So biking was next on the agenda. This time we stayed closer to sea level and although that made me happy, the cloud cover and the wind made me long for a good long climb to warm myself up. Again, more reflections on the bike. I do miss the endless hours I used to spend pedaling. Seems to be the only and best time for me to reflect on life. I just marveled at the fact that most normal people head to a tropical beach for vacation and here we are freezing our tails off biking and hiking more miles in a day than most people do in months. And I was loving every minute of it. Well, maybe except for the being cold part. Here I was decked out in my EMS tights, LLBean fleece, North Face gloves, and Mountain Hardware jacket (I’m betting I just lost Tina there!) and I was still freezing. What is up with that?
OK, back to my story . . . So we biked for a couple of hours until my feet went numb from the cold. Next it was time for, you guessed it, a good long hike. Since we didn’t gain too much elevation on the bike we were due to climb another mountain. Karlo pretty much tricked me. We planned out our route in the car (also known as my oasis of comfort & warmth) and the original route didn’t involve going up and over the peak. But the alternate route was dreadful. The trail snaked along the side of the mountain on really technical rocky terrain that required scrambling on all fours. If you slipped, you were going straight down the cliff and into the lake. It was nerve racking and, at the pace I was going, I feared we wouldn’t make it back by dark. (God forbid I missed the sun set.) It was then that I decided up an over would be easier (and warmer). I’m glad we did it. Once again, the views were spectacular. And once again, I didn’t pull out my big camera. I think I’m giving myself too much credit for “taking the pressure off myself” for getting good shots. The truth was that I was terrified to fall and break the darn thing. My little point and shoot came in handy enough. There was one point where I was trying to get a good shot, but there were some pesky boulders in the way. “Karlo can you please move those rocks for me?”
Luckily we made it down in one piece and before the sun set. We treated ourselves to a nice seafood dinner overlooking the 'harbor' of Bar Harbor. We said goodbye to the cute little town and headed back to our cottage. The next day we would be saying goodbye to Mt. Desert Island and that would be hard :-( We snuck back the next morning for a nice 5 mile walk on the carriage roads before getting into the car and heading South.One more quick pit stop before leaving the island. There was a winery with a big sign that said “Sweet Pea Farms.” Stop the car!!!!! Since Karlo has always called me Sweet Pea I needed a bottle of wine from this winery (or maybe 3 bottles because I couldn’t make up my mind which one I liked best). Seems we are becoming quite the winos with this being our 3rd wine tasting in a month. I loved the barn that the winery called home. Mostly because there was a giant moose head on the wall and that was the closest I came to Maine wildlife.
It was a quiet and sad drive South. Sad until we got to Freeport. Then I perked right up! It was time to go shopping. Yeah. We went out to dinner at a brewery and had the best Blacked Halibut Burrito in the world. It was funny because Karlo said he either wanted Mexican or Seafood. I found him both at once. We loved it so much we are planning to find recipes and try to cook it ourselves. You KNOW that says something because I can’t remember the last time we got inspired to cook. God it was good.Spent the night in Freeport and then moseyed our way back home the next day. Oh wait, one more quick stop in Kittery. I scored big at the Columbia outlet. Yeah, I know, just what I need . . . more technical clothing. But I feel I earn the right to wear it. Lord knows I don’t earn the right to wear Prada!
I posted some of the silly snapshots taken with our point-n-shots here.
1 comment:
Reading this, I'm just over four days from leaving for my vacation to St. Martin, where it is my goal to walk no more than a mile in one week. I will laying under an umbrella on the beach and have someone else deliver my tropical drinks. My only exercise will be walking up the stairs from the car to our hotel room. I also will not ever, for one moment, be cold. And yes, I do think you're crazy. But I'm glad you had "fun" (if that's what you call it)(you wacko).
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