Maine with Mugs

My little sister Megan (aka Mugs to family and friends - has been for years) is nearing the end of her undergraduate years at USU.  Her next step is applying for (check), interviewing at (in progress), and attending Physical Therapy School.  Somewhere.  Enter this seemingly random and quick trip to Maine.  She got an interview (her first) at the University of New England in Portland and I got to tag along for some sightseeing!  We crammed a lot into our three days there - a lot of driving, a lot of photos, a lot of lighthouses, a lot of seafood.  It was such a fun sisters trip!  Now to figure out how to swing one-on-one trips with my other sisters.  I'm hooked!

November 1st - Airports and Airplanes and Hotels, oh my!

We met up in Ogden mid-day where I said goodbye to my fam and hopped into Megan's subaru and headed to the airport.  We spent the rest of the day in airports and airplanes and finally made it to our hotel (thank heavens their power was back on after the big storm that hit Maine just before we got there and wiped out many power lines, leaving almost half the population in the dark (and cold)!) around midnight (eastern).

There were plenty of small mishaps along the way: I forgot to take off my little leatherman pocketknife from my keychain so into the trash it went (sad day); I forgot to take off my belt through security so I got a pat down (boo); I had "suspicious" candy and apples in my backpack that had to be checked out by a person after the bag went through the scanner ("we have to make sure these are real apples"); we opted to gate check our luggage since overhead space was filling up (and I figured they would just arrive at the gate at our connection in Atlanta, but they were actually sent on to Portland) and our tags got switched (this will be important later); we landed in Portland and I got a message on my phone saying that Megan's bag didn't make it from Atlanta (oh no!!!! but wait! her name was on my bag! so it's my bag that is left! phew!); totally made a fool of myself trying to go through a toll booth on the way to the hotel (good thing it was midnight and no one else was on the road so I could back out of a fastpass lane and go through the one open cash lane - doh!); couldn't open the door to our (dumpy) Motel 6 room and had to ask for help from the desk girl (who also couldn't open it, until she remembered the handle was on backwards and you had to turn it up instead of down to get it to unlatch).

Phew!  By the time we got inside and settled into our beds, we were pretty giggly from the comedy of errors of the day.  Luckily the worst of it was that I'd be without my luggage for a couple of days. But I was just so glad that Megan would have her nice clothes for her interview that I didn't even care!

First selfie of the trip.  Waiting at the airport
for our first flight.

Gregg sent me this pic - they were watching the flight tracker
at home at their dad party (and quite mesmerized by it, I hear).

Fun views out the window.

I think we're getting close to Atlanta?

Quick facetime session in the Atlanta airport between flights.

Somewhere between Atlanta and Portland.

November 2nd - Acadia National Park (via the Coastal Route aka "The Long Way"):

Thursday morning we woke up early (after a bad night of sleep - that hotel was clanky and loud and just not great).  We tried to get breakfast at an egg place close by, which turned out to be closed even though the door said they were open?  Anyway, we ended up grabbing a quick bite at Burger King and then headed toward Freeport for our first stop at the L.L. Bean Headquarters.  Gregg had been there before and described his visit like walking into the catalog and I would totally agree.  It was fun to wander and window shop and watch as they prepared their store for the Christmas season. (They were also setting up a Santa's village across the street that looked pretty epic.)

Then we hit the road again.  It rained off and on pretty much all morning.  We stopped at a small grocery store to grab snacks and then popped into a Dollar Tree (these seemed to be surprisingly popular along our route, actually) for more snacks (discounted Halloween peanut m&m's, yes please!) and an umbrella (which I thought I'd need since mine was in my suitcase in Atlanta, but never actually used).

We drove and drove through cute little Maine villages and past boarded up lobster shack after boarded up lobster shack (we were getting hungry and bummed that everything was closed for the season).  Finally we made it to Bar Harbor and found the entrance to Acadia.  Hallelujah!  (It was a lovely drive, don't get me wrong, but we were definitely ready to be there.)  And, wonder of wonders, the rain stopped right as we arrived, too.  Blessings!  We were pretty much the only tourists in the park (which was open, thankfully, but didn't require fees since it was off-season and all the visitors' centers and bathrooms (except one, thank heavens!) were closed for the winter.  We explored along the loop road and stopped at every pull-out to read signs and take pictures and walk down little trails.

