First Installment

Hola all,

Here is the first installment of the narration of the Maine trip. Pictures will go up this weekend.

8/25/07 Friday
Departed Fredericksburg, around 1020, on a hot and humid day when the temperature was supposed to hit 99F. Arrived in West Chester, PA around 1400. Took Bonnie an additional 2.5-3 hours to finish packing and load her car...then onward to Haddenfield, NJ to get Andrew.

Was given the nickel tour of Andrew's pleasant spartan condo (furniture and decorations optional) which was in a nice location. Brief tour of downtown Haddenfield, followed by a decent dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Departed Haddenfield around 2000 and drove until around midnight where we stopped in Connecticut about 20 miles south of Hartfield. My pleasureable day of being in vehicles allowed me to go through parts of VA, MD, DC, PA, NJ, NY and CT...what fun!

8/26
Woke up and had breakfast in the Denny's next door and got rolling around 0815. Arrived in Bar Harbor, ME around 1500. Todays route went via route 91 to rte 15 to rte 84 to the Mass. Pike to rte 495 to rte 95 to rte 295 to rte 95 which got us to Bangor, ME (for you Stephen King fans). From there, rte 1a to rte 3 to Bar Harbor. (exciting highways)

It was hot and humid in Bar Harbor (upper 80's). The house was nice and open with 3 floors. Entry/garage lvl, bedroom lvl, then the open kitchen/family/dining room with a deck on the 3rd floor. Nice view of the local forests and mountains from the deck...also very breezy!

Picked up rental bikes (Trek 4300 mountain bike.....used)

Dinner was mediocre at Rupinini's....not good enough to remember what we ate or going back to.

Steve and Carole arrived at around 2100....after driving straight through from Fredericksburg, VA....they were rather zombie like upon arriving.

8/27 Sunday

Everyone was up early and feeling rather energetic. The morning tradition of eggs and tea for breakfast was started this morning ( i had 2 eggs, Andrew had 7+). A short bike ride (4 miles at most I guess) which allowed us to find the entrance to the Great Meadow Loop path...for our group morning walk.
The walk started innocently enough.....walked 2-3 miles from the house to the Nature Center..all feeling good, so Steve and I decided we should try something more strenuous...Dorr Mountain. This clime was labelled strenuous (we later found out) and was painful. The views were amazing....I opted out part way up the mountain since going down is more difficult then going up with my knees. Steve, Carole and Andrew made it to the summit....and Steve was challenged going down....was amusing to pick him up at the bottom with his new walking stick.....
Total walk for me was around 6 miles..and my legs/knees were done when finished. The descent was very slow and challenging for me...but not as bad as I thought it might be. The pictures of the carved steps and such are cool.

No mosquitos!
Rest of day was spent recovering, prior to an excellent dinner at MacKays pub...highly recommended if anyone gets to Bar Harbor. Good filets and seafood.