How humid was it?

6:14 am - Saturday - June 30th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 63º F, 95% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northeast.......partly cloudy with a forecast high of 76º F today.  Wow, the last day of June, 2018, and also the beginning of our 8th week here in Southwest Harbor, ME.

As soon as I stepped outside Friday I knew it was going to be a humid day......you could feel it in the air.  Since we arrived here in Southwest Harbor it has not been that humid, which has been a relief to me.  There have been individual days here and there that were humid, but Friday took the cake for sure as the most humid day in the 7 weeks we have been on site.....probably around 95%.

Todd, Tammy and one armed Alex (it appears he will be released by his doctor to begin using his left arm again around July 10th) were doing the pool so I ferried both golf carts down to the office from the 'garage' while they finished.  Once they finished and we had consumed our morning coffee one armed Alex headed out to begin cleaning the sites which were being vacated, while Tammy and I took care of a couple of things, one being to retrieve a Stihl blower to blow the standing water off site # 91 remaining from the storm the day prior.  This is the only site which has a drainage problem, and if we don't blow the standing water off the concrete pad it will stay for days resulting in the next occupant living in the middle of a lake for their stay, and we do not want that.

Once we were done with that I headed with Todd in the company pickup over to the boat ramp in Bernard to fill up three 55 gallon trash cans with sea water so we could get the lobster tank in the office filled with same and ready to receive a load of live lobsters on Saturday.  That took us right up to 11 am and lunch time.  After lunch Tammy and I dove into the daily restroom cleaning......it was soooo humid in those restrooms!  I was literally wiping sweat from my eyes for the two hours it took to finish them.  Once we had finished we went into the office to sit in front of their air conditioner for about 10 minutes to cool down, and dry out!

One of the things I like about Todd is when it gets warm and humid he takes his foot off the accelerator and gives us jobs not requiring us to exert ourselves excessively.  We all appreciate that!  I filled a propane canister for a customer, ran to the garage to fetch a couple of items for him, and sat in the shade watching he and one armed Alex pull a small diameter rope through some conduit in preparation for pulling some fiber optic cable next week.  They are upgrading their WiFi here at SDC to increase available broadband, and speed, and this will be the first step.  By the time they finished it was 3 pm and time for Alex and Tammy to punch the clock.  I still had two hours to go so I spent that time patrolling the campground, picking up some recycling, talking with customers, and hauling away some cardboard to the dumpster.

I punched the clock at 5 pm and was on my way home.....once again TLE had the 10 am to 6 pm shift, and she was home just after 6 pm.  Another day in the books!  Just before TLE came home it began to rain, and just after she got home it began to pour, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes and it was done.

We watched a recorded episode of 'Alone'.....they have already lost 3 of the 10 competitors after 9, or 10 days. This season they are in Mongolia, and the conditions there are quite harsh.

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The show must go on......

6:17 am - June 29th - Friday - Southwest Harbor, ME - 60º F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM.......partly cloudy with a forecast high today of 74º F.  Rained most of the night.

Thursday began with rain which continued all day long and into the night.  The 'show' must go on here at SDC.......weather, or no weather......so we just put on our rain gear and continue on with style.  There are certain things which must be done each day (pool, clean sites, pick up trash, clean restrooms), but after those things are done there is not much else we can do outside on a rainy day that doesn't involve all of us getting soaked to the bone.

At times the rainfall was quite heavy, and if you were inside any of the buildings the sound of the rain hitting the roof was deafening.  By 3 pm we had exhausted all we could do without a gratuitous soaking, so we headed for home.  TLE had the 10 am to 6 pm shift in the office so she stayed dry throughout her 8 hour shift.

I spent the rest of the afternoon drying out my clothes, which included my Levis, and rain parka.......I thought I was done wearing pants this summer until Thursday.  I really hope Thursday is the very last time I wear anything but shorts to work.

I wish there was more about which to write, but that was my day in a capsule......rain, rain, and more rain.  On the other hand it looks like the weather leading up to the 4th of July will be good with temps in the high 60's and low 70's, so we've got that going for us.

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Can you hear that echo?

