Monday, August 24, 2009

Acadia National Park ~ Fantastic Vacation!

We went to Acadia National Park in Maine for a weeks vacation camping. What a fantastic time! The whole vacation we kept hitting good Karma…whatever we planned on doing, it worked out at it’s best possible. First off, I was supposed to go on vacation the week before but had to cancel, and so missed a crappy rainy week and hit the hottest, sunniest, best week of the summer.
We decided to leave late Saturday night, spent the day getting things ready. After a very late night drive, we bunked down in Augusta, ME at the last room in the last hotel – Yay!! Motel 6!
2009 08 17_1637 We arrived Sunday morning to a fairly empty Sewall National Park Campsite and picked our camp – Somewhere around noon. We spent the day setting up, getting supplies and picking up brochures of what to do. We went over to the Sewall picnic area later in the afternoon and played around on the rocks at the ocean until supper. 2009 08 16_1680We came back to camp,  had a camp fire, S’mores and planned the week.  I’ve learned (late-comer, maybe) that if we actually choose some things to do and plan a day to do them, we end up doing a lot of fun things on vacation. Playing it by ear often leaves us in camp until 1-2 in the afternoon, cranky, hungry and without any idea of what to do, or having missed some scheduled event that we might have liked to do.
The rest of the week  went like this:
Monday - Bar Harbor Day
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  • Rode the free Bus from Sewall to Bar Harbor
  • Geddy’s for lunch  0817091430 0817091458
  • Hiked out across the low tide bridge to Bar Island, played and hiked all day, Jeremiah and I followed a doe and fawn all over the island, or rather, they seemed to follow us on our hike 
  • Ice cream at Ben & Bills and walked around shops
  • Caught last bus to campsite
  • Campfire and Bed
Tuesday – Echo Lake
  • Up early, drove to Echo Lake, already 90º by 10:00. Hiked up the extreme trail on Beech Mountain. Chutes and ladders, big views and cliffs.
  • Ate lunch at 1:00
  • Played at the lake all afternoon
  • Back to camp
  • campfire & supper
  • Bed
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Wednesday – Sailing Day
  • Went to Southwest Harbor at noon
  • Took 3 hour sailing cruise around the islands and sound on the Rachel B. Jackson
  • Drove around the island around 4:00 then back to Southwest Harbor for Ice cream
  • Back to camp, ate supper late
  • Went & watched the stars over at the beech rocks at Sewall picnic area till 10:30.
  • Bed
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Thursday – Acadia Park Day2009 08 20_1850
Decided to stay another day as the weather was fantastic.
  • Drove to park headquarters, & bought a few books and maps. Decided to spend the day hiking and at Sandy Beech.
  • Hiked from Sandy beech to Thunder Hole along the shore cliffs. Played, rock climbed, took lots of pictures.
  • Hiked back to the beech around 4:00
  • Went swimming in an unusually warm ocean. Saw lots of Jelly Fish
  • Back to Southwest Harbor, to Quietside Café for Pizza and ice cream again. New favorite flavor – “Maine Birch Bark”
  • Back to camp for a fire
  • The waves were pounding and the fog rolling in late night.
 Friday
  • Up at the crack of Dawn
  • Packed the car by 9:00 and headed over to say goodbye to the ocean at Sewall Picnic area
  • Left the island around 10:30
  • Home around 6:00
Going to pick out some more fun for a trip next summer. There is so much hiking and food and fun to have there!

Friday, August 14, 2009

T -60 minutes and counting

This is it..vacation starts in less than an hour (although in realty, I'll still be here at the office for at least 2-1/2 because I'm going to work out before I leave.)

The whole family is pretty excited... I'm excited just to able to sleep past 5:30 am.

I'll post some pics next time and maybe do a Good Eats in Town ~ on the road edition.

Work was different this week. Not much billable, but a flurry of activity with new projects starting up, seemingly successful interviews and some BIG project proposals. I'll die if we get Enfield WMA...that is a surveyors dream job. Twenty one miles of semi-wilderness surveying and over a year to finish it. It's a long shot, I know, but man...if we get it!

A friend sent me a story by Hernando Téllez - Espuma y nada más. (Thanks Anna8) I remember reading it back in 6-8th grade days in Westmoreland (but in English) it's one of those stories that has stuck with me all these years...I'm excited to read it in Spanish. I just enjoyed a short story by Márquez that Lili posted on Spanishpod (in Spanish). I like the book group thing.  One thing I've begun to realize....you just can't translate stories....You have to know what they say in the native language they are written in AND understand all the colloquialisms that the writer understood when writing it.  So much is lost in translation, even the little nuances that really change a meaning of a simple sentence. Makes you wonder about the Bible  :)

Still wish I had someone to regularly converse with. It's easy and comfortable enough at my own pace, talking to myself i the truck or in the woods in Spanish, but still...complete brain freeze face to face (not that there are really any opportunities anyway)

I put a wooden shingle roof on the garden gate, built I'm going to take it off and put on the cedar shingles that I got for $5. It looks so nice. My Art is my Garden and the yard is my canvas.

Does anybody even ever read this stuff? Who knows. At least it gets it out of my head  :)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

BRAD fire PIT

Everything at our house gets a name...the car, the truck, favorite utensils, every animal...even dozens of names for each of us (the human  residents), ...whatever.

Last night at Gracie's party, my brother in law Bruno decided our fire pit should have a name. We pondered for a few minutes, then my sister Sarah hit it dead on...Brad.

Brad fire Pit

Rib's rock!

Here is my pretty girl...chuffing her face full of her favorite meal in the world....Ribs, corn and beans.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Happy Birthday Grace!!!

Today is Gracie's 8th Birthday! She is my little sweetie and already such a cool person. We call her radical girl. We went to Canobie lake park Saturday and she is just tall enough to hit the adult rides...which she did over and over. Stuff even I wouldn't go on.

For her birthday dinner, she wants BBQ pork ribs, corn on the cob (cooked on the grill) and Leo's frijoles charros (spicy bacon/beans, she calls them...it doesn't hurt that they are from Leo...she has a crush) She seem sometimes 8 going on 28.Crazy Goosie!!!

She has such a crazy sense of humor

Me & GoosieSweetie Girl in the woods

Radical Girl playing in the snowSsnowboarding on chickering's hillCrazy night fighterThinkin'