Twelve Days Of Awesome

Twelve days in and we finally made it to the Great White North and we are currently living it up at the Chateau Saint John, after so many nights of camp living.  And lemme tell ya, it feels great.  It still feels surreal when we think about how we are actually on this trip and not just talking about it and, honestly, our lives back home with our apartment and our jobs feels a million miles away.  We miss all you friends and family so much but we do not miss the rut.  We wondered last night just how long it will take before we miss the stability of home but neither of us were really all that interested in coming up with an answer.  This is just still too awesome.  Anyway.

The last entry ended with us sitting in a coffee shop in Bar Harbor and waiting for the weather to clear.  Fortunately it soon cleared and the rest of our time in Acadia was fantastic.  We spent the afternoon walking around town, popping in and out of shops, and eating some delicious ice cream.  We then found Bar Island which you can walk to via a large sandbar at low tide so we went there and hiked to the summit.  Unfortunately we were not expecting this so we did not have the camera with us.  You will just have to take my word for it when I say it was pretty awesome.  We had dinner at a place called Geddy's...no affiliation with Geddy Lee but they have also been in business since 1974 and one of their many t-shirts features a Geddy Lee-looking moose with a Fender Jazz Bass and it says "It's A Rush".  I had to buy it.

On the way out of town we drove through parts of the park, making a stop at Thunder Hole, this little alcove in the cliff that, when the rough waves crash in, let loose some serious BOOMs.  After the weather that we had, it was wicked out there.

Thunder in the hole!

The coast at Thunder Hole.  Oh yeah, we were both singing "Thunder Hole" to the tune of "Thunder Road" the whole time we were there.  Because, well, you know why.

Chris steals the camera to reveal Krissy enjoying Thunder Hole.

From there, we raced up Cadillac Mountain to try and catch the sunset.  The wind up there was right fierce and there were sides of the mountain where we were looking down on clouds but it was still a nice time.

We woke up on Sunday to an absolutely beautiful day and we made the most of it.  Our first stop was at Sand Beach, the only regular beach in the park.  Off of the beach was the Great Head Trail, quite possibly the most inclusive trail I have ever hiked.  Over its two miles or so, it featured stone stairs, gravel, dirt, cobbles & boulders, mud, wood planks, open stone, streams to hurdle as well as a short path straight up a stream, cliffs, and some pretty intense rock climbs.  It was just about a perfect trail and was a lot of fun.

Sand Beach, Acadia National Park ME

Great Head Trail

Maine coast, on the Great Head Trail

After seeing just about everything....wood!

Hans gets past the root of his ills.

The view from the top of Great Head

Two more great heads.

Great Head...stoned....with trees.

From there, we drove to the extended part of the park which is where we camped when we were in Acadia in 2006.  We started off with the Bass Harbor Lighthouse which I should have remembered as being a bit of a letdown.  It was cool but it is still active and run by the coast guard and was not quite accessible or all that quaint.  From there we hiked the Ship's Harbour trail and that was a fun little hike that was like a miniature version of the trail we hiked earlier.  We were both really digging the smells, that mix of forest and salty air....it was perfect for a beautiful day.  And the weather, by the way,  was fantastic.  The temps were in the high 70s but the breeze was still quite chilly so that made for the perfect hiking combo.  Our last stop on this part was the Wonderland trail.  This leads down to an area that is famous for its tidal pools.  Either it was a rough day or we just went down there at a bad time but the pools sucked.  There was nothing really in them except for snails and algae.  When we were here before, the pools were full of life.  The highlight of this leg was seeing The Gravity Tree again.  When we were here in 2006, I found myself enamored by this sort-of sideways tree and I named it The Gravity Tree and it became the title and the cover for one of my albums.  To see that same tree, eight years later, was like coming full circle.  Maybe I will re-record the album and use the new photo for the sleeve.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

Ship's Harbor trail.

The beach at Ship's Harbor.

The Gravity Tree 2014

Snails in a tide pool.

Low tide, low tide.

Revisiting the Gravity Tree.

From there, we went into town and sprawled out on the village green, to call our moms for Mother's Day and our dads, well, just because.  Right next to the green is the store front for Bar Harbor Brewing so we popped in for a tasting.  Very tasty brews.  One of my goals for this trip is to try the local beers in every stop we make, or at least every major stop.  I bought a mixed six-pack which I had planned to be drinking tonight but I just don't have it in me so it will have to travel with us.

After a much-deserved shower we went back to camp and made dinner and a rousing fire and had a nice evening just sitting out.  We woke up chilly today and made our way to the border.  One stop we totally planned on making was for Wild Blueberry Land, in Columbia Falls ME.  We drove past it in 2006 and totally meant to stop but we didn't and we have been thinking about it ever since.  It's a blueberry farm whose main buildings are shaped like blueberries, way north on Route 1.  One of the rare Great Roadside Attractions that is still around.  Well we finally made it there and.....it's not open for the year yet!  I was....still am....really, really sad.  

The wild blueberry says no.

We got to the border and had a slight hiccup due to some bear spray that we had with us.  Apparently mace is a no-no in Canada.  We soon made it through after they took it from us and checked us out a bit and we started on our way to Saint John.  Stopped to get a burner cell phone and also to deal with some bank stuff and we finally made it to the Chateau Saint John.  We stayed here last Summer and this place is great.  Went to the Uptown area for a dinner that included curry nachos that were fantastic.  And that pretty much brings us to now.

Tomorrow we head to Sweetwood Farm in Blockhouse NS to hang out with the goats for a week.  Sure to be one of the cooler parts of this wild adventure, or at least one of the more interesting.  Will update on that later.

Oh yeah, every time we are in Saint John it's become tradition for me to shame the moose.  So here ya go:

He knows what he did.