6:15 am - Thursday - June 28th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 59º F, 96% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the south......raining right now with heavy cloud cover.....forecast high is 60º F with rain all day and into the evening.

We slept in to 8:30 am again Wednesday......the sun finally penetrating the fog of our slumber.  There were no big plans for the day except to take a 2 mile out and back walk to Echo Lake so we lazed around all morning.  We wanted to watch the World Cup match between Germany (defending World Cup champion) and South Korea (hadn't won a game).  Germany has never not made it out of 'pool' play into the round of 16, and unless they won this match by two, or more goals they would not be advancing out of pool play.  The game was still tied at nil - nil when 'added time' began.  By this time you can see the pressure on the faces of the German team....about 2 minutes into 'added time' Korea apparently scored a goal, but the Assistant Referee had his flag up indicating an 'offsides' infraction on the South Korean player who scored the goal, thereby nullifying the goal.  But wait....there's more.....ultimately it went to 'VAR' (Video Assisted Review) where it was determined by the Center Referee that the South Korean player was NOT offside......1-nil in favor of South Korea.  So, there are still 6 minutes left in 'added time' (the original 6 minutes, plus 3 more to account for the delay in reviewing the scoring play).  So, now Germany must score at least 3 goals to advance, and that is not going to happen.  In fact, South Korea scored another goal as 'added time' was running out and won 2-nil over Germany.  What a great game to watch.  I think the South Korean goalie made in excess of 20 saves over the course of the match.  It was a good day for the Mexico National Team as Germany's failure to advance meant they would advance out of pool play!

After that we decided to get dressed and take our 'out and back' walk to Echo Lake.  We left for our walk around 12:30 pm arriving at Echo Lake about 25 minutes later......the total one way distance turns out to be 1.2 miles making the round trip walk 2.4 miles.  Initially we walk down a sawdust path about .1 miles in length which takes us to Lurvey Spring road, and then another .2 miles to Echo Lake Road with a final .9 miles downhill to Echo Lake Beach....... 

 Lurvey Spring Road

 Echo Lake Beach

.....as you can see, Echo Lake Beach was quite busy on this Wednesday afternoon.  You will recall that I visited Long Pond Beach a week ago and found it completely deserted.....

......sure, it's a much smaller beach, but hey, there's no one there.....I prefer the less crowded beach venues.  I think we'll take our beach chairs to Long Pond next week to sit on the beach.

We were home by 2:40 pm and watching another World Cup match until well after 4 pm.  Around 5 pm we got dressed to go out to dinner at Seafood Ketch again.  We were meeting Steven (a co-worker) and his wife Lois for dinner.  This was also the last night of the season that they would be offering their two specials for $30 including a bottle of wine.....we can't miss that, right?  We had a lovely, lingering, two hour dinner with Steven and Lois before heading for home.  Time to get ready for another work week!

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Perfection personified......

8:52 am - Wednesday - June 27th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 66º F, 62% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the southwest......partly cloudy with a forecast high of 67º F.....we're almost to the high of the day at 8:52 am?

Of course, we are knee deep in the 2018 World Cup daily matches of which there are four each day for the first two weeks.  We spent the morning watching first the Denmark/France game which ended in the first nil-nil game of this World Cup.  The second between Australia/Peru was won by Peru 2-0 thus eliminating Australia from the 2018 World Cup.

For our Tuesday exploration we opted to return to the Carriage Roads in Acadia National Park.  We easily found a parking place at the Eagle Lake trailhead just off SR-233.  Our plan was to ride south to Jordan Pond, get a bite to eat there and then ride back.  We estimated the total loop distance at around 10 miles.  We set off riding down the east side of Eagle Lake and immediately came upon a climb that went on for about a mile. Near the top of that climb I noticed the rear of my bike was feeling kind of squirrely so I looked down and saw that my rear tire was almost flat!  I stopped immediately  and waited for TLE to close the gap.  This is my second flat tire since arriving at MDI.  I haven't had a flat tire since last summer, so it was a little disconcerting to have a second within two weeks.....last time it was the front tire.  It turned out there was a thin, long wire stuck in the tire which had punctured the tube, so I removed it and then installed a new tube.  I will fix the punctured tube and use it again.

