Last Full Day of Vacation - "Worth It!"

Another day without pics - sorry!

Woke up this morning and met Julia and Jessie at Reading Terminal market in Philly for brunch. Awesome, awesome, awesome. After Jessie and Ronnie downed foot-long pork sandwiches and Julia and I ate awesome crepes, we hoofed it around Old City and toured Independence Hall. Lots of great historic sites and photo opp's along the way.

After Independence Hall, we took a cab to try cheesesteaks at Pat's and at Geno's. Hands down, we all agreed that Pat's won the battle with a tastier sandwich. After stuffing ourselves with cheesesteak, we hopped back in a cab to go see the art museum (aka, the 'Rocky' stairs). Unfortunately, this cab ride was the equivalent to a coming-off-the-tracks roller coaster ride that made us all thankful to be on solid ground. The cabbie chatted up Ronnie in the front seat while the girls clung to the divider in the back for dear life.

After taking several tourista pics at the Rocky statue and stairs, we headed down to the fountain at Logan Square and then spent some time in the Academy of Natural Science, where we ran around like kids looking at dinosaurs, animal dioramas, and butterflies in the 80-degree, 80% humidity butterfly house. All the walking obviously made us thirsty, so we sought out a happy hour and rested for a while.

Dinner was awesome. Julia picked an Italian BYOB (Mercato) where Ted and friend Bob (hi Bob!) joined, and we had amazing food and drinks. Ronnie was liked especially well by our server, who happened to be a guy. Haha, guess he's just too manly with his newly learned Maine-sea-farin' tendencies and attracts attention from all types.

After a long, relaxing dinner, we hit up Ted's two favorite bars and spent the rest of the evening talking and watching the Phillies beat the Dodgers. The crowd went wild. Very fun. Very cool to be in town for that.

And now we are thankful to be back at the hotel and ready for bed. Tomorrow we head home and bring our magnificent journey to a close, happy to have had the chance to experience it all.

Nitey nite...

Made it to Philly!

Looooooong drive today from Maine. Two obstacles messed up our time - getting lost in Boston on the way to Eagle's Deli and traffic due to a snow shower on the way down to Philly. What should have been an eleven hour trip ended up taking around fourteen hours instead :(

Regardless, we are happy to be here. Just got back from a very late dinner at New Deck Tavern - an awesome rec from Julia! Got to catch the end of the Falcons game, so as everyone else cheered on the Phillies, we were glued to the one TV in the place that wasn't on baseball.

Earlier today, we stopped for lunch at Eagle's Deli in Boston. Ronnie has been wanting to try the 2-lb challenge since he watched the Man vs. Food 5-lb challenge last year. Not to be fooled by the name, the '2-lb challenge', or Cowabunga burger, is actually around five pounds of food: four 1/2 lb hamburger patties (so a two-pounder), four slices of cheese, bacon (Ronnie added that), the monster bun it all sits on, and two additional pounds of french fries. It's a disgusting amount of food (although the burger honestly is delicious).

He was sooooo excited about all of this food; in fact, he actually considered ordering the 3-lb challenge but refrained. Thank goodness.

He cleared the burger in seven and a half minutes, and then slowed WAY down as he approached the fries. With about a quarter of the french fries left on his plate, he threatened to throw in the towel, so I called in reinforcements - my mom - to cheer him through those last few bites. With two more HUGE bites, he finished the plate, and with a giant burp, threw his hands in the air in victory.

That was around 2 p.m. Just now, at midnight, he reluctantly ordered a salad and couldn't finish it he is still so full. That's a lot of food boys. It almost conquered Big Ron.

Time for beddy-by - we are utterly exhausted. Pics later.

Last Day in Maine

Today was our last full day in Maine. We slept in, stumbled across the road to the cafe for breakfast, then returned to the room for the day. We initially had decided to stay on the island, enjoying the view and resting up for our eleven hour car ride tomorrow, but after four hours of sitting, I began to have cabin fever and needed to get out. So we road up to Barncastle for the second day in a row for 'lupper' around 4 p.m.

The place really is good. It's much more affordable that a lot of the restaurants around here, and it's quiet and dark and has a fireplace in the bar. We had a few drinks and dinner, then headed to the local grocery store to buy a case of the pumpkin ale I discovered on our adventure yesterday. Thankfully we don't have to go through customs to get back to Georgia, because we're bringing back all the Maine-Made beer we can fit in the car.

