A sunny day!!!!

Finally the sun shone all day! Fortunately it was our day off so we could be outside. The owner of this resort likes to freshen up for spring by planting lots of colorful flowers around the park, and this year I get to do it. This suits me just fine, I just needed a good day to get started. A couple of days ago we went out to buy the flowers. We filled the back of the truck, put two huge baskets inside the cab, and still had to go back the next day for more. Now I just have to get all these in the ground.

This will be a nice change because right now what we have is dandelions. Thousands of dandelions.

Water, water everywhere

It's still raining!!!!  We do get a clear morning once in awhile, and Sunday we used one of those to go searching for one of the many waterfalls in Maine. Along the way we found one of the many covered bridges in Maine. Very picturesque. 

One warm and sunny day we will explore this area. But this time we continued driving. Along the way we kept seeing was stone walls, built from stones cleared from the fields, and stacks of firewood, drying for the next winter. I think you have to be tough to live out here.

We drove on to Tobey Falls and took a short walk from the road to the falls. This 8 foot falls supposed to be a combination of a slide falls and a horsetail falls. Of course with all this rain, the "horsetail" part has been overtaken in the "slide" part. It was lovely, even on this overcast day.

We had driven an hour to get there, so while we were in the area we went looking for a second falls which was supposed to be nearby. We followed the directions but could not find it. But the state of the roads discouraged extensive searching.

Oh well, we enjoyed the one we found. The grounds around Tobey Falls are filled with lush new growth, like tasty fiddlehead ferns.

We weren't in a position to eat the ferns so we stopped at a small restaurant on the way home and shared a lobster roll. It was pretty good, much better than the first one we tried in Maine a couple of weeks ago. But it sure needed some warm butter.

Then we headed home. In the rain. Again.

Hiking in Acadia National Park

The weather pattern here is that if it's sunny in the morning, you'd better get out and enjoy it because it won't last. Monday started out nice so we got in the car and drove to the Acadia National Park. It's on the same island as Bar Harbor. They have informational signs at some of the trailheads, and I learned that the name of the island is Mount Desert Island. Apparently the first explorers thought that the mountain tops were bare. And they don't have a lot of vegetation, just a few scrub bushes, but up on Cadillac Mountain the rocks are colored with lichen. 

They have made some rough steps on the mountain top and the colorful lichen makes them look like something from a fairy tale. When I was a child reading "David and the Phoenix", I imagined some of the lands they visited looking something like this.

So needless to say, I really like it. My guys are the adventurous ones. After scouting around the rocks, they checked out the view from the mountain top.

And what a view there is!  The trees that can't live on the mountain top make their home on the sides. The ground falls away below us and the sea, with it's many islands, almost seems to rise up again.

I don't know how far we could see across the waters, but we could see someone else's weather. It was rain, of course.

We drove back down the mountain, parked the car and started walking on one of the trails. That trail took us along a lake with crystal clear water, and nearby was one of the lovely stone bridges that dot the park. I wanted to see a specific rock called Bubble Rock, so we headed out on another trail. When we started walking Randy had Shorty and I had Julienne. When the trail got steeper, Julienne and I fell behind so Randy took her so he could help her up over the larger rocks and gave me his walking stick. His experience trailing in the Grand Canyon stood him in good stead here, while, as my pictures show, I fell behind farther behind.

And after all that hiking, we never did find that rock! So we headed back down the trail which, as Randy warned me, was easier on the lungs but harder on the legs. I guess I didn't notice much about the path was on my way up (what with trying to breath and all) but on the way down I could see how pretty it was. In one section we were walking through a forest of grey.

Well, most of us were walking. Julienne hitched a ride on Randy's shoulder. She has done this before, it's her favorite way to get exercise.

Good food makes a difference

There have been a couple of days where the sun shone for a few hours, but mostly it's been either overcast, cold, wet or a combination of the three. Today was no exception. This is depressing and it is really getting us down. When I am down and need to throw together dinner, I microwave a hot dog. When Randy is down, he does this: Prosciutto, Genoa salami and Capocollo with Focaccia bread, olives, tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella and artichoke hearts. 

Life is good.

One year ago: Food instead of sight-seeing
Four years ago: Really Fresh Seafood in Alaska