We were stopped about 15 minutes fixing the tire, and were on our way once again.  We arrived at Jordan Pond around 2 pm to find it was overrun with tourists and the wait to eat about one hour......thanks, but no thanks.  We're still a week away from the 4th of July and things are already beginning to rock in Acadia National Park.  We decided to just continue riding........it took us a few minutes to figure out where the Carriage Road continued past Jordan Pond, but we did figure it out eventually and continued our ride.........

Arrived at Jordan Pond

.......the Carriage Road continued on the other side of the Park Loop Road from Jordan Pond House with this grand stone Gatehouse guarding the entrance to the this section of the Carriage Road......

.....it was at this point I decided to take a short video of what the Carriage Roads typically look like here in Acadia National Park.......

.....we began our ride at the Eagle Lake trailhead at 321' elevation, and at the peak of our climbs on the west side of Jordan Pond at around the 7.9 mile mark we hit 458'.....that's a good bit of climbing.....I have to add that TLE never complained one time.....

....the prettiest part of the ride was along Bubble Lake where the Carriage Road runs right along the shores of the lake for about 1/2 mile before veering back into the woods once again......

Bubble Lake

.....eventually we came back to the shores of Eagle Lake and our starting point......

.......our final mileage ended up being 11.3 with about 650 caloric units being consumed with a total riding time of one hour and twenty-two minutes.  It was just after 3:30 pm and neither of us was out of gas.....we could have ridden another 10 miles.....lol.....well, maybe I could have.  This is only the second time TLE has ridden her Cannondale F-600 in the past 12 months and she is coming around quickly.  When we rode two weeks ago she was insistent we not do more than 5-6 miles, but this time she had no problem agreeing to a 10+ mile ride.

We were home by 4 pm at which time TLE began to prepare some snacks to munch on while got out the outdoor TV to watch a couple more World Cup games......the Iceland/Croatia match was won by Croatia 2-1, and then the Argentina/Nigeria won late by Argentina 2-1.....had Argentina lost, or tied they would have been out of the World Cup.  Both games were very good games and could have gone either way.  It was a perfect end to a perfect 'weekend' day!

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'Added time......'

9:17 am - Tuesday - June 26th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 64º F, 62% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northwest.......crystal, clear, blue skies.....almost balmy outside. Yup, you guessed it.....this is a day off work.  We slept in to 8:30 am and it was delicious!  I just returned from taking the office golf cart and the ranger phone back to the office for the regular night manager, Deb.

We awoke to rain Monday, and it continued raining until almost 10 am.....that was not in the forecast.  We were expecting rain overnight, and that we got, but apparently this weather system didn't get the message that it was supposed to stop by 7 am.......lol.  TLE had the closing shift which is now from 2 pm to 10 pm so she was just getting up as I exited the Newell to drive the office cart through the now pouring rain to another work day in paradise.

I worked with Tony and one armed Alex all day Monday.  The necessary things were done ......the pool, the trash run, and the restrooms.  It was too wet, and by the way, quite cold at 59º most of the day, to do much else.  Tony and I did do a little light weeding, but we were eventually chased under cover by a rain squall passing through the area.  We spent some time in the 'garage' organizing the tools in the tool box, and sweeping and then it was time for lunch.  The sun did finally make a late appearance around 2:30 pm, and by the 4 pm there was hardly a cloud to be seen in the MDI skies.  I punched the clock at 4 pm......I could have worked to 5 pm, but there was really nothing to do, and I hate just sitting around to get another $11 for the day.