We wanted to do at least one hike, and happened upon a sign for the Gorham Mountain Trail.  The mileage seemed doable for the amount of daylight we had left, so we headed up.  It was amazing!  There were still some bright red fall leaves on bushes scattered among the evergreens and rocks.  We climbed up rocks and walked through tunnels and along cliffs.  And then we emerged at the top where the views of the coast opened up; it was gorgeous as the sun was starting to sink a bit lower and the magic golden hour light started seeping in.  Talk about a mood lifter! (Like I said, it was a long ride, and since all the little local seafood shops were closed up we opted to lunch on oranges and granola bars and wheat thins, so we were kind of hungry, too.) I tell ya, National Parks are good for the soul.  Nature is good for the soul!

We finished up the loop as the sunset turned bright pink and then ventured into town to find some grub.  We found an open restaurant, called Geddy's, just a block or two from our hotel and feasted on lobster roll (served warm with butter instead of the cold with mayo option) and sweet potato fries with cranberry ketchup (for Mugs) and clam chowder, tempura shrimp (with three dipping sauces: honey ginger, cocktail and ??) and fries, with a tangy mango slaw (for me).  Oh man, it tasted so good!

By then we were pooped and more than ready to check in our hotel, which was a big improvement over the night before.  I chatted with my fam via facetime and then we hit the sack (at like 9 pm!).

Sweet (free!) upgrade to a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee the night
before - we were ridin' in style!

A peak of the water as we drove through lots of trees.

Biggest boot I've ever seen!

Biggest canoe I've ever seen!

  

Bronze season is a thing.  And it's entirely
lovely.  Even in the rain.

We crossed this bridge.  I don't remember what it is called
though.

In Acadia at last!

Yet another selfie - my skills are not improving.

Still so much color on the trees in Acadia!  I was so pleasantly surprised.
(And the first of many pano shots.)

The views!  We couldn't get enough.

That one is better.  ;)

Our sweet ride.

Some great clouds over the porcupine islands.
I don't know which was which, but there was a Long Porcupine
and Burned Porcupine (among others) whose names made me
chuckle.

Oh look.  Labels!

The visitor's centers were closed, but we did
take a picture of a map.  And then we found the
little map holders still had maps in them, so that
was nice.

Exploring some of the carriage roads that run through the park.
They used to be driven on (by carriages) but have been restored
as biking and hiking/walking trails.  And the bridges were so cute!

At Eagle Lake - Bar Harbor's water supply.

Pretty red "bird berries" - I took this for Cal.

At a crossroads of carriage roads.

Can you believe that color?  I mean, wow!

Love those rocky shores.  But look closely in the upper left
corner - that's Sand Beach (and aptly named, too, eh?).

Lots of cool oaks that we don't have at home
to enjoy.

We walked down on these (slippery) rocks, hoping to see some
life in some tide pools.  No such luck here.

bonus video!

Thunder Hole

Definitely low tide while we were there.  Which is cool,
because I think at high tide the sidewalk down to the Thunder
Hole viewing is probably covered with water.

Clouds clearing a bit.

Another view of the pathway to view the splashing and
thundering.  There was a gate further to the right (toward the
parking area) that I'm guessing is closed when the tide is in
and the path is wet/water-covered.

Look at that blue sky!!

Happy for a peek of sunshine.
Also happy we found a few little barnacles in tiny tide pools
on the rocks behind us.

The trailhead signs were so cute.

Those rocks are the trail.

Cool cairns to mark the way.
(Plus an interpretive sign to explain how they
work.)

A cairn at work.

The colors were unreal!

A big monument rock along the trail.

Weird lichens?  I have no idea.  But they were
cool.  And lots had flaked off and were scattered
on the ground, too.

Cliff route.

Hi, Meg!

"Waterfall" for Sam.

The trail goes through there.

I liked the profile of this rock formation.

Looking back after passing that last pic.

We climbed those! (Ha - I had heard about other
super intense trails in the park where you're
climbing iron rungs for great distances.  I wasn't
so sure about doing one of those hikes, but I was
happy to experience two stairs just to get a taste.)

Top of the mountain views!

There's sand beach again.

The red bushes just made my day.

Sun starting to set around 4:30.

Happy to be hiking.

Another cute trailhead sign.  We didn't venture
far on this one since it was starting to get dark.

Moody skies at sunset.

It really was quite mountainous.
Again, I was pleasantly surprised.

Just before dark on the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Dinner at Geddy's.

YUM!

Nice room at the Bar Harbor Grand.

Odd art on our wall.

November 3rd - Back to Portland (Megan's Interview and My Explorations):

We both slept much better at this hotel, and since we went to bed so early, we were both up early, too.  Which was good, because we needed to get back the three hours (ish) to Portland by 11:00 am for Megan's interview at the University of New England.  But we also wanted to stop to see our first lighthouse of the trip, so we hurried with our breakfast (and grabbed some extras for the road) and headed out.

