Maine 2012

Last year I went to Maine in August to visit my friend who is going to P.A. school in Portland. She had a week break from school and so I flew over for a few days to hang out with her and explore the state. I'm not going to lie, it was a quick trip but it was a lot of fun (and much needed) and we actually did a lot with the small amount of time we had but yet still made sure to hang out and relax as well.

I  took the red-eye flight (I like those for flying back east because you can sleep through the night and then just get up and go) and flew into Boston because it is about $200 cheaper than flying into Portland. Melinda was nice enough to drive the two hours down to pick me up.

On our way back up to Maine we made a few stops along the way; lunch at Maine's Voted Best Restaurant and some cute port towns.

Surprisingly, the voted best restaurant in Maine in 2012 was a diner: The Maine Diner. I had clam chowder and a sandwich and Melinda had stuffed mushroom caps with crabmeat. I could have done without the sandwich but the chowder was amazing. We had a lot of of clam chowder on the trip but this place was by far my most favorite... so creamy! AND THE STUFFED MUSHROOM CAPS! Oh... my.... goodness... DELICIOUS! I'm still craving them. In fact, my mouth is watering just typing about them.
Link to Maine Diner Website

Kennebunkport
This port town has beautiful homes and is known for the Bush family "compound." It's a fun place to drive around.

One of my favorite homes we passed by

The Bush "Compound"

Old Port Harbor
This was such a cute port town; I loved it! A ferris wheel and amusement rides right on the beach, fun rustic pier and the water was surprisingly warm. We walked along the beach but didn't get into the water or stay on the beach; something for next time though. We did decided that we had to ride one of the amusement rides and we decided on the roller coaster. While we were waiting in line for the roller coaster there was a little girl in line right behind us and she ended up riding in the car right in front of us. The little girl was looking a little nervous so Melinda and I started joking around that it wasn't that big of a deal (truly believing what we were saying!) and then the first drop came and we both were screaming so loud and were actually a little terrified which eventually turned into fits of laughter. It was so fun but we were also exhausted from it too. Obviously we're getting old.

That night we made it to Portland and decided just to hang out for the night. So we went to dinner at this delicious pizza place, Otto Pizza, and then went to a movie. When we were trying to decide which movie to go to and we had narrowed down to two movies we wanted to see and so we just picked one. After our movie ended I looked up to see if the other movie had anymore start times that we could catch and it did! At a different theater! Who cares! We went for it. Our double hitter movie night was the perfect finale to a great first day!

The next morning we woke up and it was pouring rain. Like literal buckets were being poured. Our plan for the day was church and then drive up to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. We went to church (after two seconds in the rain we were so wet we looked like we had just gotten out of a pool with our church clothes on) and then decided to take naps to see if the rain would settle down before heading north.

On our way, we passed a random barn "yard sale" store. We got out to stretch our legs, look around and take some pictures and I'm glad we did. It was random but I feel like you have to take random stops on trips.

We made it to Acadia National Park Visitor Center in time to talk to the rangers. They were very helpful about hikes to do the next day and if they would recommend other things they thought we might like to do.
Acadia National Park Website

That night we walked around Bar Harbor and went to Stewman's for dinner where we had the "Lobster Experience!" - Clam Chowder, Muscles, Corn, Potatoes, LOBSTER, and fresh Blue Berry Pie. We literally started laughing when they put our food down in front of us and left before we could tell them that we didn't know how to actually eat lobster. Luckily our waiter came back and showed us how and what to crack and eat. We had a ton of laughs and finally figured out what we were doing; I actually liked the meat in the claws better than in the main body.

The next morning we got up early, FOUR A.M. EARLY, to hike Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia Park, and watch the sunrise. Supposedly you are one of the first in America to see the sunrise for the day from that point, so of course we had to do it! When we got up there it was super cloudy and when it got lighter, we realized the sun HAD risen. Bummer! We still claimed we saw the sun rise though.

The sunrise through the clouds

After the sunrise we drive the park loop. We stopped and hiked the Gorham Mountain Trail. This was about an hour long hike and probably on a moderate level. There were so many spider webs on the trail we decided by the end of the hike we could have auditioned for the movie "Entrapment" with Catherine Zeta Jones. Overall it was a beautiful hike and cool because we hiked up into the clouds and could hear the ocean on top of the cliffs but couldn't see it.

 The Nasty HUGE Spider we saw on our hike

 Melinda Listening to the Ocean in the Clouds

After the hike we continued on the the park loop and stopped at Thunder Rock where the water of the ocean would make a loud sucking noise as it pulled in and out from under the cliffs and it sounded like thunder... Thunder Rock.

We made a few more stops along the loop at some lookouts and the historical town of the park and then we headed back to Bar Harbor to go Kayaking. We took a kayak tour around the Porcupine Islands in Bar Harbor. I think the funniest thing I learned on the tour was that sometimes during low tide there is a sand bar the reaches out to the Islands that appears and people will park on it (even though there are lots of signs saying not to park there) and then when they come back later and it's high tide their car is under water or at least starting to go under water. Our tour guide said that at least one car ends up completely under water every summer. And then I'm pretty sure I heard him mumble something to himself like, "Idiots, can't they read."