I bid TLE adieu and headed for home to watch a few recorded World Cup soccer matches......there were four games in all (as there have been every day since the World Cup began).  The first was between Saudi Arabia and Egypt.  Normally I would say "So what?", but I am glad I watched because it was a great match decided, as so many matches have been this World Cup, in 'added time'.....Saudi Arabia scored a late goal as time was running out to break Eqypt's heart.  Let me explain 'added time' for those unfamiliar with soccer.  Once the clock starts to begin a game it runs continuously throughout the match.  It is never stopped for anything, including injuries.  To account for time lost to injuries, goal celebrations, the issuance of yellow and red cards, and substitutions time is added at the end of each half.  Most often the amount of time added at the end of the first half is 2-4 minutes.  At the end of the second half it is not unusual to see 4-6 minutes added.  The addition of time is not an exact science, but more of an estimate of time lost in each half.....this is one of the things I love about soccer.  Forty-five minutes are played in each half, plus 'added time'.  The total time of a typical soccer match can be anywhere from 92 to almost 100 minutes.  Anyway, the second game was between Russia (had won their first two games) and Uruguay, which was won, surprisingly, by Uruguay 3-0.....not much suspense there, right?  The two afternoon games were both nail biters and were both decided in 'added time' at the end of each match.  Spain came from behind to tie their match with Morocco 2-2 as time ran out, and Iran came from behind to tie Portugal 1-1 as time ran out.

I went back down to the office around 8 pm to close the pool, and do my nightly rounds.  There were actually people in the pool for the first time since we arrived here at SDC at this somewhat latish hour.  I gave them the 30 minute warning.....politely and courteously, of course, and then went about doing the water tests for each pool.  By the time I finished the swimmers were on their way home, so I walked over to the office to retrieve TLE who assists me in pulling the cover over the pool for another night.  I made a slow round of the campground with a little 50's music playing on my phone, and was back home by 9:15.  I returned to the office 45 minutes later to bring TLE home, and that was our day.

For TLE's benefit I replayed the last 10 minutes of the Spain/Morocco and Portugal/Iran games so she could see how they ended.  I was in bed by 11:30.....why I was up that late I have no idea.  TLE followed a little later and that was our Monday......now for a couple more days of MDI exploration!

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Handyman.......

6:12 am - Monday - June 25th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 55º F, 97% humidity (raining), wind 10 mph out of the north by northeast......heavy cloud cover and raining....rained all night long.

Sunday is the one day of the week I must be at work at 7 am to help open the pool for the day.  Usually I get up on Sunday about 4:50 am in order to be down at the office clocking in for the day by 6:55 am, but I over slept slightly....I didn't get up until 5:11 am.  I know, that's really not too bad, but for a person who is a creature of habit even getting up 20 minutes late usually throws off my whole day.  This time, however, I managed to put it behind me and just accelerate my routine slightly and was still ready to go to with time to spare......maybe, just maybe 'old dogs can learn new tricks'.......maybe.

We were done with the pool just before 8 am......it had rained most the prior night and into the early morning and the cloud cover was quite heavy.  It looked as if it might rain more for most of the morning, but it didn't......thankfully.  I love it when it rains at night and has no effect on the daylight portion of your day.  While Tammy and Alex took off to do site checks and then begin cleaning the sites of departing customers I headed out to take care of a couple of repairs in the campground.....this is the kind of stuff I love to do.

First up was a leaky hose bib in site # 74......more precisely a leaky 'anti siphon' valve........

.......I'm sure most of my readers have seen this device attached to your hose bibs at home.  It keeps water from your garden hose from being siphoned back into the water supply for your home, or in the case of an RV park, from being siphoned back into the campground water supply.  They do have a life expectancy, and the one at site # 74 had reached the end of its life.  I went up to the 'garage' to pick up a new anti siphon valve and returned to replace the defective one.  That was done in just a few minutes, and then it was on to cabin # 316 where a customer had reported a broken threshold board.

I inspected it and confirmed it was broken so I again returned to the 'garage' to retrieve the necessary tools to remove the broken threshold.  It took me about 15 minutes to get it out and then it was just a matter of finding a matching piece in our lumber pile to use for the new threshold.  I quickly found a piece that would work then used the old threshold as a template to create a new one.  Within 15 minutes I had cut a new threshold and then took it back to the cabin to install.  It went in easily, and I was done.....I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it.

By this time it was a little after 10 am.....a customer in site # 72 need to have the propane tank on his class C filled, and another had dropped off a 5 gallon propane bottle to be filled so Tammy and I headed over to the propane station to take care of that......

