Acadia, August 7, 2010

To continue our camping story...

We awoke Saturday morning to a brand new day.  Temps in the 70s and this was the sky:

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before suddenly realizing that we were expected to check out in 45 minutes, so we scurried to break camp and pack everything back into the van with much griping and disorganization, about an hour behind schedule and not really sure what we were doing next.  The kids celebrate our empty campsite:

The Donaheys had taken their leave the night before to spend their last night at Hancock and head back to Vermont so we were on our own.  We ended up shopping the annual library book sale in Southwest Harbor and getting a little advice from the nice lady at the local information center.  After fueling up with sandwiches in the tiny parking lot, we climbed Flying Mountain (aka Fernald Hill), elevation a whopping 274 feet.  We met a nice couple at the top from Florida who took our picture for us.  She turned out to be from Switzerland and was outright laughing at the 87 meters, but she did confess to never actually having climbed the Matterhorn even though she grew up looking at it.  The trail was only .3 miles up, but it was UP and it was a bit of work for Jeremy, with Alan's assistance. We all made it, though, and the views were astounding. 

It didn't register at the time, but we were looking right across to the Northeast Harbor 5-miler route that we're running on the 28th (it passes just behind all those reeeeeeaaally nice houses).  

New family portraits:

After that, it was time to make our way home.  We stopped at Thompson Island to use the restrooms and get the wiggles out, and made one last stop at the Ice Cream Outlet for Gifford's and then finally drove home. 

Acadia, August 5 & 6, 2010

Here a few photos of the two days we spent at Seawall.  We filled our site with our massive red tent (containing 1 king size air mattress and 3 twin air mattresses and floor space to spare), and hosted meals over our fire, while Helen, Rich and Sam set up one wee little tent and only actually spent one night in it.  Kind of a study in contrasts:

We took a walk/ride on Hio Road, a carriage road adjacent to the campground.

Dinners and breakfasts ALL included our traditional purple potatoes!  They really were this brightly colored (here they are ready to be fried up, having been pre-baked at home):

On Friday, we had many adventures NOT captured digitally (at least, not by us). 

Alan and I ran/walked 6.2 miles from Seawall to Echo Lake.  This was our long training run for the week, well planned out in advance.  As we were driving in on Thursday we found ourselves coasting down an alarmingly long hill near the end of our route.  Alarming because we were driving the route in reverse.  The more we went down, the more Alan and I said, Noooooooooo!  And then when Friday arrived it was slightly overcast (good) and 90-something degrees (not good).  But we'd convinced our relatives to take on the kids and meet us at the lake so we had to brave the hill and the heat.

Alan gave me a 6 minute head start and caught up to me in downtown Southwest Harbor.  He had run the entire 40+ minutes that it took him to catch me and declared that he was done.  He made a few attempts to run some more, but mostly walked the rest of the route.  I had been taking frequent walking breaks and couldn't face the idea of making the hill last any longer than I absolutely had to, so I continued to alternate as needed.  Once I finally made it to the Top of the Hill Restaurant I knew I was in the home stretch.  There was a little bit of a downhill and then I was rewarded with the turn for Echo Lake.  Suddenly, I was on a park road, which in itself made me feel much happier than being in regular traffic, but it was also in good repair, completely covered with shade trees, winding downhill ever closer to the lake.  Aaaaaaahhh....I actually got a little nervous because I had to put on the brakes so my body wouldn't get there before my feet.  I feared that my knees would buckle and my face would hit the pavement.  I navigated my way through the packed parking lot, the path to the beach, the crowded boardwalk and came to halt right at the edge of the water.  I checked my watch (1:23:something, I can live with that) and looked around for the aforementioned family contingent.  There were at least 200 people at the beach, but not a one was related to me.  Alan, still walking had not caught me again and the rest of the fam, it turned out, had decided to fly kites on the Seawall so they were a little behind schedule and I managed to beat them all! By the time I changed into my bathing suit they had arrived, and we all enjoyed a lovely time splashing, swimming, baking in the sun (a little too much, on my part. I never manage to do a good job with the sunscreen), eating and amusing the ducks at the beautiful sandy beach.

Later, somehow most of us still had enough energy to do Wonderland.  Here are some shots from the beach at the outermost point:

We were all very tired that night and went to bed early snug in our tent with the wind whipping outside.

