Southwest Harbor Maine

Acadia National Park

Jordan Pond

Jordan Pond

Atop Cadillac Mountain

Well, it's 6:30 and I have gotten Evie a couple of cups of coffee and I am sitting downstairs in the living room of our Bed and Breakfast, the Inn at Southwest Harbor Maine.  We have over an hour until our breakfast, so we will spend it on our computers, writing my blog.  We may have some sun today but a northeaster is moving in some time Tuesday, bringing as much as three inches of rain. Perfect!

We left the Armontrouts at Thompson Lake around 8:15, knowing we would have a sunny day and a three and a half hour ride to Acadia National Park.  We were on the peninsula by 11:45 and wended our way down narrow roads to our first hike, around Jordan Pond, a hike my sister Ellen highly recommended.  We were on the trail by 12:30, returned to our car about two hours later.  It is a magnificent hike around the pond, just about a four mile loop.

Hiking Shore Line of Jordan Pond

We walked counter clock wise and the east side of the pond was easy going, a trail with few rocks, mostly wooded down to the lake, with two huge round mountains at the north end called the north and south Bubbles.  We picnicked at the north end, cheese and apples, just right and then started back on the west side which, to our amazement, was a board walk for much of the way, protecting the wetlands beneath it.  At first, however, we climbed over huge boulders and rocks, an amazing assortment of sizes, with a trail between them.

Boardwalk Along Jordan Pond

The boardwalks, however, demanded your attention, so that we could not spend much time admiring the surroundings.  And if hikers came from the opposite direction, some one would have to give way, usually us.

Love the Blues

Starting Our Hike

After our hike, we stopped at the restaurant but there was an hour wait so we decided to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain, about twenty minutes away. Obviously, it has great 360º view of Desert Island, with a half mile path around the summit.  It was crowded with visitors because it's such a spectacular sight but we were able to find a parking spot and enjoy the views, without much wind and fairly mild temperatures.

Popovers

On our way down, Evie called the Jordan Pond restaurant and they saved a table for us.  So we relaxed there for an hour, ordered the specialty, a pot of tea and two popovers, with loads of butter and jam.  A great way to end our hiking and our day.

Bates Motel, Miss Vickie?

We then drove to Southwest Harbor, only to sit outside the town, about a mile from our Bed and Breakfast for at least twenty minutes because they were digging up the road.  Nice.  We finally made it to the Inn at Southwest Harbor which seemed nice.  The owner, a young guy, was very enthusiastic, told us about all their amenities, breakfast, coffee always available, cider in the afternoons with cookies, things like that.  When we asked about places to eat, we found that just about every restaurant, in fact all of the spots my sister recommended were CLOSED FOR THE SEASON.  Only one was open, the Dry Dock, because they discovered all the other restaurants were closed and there were still a few naive tourists like us expecting things to be open.

We relaxed in our room till about 7:00 and walked virtually next  door to the Dry Dock, sat at at the bar and waited at least five minutes for the bartender to appear, not a good start.  But from then on, things got better. We struck up a conversation with a young kid sitting next to us, and found he was a local but worked as an engineer on oil barges going up the Delaware River.  He was just at the end of his three weeks off, and was heading back to Delaware for a three week job.  He was fun to talk with, because he was a local, grew up in Southwest Harbor.  We also became friendly with the bartender who was very friendly and outgoing.  In five days, he was heading south to Fort Lauderdale to work at a bar for the winter.  When we asked about places to eat in Bar Harbor, a couple standing next to us, a waitress, and the bartender all made suggestions, even writing out names of places we ought to go like Thirsty Whale, Side Street (whose lobster mac n cheese was rated the 9th best in the US), and Mama DiMatteo's, a local Italian place. .

New Best Friends At Dry Dock Restaurant

More Best Friends, Lobster Man and Girl Friend, Waitress and Bar Tender

How cool of them to be so helpful.  O, yea, we had a couple of beers and ordered lobster rolls, twice as good as the ones we had in Portland.  Each was stuffed with an entire lobster.  With fries, a beer, we were in heaven.  We stayed until 8:30 and went back to our room to read on our iPads or computers.  Thanks to the gang at the Dry Dock we ended our day on a perfect note.