.......all of that took about 40 minutes, and it was almost time for lunch........I took brief break before heading home for lunch.  Right after lunch, as is always the case every single day, it was time to clean the restrooms.....I donned my West Marine rubber boots and we got to work......

.....the last task of our day was to empty all the trash cans in the campground and take it up to our large dumpster (the transfer station is closed on Sunday's).   During our garbage run a customer arrived in a large 5th wheel and needed assistance getting into site # 70.  He was  a little agitated at not being able to get into the site, so I headed over to give him some help.  I had him in the site within 10 minutes and could see a smile return to his face.....that's all the thanks I need!

I was off work by 3 pm, and we were in the VW on our way over to Jordan Pond House to meet my sister and her family for tea and popovers (menu).  I would never have thought of this, but leave it to my sister Hilary to do so......what a great idea!  We sat out on the patio for about 90 minutes eating our popovers (TLE and I substituted coffee for tea) and enjoying the late afternoon......it was a beautiful afternoon in spite of the cloud cover.......

 

 That's where we sat!

The last time we were here this field was nothing but dirt.....now they have installed the new turf

.....from there we headed back to Bar Harbor to have some cocktails and snacks and enjoy the view from their balcony......so peaceful and restful!

By 8 pm it was time for us to head back to SDC as I had to close the pool.  We bid our adieus and were off to Southwest Harbor.  We arrived just before 8:30 pm, got the pool closed, and the water tested and were home by 9 pm.  Safe travels Hilary, Bob and Stephanie!

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Overslept!

5:40 am - Sunday - June 24th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 54º F, 97% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the west by southwest.......heavy cloud cover....rained all night.  Forecast high today is 65º F.

I over slept a little bit today and am about 40 minutes behind schedule, so today's blog will be necessarily brief.  

I spent my Saturday working with Todd to level 6 tent pads and a fire ring in Group 210.  The land in this section, like others, is not very level so Todd has created tent pads which are level by building large (10' x 20') wooden boxes and then filing them with very fine gravel.  The gravel must be leveled, and then packed so that it is a relatively smooth sleeping surface......smooth being a relative term when it comes to gravel.  That was pretty much my entire day......shoveling, raking, smoothing, packing and watering.  We finished the 6th pad just before 4 pm and I was whipped.  Normally I would have worked to 5 pm, but my sister and her family were going to drive over from their hotel in Bar Harbor to have cocktails and dinner with us and they were arriving at 5 pm, so I called it a day at 4 pm.

They wanted to go to dinner at the locally famous Thurston's Lobster Pound, where we have eaten twice previously.  I was more ready for a long nap than I was for going out for dinner, but by 5 pm I was ready.  Hilary, Bob and Stephanie arrived just slightly after 5 pm with a couple of bottles of wine, and a bottle of Jameson (blended Scotch whiskey).  The girls had wine, and Bob and I had some Jameson on the rocks.  Around 6 pm we headed for Thurston's Lobster Pound over in the lovely seaside Village of Bernard.

It had begun to rain around 5:30 pm, and by the time we reached Thurston's it was coming down pretty steadily.   Bob dropped us off at the door while he went in search of a parking spot.  By the time we snagged a table Bob had arrived and we got in line to order our food.  Bob and I decided to order live lobster's and have them boiled while the ladies ordered menu items............

......it takes 20 minutes to boil a lobster so it was no surprise that our entrees did not arrive for about 25 minutes.........

Left to right: Moi, Hilary, TLE, Stephanie and Bob

.......we had a lovely dinner, and Bob and I learned how to break down a boiled lobster.  I wish I had remembered to take pictures, but I did not.  I'm pretty sure my hands were too covered with lobster residue to have handled my phone camera anyway.  We sat talking, eating and laughing until almost 9 pm before it was time for us to head for home.  I think we were the last ones to leave the restaurant!

