Acadia National Park Weekend in Review
Monday, June 26, 2006
Friday: We woke up early so we could pack the car and get up to Andy's mothers at a reasonable hour because we had a long drive ahead of us. It was pouring when we left, and because of the rain, I slipped going down the stairs and fell about 8 steps. I am black and blue from head-to-toe. Great way to start off the trip.
We picked up Linda in Topsham, and literally stuffed her luggage in the car. We barely had enough room. Next time I will insist (with much resistance) that we take two cars. Three people, one dog, tents, sleeping bags and clothes do not make for a cozy trip in a little Honda.
We arrived at Hadley Point camp ground around 5 and began to set up camp. It took a long time because we had two tents and a screen tent (plus we had to reset up a tent after much debate about where it should go - how frustrating!). After camp was set, we drove into Bar Harbor to get Chinese because no one felt like cooking that late! Molly and I waited in the car while Andy and Linda picked up the food. I had a nice chat with Erica while waiting for them to get back.
We get back to the campsite, and no electricity! Great! Apparently the whole town was out. Luckily we had one battery powered lamp - so we ate by the dim light. We wanted to have a camp fire, but it started sprinkling around 10, so we decided to go to bed.
During the night it pours, and I mean pours. At 3 in the morning Andy wakes me up (I can sleep through anything) and lets me know there is about an inch of water IN the tent and water is dripping all over his face. By this time the dog is up, ready to be taken out....ugh!
Saturday: Many stressful hours later - we are in the lovely Bar Harbor Days Inn. Our entire camp site was so flooded that anywhere you walked you were in at least 2 inches of water and mud. Not worth it. Everything we brought was wet, and as an added bonus, it looks like raccoons got into our screen tent in the middle of the night and destroyed my picnic basket (even though there was no food in it or anywhere else in the screen tent) - apparently raccoons have an affinity for duct tape and dish towels, who knew?
We tried to make the best of the day even though the weather was horrible. After we all took showers and put on the driest clothes we could find we headed out for breakfast. Unfor. Molly did not appreciate being along in the hotel room, so she started howling and howling (bloody murder)- so I had to stay back with her. Andy was nice enough to bring me back blueberry pancakes though.
We packed up the dog and tried to do as much of the park as we could. It was really foggy, so you couldn't really even see the ocean. Andy and Linda did get to go down to see Thunder Hole though, so it wasn't a total loss (I stayed with Molly in the car - it was too slippery for her). However, when Andy got back to the car, he realized that he left his lights on! So the car didn't start. I had to ask everyone in the parking lot for jumper cables - no one seemed to have any as most people drove rentals. Great! Also - no cell phone service, so we couldn't even call triple A. Alas, over an hour later we found some lovely people from Virginia who were happy to help us out. After that fiasco we decided to leave the park! We drove back to the hotel room and took a much needed nap. Everyone was still damp and overtired.
Around 6 Andy took Linda out for her birthday dinner to Geddy's. I stayed back again with Molly which sucked, but what can you do. Andy brought me back dinner and by then it had cleared up so they all took a walk while I ate in the hotel room (Molly is hideous when anyone has food).
Sunday: Finally some sun! Well it was partly cloudy. We packed up the hotel room, and headed back to the park. We got to go up Cadillac Mtn and spend some time at Thunder Hole, Little Hunter's Beach and Otter Cliffs. We ended the day with a nice walk down the carriage roads.
We were headed off the island at 1pm and arrived in Topsham at 6. We got Linda all unpacked, and then were on our way. Around Freeport, I noticed the dog was really quiet - she got into my purse and ate an entire Dark chocolate bar (originally for smores). AHH! Major panic as chocolate is very poisonous to dogs, especially dark. We pulled off at the closest exit and called the Animal Emergency Clinic. They told us we had to give her Hydrogen Peroxide so she would barf it back up. We drove around and finally found a drug store, administered the HP and luckily she threw it all up (she didn't feel so lucky). That was so scary! Ugh. I'm banning chocolate from our house (well - at least for a while!)
So now it's Monday - Andy went back to work today and I'm attaching the mountain of laundry that is beckoning me. Camping is so much work!
Check out our pictures from the trip!
posted by Andy and Amanda Wheeler @ 6/26/2006 08:08:00 AM,
2 Comments:
-
At 2:30 PM,
said...
-
I'm going to keep your trip in mind next time I want to complain about not getting to go on vacation more often ;o)
-
At 10:15 AM,
said...
-
Your life hasn't sounded much more peaceful than mine. :)