We saw the lighthouse and then we hit the "quickest route" back.  We still had a lot of small town travelling, but we also hit I-295 and we even got to drive through Augusta, which is definitely not a "big city" capital, but was quite charming.  I liked that we made a loop out of all our drives, allowing us to see more of the state.

We arrived at the campus right at 11:03 or something (they didn't want her there before 11:00 anyway, so it was perfect).  They had to change the building she was meeting in due to a downed power line on the campus and only one building having a generator to provide power.  (Campus was actually closed and had been most of the week because of the storm.  Since there were more high-necessity jobs to be taken care of around the city (like people's homes and hospitals and stoplights and all that critical stuff), UNE was left to be fixed up at the bottom of the list.  Thank heavens the interview was on Friday and not a few days earlier because who knows if they would have still held it!)  We found her spot and said our goodbyes.  She would be interviewing, Q&A-ing, and touring for the rest of the afternoon, so I got to do some solo exploring (after making a quick pit stop at the airport for my luggage and a total wardrobe change in the airport bathroom!).

As we drove to Meg's meeting spot, we passed the entrance to the Evergreen Cemetery.  It looked old and big and like the perfect spot for me to grab a snack and figure out a gameplan for my hours alone.  Turns out it was the oldest (maybe? I can't guarantee this 'est'), biggest, coolest cemetery I've ever visited.  I parked the car in one corner (which was right next to the school) and sat down to eat my muffin. While I sat, I noticed a few power-walker groups go by and I thought, "wow, I'm not the only weirdo who comes to a cemetery to take a walk".  Turns out I would see many, many, many more people doing the exact same thing.  It was awesome.  I wandered down the rows/roads and made my way to the back of the property where there was a small parking area near three little duck ponds (I even saw a Great Blue Heron feeding in one!) and a sign describing a trail system that extended into the land beyond.  It was amazing!  This huge greenspace right in the middle of the city with miles of trails to explore plus an amazing and gigantic cemetery attached?!  Sign me up!  I ended up spending like three hours there, sometimes walking, sometimes sitting and reading, sometimes facetiming with my family.  It was a most pleasant afternoon.

After I had my fill of the cemetery, I made my way to a park (yes, I'm a mom) I noticed on the way to UNE.  What intrigued me about this park was that it had a big, long path along the road (Baxter Blvd) that also was bordering the Back Cove.  When you look across the water (again, it was low tide when I was there) you get some awesome views of the Portland skyline.  So I wandered around there for a while, and sat and read on a bench with a view for a while, and then Mugs called to tell me she was done.  So I hurried back to the car while she walked next door to explore the cemetery until I got back to her about 20 minutes later.

I took her back down to the park and then we found somewhere to eat, which didn't look like much (it was the other half of a mechanic shop and it was kind of dark and very, very casual - think picnic tables and pay at the counter and handwritten poster boards with the specials) but turned out to be so amazing and delicious and very "Maine" (the workers had the best accents).

After dinner we found the freeway in the dark and drove about an hour south to Kennebunkport for the night.  We stayed in the lovely little Kings Port Inn and enjoyed the quiet room (extra quiet because I had my ear plugs back!) and the big shower head.

"Breakfast room" photo (for Cal).

Lobby organ.  Looks so much like the organ
in my parents' basement that came from my
grandparents' basement that came from
England with my great-great-grandmother.

Super quick stop at the Bass Harbor Light
"on our way" out of town (it wasn't really
on the way, but we made it work, plus we got a
lovely sunrise as a bonus).

Signs said that this house is still occupied.  To live in a lighthouse!

The path we ran down
(we were on a schedule to get Meg
to the campus on time) to get another view.

Wildlife (though not alive) sighting!

We made it just in time!

Snack with a view.

I loved these vaults (?) built right into the hillside.

This was a section of women from the "Elderly Women's Home".

I just liked the moss on this one, growing in the letters.

Cool door.

At the duck pond, looking back into the cemetery.

Portland gets high points for their trail system in my book.

Cool cones on the trail.

This is the middle of the city!

Cool acorns - I brought a few home for Callie.

Agave planted on graves?
(Had to share this one with Heatha.)

This cross was designed to look like a branch.

Another cool door.

Again, for Heather - unique fern arrangement.

Many of the roads were totally grown over
like this one, and in some places new graves
were being added where the road used to be.

I liked the part about "she made home happy".
#goals

Viney carvings.

Handless angel.

Newer section.  Also the funny small trees and bushes section.

Stained glass on a vault (? - I really don't know
the technical terminology).

Old fire station bell.
Has my name on it.

I think these were civil war vets, if I'm not mistaken
(which I may be).

