Acadia Part 2: Onward-er and Upward-er

Good morning!

From the sunlight streaming in to our tent, we knew it was time to wake up and get exploring. Acadia is a huge park, so we asked a park ranger for some hiking advice. He gave us a path that involved hiking a trail over two mountain peaks.

We started our way up Mt. Huguenaut with a good example of rock paving.

After crossing Huguenaut, we made our way up Mt. Champlain, "Cliffhanger" style.

Made it!

Exploring the peak of Champlain

Another one of those amazing Acadia views

Our ranger buddy suggested we take a different trail down the mountain, doubling back to follow a new trail around the face of the mountain, then finally meeting up with a fourth trail to climb down. He warned us that there was a lot of tough terrain, and he was absolutely right. It was very strenuous, and really, really fun.

We knew there was going to be a lot of bouldering on our way down, so we put on our FiveFingers

Based on all the questions we answered, we should be spokespeople for Vibram!

Another, much steeper example of rock paving

The last 500 feet down involved climbing over, under, and straight down huge boulders.

Taking in one last view of the ocean

After a hike like that, we definitely needed a shower - luckily Acadia has coin-operated showers in the park. $2 in quarters bought you 4 minutes of wonderful hot water... we've never showered as efficiently as we did today. We got ourselves dressed, and on the recommendation of Roadfood.com, we drove out to Beal's Lobster Pound for authentic Maine lobster rolls (and an authentic Maine blueberry sodee pop).

It was a long wait, but it was worth it (as usual)

Emily is a total Maine-iac

Yes!

We headed back to our campsite for dessert - a few toasted (or burnt, if that’s the way you like them) marshmallows over the fire. We then settled into our tent to discuss our plans to come back to Acadia, because there’s so much we didn’t get to see (Thunderhole!)

Catching a sunset outside Beal's

Acadia Part 1: Onward and Upward

After spending an enchanting night at the Admiral Ocean Inn, we arrived at our Maine destination: Acadia National Park.
Covering most of Mt. Desert Island, Acadia is easily one of the most beautiful spots on the East Coast. It has mountains, forests, an ocean shoreline, and some truly wild hiking trails. We had gotten a good recommendation from our friend T.L. to check out the Beehive, a 520-foot peak overlooking the Atlantic shoreline. It's an intense hike with a good deal of vertical climbing, but the ocean view was well worth the effort.

It took a lot of balance and concentration...

They put iron rungs directly into the rock that you climb like a ladder...

...a twisted, crazy, 500-foot high ladder.

Adam Soffrin: Semi-Professional Adventurer

See what we were saying about that view?

We made our way down the mountain and headed back to our campsite. We could have gone and picked up something to cook over the fire, but we're on vacation here! We hopped in the car and headed straight for Bar Harbor, an old fishing village right by Acadia that has become a quaint tourist destination.

This was Adam's view from our dinner table.

Bar Harbor is filled with fun and funky stores (including not one, not two, but THREE separate year-round Christmas shoppes!) If you can put a picture of a lobster on something, you can buy it in Maine. We had a sunset dinner at the Bar Harbor Inn - we sat on the terrace and had a great view of the water.

This was Emily's view from our dinner table

Have you ever seen such a well-garnished Bloody Mary?

One "Lobster Bake Special," please!

After that fantastic dinner, we retired to our tent for some well-earned rest! More Acadia to come tomorrow!

Livin' the high life!

New Hampshuh!

The view of Lake Winnipesaukee from Stonybrook Farm

We woke up this morning knowing we had a full day to get to Acadia National Park. Originally we were going to spend the day at the beach, but we decided to take a scenic trip to Lake Winnipesaukee instead. We didn't know much about the area, aside from the fact that it was the setting for "What About Bob?"... but that was more than enough reason for us to stop by! We drove the perimeter of the lake, making stops along the way that looked cool.

"Hey! This looks cool!"

"Hey! This looks cool, too!"

We spotted a sign for blueberry picking, and a quick five minute detour led us up to Stonybrook Farm, where we encountered the ripest, most delicious blueberries either of us had ever tasted.

Blueberry heaven.

Looks like someone's pretty excited about blueberry picking...

The blueberries were huge!

Superberries. So good!

Adam paid double for our blueberries, because he felt bad about the pound of blueberries he ate when no one was watching.

The fruits of our labor (pun fully intended).

Rather than heading back to the highway, we decided to explore northern New Hampshire and check out the White Mountain National Forest.

That fog made for a very interesting drive down the mountain.

We took a little discovery hike and were treated to some great views.

Absolutely breathtaking.

As the sun started to set and the temperature dipped down to the mid-60's (i.e. extremely pleasant), we bid farewell to New Hampshire (for now), and made our way into Maine. We had heard about this crazy restaurant in Portland, ME that serves french fries fried in duck fat. Yes, duck fat. It makes for a lighter, crispier, fluffier, deliciouser fry. And what is this wonderful restaurant called? What else? Duckfat!

Unreal.

The churros were also fried in duck fat... it's like they broke into my dream journal.

Tomorrow we make our way into Acadia National Park for a few days of camping, hiking, and lobsters! We'll be back soon with more adventures!

In memory of our dinner last night.

Pizza, Towers, Drawbridges and Lobsters

After spending most of the past few months baking through one of D.C.’s hottest summers in history, our collective wanderlust kicked in, so we packed up the car and hit the road heading north. A quick stopover in New York to see some family became our launching point for our Northeast Adventure.

We started the day by driving into New Haven, Connecticut for a true classic – Frank Pepe Pizzeria.

Opened in 1925, Pepe’s is the originator of New Haven-style pizza (also known as apizza, prounounced “ah-BEETs”). Their signature dish is the white clam pizza – a white pizza with fresh clams, garlic, grated cheese and oregano.

This was the amoment we had been waiting for all amorning!

We’ve tried other pizzeria’s impressions of Pepe’s white clam pizza, but they don’t compare to the original.

After lunch, we needed to work off all that pizza, so we headed over to Sleeping Giant State Park to hike up to “The Tower.” We weren’t sure what to expect - we knew it was some sort of tower (our powerful deduction skills), but after hiking the mile and a half out, we finally saw it:

It’s a big stone fortress, built in the early 1930’s and funded by the Works Progress Administration (the original stimulus package). We spent some time on top of the Tower admiring the views and enjoying the cool breeze.

:)

Some dangerous maneuvers went into getting this picture. Don't worry - we're okay!

The next stop on our tour of Connecticut was Mystic. It’s a small fishing village, most known for being the setting of the Julia Roberts movie “Mystic Pizza.”

We did not try the pizza, but it made us happy just to know it exists.

Mystic is a cool little town with a lot of fun artsy shops, restaurants, and a nice marina.

Despite what the sign says, I'm pretty sure there are fish in there.

Adam considered joining the yacht club, but sadly forgot to pack his boat shoes.

There is also a loud horn that blows every hour to let you know they are raising the GIANT DRAWBRIDGE THAT YOU HAVE TO CROSS TO GET IN TO THE CITY!

Dinner was an easy choice – the Cove Fish Market is a classic New England lobster shack, and it was exactly what we were looking for.

We ordered at the window, then had to wait... and wait... and wait...

After what felt like an unbearable amount of time (probably ten minutes, tops), we were presented with the perfect ending to a New England day.

Yeah buddy.

Time to get some rest and prepare for the next leg of the trip!

Stick with us - we have some big plans in store!