Acadia National Park – Days 1 and 2

On the way up to Acadia we went back to my favorite Pizza place, George’s Pizza, in Auburn, ME. They truly have the best pepperoni pizza in New England. They didn’t disappoint. It’s where I went for pizza when I had enough money to afford something better than Domino’s delivery. After pizza we stopped at Bates to stretch our legs and show the girls where I went to college. It had been 14 years since my last visit (which I suppose was actually graduation). It hadn’t changed much aside from a few new buildings. This was the Bates commons when I was there. Who knows if it still is. After looping around the block once and showing the whole campus I turned to Christine and said, “Well, that’s Bates.” and she was amused and somewhat untrusting since it’s just a shade smaller than The Ohio State University. 😉 I think she expected a bit more. Hard to believe I could be back here with my own child. Talk about the furthest thing from my mind when I was a student! Helena was a sad that the Ladd Library was closed (summer closure). I think she might have thought there were going to be “kids books”. haha! Kid’s books like Intro to Organic Chemistry. After a great drive up we decided the best way to start vacation would be to have ice cream for dinner. That’s just how we roll! Helena had Maine Blueberry because she was in Maine. The next morning we grabbed our pass at the visitors center and headed off to the park. After a stop at the sandy beach we headed over to Thunder Hole. Even though it was high tide, Thunder Hole was very quiet so we decided to climb on the rocks and were treated to some rare sunshine and a huge whale playing out in the water not terribly far away.   The hike of the day was Gorham Mountain, a 1.8 mile roundtrip. We started off with some complaining and whining from the smallest member of our group, but eventually we rallied. Despite the clouds, the views were great and we ate lunch at the top. The Martin’s (our neighbors in Manchester) surprised us on the way back down and we spent the rest of the afternoon with them.   We we finished the day with a cold swim in the pool. Can’t seem to upload the video of Helena’s belly flop.