Day 2 - Bar Island Path

Doug had been talking about a particular land bridge that is greatly exposed at low tide. It goes to an island called "Bar Island." The opportunity to hike there occurs between the window of time 1.5 hours before to 1.5 hours after low tide...

Since we weren't going to spend hours out on the water that afternoon, we decided to check this out instead.

 

We were cutting it pretty close to the tide coming back in by visiting around 2PM, and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about crossing and then having the tide start to rise while we were out there.

 It was pretty neat when we got there. There were plenty of people visiting...

It was overcast and breezy (and a bit chilly). We couldn't believe it was July 3rd. This type of weather doesn't exist in July in Georgia.

 

We started to walk across the bar and took pictures on it...

While we were walking on the bar, a deer came running through there like lightning (you'll hear a dog yelp in the background because he noticed it)...

 

 We almost made to to the other side, but then the park ranger started giving the warning that the tide was going to start coming back in...

We turned around and started to walk back...

As we walked back, the tide did start coming in a little bit and we had to walk across a small part of the path that ended up getting our feet wet.

But we made it safe and sound back to the original side. We sat down for a while and people watched...

Doug spotted a large rock in the distance and asked Bri if he could take a few pictures of her. She sweetly obliged...

As we sat and people watched, we noticed that a group of people were still on the other side of the sandbar and the tide was starting to come up more quickly. I think they were exploring Bar Island and lost track of time. They had two water ways now to cross. One was about knee height and the other was ankle high with water.

 

People started to watch them attempt to cross. I was feeling nervous for them...

 

Once they started getting closer, I realized it was a dad, mom and two young girls (maybe middle school age). At one point, the dad had one of the girls hop on his back. They were all very wet when they got to the safe side of the path.
 

Very glad they made it safely and very glad it wasn't us!

It was finally time for us to start heading back to the main part of town. We had a couple more things we wanted check out. More on that next...

Day 2 - Daylight Arrived, Lunch And Shopping

Since we arrived at 10PM in the evening at our hotel, we hadn't seen our view from our balcony in the light. We finally got a chance to see everything when we woke up on day 2 (July 3rd)...

 We took it very slow and easy that morning since our day before was a bit stressful and long, and it was a perfect way to start our day 2.

There was an area on each floor where hotel guests could get fruit, water, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. Doug and Bri grabbed a drink to start the morning.

They sat on the hotel room balcony and enjoyed the view (and took a few selfies). It was chilly and overcast, but it was still quite enjoyable...

We all then decided to head out for an early lunch and a little shopping before our whale watching excursion at 2PM (which was sadly cancelled).

This is what our hotel looked like from the street...

Our room was the middle room in the blue section (picture right above).

 

We started to walk and came across a restaurant called "Testas." We sat in the bar area...

 

Doug and I ordered lobster rolls (Doug got a BLT lobster roll) and Briana opted for the lobster mac n cheese. The lobster rolls were good, but I think Bri won for the most tasty dish that meal. It was large enough for an army, so Doug and I helped her eat a bit of it. So good.

 After lunch, we walked around and did a little shopping...

We walked back to our hotel room to grab some things for our boat excursion - I took a dramamine as a precaution. The boat dock was right across the street.

We got in line early - around 1:15 or so. There were a couple of people in line already. We were supposed go out on the Friendship...

That was when we were told the weather out on the ocean was just too blustery, choppy and dangerous and the tour was cancelled. We changed our boat trip and headed back to the hotel.

We sat in the lobby area to figure out what to do and regroup...

Doug suggested something else cool we could do and I'll talk about that in my next post!

Day 1 - Travel Day

Doug, Bri and I left on Friday, July 2 for our Bar Harbor summer vacation trip. We knew it would be a long travel day, but little did we know just how long it would end up.

Getting to the airport was relatively smooth that morning and we waited in the Sky Club for our flight...

 

Our first flight of the day was on an De!ta Airbus, and we were in first class. So, the seats were incredibly NICE. Lay back, tons of room, private viewing screens, super sweet stuff...

 

Other than the 20 minute delay getting out, the flight was super comfy and relatively problem free.

As you know, when we stepped off that flight, things went sideways. (Our second flight was in a very small plane  - 2 seats/1 seat - and even in first class, we were cramped.)

But we did finally arrive in Bar Harbor (3+ hours late), and picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel. The ride was smooth, even though we hadn't planned on navigating the drive in the dark.

 And it was chilly in Maine! In the middle of summer!

We finally arrived at our quaint, beautiful hotel - West Street Hotel...

The lobby was so warm and a fire was burning our entire stay because of the chilly temperatures. It was beautiful and inviting. They had candles burning and it smelled amazing in there. 

And they have the sweetest dog on the premises...

The hotel is pet friendly, so if you have allergies, that might be an issue for you, but we had no issues at all. All the furry guests were very well mannered our entire stay. 

We got up to our room and we were tired.

Doug was so sweet and had requested champagne and Macarons for the room for when we arrived. They had probably been sitting there waiting for us for a while. We did pop open the champagne because we had finally made it (in one piece)...

We did have an ocean view room and it was located on the 4th floor, so we could overlook the shops and see the harbor very well.