Living Room at Inn at Southwest Harbor

Southwest Harbor and Acadia Park Bound

A Fall Dip In Thompson Lake

Hot Tubbing With Ellery

Crazy Granny

We are both up early, at 6:00 because we are driving three and a half hours this morning to Acadia National Park, where we plan on staying for three or for days, depending on the weather.  Rain is coming sometime tommorow, so we hope to make the best of this afternoon and tomorrow morning and afternoon if we can.  We will just have to see what nature brings.  We are staying at a Bed and Breakfast in Southwest Harbor, but we cannot check in till 3:00, so we will get a hike in before checking in.

Walking With the Labs

My Buddy, Trout

Yesterday was a busy day with lots of company, friends of both the Trouts and ours from our days teaching together at Western Reserve Academy.  First of all, however, we spent the morning with the grandkids, what else do you do on a Sunday morning.  They were in rare form, wanting Trout to do this or Evie to do that.  So we all decided to walk the roads down here, lovely because they are wooded and there's almost no traffic.  We walked for over an hour, looking at the various houses, from modest cottages to huge estates with muiltiple buildings.  Thompson Lake is obviously very popular though its nowhere near as crowded with homes as Chautauqua.  Most are set back so they are hard to see.  We took the dogs with us, and they loved just running wild, scampering ahead and into the woods, looking anything of interest.  It is obviously a great place for dogs and everyone up here has at least one if not two.

Around 2:00, Ellery wanted to jump in the hot tub before going home to Portland.  So Ron, Ellery and Evie put on their suits and went outside and jumped in the tub.  They relaxed and played games with Ellery until Evie got the great idea of swimming in the frigid lake.  I couldn't resist jumping in either, so I quickly put on my suit and all of us went for a mighty quick dip in the lake, bone chilling cold I might add.  We then scurried up the yard, jumped in the hot tub and stayed in it until we warmed up and Ellery had to go.  We got dressed and said a sad goodbye to the Jenkinson's, who unlike the four of us, have to work tomorrow.  What's that.

Nora and Cliff, Friends From Boston

Around 3:30, Cliff and Nora Webster stopped by, having spent the weekend at Bowdoin College homecoming and their house on the tip of the Georgetown, Maine peninsula.  Cliff taught at Reserve and he and Nora spent a weekend at Chautauqua back in the early 1980's.  They were the two who got the Armontrouts interested in Maine and Ron helped Cliff build his post and beam house in 1977 and 1978, a long time ago.  Both Cliff and Nora and the Trouts have remained good friends and for the past twenty or thirty years, they have a Thanksgiving lobster bake on their beach.  We caught up on their kids and since they are going to Istanbul in a month, we talked about where they should stay, what they should do in their four days there before going to visit their daughter in Jordan.  They stayed about an hour before driving home to Boston.

Hobart and Linda,  Neighbors and Colleagues from Reserve

We relaxed for an hour, though Evie and Vickie put the finishing touches on the pastitisio from Ina Garten of course.  At 6:00, Hobart and Linda arrived, good friends of the Trouts as well as us because Hobart taught at Reserve for a number of years in the 1980's before moving on to Groton School and now Exeter, a couple hour drive from their house on Thompson Lake.  We have had dinner with them both times we were up, two and three years ago, so it was fun to see them again.  Exeter had Parent's Weekend so they have Monday off so they decided to drive up.  We had a great meal, swapped boarding school and lakefront ownership stories, till about 9:00 when they went home, about a quarter of a mile away on the lake.  They are great people, fun to talk with, and we love getting to see them each time we visit.  All of our histories go back thirty plus years.

We were all exhausted from the weekend of fun, grandchildren, company, food and wine, so we went to bed early, around 10:00, to get ready for our drive north.  A great weekend with the Trouts and Family and Friends!

