One morning in Maine

A few weeks ago, my husband had asked if I wanted to accompany him to a work conference in Florida this past weekend. I said I was up for it, and my mom was up for babysitting (with help from my aunt, who also planned to come). Then it turned out he didn’t have to attend this conference after all. But since we had the babysitting in place, we decided to plan a last minute kid-free couple vacation in the opposite direction: Maine.

There are direct flights from Philly to Bangor, so I flew up Thursday night (my husband was coming from Seattle and meeting me for lunch Friday). I drove in the midnight fog and rain out to Bar Harbor, and crashed. But in the morning when I woke up, I saw the lovely Maine landscape — evergreens, hills, ocean — out my hotel window. I went for a run through Bar Harbor and along the shore. I managed to read an entire book (Pond) by the pool by the time my husband got there. Then we drove over to Bernard, and ate at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, which is the sort of place where you say what size lobster you want, and they pull one out of the tub and weigh it in a plastic container next to the cash register. This is the lobster you will eat in a few minutes, washed down with a nice local beer. We ate there for lunch both days, watching the lobster boats.

We also did a lot of hiking in Acadia: Gorham Mountain, the North Bubble, and Acadia Mountain. There were some fairly tough rock scrambles, but the scenery was beautiful. We ate wild blueberries. And unlike some hikes with the kids, no one was whining!

We ate at a local mostly-seafood restaurant both nights and went to the same Irish pub both nights, because Amber Leigh was playing the fiddle, and this combo of Irish and country music was pretty hard to resist, especially with a Guinness. Today it was back home and to the kids, and to the routine, but the past few days were a nice surprise addition to the summer fun list.