Of Plagues, Pictures and Depillatories.

One thing we’re learning on this trip is some sympathy for Pharoah’s Egyptians. The plagues are interesting enough in Sunday school, but seriously. Insects everywhere. Here in Maine, we are treated to a plague of gnats. Especially in the mornings. Apparently they are worse on wet, foggy days, because yesterday they were terrible. This morning they were still awful, but only as annoying as they were because we tried to cook breakfast while every surface quickly covered with black dots. Not my favorite part of camping here.

However, today we had clear, blue skies and much drier air than yesterday. The gnats must have found darker, wetter places to be, because they cleared out of the campsites for the most part today.

We drove out to the National Park again today, and this time we had long, vivid views of the islands and the water. Gorgeous. We drove up to Cadillac Mountain, clambering over the rocky peak and looking out over an incredible landscape. We each took some family pictures, much to the tortured chagrin of our children. We picked a rock, set up one family, took some photos, and then started to set up the next. Somehow this became the only rock anyone in the vicinity wanted to use for pictures. We escaped the crowds and established a new Picture Rock, and got them all finished. Sheesh.

Back at the campground we all had a large lunch in preparation for our voyage in the evening. At our site, Brian was grilling up steaks we’d bought at the grocery store on the way in 2 days ago. I was trying to cook sweet corn and potatoes, and the cookstove was not so cooperative. I tried to turn down the gas, and accidentally turned off the heat. I turned on the gas again, which was making a funny noise, and lit a match. Whooosh. I had just invented a new alternative to waxing. My right forearm is smooth as a baby’s bottom. Thankfully I didn’t do anything to myself but singe hair. Apparently the regulator wasn’t working correctly. It’s a lot faster than a wax job, from what I hear, but the possible side effects are not enticing.

At 4:30 we were scheduled to board the whale watching boat, something I’ve wanted to do for decades. Making the big lunch, eating it, cleaning up from it, and then packing a light dinner of sandwiches for the boat ride took most of our afternoon, and then it was time to go.

We made it to the docks on time, and walked up to the office only to find out that the cruise had been canceled for the afternoon due to rough seas. Dang! Now we had nothing to look forward to but several hours old sandwiches. The cure to all frustrations is apparently ice cream so we found a shop and ordered a round. We looked in a couple of shops in Bar Harbor, a super cute town, while Andrew dreamed of finding a GameStop, which is apparently not Bar Harbor material. He is going into game/electronics withdrawal.

We decided that we’d get going early in the morning instead to try to catch some tide pools and walk out to Bar Island on the low tide sand bar. The kids jumped in the pool again and burned off some energy. The sandwiches are still there, eyeing us with suspicion. We’ll eat them yet tonight, but I think tomorrow we’ll just buy some subs near the dock, assuming our rescheduled boat goes out.

May you also enjoy clear blue skies and a gnat-free existence.

Popular posts from this blog

Banff and Beyond (August 4 and 5)

Image
Tuesday morning came around and there were a few unspoken understandings in the air. First off, very few of us were interested in returning to our tents as the predictions for our upcoming stay at Glacier National Park showed nights in the 30s again. Also, there was still a wildfire at Glacier, and it was affecting the area just west of St Mary Campground, where we had reservations. The road going across the park was closed from St Mary to the top of the mountain pass, so our movement would be quite restricted. I ended up scouring VRBO, Homeaway and Airbnb for a place to rent somewhere near Glacier. There was one house available in our price range in Whitefish, Montana, about 30 minutes from the West Glacier entrance. We decided to rent it. I called the phone number, the woman who answered was very gracious, and our Wednesday-Saturday itinerary were the only open dates she had. Second, no one wanted to pack sandwiches today. Plus Katy had a bunch of canned goods and mac & che...
Read more

Little Earthquakes Everywhere

Image
This morning, just before 5 am, a 5.0 earthquake somewhere northeast of us made a Tokyo’s ground tremble. I happened to wake up to the bed shaking a bit; this is the fourth time I’ve felt one in my life. Three of those four times I’ve wondered what Brian could possibly be doing in his sleep—a constant leg twitch? a terrifying nightmare?— to cause our bed to shimmy this way. One of those times was three days ago in the middle of the night in the same hotel room, but it didn’t occur to me then what it was. This morning I heard the wall shift slightly as it was happening and it became clear. Japan has small earthquakes almost every day, so this should be no surprise, but of course my nighttime self is not the most reasonable version of me, so I lay in bed another half hour wondering what might come next. I am the family seismograph—everyone else slept through both tremors this week.  This echoes my function in our family in real life. When one of our children is going thr...
Read more

[British] Open Minded

Image
About a year ago, a friend asked us if we’d be interested in going to Scotland for the British Open if he won the chance to buy 4 tickets in the ticket lottery. At the end of October he found out he’d won. For a few hours I was celebrating my opportunity to see top-notch tennis players, until my ignorance became apparent to the rest of the foursome. Turns out it’s a golf tournament; I offer that tidbit for anyone else out there like me. After 9 months of anticipation and almost 2 weeks of touring Scotland, the big day was here. Our fellow traveler not only won the chance to buy tickets, he won the chance to buy them for the final day. Again, for those like me, that means they have already played a round of golf for each of the first 3 days, and those that made the cut play a last round on the final day. The excitement of it was heightened because it was the 150 th anniversary of the British Open, and it was being played—as it is every 5 years now—at the birthplace of golf, St Andr...
Read more