BFF

Chilling With The Trouts and Their Family On Thompson Lake

The Armontrout Family

The Abode

Thompson Lake 

It's 7:00 and Vickie is up, making scones for breakfast.  It's mostly cloudy outside, a slash of light off to the western sky, the pines gently moving in the breeze.  Both Ellery and Hollis, the Armontrout's grandchildren just got up, so the fun begins.  They are six and two, just delights, and Evie's getting her grandchildren fix for the week.  Both are fun, affectionate, not afraid to sit on our laps, give us a hug, so we are  both happy campers.

The Drama Princess

The Renaissance Angel

The Imp

Yesterday was partly sunny, some rain late in the afternoon, but a decent day.  We relaxed with coffee early, until Christine drove in from Portland with her daughters.  And as I have said, the fun began.  Ron and Vickie get to see their granddaughters quite often because they are only forty five minutes away.  We played with the kids for an hour, while Christine quickly began our dinner extravaganza, a tradition when we come to visit. She and her husband Ben both love to cook and are great at it.  So she started the sauce for Italian Cioppino, their favorite fish stew.  So our late morning began with the smell of sausage and tomato sauce simmering on the stove, the first step in our dinner.

Hollis with Baba

A Hollis Smile

Crazy Lady

Grandy, Ellery and Granny

 We decided to take Hollis and Ellery for a hike, so we drove to a park about twenty five minutes away.  It used to be a farm but is now woods with a myriad of trails, all hiking in the fall, but some for cross country skiing in the winter, others for snow shoeing, others just for hiking.  They also have a cabin full of cross country skis and shoes in the winter, for anyone to use, compliments of a local organization.  We walked for just under an hour, not going very far because the girls enjoyed just browsing the woods, stopping every ten yards to examine something new that they found, the wonderful curiosity of the young.

Trout's Back Yard Swing Set

We were back about 1:00.  For lunch, we had a Maine specialty, red hots, a fire red hot dog, with a kick, which Trout cooked outside on the grill. Vickie made a great salad, with various crunches in it, and Trouts favorite baked beans, again from Ina Garten. Ben, Christine's husband arrived just as we finished lunch, having spent the morning hunting for birds in the nearby woods, with no luck.  Even the girls loved the red hots, so it was a great lunch, plenty to keep us going for the afternoon.  Two or three of us, me included, took naps while Evie and Trout kept Ellery interested for an hour.  While we slept, Christine and Ben began the essentials of our dinner, cutting up the cod and salmon, the shrimp, cleaning the scallops and squid, washing the clams, getting them ready for the sauce just before dinner.  And Christine made up potato pancakes, about twenty two inch patties, which she later covered with smoked salmon and sour cream (two years ago it was salmon on a potato chip with creme fraiche).

Treasure Chest Excitement

We played with the girls until it was time for appetizers, a special cocktail of Presecco and an Italian liquor.  And the highlight of the before dinner extravaganza, was the Treasure Box, which Evie brought for the two girls .  Needless to say, they loved going through it, but had a difficult time making up their mind what three treasures they wanted, which is the fun of watching them.  Inevitably, Evie lets them keep four, sometimes five when the cannot make up their mind. What fun.

The Gourmands , Christine and Ben

Around 7:00, after a couple of glasses wine, I sat at the bar and watched Ben sear the scallops and throw the scallops, shrimp, fish and clams in the tomato sauce.  Each scallop was placed in a serving bowl, then filled with the rest of the fish, shrimp, and clams, taken to the table and we dug in, with thick slices of bread from the Standard Bakery in Portland.  We were in heaven, to use an appropriate cliche, the bite of the tomato sauce perfect with all the sea food.  What a treat.

Dinner At Trouts 

We were stuffed but not too stuffed to have Chocolate Cork brownies from Standard Bakery, again compliments of Ben and Christine.  The girls had fun putting the whipped cream on the brownies for everyone before going to bed.  Trout and I sat around with a Maker's Mark on ice for about twenty minutes before going up to bed like everyone else.