On the drive back, we stopped to take pictures over some wild blueberry fields as the sun was setting. The drive back was peaceful as usual and made me happy that we decided to venture out.

Now we're sitting in front of our last fire, enjoying our last sunset in Maine. Back on the road tomorrow for the long hike down to Philly. Can't wait to get on the road!

The Day of Thrills and Chills

We began our third day in Maine with the intention of exploring the last remaining corners of the region. We started in Stonington (the town we are staying in), with breakfast at the one cafe that is open (the one with the local-encounter... and yes, that local was there, again). After breakfast we walked down the one street to visit the three stores that are actually open this time of year. I bought a t-shirt and we took some pics. All in all, it was just a cold walk with nothing to do, so we went ahead and boarded up and headed off Deer Isle to the "Maine-land" (hahahaha). Bundled in our layers and headgear, we were driving towards Belfast when we noticed a fort. And this is where my trouble began.

I have uploaded the videos to youtube on 'thrashersrw', so search for them. There are 7 total, so be sure to watch them in order. They essentially take you through our accidental discovery of Fort Knox, to my terrifying ride up the 400 ft observatory, apparently the tallest bridge observatory in the world (although I can't imagine the competition is very wide for bridge observatories). For those who don't know, I am deathly afraid of heights but I have a near inability to say no to peer pressure when it comes to going up in ridiculously tall things.

After my heart stopped flying out of my chest, we walked down to the fort, which was built during the revolutionary war but never saw a battle so it is very intact. It is apparently the first all-granite fort, which is significant I guess, although Maine's granite resources have nothing on little Elberton, GA I'm afraid.

The fort was what you would imagine - dark, a little scary, deserted, and FREEZING since it is in Maine in October. To make matters worse, they were preparing the fort for 'Fright at the Fort', so you would be walking along and suddenly a 'prop' would pop out at you. Lovely.

We actually did have a pretty good time running around, pretending to shoot off canons, and taking pictures of the incredible view. And then we were starving, so we got back on the road and drove until we found a pub that had an awesome pumpkin bourbon cheesecake and Shipyard Pumpkin Ale on tap - so I got my pumpkin on.

The drive back was sleepy and relaxing. We stopped at one of the many co-ops, which are similar to Whole Foods, only the majority of goods are 'Maine-Made'. It's a very big deal up here; you see signs all over the place promoting 'buy-hire local'. Halfway back to Ellsworth, we stopped at a road-side shop that had all kinds of antiques and candles and homemade fudge. We got six different kinds, which are making me very happy as I type this right now.

We needed to waste some time before dinner since we had our awesome pumpkin-infused lunch kind of late, so we drove around for about an hour looking for a movie theater, but of course, we're in middle-of-nowhere Maine, and the most any cinema had were three movies and none of the showtimes were good. So we gave up, stopped to have a light dinner at Barncastle (which yes, is a barn that looks like a castle, or a castle that looks like a barn, you decide), then headed back to Stonington for another night of winding down by the fire and taking it easy. One more day in paradise, then onto Philly!

Adventure in Bar Harbor

So today I held a live lobster. And a starfish. And saw a bald eagle - in the wild - not in a netted cage like in Dollywood. Love it!

We spent the day exploring again, stopping in Blue Hill for some shopping before heading back to Acadia. Ronnie had spotted a lobster pound that was especially smokey and hole-in-the-wall looking, so we grabbed lobster sandwichs and clam chowder before crossing over to Mount Desert Island.

Today wasn't as cold, although the temp still held between 38 and 40, because it wasn't as windy, so we were able to walk around without freezing to death. When we got to Bar Harbor, we immediately bought tickets for the lobster and seal watching tour. The tour was around two hours long and was absolutely amazing. The captain hauled up multiple lobster traps and the tour guide passed them around for people to hold. One lobster was over a foot long. There were all kinds of things in the traps - starfish, flounder, sand dollars, sea cucumbers - pretty amazing.

We also got to see seals on the surrounding rocks, all fat and happy in the sunshine. The guide told us stories about the surrounding islands and houses, like a huge mansion that a man built for his wife who unfortunately came over to America on the Titanic and never got to see it. He also explained how about 1 in a million lobsters are blue instead of red/green. There were three blue lobsters caught in the harbor last year: one was donated to science, one was cooked, and one was put on ebay and sold for $10,000. Bet the 'donate to science' and the 'cooked' catchers are kicking themselves right about now.