It was a great way to end a very hard work day, and I'm glad we spent more time with Hilary and her family.  For those who may wonder, I have 4 siblings.....two brothers and two sisters.  Hilary is 12 years younger than I and was only about 5 years old when I left home for college.  I didn't really get to know her well until we were adults, but I now cherish every minute we can spend with her and her family.  Their youngest daughter, Caroline, just finished her second year at university.  She is attending Pepperdine University in SoCal, but spent the last two semesters studying abroad in Switzerland.  She is still there, but will be home in a few weeks.  Stephanie just graduated from Thomas Aquinas University in Santa Paula, CA.

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About nothing.....

6:11 am - Saturday - June 23rd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 52º F, 98% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the south......cloudy skies.

No two days are the same here at SDC, but they have a sameness about them nonetheless.  I sit here trying to compose today's missive and seem to have nothing interesting to say about my Friday in the lovely township of Southwest Harbor, ME.  I kind of feel like I'm living in a Seinfeld episode......my story seems to be about 'nothing'.   So here comes 'nothing'!

As usual my workday began at 8 am.....Tammy and Alex were just finishing up the pool so I took a golf cart down to the wood pile to bring back 12 bundles of wood to 'top off' the wood box.  We are beginning to sell a lot more firewood as the daily campground population continues to grow.

On the other hand we have kind of gotten ahead of a lot of daily chores, including the never ending grass mowing and trimming.  We are so on top of things that we are now checking sites with checkins a couple of days ahead to be sure they are ready for occupancy.  Normally we would just be checking the sites with checkins that day.  It's good to be so caught up, but on the other hand it means we are making work to keep busy each day.  No doubt once the 4th of July arrives we will be very glad we got ahead of the curve for a while as we will then have 6-8 weeks of double timing it just to stay slightly behind.

Once I had delivered the 12 bundles of wood we set out to begin cleaning sites for arrivals two days in the future, and that took us the rest of the day.  I took a string trimmer with me to spruce up each site I checked, and then Alex and Tammy made a list of the ones they checked that also needed a little trimming.  One armed Alex, of course, cannot currently operate a string trimmer, and Tammy had back fusion a few years ago and cannot operate one for that reason, so it falls to me on the days I work with them to do all the string trimming.  Now that I am used to running the string trimmer for hours at a time I don't mind.  I just put on my hearing protection which has a built in radio and listen to tunes while I merrily trim my way through the campground each day.....it's all good.

In the middle of the afternoon we had a call from site 122 that their cable TV connection was broken, so I retrieved the replacement parts from the 'garage' and got to work fixing the broken box.  I had to disassemble the metal box in which the cable connection was located to get at the broken piece, replace it, and then put it all back together again.  In all it took me almost an hour and then I was back to string trimming for the balance of the afternoon.

Just as I was putting my time card in the time stamp machine to 'clock out' for the day a customer came in asking if I could help them back into site # 175.  We get this request on a regular basis as this site is located on a bend in the road and can be difficult to get into if you are a newby at back up a long trailer.  I've got it down to where I can direct them into the site in one try.  Anyway, I took care of that request in about 10 minutes and then was back to officially 'clock out' at 5:10 pm.  TLE was clocking out at the same time so I gave her a ride home.

Another work day is in the books and now it was time to watch some of the World Cup soccer matches we had recorded for later viewing.  All of the results were predictable, but the games were fun to watch, nevertheless.

So that was my story about nothing on Friday, June 22nd.....I hope it was a little interesting....thanks for stopping by!

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Summer equinox......

6:17 am - Friday - June 22nd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 51º F, 77% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north......clear, blue skies with a forecast high today of 67º F.  Another beautiful day on MDI.

Thursday began with partly cloudy skies which gave way to cloudless skies and warm temperatures which climbed into the low 70's before a gentle, afternoon sea breeze took the edge off the day.  It was the same old, same old at SDC......pool cleaning, mowing, watering flowers (there are a lot of flowers now), a run to the transfer station, picnic table repair, bathroom cleaning, site cleaning.  Nothing of interest to report other than it was another day spent in paradise.  This, also, would be my first day working all the way to 5 pm.  Yup, I finally have the endurance to take on an 8 hour shift.

It was, however, the first day of Summer which means we have reached the Summer Equinox and the longest stretch of daylight (just shy of 16 hours) we will see in our 5.5 month stay on Mount Desert Island.