Thompson Lake, Maine Rocks (Get The Pun)

Fort William Light House, Cape Elizabeth, ME

Thompson Lake At 6:58

It's a great morning when you can wake up on Thompson Lake in Oxford, Maine.  It's about 7:00 and I can see some of the lake between the pine trees.  Maine has a law you  cannot cut down anything within 100 feet of the lake, how sensible.  It's an overcast morning, with some fog, so all the colors are muted.  It's now 8:00 and Vickie and I have been talking about our prep school lives for a good hour.  Evie's just come up so I will get back to my blog.

Artisan Bakery

Relaxing In Front Of Scratch Bakery

We spent the morning in Portland, after leaving Cris's home in Cape Elizabeth around 10:00.  She recommended we stop at Scratch Bakery in South Portland, then go to Fort Williams, where the picturesque Lighthouse sits.  The bakery was amazing, all kinds of goodies but were out of everything bagels, the only kind they make and our favorite.  We got coffee and an amazing raspberry muffin, then drove three miles to the coast and toured the Ft. William area.  It's an obvious 'go to' spot in Maine, lots of buses and tourists, but it is a beautiful point, rugged Maine coast, grassy knolls, overlooking the Lighthouse on the point.  We settled down with our coffee and muffin, enjoyed the view, went for a short hike, then headed into Portland,  again quite close, about a 15 minute drive to the downtown Portland area of Commercial Street.

Portland is a great city to walk, so we parked down along one of the piers, and then just walked for a couple of hours, up the various streets, packed with shops, restaurants, an occasional hotel, and lots of locals as well as tourists.  We found lots of things we would have loved to buy but resisted except for a few things in an exceptional kitchen shop.  Our favorite shop was Abacus, also Ron and Vickie's favorite as well.  We went to J's Oyster for lunch, at Cris Lane's recommendation.  It's a tiny place with a few outside tables at this time of year.  We ended up sitting at the bar, the first available seats, and enjoyed just sitting there, watching the people.  We had a couple of beers and split a lobster roll and I also had a bowl of clam chowder.  This was our first lobster in years and we hope it will be the first of many over the next week.  We then walked for another hour until we got tired of shopping and sightseeing, so we decided we had enough and headed to Armontrout's on Thompson Lake, around forty five minutes from Portland.

Lobster Roll at J's Oyster in Portland, Maine

We hit the Trout's home around 4:15, just as Ron was finishing up his work, and we were greeted most enthusiastically by their two black labs, Emmie and Hypatia when Vickie returned from her walk.  It was a lovely afternoon, the sun glistening on the lake, starting to get dark as the afternoon waned.  Their house is really amazing, open floor plan of course, great view of the lake, warm and friendly, and Ron did much of the work himself.  In fact, back in the day, he helped me roof and shingle our house on Chautauqua Lake.  After walking outside to the lake, seeing the yard, we relaxed in their living room with wine, cheese, and a great blueberry spread with a kick.  For dinner, Vickie made Ina Garten's chicken with a mustard herb sauce which was delicious, moist with a great breading.  We also had kale, baked and crispy, with salt and really good.  We devoured it along with a creamy and flavorful grits.  I guess this was Jeffrey's, Ina's husband's anniversary dinner. Yum!

Ron and Vickie's Dining Room

Vickie and Ron On Their Porch

The Guests

We sat around till about 10:30, talking about our grandchildren, of course, and reminisced about our good old days teaching together at Western Reserve Academy back in the 1980's.

It's now almost 9:00 and we have been sitting around drinking coffee, planning our day, so it's time to publish my blog.  We cannot wait till their daughter Christine, her husband Ben, and their children arrive late morning. Evie's traveling Treasure Chest is ready!

