Acadia Calling

At the end of last week, the kids were saying it had been too long since visiting Acadia National Park, so we got up early on Saturday, packed a picnic lunch and overnight bags and hit the road. With brilliant October sun shining and autumn coloring the leaves, the views the entire trip down east were lovely. The only part of the drive I wasn't looking forward to was crossing the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, dreaded by all New England gephyrophobes, (or so my Facebook wall informed me the evening prior). Yet I was preparing to photograph the crossing, in hopes of easing my anxiety somewhat, as I've done before on other bridges. As you can see, my plan worked and my hands barely got clammy.







This being October, when the veil is thin, we of course had to stop at Colonel Buck's grave, mostly so the kids could roll their eyes and scoff at my willingness to believe in such ghost stories. The little skeptics. (Hey, the story always enthralled me when I was little and Bucksport was part of my childhood neighborhood.)



Once arriving at Acadia, we went to the top of Cadillac Mountain where the wind tasted like snow and nearly flattened us. It was perfect. Note to self, dig out winter coats, hats and scarves this week.








We warmed up in the van and continued on the Park Loop Road, stopping at different points to explore the area, or in the kids' case, film some movies. And because the ocean was so calm, Thunder Hole wasn't very thundery during this visit, but we didn't mind.




It was at Otter's Point that we explored the rocks and the kids did some scenes for their movies that included lots of running, scrambling and hanging on to edges for dramatic effect.






That particular spot is so stunning, such that putting my camera away was difficult.







As the day was ending and the light was fading, we chased the sun around the edge of the island, searching for autumn color.






Across the road from this abandoned house was an old apple tree, loaded with yellow apples, and naturally, Alex was compelled to investigate. He mentioned how we should return in the spring to prune and brace the tree, the tree a mere three hours away from home...sometimes I just pat his hand after hearing twenty years of good intentions and brainstorms from my enthusiastic and creative spouse. (We affectionately call these Alexisms in our family).





It wasn't a very long trip and we didn't explore everything Acadia has to offer, but it mattered little to us, as our only agenda was to leaf peep and enjoy Maine's beauty. As our autumn daylight settled behind dark, scrubby firs and moss covered hills, we settled in for our drive to the homestead, where we would spend the night. We'll return to Acadia, as we've been many times before. Perhaps we'll go in the spring and bring our pruning shears.