Sunrises at Acadia

Upon arriving at Bar Harbor last week* I found myself wanting to go atop Cadillac Mountain to see the sunrise. I got some advice from the hotel desk and geared myself for a 4:30 wakeup the next morning.

Driving to Cadillac Mountain from our motel was about a 12-minute drive. Getting out the door didn't take too long and I even had a snack set out (Sherry's advice) to help me feel somewhat awake. Upon arriving up top I found I wasn't alone: more than 100 other people were up there to greet the sun as well. In fact, I had to improvise a parking spot since the lot was full. I wasn't alone because the majesty of seeing the sun rise above the Atlantic is worth the early hour and the cold.

I surprised myself by getting back to sleep upon returning. Normally I'm up for good when I awake, even at such an early hour.

Sam and Caroline found the idea of seeing the sunrise surprisingly attractive. Caroline, I think, was most interested in the idea that she could go in her pajamas for the trip. Friday morning, our second full day in Bar Harbor, the two kids got up with me promptly. Sherry decided she couldn't miss the fun. So the kids and Sherry huddled beneath a blanket and got to see a sunrise that was even better than the previous day's.

Huddled for warmth.

The moon just before sunrise. 

On the verge of sunrise. 

There it is. Now we can go home. 

Oh, and we returned for sunset as well. Not quite as dramatic but worth the trip.

Sun just before it sets to the West at Cadillac Mountain. 

*Or was it two weeks ago? My one loses track in the summer.

Random Tuesday

The kids permitted me a chance to work on a presentation I'm giving at work Monday. Sam busied himself with violin practice. Caroline decided to model her new line of school clothing as I worked.

Meanwhile the workers for the mason our contractor contracted were working hard in our basement, speaking Spanish as they worked. How often does one hear violin upstairs, get a fashion show on the ground floor, and hear Spanish below as they work on a technology presentation?

Today I Was That Parent

By saying I was that parent, I mean the parent that did something to make others' eyes roll. In this case, it was the lifeguards at my community pool. Here's the scene . . .

The weather is dreary. After a night of steady rain it was raining slightly and near 70 degrees at time for swim lessons (8:20). When I showed up at the pool, there were only lifeguards there. No other parents decided to brave the fierce London-like weather for the first session of lessons. So, instead of getting a break, the lifeguards got the opportunity to offer two (2) one-on-one lessons. Hence, the eye rolls.

So what did I do as they got their cut-rate private tutoring? Obviously, it was too wet for me to hack away at teacher work.

However, I have cause to be grumpy: I don't think the app was accurately tracking the distance of my run.

Food

Posing outside Cafe This Way, Bar Harbor.

Sherry and I recently ended a vacation that featured the very best food we've been able to eat on a vacation since the children were born.*

This development has been a few years in coming from the nadir that was the 2012 California trip. Truth be told, that was our best vacation. But the dining out? Awful. One fine Mexican place (where Caroline only ate the ketchuped bun of a kid's menu burger), a diner, a Jack-in-the-Box, and an In-and-Out.

In 2013 (Montreal) we ventured out to get poutine at St. Hubert and I got to indulge on Smoked Meat.

2013, Quebec, outside North America's most crowded zoo. 

2013, Montreal.

Last year, on our Great Lakes Odyssey, we really made some headway, too. On that trip we ate at a lot of non-chain establishments. Still, caution was the word of the day.

But in 2015, we hit gold. The only chain we ate at was Dunkin' Donuts. (It would seem as if there is some sort of Constitutional entitlement to having that chain nearby in New England. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one.) Otherwise, it was all establishments with local flair. I look at the photos below and wish I could send them to Sherry and me in 2012 via a time-traveling DeLorean as reassurance that this will get better.

Sam assessing his feelings about lobster and crab spring rolls. 

Caroline with fish and chips at Thirsty Whale. 

Jordan's Snack Bar, Ellsworth, ME

At a Tapas Bar

Sherry insists the sweetness of the ice cream in these cookies stayed with her for days. 

gummi hot dogs

Woody's in Hartford, CT.

Sam's fish and chips at a brew pub. 

The only problem with this trend is the impact it will have on our wallets.

*Far and away our best eating trip was the 2004 trip to Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. Fancy dinners in Quebec. A place I couldn't stop going to for breakfast. Lobster in the Maritimes.

Vacation Day 5 - A Better-than-Average Travel Day

When one decides to vacation in two different places, there's an intervening day of travel that can potentially rob that day of the feeling that it's still a vacation. We faced that yesterday since we had a 4 1/2 hour drive to make from Boston to Bar Harbor. The day turned out to be pretty fun, however.

We cleared out of our home in Boston, which was a little bit sad. I'm not sure we had one more day of things we really needed to do in that town. But one more day would've given us the chance to relax in that home, which I believe is the nicest we ever have rented on our vacations.

