Off Course Before Finding Perfection

In recounting our New England vacation, I need to backtrack a moment. Michelle commented on the previous post about me forgetting the full name of the restaurant we visited in New York. I also forgot to describe the decor, which consisted of animal heads tacked on the wall and drinks served in jars. And I was grateful that Michelle didn't notice that as we entered the place on street level, we immediately walked down a full flight of stairs into the basement level as she doesn't like being underground. Which leads me to another forgotten moment as we drove through Boston, Massachusetts and faced our fears. Michelle fears being underground and I fear heights. As Mich drove through Boston, we entered a lengthy underground tunnel before coming up onto a high bridge then back underground and another bridge. And while visiting Newport, RI, Michelle I discovered our combined Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS), which leads to a 3 hour drive becoming a 6 hour drive as we go off course and explore new things. SOS is responsible for us entering Maine after dark and driving straight to Freeport to shop at LL Bean.

In driving to Freeport, we had bypassed the Portland Head Light, one of the oldest lighthouses in the U.S. So the next day, we drove back to Portland and decided it would be brilliant to take a lighthouse scenic drive along the coastline of Maine. We visited numerous quaint seaside towns on this drive, but somehow many of the recommended highlights of the tour were closed. The worst offender of this was Fort Henry. As we drove, we never found a good place to stop for a restroom or lunch break, so we arrived at the Fort, starving and desperate for a restroom only to discover the Fort, museum, and restaurant were all closed. We continued on to Pequamid Point, Maine, where we discovered one of our first glee moments. We split a lobster roll and crab roll while sitting on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic, followed by us playing in these grooves that glaciers had carved into the cliffs.



Once done playing on the rocks and really behind our loosely planned schedule, we headed up to Bar Harbor, where we hoped to watch the sunset from Cadillac Mountain. As we drove, Michelle looked up the time for sunset, which was 5:50. Michelle and I were barely going to make it and the GPS couldn't locate the mountain road, so we programmed in Acadia's Park Loop Road and hoped we'd figure it out. Amazingly enough, we made it just at sunset, hopped out of the car and reached the point with other onlookers. As we stood on top of the mountain witnessing the breathtaking view, we decided our itinerary needed a change. You see, we'd planned to hike in Acadia that afternoon, but arrived at sunset and had only given ourselves another day and a half, which didn't feel like enough time as we stood in awe of Acadia National Park.