We drove up to Maine in 1 day, just shy of 15 hours of driving, hitting 10 states on the way. We arrived in a deep fog and worried that our trip would be spent mostly indoors, but the next day the fog burned off by noon and never returned. I love how Maine smells, like low tide and Christmas trees. Fresh and clean and salty. The balsam firs are everywhere, their delicate scent drifting in to sweeten the air every so often.
On our first day we got to spend time with Miko and Bella, our two charges for the week, and we toured downtown Ellsworth where we were staying and drove over for a visit to Bar Harbor and the Loop Road of Acadia National Park. Beautiful. We strolled down to the water in Bar Harbor, explored some of the shops, scoped out the Episcopal Church for Sunday, and took the mile long shore walk before heading out to Acadia and the rugged Maine coast. We stopped for views and pictures and even meditated on the rocks with the sound of the ocean waves providing the background music.
On Friday, our second day we decided to take a tour of the Schoodic Peninsula, about an hour north and got to play on the rocks where the ocean waves were breaking. We saw lots of gorgeous scenery and stopped in the sweet little town of Corea at the Wharf Gallery for grilled cheese lobster sandwiches. Yum! We fell in love with the little Corea Harbor and drove all around it. On the road in we also saw a puffin's nest on top of a telephone pole.
On Saturday exhaustion from the trip and a rough night up with the dogs caught up with us, and we had a mostly quiet day. The view from the house of Union River was stunning, and the wind stirred up the river waves at high and low tides. We had dinner that night at Finn's Irish Pub, good fish and chips and ice cream later from Morton's Moo in Ellsworth.
On Sunday we headed in for church at St. Savior's in Bar Harbor where we participated in a lovely service and then took a tour of the church which has 10 Tiffany windows. The tour guide was delightful, told great stories and had a wonderful sense of humor. After church we changed clothes and caught the Island Explorer bus to Jordan Pond where we had popovers before heading out on a hike to Bubble Rock and around Jordan Pond. More about that in another post. After completing our hike we took the bus back to town and arrived in time for ice cream (macademia coconut white chocolate) before the evening service for seasonal employees at St. Savior's. Turns out that it was a prayer and praise service, and the largest group in attendance were from Jamaica. We heard Jamaican Gospel music filling the walls of St. Savior's and enjoyed worshiping there.
On Monday we took the mail boat to Little Cranberry Island where we got meet Ashley Bryan and tour his house and his art. More about him later. We also went on a lobster boat tour. Such fun! We learned a lot about lobsters and had a great afternoon on the water. We ate that night at the Lobster Pot in Ellsworth - yummy lobster mac & Cheese.
Tuesday was our last day, and we spent the morning working on the farm where our friends get shares of vegetables. We picked cucumbers and beet greens and washed and packed them. We went back to Corea for the afternoon for more fresh lobster and local friendliness.
On the way back home we stopped in Baltimore for a lovely dinner with my cousins, Anne and Shirley. It was a wonderful trip, and I look forward to sharing some of my reflections in later posts.
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