Sam and Caroline outside the home at 35 Moraine.

That being said, I don't know if it's possible to relax in a city quite the way one can at a resort town like Bar Harbor.

We did hit one more tourist site on the way out of town, the National Park Service site located at President Kennedy's birthplace. The home there is a somewhat modest one. Actually, it was very similar to our rental home in terms of its size and appointments. Joe Kennedy, Sr. bought it as an up-and-coming member of the Boston political community, so it looks and feels like the starter home of an affluent couple.

The president only lived there for the first few years of his life. His more formative years were spent at a home a few blocks away. Rose Kennedy purchased the property in the 1960s with the intention of opening it as a museum and transferring it to the government.

The front porch of Kennedy's birthplace. 

If you look hard, you can see Sherry reading to the kids on the porch of Kennedy's birthplace. 

Sam and Caroline get sworn in as Junior Rangers by Jon Streff, Gettysburg Class of '96. Jon seemed to do a particularly thorough job verifying the kids' answers. 

What looked like it would take only 30 minutes to see really took more like two hours to digest. We had a nice tour of the house. Upon leaving we were met by a former classmate from Gettysburg who calls working at that site his "summer gig."

Since there was more to see at Kennedy's birthplace, we ditched our idea of checking out the Museum of Fine Arts and headed straight for Acadia. The drive was about five hours. Leaving when we did allowed us the chance to get settled in at our motel. After figuring out that, yes, we got lucky with the accommodations we picked out in Bar Harbor we decided to push our luck by going out to a real restaurant. The four of us ate at This Way Cafe where the kids surprised us by trying lobster and crab (Sam) and eating a Caesar Salad (Caroline).

Sam tries a spring roll loaded with crab and lobster. 

Outside Cafe This Way

Of course the day was also fun in that I wore the kind of tee-shirt that makes any dignified spouse or child cringe. It's a special from Last Exit to Nowhere, featuring a mock-up of the display Luke Skywalker sees as he tries to destroy the Death Star. Of course, the shirt garnered no less than four compliments from passers-by.

Vacation Day 4 - Boston (final day)

The day began again with a run. I had the chance to see a little bit more of the Emerald Necklace. I ran mostly on the side of the park opposite our neighborhood. It was a little bit more level and open then the side I ran yesterday.

As you can see from these photos, it's a pretty ideal trail for biking with the kids. Unless there's some miracle waking them and me up early tomorrow, though, we will miss a chance to explore it on two wheels.

Our travels today took us to two historical sites. The first was the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, which was about as outstanding as I had hoped it would be. After lunch we saw one that was more kid-themed, the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Those sites, really all the historical ones we've visited, leave me with so much to say I'll have to set aside time to post separately on them.

Sam and Caroline in a mock-up of a 1960 television debate studio. 

Tossing tea into the harbor. 

I belatedly reached out to my cousin, Ted, to see if we could meet up with him today and, as luck would have it, he was free. I haven't seen Ted in many, many years. In fact, I can't remember when I saw him last. He hasn't had the chance to meet my Sherry and the kids yet. He treated us to a 90-minute tour that included some points of interest we haven't seen yet (I was embarrassed to know that I had been to this city four times and was here on my fourth day and didn't know what Copley Square was).

The police car some MIT students reassembled atop an academic hall a few decades ago in one of their famous pranks. 

An intriguing building on campus (horrible angle relative to the Sun)

We ended our day with a trip to the Skywalk Observation Deck downtown. It wasn't nearly as high as decks I've been to in other cities, but it afforded a more meaningful view of the city than I might have gotten from a higher elevation. I liked what I was able to pick out down below. With the aid of Google Maps on my phone I could identify many of the sites we had visited in our days here. I was impressed at what they do with the space there at Sky Deck. There was a very good set of documents about immigration and Boston as well as a few brief but interesting film clips that oriented us to the city. Sherry and I realized from what we saw up there that Ted's impromptu tour of the city actually closed a few holes in what we had seen.

Looking East from Sky Walk

Looking west. Note Fenway Park.

A good map atop Sky Walk showing the changing shoreline of the city. 

The naturalization exam game show at Sky Walk. 

Tomorrow we depart Boston. We plan a quick stop at two or three sites before making our way to Bar Harbor.

Day 3 of Vacation - Quincy and Boston (brief update)

My single biggest takeaway from today is that we're staying in Boston for one less day than we should. Here are five photos offering glimpses at today.

Jamaica Pond . . . again. I got out for a run early today. 

We're actually all still smiling after our trip through the houses at Adams National Historic Site. 

Sam and I got goofy at the Pixar exhibit at MOS. We decided to make Jessie look like Ernie. 

The first dessert fail of the vacation. Okay, fail might be too strong a word. Kids weren't in to soy-, coconut-, or almost-based ice cream. 

She's much cheerier tonight. 

I'll have more thoughtful updates later. This is a great city.