We enjoyed our stay here very much...

I highly recommend to anyone visiting the area.

Next post - day 2. Exploring Bar Harbor...

Opening Thoughts On Our Trip To Bar Harbor, Maine

Before I get into the pictures/specifics/details of our Maine vacation, I'd like to write a bit of a "prologue" (which I have done with a few other vacations like Hawaii).

First, let me say this trip ended up being wonderful and awesome and all the things. It really did.

When we were trying to decide where we wanted to go for our summer vacation, we felt it was important to go where we felt safer from covid. We already live in what we feel is a rather unsafe place, so we wanted to take a bit of a break from that. We asked "Where is completely opposite of going to Florida?" We threw around the ideas of either Washington State or Maine. We decided to stay on the east coast (and thank goodness we did because that was when the 'heat dome' hit the pacific northwest hard).

There were a few problems hiccups that arose mainly at the beginning of our trip - which caused us to do some rearranging and compromising throughout the trip, but in the end, it ended up great - and that's what really counts.

Let me get right to the things that went kind of sideways during the trip, so I can then focus on all the "good things" that happened in my next posts. I like to keep it real and not only give you all the "fluff" because life isn't all fluff, right?

Getting to Bar Harbor from Atlanta requires a connecting flight. Nothing you can do about it - you just deal with it. We had a tough time with a connecting flight getting back from Hawaii in 2019, and unfortunately it happened again going to Maine. I told Doug that the next place we visit via plane must be direct and non-stop...the end.

 Remember, I have an anxiety disorder. This was my first flying experience since the pandemic started. We needed to wear masks the entire time (not a huge deal). I really wanted/needed things to go smoothly (sadly they didn't).

We left on our trip the Friday before the 4th of July.

Our first flight out of Atlanta to JFK was running about 20 minutes late due to the intercom on the plane crapping out before taking off and needing to be rebooted. It was fixed thank goodness, but it cost us time. We had a very short layover - a little over an hour, so losing 20 minutes was very nerve-wracking. But, the connecting flight was supposed to be in the same terminal, so we should have been fine.

We weren't. They changed the gate for our connecting flight at the last minute to another terminal completely. And JFK is the most ginormous airport ever. No other flight with De!ta would be heading to Bangor until the next day. And with Covid issues, certain access points/shuttles at JFK were not accessible. To get to the next terminal we needed to hop on a shuttle. There should have been a shuttle entrance close to the gate we arrived at, but it was closed. So, we needed to go from one end of the terminal (where we were) to the other end to get to the shuttle entrance that was open and then run to our gate. The woman we asked about catching our flight said it was a mile and a half to the other end of the terminal. No joke. We had about 20 to 25 minutes - maybe. I looked at Doug and said it's not possible. He said we needed to try.

We started to run. Doug was in front, then Bri and I was lagging behind trying to lug my suitcase and backpack (we didn't check any luggage). I have a bad shoulder if you don't know - which I had been in physical therapy for - so this was NOT good. We were masked and running through the airport. I felt like we were doomed. We were dodging people left and right, hopping on and off of moving sidewalks - trying to get there. We arrive at the shuttle pickup point and we were immediately told the shuttle bus had just left. We were going to miss our flight. OMG.

Somehow, another/different shuttle pulled up at that exact moment. We hop on it, huffing and puffing, praying the plane was still there at the gate in the next terminal. It was - they were holding it for a few extra minutes for us and a couple other people. Hallelujah!

We get on, they grab us some water bottles and we sit down exhausted - thinking we were golden.

We pull out and start to drive down the runway.

Then we stop. Told there was bad weather in Maine. Can't go on the normal route. Planes are all backed up. We needed to wait. We were allowed to get up and use restrooms at that time. We are handed pretzels and water. We waited for 1.5 hours before we were told that they had a different route around the storms but it was a route rarely used. It needed to be entered into the system manually. So we wait again. Another hour - no restroom allowance during that time.

Then we were told because everything had taken too long, our flight crew was not allowed to fly us to our destination anymore. They had logged too many hours, it would be illegal for them to fly us and the crew needed to be switched out with a different, fresher crew. We drove 20 minutes back to the terminal and were forced to get off the plane. We were told we would be getting back on the same plane.

All that running we did to catch the flight in the first place was for nothing. I was pretty angry. De!ta did not handle this situation well at all.

Doug, Bri and I stood in a crazy slow, long line in the terminal trying to buy expensive, crappy tasting sandwiches and salads because we were starving. About 45 minutes later, we got back on the plane. By the time we got back on, the storms had passed and we could use the original route.

Once we got to Bangor, it was 9PM. We were several hours late by that time. And we still had to rent a car and drive over an hour to Bar Harbor. We didn't get to our hotel until after 10PM and we were exhausted.

Luckily, we had no solid plans for the next morning, so we could sleep in a bit. We had a whale watching excursion booked for 2PM on Saturday afternoon.

