course breakfast (creme brulee french toast is one option). Our room is small, but very bright and sunny. They even left chocolates last night . We feel very pampered! We will be doing a driving/hiking tour of the park on Thursday, and biking or hiking on Friday. Oh by the way, don't let anyone tell you that lobster is cheap by the ocean!! Gee whiz! We've had lobster, fish, whole belly clams (yes, that's whole belly - ew!).

June 24 - Mt. Katahdin

First of all, we need to mention that we’ve been getting up between 3:30 and 4:00 am every day but one this week. The twilight from the sun starts around 3:15 and the birds start chirping and, once we’re up, we’re up!!

So, now on to the fun. Today was Baxter State Park. WOW!! We planned on hiking up Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine and the end of the Appalachian Trail. We came, we saw, it kicked our behinds. Boy, so naïve we were…. We planned on hiking up the “knife edge”, but after reading how the trail was only 3’ wide in places with dropoffs on both sides (approx 2000’), we chickened out, so discussed an alternate route with a friendly ranger. Well, nice guy that he was, did not warn us about what we were about to endeavor. This WAS NOT a “hike” up the mountain, but a climb up a sheer boulder field. OH MY. This was a “trail” that once you start, there’s no turning around…. We had to look for hand holds and hoist ourselves up in most places. Now, this was not just a few hundred feet, this was over a mile up, up, up. We should have known – the steep part of the trail was only 1.75 miles, but the brochures said it would take 2hrs and 50 min. We were terrified, but didn’t discuss that aspect until we were on solid ground, so as not to freak each other out. There was snow in several areas below us as we reached higher (2 years in a row- snow in June!!). It took 9 hours to cover about 8 miles. About 3 miles from our car, a heavy rain came down. We were so thankful that it didn’t happen when we were hiking the boulder fields, that we were almost enjoying it. That and it kept the mosquitoes at bay. Well, we survived with bug bites, sore feet, knees, arms, legs, etc. We’re glad we did it, but neither one of us would ever do it again!!!!! By the way, we never did make it to the summit – it was still another .5 miles, but by the time we got to the cut off trail, we were DONE. As a special bonus, just as we were leaving the park exhausted and hungry, a big moose ran across the road in front of us. Too fast for a picture, but it was as if the Mt. was saying “nice try, I know you’re tired, but here’s a treat for you before you go”.

June 23 - Patten, ME

No internet for a couple of days. We’ve been in Patten, Maine at an old farmhouse. It is incredible here. We are really out in the middle of nowhere, with fields of grasses, trees, and Mt. Katahdin in the background. Mike says it reminds him of being home at the farm (minus the mts of course). We spent the day driving from Glen, NH. We were going to do the interstate most of the way, but decided on the scenic route, and followed Rt. 1 along the coast and up to Bangor (all Sara could think of was Stephen King). We happened upon the Delorme headquarters, which is really cool because we both LOVE maps! They had a giant rotating earth in the building, and we picked up a couple of maps for the trip. We drove past LLBean in Freeport, but too many people were around to stop. We stopped at a roadside food stand selling lobster rolls, so we had our first lobster of the trip. $15.95 for a dinky roll. Oh well – it was still yummy. We are still trying to decide what hikes to do in Baxter State Park. We had planned on Katahdin, but there is a chance of storms, so we’ll have to see when we get there. It is supposed to be a very exposed area, so you don’t want to be there in a T-storm!!

Glen, New Hamphire

We sure had a full day today! Got up, got ready, had a breakfast of blueberry muffins, pineapple, and almond french toast. That got us ready for the harrowing drive up Mt. Washington. Now, we drove the Beartooth pass last summer on the way to Yellowstone, but this was almost terrifying. Cliffs with no guardrails. Mike was white knuckled for the last few miles...but we made it and got the bumper sticker to prove it! The average grade was 11.5% with a max of 18%. The way down wasn't so bad. The day before they had a running race to the top of the Mt. That makes us tired to think about.. We then drove to North Conway and hopped aboard a dining car for a scenic ride and lunch. Lunch was fantastic...choo choo! We then drove to the other side of the White Mountains, to Franconia State park - a beautiful hike. We stopped and had dinner at an old railroad depot.

June 21 - New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire

Well, we had a busy day today! We drove through the Adirondacks this morning - BEAUTIFUL!! Lots of lakes and scenery. We took a ferry across Lake Champlain, Sara's first time parking a car on a ferry...cool!! It took about an hour, but seemed like only a few minutes. We got off the ferry at Burlington, and ate a delightful lunch. Bikes and runners were everywhere! Must be a pretty healthy state! The buildings were historic - drove through the University of Vermont. Next stop - Ben and Jerry's! The free sample of the day was One Cheesecake Brownie - YUM!! A quick stop at Lake Champlain Chocolates (too many free samples) and Vermont Teddy Bears (too expensive), and we were off to the White Mountains. Stopped by waterfalls, streams, and a gorgeous field full of Lupines (see pic) with Mt. Washington in the back ground. One of our stops included Moore Dam. Sara's comment was - yeah, let's stop - we don't have ANY dams in Indiana!! Haha! Mike says all dams are unique... hmmmm.... The bed and breakfast is cozy and comfy. Right next to a Mt. Stream. Tomorrow we are off to Mt. Washington and other shenanigans!!