Saturday September 20th – Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

We managed to catch up with our friends Lise and Charlie. You may recall that we met them while sailing on the Danube River Cruise earlier this year, followed by a day spent together in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This time our paths crossed in Maine where they invited us to join then at their family cabin on the shores of Green Lake. What a warm greeting, complete with yummy homemade popovers.  Lise had tweeked her knee just before we arrived, but still managed to cook them while balancing on one leg. 

Our plans were to spend the day exploring Acadia National Park, which we did, but it also turned out to be a day of eating some of the things Maine is most known for.

What was for lunch? Fresh clams of course!

Acadia National Park

“Originally created as Lafayette National Park in 1919, the oldest National Park east of the Mississippi River, it was renamed Acadia in 1929.” ~ Wikipedia

Map of Acadia National Park

To see the park right, we decided to break it up into two days. The route highlighted in yellow on the map above is what we covered on Day #1. It is the eastern half of Mount Desert Island and includes Bar Harbor, Cadillac Mountain, Thunder Hole as well as numerous scenic overlooks.

Here are a few shots we took. The day was quite overcast and windy, but the rugged beauty of the coastline was hard to deny.

On top of Cadillac Mountain

Cadillac Mountain, with its pink granite summit is one of the first places in the United States to see the morning sunrise.

Tim, Joanne, Lise and Charlie

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park, gardens perfect for weddings and photography

Beaver Dam

Thunder Hole

Rocks near Thunder Hole

Rugged shoreline

Church

Lise showed me a fun feature on our camera. There is a setting that will allow you to take a picture in a “watercolor” style. Here is an example of a similar shot, one regular mode and the other in the watercolor mode.

The eating extravaganza was not over. On our way back to the cabin, we stopped in a “lobster pound” (restaurant/seafood distributor) to pick up three live lobsters. Charlie is vegan and decided not to join us. I have never cooked whole lobster before, and found out it is really quite easy.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a full boil
2. Insert lobster in pot
3. Cook for 14 minutes
4. Enjoy with melted butter and/or lemon

Oh yeah, forgot to mention a slight hiccup. Just as we were heading out the door to drive to the park, the water system at the cabin decided to act up. The water level in the lake was low, and with high wind conditions the water line had gotten compromised and clogged with mud.

Tim had tried to clear the line and restart the pump while Charlie had been gone on his morning run, but had not been successful. The guys decided to not worry about it until we returned, so while Lise and I got the Lobster ready to cook and fixed a salad, the two men tried to get us some water. Sadly the water system won this round.

Thankfully we had picked up several gallons of water at the store on the way home so we had plenty to boil the lobsters.

This just added to the fun and made the cabin stay a bit more like camping, however we had a warm, comfortable bed to sleep in. We had a wonderful and fun reunion with Lise and Charlie and look forward to having them come and visit us next time at our cabin in California!

Gratitude Moment: Today I am grateful for being able to eat my fill of some of the freshest, most delicious clams and lobster I have ever tasted. What a treat!