When we decided to come to Maine about a year ago my sister Hilary said she would like to come and visit us during our stay.  She, her husband Bob, and daughter Stephanie would be attending a wedding in Washington D.C. in late June so they would sandwich a 4 day stay in Bar Harbor in between their other commitments.  Well, Thursday was the day they would be arriving.  I received texts throughout the day from Hilary updating me on their travels, and finally about 2 pm they had arrived at the Bar Harbor Inn.  We agreed to meet them for dinner at 6 pm.

I picked up TLE at the office just before 5 pm, and we headed up the hill to the Newell to get ready to drive over to Bar Harbor.  After a quick shower, and an even quicker nap we were in the car on our way to the Bar Harbor Inn.  We were planning to walk to dinner from there after having drinks at the Terrace Grill which is located at the Bar Harbor Inn, but after snagging one of their last tables on the outdoor deck we decided to eat dinner there as well......

  

Waiting for Hilary, Bob and Stephanie.....

.....within minutes Hilary, Bob and Stephanie arrived, so an 'usie' was in order.  What a beautiful place to have dinner!

 Fresh in from Chicago.....

The view....

 Aerial view of the sprawling Bar Harbor Inn...the Terrace Grill is on the right side of the main building

......as is often the case the temps in Bar Harbor were a few degrees warmer than Southwest Harbor, and there were a few clouds moving in to add to the view.  We had a lovely two hour dinner.  I had their Atlantic Salmon which was one of the best I have ever had.  Just reading the title of the entree convinced me to order it........Pan Seared Mojito Lime Atlantic Salmon.....doesn't that just make your mouth water in anticipation?  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their entrees which served to confirm Yelp's solid 4 star rating for this restaurant.  To top it all off the prices were incredibly fair....for example my Salmon was just $20.......this was definitely a $30 entree, if not higher.

By 8 pm the sun was beginning to dip toward the horizon, and the temperatures began to drop.  It was time for us to head back to Southwest Harbor.......

......and another day at SDC.  We will be spending more time with my sister and her family over the next few days as they explore MDI......thanks for stopping by!

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Shopping day.....

6:13 am - Thursday - June 21st - Southwest Harbor, ME - 60º F, 85% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north.....partly cloudy with a forecast high of 72º F.  It is also the first day of summer!

TLE has not been out on a shopping day in quite some time, and she had been hinting around that she would like to drive into Ellsworth by herself to shop and perhaps get a pedicure.  She says she always feels rushed when she is shopping with me.  I guess supermarkets are kind of like Home Depot, or Tractor Supply are for me where I walk down every aisle.  For some reason, I never feel like I am rushing her when we go to the supermarket, but I must be putting off some aura, or vibe she is sensing.  Anyway, following  the first World Cup match of the day (Portugal vs. Morocco, won by Portugal on an early goal 1-nil) she headed into town around 10:30 am.  Based on past 'shopping days' I expected her to be gone until well after 2 pm.

I spent some time on the Newell roof re-positioning the XM radio antenna for better reception.  There is a large bank of trees blocking the southern sky here in site #78, and when it gets breezy the satellite signal goes in and out.  It is this same block of trees, as you might recall, that required me to deploy our Winegard portable satellite dish when we first arrived at SDC.  I spent about an hour trying different positions, but was largely unsuccessful in improving the signal.

I next moved into the trailer to do minor tuneups on our bicycles (the two Cannondales and my Intense 5.5 mountain bike).  Ultimately I decided to get dressed in my MTB togs and take a ride to Echo Lake.  There is a single track trail that heads out through the woods out by our woodpile taking you to the crushed rock road that leads you to Echo Lake.  As I found out later, if you turn the wrong way on that road (Lurvey Springs Road)  you end up at Long Pond instead of Echo Lake.....

......they are right next to each other, so if you make the wrong turn you will end up at a different lake.  Ironically, 'Long Pond' is anything but a 'pond'.....it is quite a big larger than Echo Lake.  To make a long story shorter, I turned left instead of right when I hit Lurvey Springs Road.  The crushed rock road eventually gives way to a paved road which takes you down a steep descent to Long Pond Beach........