Portland For The Day, Then On to Lake Thompson For The Weekend

Our Grandson Tyler, With His Friend, Helen, at Lou's in Hanover, NH

We are in Cape Elizabeth this morning, just south of Portland, staying with Chris Lane and family.  Chris is up, out walking the dog, and it's just after 7:00 as everyone is getting up.  Isabel is off for school around 7:20, as we sit around the island in their kitchen, drinking coffee.  Chris left around 7:45 and then I walked Brian down to the bus at 8:00, met lots of parents and their dogs, all waiting for the school bus.  We are off to Portland, probably around 10:00 for the day, then to Oxford, Maine in the late afternoon for the weekend.  We cannot wait to see our friends, Ron and Vickie Armontrout.

We were both up early yesterday, after a great evening with Mac, ready for our short drive to Dartmouth to see Tyler, our grandson for breakfast.  It's only a half hour from Woodstock to Hanover, so we were there by 9:30 and went straight to Lou's Diner, the campus legend, to get a table for our 10:00 gathering.  Of course, we waited for close to forty minutes; Tyler slept through his alarm, but made it by 10: 20. His girl friend, Helen, arrived five minutes later.  Anyways, we had a great time, super breakfast as Tyler not only had pancakes, but eggs, and toast and anything else he could find on his plate.  He's a happy boy at Dartmouth.  Why not, college is a great life and he's doing well in school, liking his classes, especially his engineering class where his only test is to build a bridge.

We talked with both of them until 11:40, when they both had to head off to a chemistry class.  It was fun to see them thriving in college.  We drove around campus for about ten minutes before deciding to head towards Maine by driving south before east and north.  Go figure.  The weather was horrendous all through New Hampshire, pouring, torrential rains interspersed with normal rain fall.  It was not fun driving.  We took a break where everyone in New Hampshire takes a break...the tax free state liquor, wine and beer store.  We picked up two cases of wine because you only got 10% off for one case but 20% for two.  So we bought two...our motto, you got to spend money to save money.

Maine Coast On A Wet And Overcast Day

Hiking The Marginal Way In Ogunquit, ME

A Sign With A Sense Of Humor

No Cairns?

We stopped at the village of Ogunquit, just inside the Maine line, set right on the ocean.  It surprised me because it was extremely touristy, with one ocean front hotel, motel, inn, or spa after another, with many more on the other side of the street.  It's obviously an easy two hour destination for Bostonians, thus the many places to stay, many vacant this time of the year.  We stopped in this town because of a great seaside hike called the The Marginal Way, a mile and a half of paved pathway, along the ocean, with benches every quarter of a mile to sit and enjoy the view.  On one side of the path is the ocean, mostly rocks, waves breaking on them, an occasional small beach.  On the other side, near town, hotels and motels, but as we moved a way from town, it was private houses, many huge, with multiple porches and views.  It was overcast when we started, but started to rain, of course, about ten minutes from our car.  When we got to the car, we were not only wet but sweaty because we overdressed and it was warmer than we thought.

Cris, Brian, Isabel And Maggie

A Happy Family

Spiderwoman

Spiderman

Isabel and Maggie

The Traveling Treasure Chest

We drove on to Cape Elizabeth, where our neighbor's daughter Cris Lane had invited us to spend the night.  She has a great house, a couple of miles from the ocean.  We got to see her kids Brian and Isabel, and Evie brought along the treasure box, so they were excited. Cris had beers for us, along with chips, salsa and guacamole, just what we needed after our drive.  Evie then watched an older movie version of Godzilla on Netflix with the kids and I sat in the kitchen and talked with Cris while she put together a great chili, with a side of polenta, both delicious.  We all enjoyed our dinners, then sat around eating a Maine tradition, Whoopie pies, for dessert.  The kids loved them of course.  By the time we finished eating, it was time for Brian to go to bed, so Isabel and I watched the Pats/Jets game, and talked with Cris.  Isabel is a great football fan so she was happy to be able to stay up and watch the first half of the game.

We were all tired, us from our trip, Cris I am sure from having company, so we were all in bed by 10:30.  A wet day but a great stay with Chris, Brian, and Isabel.