Day 8 - Wednesday, July 4

Happy (yawn) Birthday America (yawn)!!

So excited (yawn) to be celebrating (yawn) our nation's birth (yawn) day in a National (yawn) Park!

Sooooo, we "slept" in a tent last night. Please note the actual quotes around the word sleep as I am making air quotes as I speak it. I can say that we did it and check it off of our bucket lists! We spent the entire night in a tent in Maine. We were all very excited about this experience. I loved the idea of sleeping under the stars on a lovely chilly evening in a northern state known for it's cool weather even in the summer.

Did I mention that Maine is experiencing the highest temps it has had in years? Humidity is also up higher than normal. Also, just before we checked into the campground, there had been a nice rain shower to come through only for the sun to 'warm' everything up shortly after the shower finished. Our afternoon/evening was like a SAUNA! The good news is that it did start to cool off after 10 or so and was in the mid to low 60's most of the night.

Remember those beers before bedtime? Three of the four road-trippers are educators. If there is one thing an educator is known for is their bladder size. Something happens to us through our years of teaching in that our bladders increase either in capacity or size or both enabling us to go long periods of time without using a restroom. Who would be with the kids for us to go to the restroom? So that leads us to our issue last night. The one non-educator obviously has a smaller bladder (or quite possibly normal-sized just smaller than ours) and the consumed beers got the best of him. He tried moving around in the bed to keep himself from having to get up (which caused a whole other problem for Becky). So, Steven got up a few times to walk to the bathhouse to use the restroom. When someone moves in a tent, everyone is aware. He did put his new head light on to make his quiet exit- the only problem was that when he was unzipping, the zipper got stuck. He starts to get a little nervous and turns around to look to see if he has woken us- keep in mind he has his new bull-eye on top of his head. Where his head points, so does his new light...directly into our eyes wondering what the heck he is doing.... he gets his attention back on the stuck zipper, cussing in a whisper- no need for a whisper at this point, we are all awake... I gave some thought to polling the tent inhabitants as to voting Steven off of the island at this 2:30 restroom run. I practiced patience and understanding instead. Not sure Becky dealt with it all as well. She described the experience of sleeping with Steven on the inflatable air mattress was similar to riding the Cat Ferry on a rough day...

The night before; note we still look happy...

Again happiness; lack of sleep will fix that QUICK!

There was very little talking while we un-pitched the tent and area in the morning.  We've not been out of an area quicker than we were this morning. Lack of sleep on a day that we are planning on attempting hiking should be interesting...

We found a restaurant (The Log Cabin Restaurant) near Acadia National Park entrance to grab some breakfast and coffee. Coffee always makes everything better. As does blueberry muffins! Maine blueberries are a thing right now and they are baked into just about everything. Delicious start to the day! Things are looking up! (Sorry no food pics here- we were all kinda still grumpy and were just hungry...)

One of the Park Entrances

We decided on hiking the Gorham Mountain Trail. It's a moderate trail that is 3.1 mile long trail up Gorham Mountain that has an elevation of 525 feet. It's not the tallest on the island but the coastal views it renders are spectacular!

Trail Head Marker

Natural Trail Markers- Very Helpful!

Love this!

Nature at its finest!

Beautiful View! Note the Beach (far left)

Hiking Poohsie!

With it being the 4th of July, I had created a patriotic playlist for our hike. I had Dean braid a harness for my kayak blue tooth speaker so that we could attach it to my backpack. This would provide tunes to hike to! Again, the scenery was just beautiful! (And by scenery by no means do I mean me...sorry I'm blocking the views!)

Our trail was a loop and on the return side of it we stopped at a few points of interest. The first was Sand Beach. Not typical to have a sand beach in Maine so it's heavily visited, especially today!

Sand Beach

After we soaked up some shade, we proceeded to the next point of interest, Thunder Hole. We were there at low tide which means it was very calm.

Thunder Hole

Here is a video of Thunder Hole which explains its' name. 

Thunder Hole Landrys

The Back Story- Dean snapping that pic...

Upon arriving back at our trail start we grabbed some wraps and ate our lunch in the woods, taking it all in. We then drove through the remainder of the park. We came upon Otter Cove.

Mermaid Becky

Otter Cove Bridge - Tide rising

We then came upon Jordan pond and stopped to put our toes in the water, which I don't think we were supposed to do because this is part of the area water supply... oops.

Came across this guy- definition of Angry Bird!

By 4 in the afternoon we were seriously dragging tail (remember lack of sleep?). It's the 4th of July, so we secured the only accommodations available... The Primavera Inn (& restaurant) in Ellsworth, just a few miles out of Bar Harbor. Yep- I can say this- it was a step up from the tent... not much, but it was clean and had AC. There was no phone and only hot water in our bathroom but I'll take hot as my option if I can only have one. The bathroom also did not have one outlet in it- definitely circa 1950-ish style motel. Again, it was a step up from last night.

The guys rested in the rooms while Becky and I went to the local laundromat and took care of laundry (in what felt like a sauna as well). It was a first for Becky... it's what this trip is all about, firsts! Once we finished we went back to the rooms, freshened up and headed to dinner and then fireworks in Bar Harbor.

Dinner tonight was at C-Ray's Lobsters. Each of us got a lobster, corn and steamed mussels and clams. Another good meal. Not a fan of the clams though. I will say this, Becky ate every last bit of meat on that lobster as well as all of her mussels and corn. That girls can put away some lobster! (This is foreshadowing for tomorrow...)

When we entered Bar Harbor we noticed locals parking along side the road on a bay. We figured they knew it was a good spot without going into downtown so we parked and waited along with everyone else.

The city did a good job with the fireworks. We were so tired. I took a nap in the truck while waiting truth be told...

Happy Birthday America!

POLL
Results from yesterdays poll:

Wow- looks like very few of you will want to try out our tent with us... lol. The motel experience is always interesting. I had to google to find out the difference between hotel and motel and it typically goes back to a motel being usually a single level but more importantly that you can park in front of your room and your door opens to outdoors, not a hall or within a building. You're welcome for such random information...

The poll for today is based on our physical activity. Which is your preferred choice of physical activity?