 Long Pond Beach.....I originally thought this was Echo Lake Beach until otherwise informed

Long Pond is quite long

......I spent about 20 minutes enjoying the view before heading back up the 9% grade road.  When I reached the fork where Lurvey Springs Road joins Long Pond Road I kept riding down Long Pond Road.  I discovered within a few minutes that Long Pond Road takes you into Southwest Harbor.....cool!  I ended up riding a 4.25 mile loop taking me through town, and back to SDC where I arrived about 20 minutes before TLE returned from her Ellsworth shopping day.  I am looking forward to making a right turn on Lurvey Springs Road next time to actually reach Echo Lake.

Once TLE had put away her groceries I turned on the TV to watch the second World Cup game of the day, which we had recorded, pitting Uruguay against Saudi Arabia.  The match was much closer than I expected ending in another 1-nil game with Uruguay the winner.  The third and final game of the day was between Spain and Iran.  Again I was quite surprised at how close this match was.  It was tied nil to nil at half time, however Spain came out in the second half on fire, and within 5, or 6 minutes had scored a goal, and then held on to win the third 1-nil game of Wednesday.

Undeterred by my experience the week before TLE gave me a nice filet mignon to grill on our Sea-B-Que around 5 pm.  The steak came out a perfect medium rare, and I had no issues with meat sticking in my throat.....smaller bites, and thorough chewing work every time!  TLE prepared a wonderful hollandaise sauce for the steak and asparagus, and there was also  a baked potato.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.

Just perfect......

8:37 am - Wednesday - June 20th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 65º F, 56% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the southwest.......partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 69º F.

We were up after 7 am on Tuesday.....nice to sleep in.....we watched a couple of recorded World Cup soccer matches in the morning while sipping our coffees....a nice relaxing beginning to our day off work.

Around noon we got dressed and headed out to the 'Seawall' area to do a couple of local hikes.....'Ship Harbor' and 'Wonder Land' trails.  These are not long trails....probably less than 2 miles each, plus any side trails you may explore.........

.......the trails are only about 1/2 mile apart, and take you to magnificent views of the coast, plus  the Duck Islands, and Great Cranberry Island.......

.....first up was the Ship Harbor Trail a mile west of Seawall Campground on the south side of SR-102A......

You walk a little over 1/2 mile to the first views of Ship Harbor.....in these pictures you see what low tide here looks like.....there is no way a boat will get in that entrance (above) at low tide......

......as is typical of the Maine coast it is quite rocky everywhere.  We lingered at the vista points enjoying the sea breezes and the crystal clear views.......

 

.......we were back at the car and heading east to the Wonderland Trail by 1 pm......

Wonder Land Trail

......there is ample parking at each trailhead, as well as parking along SR-102A on the soft shoulder on both sides of the road.  

Just as we reached the ocean we saw a three masted sailing vessel heading along the coast near Southwest Harbor........

....we were kind of stunned to find a sandy beach at the end of the first part of the trail....I would like to come back here at high tide with our beach chairs and sit on this sandy beach for a while.........

 The first sandy beach I have seen in Maine

.....there were plenty of tide pools for TLE to explore.......and explore she did.......

 Tidal pools

.....it was a lazy kind of day so we just sat for a while on some rocks and took in the big views....

.....it was an idyllic day, and we chose the perfect hikes to enjoy the weather and the rocky Maine coastline.  We were back in the car about 2:30 pm headed for home and an afternoon spent watching three more recorded World Cup soccer matches on the outdoor TV.  The first was between Senegal and Poland, which was won, surprisingly by Senegal 2-1. There was some referee induced  controversy in this game, and we were not impressed by the referee team assigned to this match one little bit.....

.....next up was Japan vs. Columbia.  It was a good match won by Japan.  Finally we watched Russia vs. Egypt.  Russia won handily 3-1, but it was not even that close.  Russia could easily have won 6-0.  It was a great day spent doing precisely what we wished to be doing, and how can that be anything less than perfect?