Little Tunk Pond, August 4, 2010

Last week was vacation week for the Soule sisters and Aunt Helen, Uncle Rich, and cousin Samantha came up from Vermont to spend the week at Hancock, so a family camping trip was planned for two nights at Seawall.  We kicked it off with an afternoon and overnight at the cottage on Wednesday so we could (theoretically) get an early start in the park on Thursday. 

The Marks family loaded up (and I mean LOADED) up the family truckster...

and trekked to Jordan's Snack Bar just outside Ellsworth for onion rings and milk shakes (oh yeah, and burgers, too).  We arrived at the cottage to find no one there and no house key in my pocket.  Mum arrived, but she, too, had no keys (having given them to Helen), so we stuffed Jeremy in through the bathroom window and he dutifully let us in to use the facilities, lock the place back up and meet the rest of the family at a nearby lake.

Little Tunk Pond was not someplace we went as kids.  We simply didn't know it was there!  It is a lovely gem of a place, with a tiny parking area a short walk away.  A hidden treasure:

After a relaxing swim and some sand city engineering (which involved creating dams, building sand huts, and then diabolically flooding the village), we headed back to the cottage.  From there, I went for a 4-mile run, with Helen escorting me on her bike, towing Sam in the bike trailer.  It was fun to explore the nearby neighborhood where we used to walk as kids and beyond via my new hobby.  There were lots of well-maintained seaside cottages with lovely gardens and I was rewarded with a gorgeous view at my turnaround point.  We even passed a series of signs that went like this:

Go Slow


Enjoy the View


So, Bikers, Kids,


And Joggers


Can Too!  Thanks!

How nice of the locals to include all three of us in their request!

After that, it was a nice big family dinner and bed time for everyone.  All the regular beds were occupied, plus Jeremy slept in an ancient overstuffed armchair with an ottoman, and Samantha slept on the floor (following a briefly traumatic falling-off-the-bottom-bunk mishap).  The cottage felt just right, three generations full: two parents/grandparents, two daughters/moms, two sons-in-law/dads, 4 kids/grandkids, and even a grandkitty.

We Coleman Camped

Our weekend featured more than a few items from a certain prominent brand of camping gear, spanning decades of purchase dates, from "seasoned" items handed down to us from our parents to new items acquired via E-bay and Amazon.com.

We slept in Coleman flannel sleeping bags on a Coleman king-sized airbed, inflated with a Coleman battery powered air pump...

under a Coleman battery powered fan/overhead light...

inside a (you guessed it) Coleman 8-person tent.

We looked for our stuff with a Coleman wide-beam flashlight...

We set up our camp by the light of a Coleman lantern...

We kept our perishables in a Coleman cooler...

and cooked part of our breakfast on a Coleman camp stove (although the rest of our cooking was done properly on the fire, thank you very much!)

Hey Coleman guys! We like your stuff!!

We Camped

James spent a week at Camp Roosevelt with the Boy Scouts. He returned boggy and bugbitten but cheerful and chatty. He earned merit badges in fishing, swimming, and basketry.

Madeline spent a week at Camp Natarswi, the Girl Scout camp I attended for something like 9 years running "back in the day" (I'm refusing to do the math). We caught a mere glimpse of Katahdin on the way to pick her up but she did have some good weather while she was there. She passed her swim test, braved the tippy test (intentionally swamping a canoe so you know how to deal with it), tied a fly, got a bullseye, and earned her canoeing and archery pins.

[I'm telling you, Katahdin is right behind her.]

Jeremy spent a few days at Nana and Gumpy's camp in Hancock, learning about blueberry fields and collecting rocks.

And Alan and I camped, too. By ourselves. Just the two of us.

We drove to Freeport on Friday from Orono via Millinocket [we weren't lost, we had to pick up Madeline at camp first and then leave the kids with Nana Mary]. We arrived at Recompense Shore Campground at 11pm and set the tent up by the car headlights. We were fortunate to be so late because that's how we missed doing it in the pouring rain. Which would have been very bad.

By light of day our campsite looked like this:

Breakfast Saturday featured fried purple potatoes with onions and red peppers, bacon, and french toast:

After our Saturday adventures (see next few blogs) we enjoyed a peaceful campfire.

Yup, summer has truly arrived for the Marks Family.