Rainout. So went to the Abbe Museum to learn about the indigenous peoples. Then found a wonderful little place where we could walk along nature trails and see birds including raptors unable to return to the wild. This place was called Birdsacre and was smack in the middle of the ugliest sprawliest most confusing part of Ellsworth Maine. Walk just a bit along the trail and feel a million miles away. Shown here is a really red mushroom.

Made a late lunch/early dinner at Atlantic Brewing with Mainely Meat complementing the libations. Closest we needed to come to indoor dining; we ate right by the open door, so I don’t count it.

Worst weather day of the trip, yet we pulled a good time out of it.

This was one of the best days, which we spent in “Sara’s Neighborhood,” near Southwest Harbor. First off, Xopher got his bike pedals replaced at the wonderful Southwest Cycle. Then we put those pedals to the test by biking from Seawall to Bernard and seeing all the sights in between.

We stopped off at the Wonderland Trail, which was such a pleasure with so many lovely woodland and waterfront vistas – and true wonders, as Xopher managed to find a sweet potato on the beach. I thought this was so hysterical I couldn’t resist remarking to the very next couple that we passed, “Hey!! We found a potato!!” They gave shocked and confused looks, then laughed, and the guy said, “That IS a wonder!”

We went down to the Bass Harbor lighthouse, shown here. We went up and around the inlet. We had a satisfying waterfront lunch which also served as dinner at Seafood Ketch.

On the way back, we did another trail, the Ship Harbor trail, with more lovely and dramatic vistas.

Looking through my photos, I see that the wildlife sightings that day included cormorants, possibly loons, deer, and a heron.

Xopher called it a “fun area.” High praise from him.

Backtrack two years ago. We are in Acadia and we take a long walk straight from the motel. We rest and then look at the map, and Xopher (I’ll throw him under the bus) says, well, the shortest route back would be this way. “This way” turned out to be over the park’s goddamn highest mountain by the most difficult route. We just fail so hard.

So two years later, these two idiots are ready for their redemption. We’re going to hike Cadillac Mountain, the EASY way – North Ridge Trail. It’s still not a picnic, but it doesn’t have me screaming THIS ISN’T A THING! the whole time like the 2019 adventure.

But rather than give you the trite “Me on Top of the Mountain!” photo, or the photo of the view that doesn’t do it justice, instead I’ll give you this sunset picture of Pretty Marsh. Pretty Marsh is a lonely spot on the west side of MDI. Don’t you just love the light during the evening hours this time of year.

Physically wrecked, wracked, and ruined by too much biking on Day 1, on Day 2 we tried to keep things a little easier. We took the bus south and walked a nice little trail to a little-populated stone beach called Little Hunters. I like the blue-gray/rust-orange color combination here. Then more walking onward to Seal Harbor, where no food was open except an ice cream snacky place; so, ice cream for lunch! And the discovery of an amazing little shop/exploratorium, the Naturalist’s Notebook. Onward to the nearest bus – naturally, no buses in freaking Seal Harbor, bite me COVID – more of a schlep than I wanted to do, but I always push myself on vacation.

Let’s call the first full day “Day 1.”

On the bikes! We thought the best thing about Acadia last time was being able to bike until we were ready to drop, then hop on a bus home. So off we went, bike, bike, bike. I knew beforehand that there were fewer bus routes operating this year than usual due to COVID. But I stupidly thought that the routes they kept would more or less cover the park, and not all be concentrated in the most congested areas. So I took us a bit far afield, and then when we actually studied the online map, we discovered we were nowhere near a bus. And boy did we have to schlep to get to the nearest route. Bite me COVID!!!

I felt like we had biked the equivalent of Cadillac Mountain, everything was just so freaking hilly. We seemed to be stuck in an Escher drawing where we were constantly going uphill.

So had a big lavish Italian meal afterwards.

I promise that not every picture in this calendar is going to be alcohol.

We’re back and that means it’s time for the vacation Page-a-Day calendar!

Our modest vacation this year was a week in the Bar Harbor/Acadia section of Maine. We went in 2019 and felt we’d barely scratched the surface.

We rolled in last Saturday night and headed to town, which was of course packed for Labor Day weekend. Nevertheless we were seated and served quickly at Beerworks. My beer has blueberries in it. That was theme for several days until I felt like I was going to turn into a blueberry. Anyway you can see the glass shouting out to Atlantic brewing, which makes very good stuff.