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| 6:40 |
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| 6:42 |
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| Sea Wall Pond |
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| Low Tide |
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| Early Morning Coffee With A View |
It's getting boring these early mornings, as the sunrise photographs are the same, the sun always rising on a cloudless, blue sky over the horizon. I keep trying to find a new twist but until we get some clouds, one morning is just like another, not that I am complaining about the perfect weather we have had and will have throughout our trip.
Yesterday, after my morning constitutional of coffee, photographing the sunrise, and driving the 102 loop, I came home, had my breakfast of yogurt and Lucy's granola, a local mix, before we both went off to the Common Good Cafe for our usual, oatmeal, with raisins, brown sugar, walnuts, and soy milk as well as the requisite popover with blueberry jam. We don't get tired of this either. We then drove to the parking lot for Beech Mountain, set back in a beautiful valley between Long Pond and Echo Lake. The hike up the mountain and back was not really very long, just over two miles but it took us two hours.
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| Long Pond |
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| Hiking The Rocky Path To The Summit |
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| Hiking Up Beech Mountain |
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| The Forest Begins To Turn |
The walk up was slow but spectacular, through fir and spruce, with views of the dark blue waters of Long Pond every so often off to our right. The landscape changed from green undergrowth, to brown, fallen leaves and back again as we got higher up. At the summit, we had great views of Long Pond and the surrounding areas, mountains with trees slowly changing colors. The rub was the walk down, over huge rocks with lumps and bumps, with stairs cut into rock, all making it treacherous to walk too fast, so we were slow pokes, letting everyone else, especially the kids, virtually run by us. It was fine with us both. It was a great hike up, a slow, scary hike back down.
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| Cruise Boat Visit At Bar Harbor |
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| A Rocky Descent |
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| Long Pond |
We then drove to the Acadia Park's entrance, bought another senior pass to the National Park's for ten bucks because we forgot ours, or lost them, one or the other. We then drove along the Park Road to the Bubbles and the Bubble rock, set up on top of a mountain, with views of Jordan Pond and Long Pond. We were lucky to find a parking spot and started up a kids friendly trail, obviously it's not senior friendly, as we stepped over lots of rocks, crib boxes, tree trunks and large rocks, both up and down. It was another hour up and down despite being less than a two mile loop. Once we reached the summit, we luxuriated in the warm sun, on the granite top, perched over the valley and both ponds. We had our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they never tasted better.
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| Bubble Rock |
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| Baba On The Bubble |
Our trip down was slow but we took our time, met lots of people on the hike, both going and coming. We had enough by the end of our hike, so we headed home, happy with ourselves for making up two mountains in a day.
We then relaxed, kicked off our shoes, and watched the interminable weather report. At least it's a respite from the Donald show. I read some, took a brief nap, and we had a light high ball in honor of my parents before going off to dinner. We wanted to go back to Thurston's because of their lobster rolls and a great bar with a view of the harbor. As luck would have it, there were lines of people waiting to order their lobster, not knowing that they could walk in another door, sit at the bar and order lobster as well. So that's what we did and a couple moved so we could have two seats together. We must have sat for 15 minutes before another couple sat down, and we moved over, making room for them to bring in another chair.
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| Willis And Pam Watson At Thurston's |
And we talked with them for the next hour and a half. It turns out they were mother and son, celebrating her 75th birthday. They have had a house just above the lobster house for years, in fact they were the first house to have an indoor bathroom in their area, so they are old Maine but mostly for the summers. The Mom, Pamela, an independent and educated woman, has her doctorate and is Dean of Nurses at the University of Texas, Galveston, although she will be retiring in a year, and moving back to be near her son, Willis, in the Philadelphia area, where he is a criminal and civil lawyer. They, unlike many people we met, showed interest in our lives as well as telling us all about theirs, especially their famous ancestors. She reminded us in looks of a Nancy Reagan, willow thin, sophisticated, a blue blood, but nice, fun to talk with. We sat talking with them through a couple of beers, jumbo lobster rolls, and blueberry pie with ice cream, quite a night, the cherry topping on the cupcake of our day.
We got home around 8:30, just in time to hear the big news, that there is a hurricane moving towards the Florida Coast. Who would have thought it?
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