Froglets

We went to the fireworks on Saturday night (people in Maine don't work for the government, so they had to work on Monday). The view of the harbor was beautiful and the fireworks were very nice. Unfortunately, they were at 9:30 at night, so Sabine did not think too highly of them and let everyone know. I had to leave early with her while Cesar and Che stayed to enjoy the finale.

When we woke up on Sunday, Colin (our hosts' 4-year-old) was waiting outside of our bedroom on the stairs for Che to wake up and play with him. It was so cute. After breakfast, we headed to Acadia National Park and the drive there was great (until the last hour). We went over a new bridge that was so lovely there were hotel advertisements touting great views of it. When we were about an hour away Che and Sabine decided to turn on the whine and it got really bad. I wanted to jump out of the window. Then Che said he had to pee, but there was nowhere to stop. We were in the park, but there were no bathrooms where we were and I wouldn't let Cesar stop and have Che pee on the side of the road because it is a national park and I am sure there are fines for that, and there were tons of people around. I don't need to tell you how this story ends...luckily I had a change of clothes for him. Poor kid.

The hike we chose to do was amazing. The gigantic and green pine trees on the craggy cliffs hitting the blue ocean created a vista certainly worth the drive ("accident" included). The skies were also very clear and it was warm outside--very different than the last time I went when it was all foggy. Che did a great job on the hike (80 minutes!) and enjoyed rock climbing. We got to one area where he insisted he could do it himself and I threw up in my mouth and told Cesar to get him away from the precipice. He was frighteningly close to the cliff edge. After that hike, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain and Che and I enjoyed the view from the top while Cesar stayed with a sleeping Sabine in the car.

Then we headed out of Acadia to meet up with the Croneys who were heading up to Acadia. We were hungry and tried to stop in Bar Harbor for food, but Sabine was sleeping and everything looked too crowded to just jump in and pick something up. On our way out of Bar Harbor we stopped at a little restaurant/stand on the side of the road and as soon as we pulled up I saw two very overweight men that looked incredibly filthy working a grill and thought to myself "Uh, oh". I could hear the Deliverance banjos in the background. I wanted to leave, but Cesar said we had to get food. We got some pretty awful food, melted into the styrofoam!!!!, and Cesar told me (after the fact) that I was lucky that I did not see the large rash on the lady's arm that was preparing our food. Yuck! We met the Croneys at Craig Pond where Che and Sabine enjoyed playing with the kids and I loved cooling off in the pond--even though it had tadpoles, frogs, and all sorts of amphibians in various stages of maturation! Seeing a creature that looks like a fully developed frog with a tale swimming around was freaky (we later learned this is called a froglet)... made us appreciate amphibians, evolution and all of life's transitions that don't involve a tale coming out of your butt. The water was very cold and felt terrific.

We got home very late in the evening, took showers, and headed to our favorite spot in Camden to eat--Camden Deli--delicious blueberry pie, lots of veggie options, seafood chowdah for Cesar, and a great view of the harbor.

On Monday, after saying goodbye to our stellar hosts at Abigail's Inn, we headed to Portland to start our month-long adventure there. We couldn't get into our house until 4, so we went to Freeport and ate lunch and I tried to sneak some shopping in. Cesar thwarted my efforts, however. After grocery shopping at Whole Foods ($2.50 containers of organic strawberries!!!), we headed to our rental. It is very nice (I had to remove lots of decorations so the kids wouldn't mess them up) and the property is gorgeous. There are tons of flowers all around and stone walls and very green grass. The house is terrific; however, there is not much around. Today (Tuesday) we went into Portland and it took about twenty minutes and although the downtown was very nice with brick sidewalks, cool looking shops, and a bunch of yummy restaurants, it did not seem that accessible for us since we have two young 'uns that don't like walking up and down brick walkways. Sabine learned a new sentence from Che at the Mexican restaurant we ate at: I don't like this. TERRific! Not to be outdone- Che is also performing new tricks... Che has now taken over the job of removing Sabine from her booster seat when she is done eating. This includes putting her in a bear-hug and gently placing her on the floor- terrifying. Sabine does not seem to mind and has even started to request it. We'll see how this goes...

Cesar and I have been talking about what we have learned thus far on the trip. Here are a few of the bullet points: we are anti-density--especially with kids-- (a little is ok, but not too much), we like nature, St. Croix has lots of positives, Che loves having some friends around, we would rather stay in our own place where I am not worried about the kids breaking something, and since our family is so LOUD we need privacy. This has been, and will continue to be, a great learning experience for us.

Tomorrow is our anniversary and I am sure we will be missing our parents' babysitting services!