When we walked across the street from our hotel to the boat dock that afternoon, we found out that the whale watching excursion had been cancelled due to, you guessed it, very windy/choppy/bad (possibly dangerous) weather. All the whale watching excursions (there are two a day) were booked up the rest of our trip (except for one seat being open here and there). Bri was devastated. We booked a lobster/seal watching excursion instead for our last afternoon there to try to make up for it, but Bri really wanted to see a whale.

It rained pretty much on and off all day on July 4th (Sunday), and we saw that the whale watching excursions ended up being cancelled on Sunday too. And the big fireworks display was postponed until the next evening. I will say, it ended up be amazing and worth the wait.

After our whale watching excursion was cancelled, I told Bri to keep checking the website. You just never know. If any seats somehow opened up, even if it was just two of them, I wanted her and Doug to go without me. Miraculously, another seat did open up for Monday morning and they were able to grab two seats and go out - minus me, which was ok. The weather was perfect that day. They got to see a whale and Bri was super happy.

Our last hiccup was our drive up to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park on Tuesday morning (you have to have a reservation time to go up there). Our time was set for 10AM. We were supposed to go to Acadia on Monday but we shifted plans due to the whale watching excursion. Monday would have been beautiful on top of the mountain. Tuesday was ridiculously foggy. We couldn't see a dang thing on the top of that mountain. Such a bummer. But, we went back down the mountain and ventured around the park (which was really crowded in some places, so we searched for quieter ones) and luckily saw some beautiful sites.

 The trip back home was smooth - so that was good.

 This trip was a big lesson in dealing with/fixing problems, adapting to change and making the most out of our experience. Not to say we didn't have our moments of total frustration (which we did), but we tried not to let it get to us (too badly). When things were going well, we really tried to enjoy it and soak it all in.

I'm not sure if this kind of stuff happens to you all, but it pretty much happens to us all the time. It doesn't stop us from traveling - if it did, we wouldn't ever go anywhere. Heh.

So, my next posts will be all about the good stuff in Bar Harbor. It is such a quaint town. So many beautiful things to see. A lot of yummy seafood.

Stay tuned...

4th Of July Photo Shoot (2021)

If you have been reading my blog long enough, you know every year around the 4th of July that my friends Amy, Valerie and I get our families together to celebrate and I take pictures of our girls  (Mary, Briana and Imerie) in matching patriotic outfits. This year, it was a "ladies only" affair - which happened about a week after the 4th.

 

Every year I wonder if it will be the year the girls finally nix the whole matching outfits/shirts thing, but once again, the girls were very kind and allowed us one of our favorite traditions. I just love being able to look back at the pictures and see just how much they have matured.

Here are our previous years...

And here is our 2021 photo shoot...

They are so grown up now. It is really hard to believe sometimes.

A Summer Wrap-Up Blog Post

 Here is a nice little wrap up of our summer break. Briana is back in school and has been back for a week now.

As you all know, we were waiting for Briana to be "fully vaccinated" before we started venturing out a bit more freely. Once she was fully vaccinated (in mid-June), we did start venturing out more - sometimes with a mask and sometimes without - obviously before the delta variant hit full force. 

 

Doug and I had a couple of "date nights" over the summer.

We went to "Cooks and Soldiers" one evening around my birthday and it was so delish! So many amazing tapas...

I took the top above sunset photo as we drove home from the restaurant that evening. We also saw a beautiful rainbow that evening as well...

 

 We had another date night to a local Italian restaurant (Fuscos) and it was so delicious as well...

It had been a really long time since Bri and I did some true shopping. Over the summer, we hit Michaels, Barnes and Noble, Famous Footwear, Kohl's and our local mall. Bri had been wanting to go to the mall for over a year and we finally felt comfortable doing it. We thought it would be great for back to school clothes shopping (and it was). My mom joined us and we went when it wasn't really crowded at all. It is kind of sad how malls (at least the ones near me) are practically empty nowadays. I think the pandemic is part of it, but they started becoming less popular once online shopping became the rage. It felt really good seeing Briana enjoy "real life" again...

We also started seeing a few friends again once Briana was vaccinated...

 We were also able to do our annual "July 4th matching shirts" photo shoot with Bri, Mary and Imerie (about a week late). I will do a separate post on that next.

 

Doug picked out and purchased a pool table for our basement and it was delivered over the summer...

 

It's so pretty! We are loving it!

 

My gardenias bloom in the summertime and that makes me so happy...
 

We took a trip to Bar Harbor, Maine over the July 4th holiday...

I'll be writing separate posts about our trip as well. We knew we wanted to go in the opposite direction of FL (no joke) - somewhere vaccine belief was in the majority. Maine is where we decided on - and it was beautiful.

Mei Mei is still doing pretty well. Still "mowing" a bit unfortunately. She is so sad when we go out of town, but very happy and relieved when we get back home...

So, I will write all about Maine (which will last a few posts) and then I'll move on to Briana starting back to school and my thoughts on that.

I'm already missing summer break. Not digging this going back to school in August thing right now.

Happy 15th Birthday Briana!!

Happy, Happy, Happy 15th birthday to my beautiful, sweet, funny, smart, kind, talented, amazing girl!

 

(Somehow I blinked.)

 

Previous birthdays...

 

 And now she is 15...

Happy Birthday!!!!