After the tour, we thawed out in Geddy's over drinks and nachos then hung out in the park overlooking the water for a while before driving back to Deer Isle. We stopped along the way to watch the sunset at Caterpillar Hill, ordered a pizza, and are now hanging out in front of the fire for the second night in a row. This is happiness. Awesome day.

Videos!

We added a video bar with some of our funnies. Only a few show up on here, so search thrashersrw on youtube for more.

Peace and quiet... and fun!

How awesome has today been? Ok, so now I'm just being mean and rubbing it in. This one is going to be long...

We started the morning, as you know, going 'ooooohhhh myyyy gosssshhh loooook outside!!!!!'. Then we ventured downstairs for breakfast - homemade everything: muffins, all kinds of bread (we had the bacon/egg/cheese bread and the Maine potato bread), and jams - all overlooking the harbor. We chatted with another couple, got some recommendations for sightseeing from one of the inn keepers, and headed out.

Can I just say GORGEOUS... I know that's becoming a theme while we are in Maine, but it really is truly unbelievable. Our first adventure was a short hike to the top of a cliff. The area used to be a rock quarry, and the view was incredible, not to mention how quiet and nice the walk was (although the entire time I'm clinging to Ronnie afraid of bears - sheesh I'm such a wuss).

Then on to the upper side of the island where we took a quick ride down to Pumpkin Island Lighthouse - again, gorgeous view. Ok, this is getting pretty boring, so I'm going to give you the summary: we stopped at multiple places all day long, got out, took pictures, and marveled at what we were seeing. Done.

Our ultimate goal was to reach Acadia National Park (Deer Isle is just south). On the drive, we stopped in Ellsworth for lunch. We didn't have a clue, so we wandered around, first stopping in a pub that looked promising only to find it inhabited to drunk local characters - at 11 a.m. Ronnie of course is like, this looks great, but I on the otherhand, put on my 'don't argue' face and promptly walked us out. We ended up eating in a great little sandwich shop, where Ronnie asked for a Diet Coke and of course, we're in Pepsi land, so he ordered a root beer instead haha. After browsing in an antique shop and barely getting me out of there alive, we were back on the road.

We wouldn't have believed that our day would bring even more beautiful scenery from what we had already seen, but when we arrived in Acadia we ate our words. AMAZING. We simply drove around for two hours looking and taking pictures (we would have actually ventured outside the car, except it was below 40 and windy, and I'm in a heavy sweater, a coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and boots and still feezing my butt off, so outside the car was a scary place for me).

Before heading back we stopped at the Atlantic Brewing Company and Sweet Pea Farm winery for tastings. Then we drove back, tired and happy for the day.

So now a story about dinner...

We are on an island. An island that is an hour away from anything that takes Visa. There are lots of local restaurants on the island, but all but one of them have closed for the winter. And this one restaurant is a tiny street side cafe where guess what, all the locals eat, too. So we journey across the street (literally, stumbling distance) and walk in, barely getting a table, and starving to death.

The crowd is split down the middle: older tourists (we are the youngest aliens here) and older locals. Picture country club vs. shipyard, and us. Half the tables are 'reserved', which we still can't decide who these were 'reserved' for, and you basically hear tourists complaining about everything from the temperature to the lack of pre-dinner bread baskets and the locals complaining about the tourists. And we are literally sitting in the middle of the freakin' restaurant, trying to look inconspicious and eat our meal.

Ronnie had a lobster roll and I ordered spaghetti. We've been photographing our plates everywhere we go to make a collage at home of all the meals we ate, so of course, we want to snap a picture of what we ordered, but there's this whole 'war of the local and tourist worlds' going on, so I try to do it quickly without being seen. Sure enough, a local sees me, and comes by our table to say, "No one takes pictures of spaghetti" and gives Ronnie a little punch on the arm.

Now understand that this is the local that ate the ENTIRE lobster. Not just the tail, not just the claws, but everything, all the guts and glory. And then he ate his wife's ENTIRE lobster. And this local is probably 6' 5", old and haggard, and looks like he knows pirate-like ways to kill you. So we nervously laugh and tell him that we're trying to get pictures of everything we eat on our vacation, and pray that he doesn't think this is the wrong answer to give. And guess what? He laughs and smiles and says, "Well good!" and goes along his way, as pleasant as can be. So we have officially decided that locals are 100% ok in our book, and the fuddy-duddy tourists complaining about their not having bread before they order can go jump in the harbor.

And with that, I say good night. I have my pj's on, a crackling fire going, and another day to look forward to :).