More really old headstones.  I think the cemetery was started
in the 1850s, but I saw some birth dates from the 1780s, which
was pretty dang old, if you ask me.

Small chapel inside the cemetery.

Really shiny roof on the Maine Girl's Academy
across the street.

Back Cove views of Portland.

This was the cutest/cleverest idea I've ever seen at a playground!

Sample "page" along the story walk.  I loved this!

Clouds were excellent.

And then the sky turned blue a bit.

I mean, whoa!

Oooh, aaaah!

Dinner at Susan's Fish and Chips.
Mugs got the fish 'n' chips with slaw.  I got
a cold-with-mayo-style lobstah roll and a cup
of roasted corn and shrimp chowdah.
Oh my heavens!  All was divine.

The most amazing showerhead.

November 4th - Kennebunk and Portland Lighthouses Day (aka Our Last Day):

Saturday morning we woke up early (again) and ate quickly (again) and then took a chilly but lovely stroll through the deserted but darling little town of Kennebunkport.  We took the scenic route back to Portland which took us past Walker's Point and winding through some lovely forresty Maine neighborhoods.  We also stopped at every lighthouse between us and the airport on the way.  Our total was six for the day (and add another from Friday to make our grand total 7!) which I think is pretty awesome when you consider we were at the airport by 3:00 to catch our flight. 

It was smooth sailing all the way home.  We landed in rainy Salt Lake at 10:04 pm and drove home in the rain (but at least it wasn't snowing on our route!) to sleep.  Mugs stayed over that night on the couch bed and left for her home on Sunday morning.

Another breakfast room shot for my Callie.
(They had a yogurt parfait bar up there on the bar - super yummy
and something I've never seen at a hotel before.  Loved it.)

Morning reflections on the Kennebunk River.

#churchesofnewengland
(We saw SO many on our trip, and I loved them all,
but didn't take any photos of the others since I was
driving when we saw them.)

#porchesofnewengland
(These were so cute, too.)

So many windows!

Unusual asymmetrical.

I loved the porch displays - mums and pumpkins
and delight.  I also thought it was interesting how
many of the displays totally covered the porch -
they obviously use a different door to get in?

Kind of hard to see, but look above the door
at the mini pumpkins on the ledge.  We saw this
on many houses and it was so charming.

At a little park with access to the river (our
turn around spot).

This Silas Perkins was quite a poet, apparently.

Back to the hotel to grab our stuff.  We were in the far left
window on the wing in the back.

bonus videos!

Spouting Rock near Walker's Point in Kennebunk.

That's Walker's Point, of President
Bush family fame, across the way.

As we were driving through Scarborough towards Portland,
we passed The Holy Donut shop.  Megan had read about this
and had it on our list of possible things to check out during the trip,
but we had both forgotten until we drove by.  A quick U-turn
later and we were in line buying a second breakfast.  I got
Maple Bacon and Sweet Potato Sugar.  Megan got Chocolate
Sea Salt and Maine Apple.  They were all fantastic!

Rocks that look like petrified wood on the beach at Two Lights.

Look at the layers.

Cape Elizabeth Lights aka Two Lights
(the idea was that if you were at sea and saw
two different lights you knew you were coming
in at the wrong angle until they lined up as one).

It was sunny, but it was cold with the wind off the ocean.

Maple Bacon deliciousness in the car.

Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park.
We spent a long time here.

If you really squint you can see Ram Island Ledge
Light off in the distance (just left of center on
the horizon).

It was kind of blinding to look at the lighthouse
with all that white paint and the bright sun.

We spent a good long while reading every sign and display
in the museum (not something I'd get to do with two kids
in tow, that's for sure).

We wandered around the old Goddard Mansion at the far end
of the park.

It reminded me of the secret garden or something with all the
growth taking over.

The walk out to Spring Point Ledge Light
was longer than it looks.  But it was kind of a fun
adventure to hop from huge rock to huge rock
all the way.

It's just a cute little guy.

Last one: Breakwater Light aka Bug Light -
even cuter and littler than the one before!

And so fancy with the corinthian columns and
pretty edge around the top.

Portland skyline from another angle.

The Portland Airport is super small - and that
was our security line!

One last seafood meal (in the airport at
Linda Bean's) before hopping on the plane
back home.

We both got the Grilled Cheesen Crabmeat
sandwiches and I got a Whoopie Pie to bring
home to Gregg.

Lobstahs.

That's Utah!

Somewhere in all those lights as we landed is the State Capitol
and Temple Square.

Home again, home again jiggety jog.

And that concludes this epic adventure.  Thanks, Mugs, for letting me hijack your trip!