A visit to Maine

Maine has been on my list of places I have always wanted to go.  I don't know why, but there is something about being 'so far north' and light houses, rocky shore lines, a cold ocean, and a never ending forest of densely populated trees and ferns that I just couldn't pass up!

It totally lived up to my expectations.  We went to Bar Harbor, which is a little island off the coast of northern Maine.  

While driving I constantly saw signs that said "Watch for MOOSE on freeway".  How could you not want to go to a place where that is a commonplace sign?!  I really was hoping to sight a moose on the freeway...until I really thought about it.  I don't think I would live to tell the tale of the Moose vs. the '99 Honda accord...

We stayed at this really cool hotel right on the water..

 The harbor was FILLED with boats.

 See the land behind the boats? More islands.  There are over 1000 islands off the coast.  Most of them are pretty tiny.   They have really interesting names like "Porcupine Island 1" and "Porcupine Island 2" and "Porcupine Island 3", and "Porcupine Island 4".... I could go on and on...but I bet that would be way too entertaining.

 And there were random buoys hung on random walls.  Cool huh? (well, my picture would have been if these random tourists weren't in it!)

 Hey!  There are actually 3 of us in this next picture...Heath is hiding in the back pack!

 And at low tide, the water in front of our hotel receded so much there was a HUGE sandbar {more like rocky bar} that you could walk out on all the way to another little island (miraculously, it wasn't named Porcupine Island, it was "Bar Island".  How original.).  It was so fun to go out and see the sea life.  We found this large (school?) of starfish.  I have never seen a starfish in its natural habitat.  I had no idea they were so big.  Or so colorful!

 Notice us in our beach gear?  That is how warm it was not.  Pleasant, yes, but not even for us to want to get in the water.  And it was August!  The kids and I wore sweaters and jeans in the evenings! (Of course, Bryan didn't disappoint and wore his normal get-up of basketball shorts and a t-shirt.)

On our first day we went whale watching.  We had a fabulous lunch at sea!

   It was pretty cool to see all the humpback whales.  We also saw a couple sea lions.  There are penguins too, but I didn't get to see any.  What I saw the most of were the thousands of buoys on our 29 mile trip out to sea.  (And I am not exaggerating.)  They were the markers for the lobster fishermen.  I guess I realized that lobster fishing was a big industry, but I didn't quite understand how large the whole scope of it is.  Its pretty dang large.

 

 Mount Desert Rock.  What you see is the entire island.  (can you say, CREEPY?!) It is 18 miles off the coast and researchers go here to do uh, research.  On stuff.  That is important.  But it is DANG COLD.  Can you imagine this place in January?  Brrrrr. They stay out here for 3 months at a time with about 6 other people in this little run down shanty.  I can't think of stuff that is so important you would want to hang out here and take notes in frikin arctic temperatures with 6 other nuts.  No thanks.

 And the tour guide talked so much about the, uh, stuff, that was important, that it might have put a couple of us to sleep...

 Here we are back on the sandbar...My brave daughter.  She just wandered into the water (it was not warm) and started picking up random starfish off the bottom.

 And my not-quite-as-daring son...(notice he is holding the smallest one we could find.)

 This is what the typical house mansion looked like along the coast.

 We decided to do some bike riding in Acadia National Park.  Gorgeous.  That is the best way to describe it.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  There are tons of 'carriage' paths you can explore the forest on.  We rode around a lake one day, and then next we did a trail called "Around the Mount'".  It was misleading.

It was NOT around the mount. It was UP the mount.  Complete with switchbacks.  Bryan and I had a little trail map and didn't realize the elevation changes.  We ended up biking 16 miles of strenuous, never-ending switchbacks with our fat little kids in tow.  (You don't realize how fat they are until you are pulling them up a mountain.)  It was such a challenge.  I was soaking wet by the time we got to the top, but the view was amazing.  You could so many little islands surrounding ours, and all the sail boats and fishing ships out at sea.  The best part was that we got to ride down-hill the entire ride home.

 Okay, tell me this doesn't look like the Mogollon Rim?!  This is part of Acadia National Park.

 Our big night out to get a lobster from this place that was covertly owned by our Hotel so they HAD to recommend it to all their guests...we were pretty ticked when we realized this.  But the food was good.
 "Help!" Said the little lobster as it was boiled alive for our eating enjoyment...
     (okay, that is mean.  But it was really yummy.)

 The pool was right on the ocean-side too.  The kids LOVED it.

 Blue lips? Nah.  Not Brookie!

 My tan line is a little scary in this picture.  Sorry.  I never wear swimsuits.  Just V-neck, G rated stuff...I think I should have worked on getting less of a farmer's tan this summer...

 I love it when Bryan carries Heath.  He is such a good little baby, but he weighs a ton!

 If I had a do-over:  I would have done this portion of our trip with-out kids.  Don't get me wrong, I loved having them around.  It was just limiting.  There were things like kayaking/canoeing on the ocean, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, ect that would have been sooo much fun.  Next time...

 I LOVED our trip up to Maine.  It was so fun to do a trip with just our little family.  I was pretty nervous at the start of the trip, with all the puking and pink eye stuff...but it turned out great!  So long Maine!  Someday I will come back and see you again!