After kayaking we wanted to drive the loop again and hit some things that we didn't hit the first time around. We were able to get through the loop so quickly the first time because we started it at 5a.m. and everyone was still in bed! We first stopped at a cave filled with tide pools called Anemone Cave which is no longer on the park's map because too many people were visiting it and ruining the tide pools and the park wants to help preserve it. When we stopped at the Visitor Center the day before we asked the ranger about it; he was so impressed that we knew about it he showed us how to get there. We weren't the only ones at the pool so we assumed it wasn't as big of a secret as we had thought. I wouldn't say this was the most exciting thing but it was still a pretty walk and fun to find.

Our next stop was at Sand Beach. No joke, it is called Sand Beach. We had actually stopped here on our first time around the loop but it still had morning fog and wasn't very inviting. By this point we were pretty tired and hadn't had lunch so we sat on the beach and ate lunch and took a nap. After that we looked at the park map and decided we had done everything we had wanted to do for the day and we headed back to Portland. One of many things I think I would like to do the next time I visit Acadia is rent bikes and ride on some of the bike trails.

The morning fog picture of the beach... I guess we forgot to get one when it was sunny and filled with people.

The next day we visited the Portland Headlight at Cape Elizabeth. This was such a beautiful place overlooking the ocean. All we did was walk around but I really enjoyed this stop.

Yes I took this picture :)

After the headlight we headed back to Boston with a quick random walk around Salem. We weren't there long enough to report anything but I think I would stop by there again and eat at a fun "witch" cafe and take a walking tour. After that Melinda dropped me off at the airport and I sadly headed home. This was such a great trip. I would recommend Maine to anyone! Such a beautiful place with many different types of things to do. The company was perfect too.

We laughed that our vacation was actually a very romantic vacation (walks on the beach, sunrise hikes, two-man kayaking, sitting on rocks above the ocean talking and observing light houses) and we both agreed that we'll have to repeat this vacation one day with our husbands.

Sunset at Kennebunkport

Truth

"Travel is the only thing you can buy that will make you richer."

I stumbled over this quote/statement and I completely agree. Even though travel costs money it also gives us experiences and memories. You can see things that can inspire you and/or teach you. You get to open your eyes to something new and experience the wonder of exploring it. Or traveling can give you that time to take you out of your everyday life and if you take the chance, you can analyze your life and perhaps rejuvenate or decide on changes.

SoCal Ragnar 2012

I ran the Southern California (SoCal) Ragnar Relay with some friends and then friends and family of those friends. My brother Nate ended up running the race with us and it was a lot of fun doing this with him.

"What is Ragnar?" you may ask. Ragnar is a relay race, usually covering about 200 miles, that you run with a team of 6-12 people. Now when you first hear that description you may think, "Ok, so crazy people do that" but it's actually a lot of fun and extremely addicting. The whole experience involves people cheering for you, hilarious team name/outfits/decorations, a medal, cheering for people when the come out of the port-a-potties, getting into shape (but even if you are not a serious runner you can run Ragnar), meeting new people, inside jokes, beautiful and new scenery and well... just having fun. This particular Ragnar started at Huntington Beach and Ended at Coronado Island.
Ragnar Website

The day before the race some people went to Disneyland and the rest went to the beach. Since I was the one with the first available car I went to the beach and then picked people up as they arrived through out the day.

Huntington Beach

What a fun and memorable trip. I rented my first car ever for this trip: a mini van... Oh Yeah! Because I rented the van I had drive the entire race (except when I was running) and I soon became known as the "Team Mom" and I was continuously called that or something to that type of reference throughout the race.

I was the team leader for this race and I had a lot of fun adding little details like getting team t-shirts and making packets full of fake tattoos, window markers, glow sticks, and mixed CDs for each van on our team, etc.

Kills = Passing another runner while running a leg

Our team name was "Hell to the Yeah!" and so every time we saw team members or one of our runners were at an exchange point we would yell "Hell to the Yeah!" or just "Hell Yeah Ragnar!" It kind of caught on and so when other teams would recognize us they would cheer for us as well.

We had quite a few dancing parties around our van through out the race as we waited for our runners... one party ended up on the roof of the van! When the guys first started to climb up onto the roof of the van I was expecting my worried wart personality to kick in but it didn't, CARPE DIEM instead, I loved that It happened. Afterwards we had to pop the roof back out... oops.

The race took us through some really neat towns and cities. We even ran through one at midnight that reminded me of Park City and all the people at the restaurants and bars were all cheering for us. My runs took me through Anaheim, Escondido and Del Mar. On my last run I had tons of super steep hills up and down over and over again and my foot started to hurt to the point that for my last two miles I just had to walk. There was another guy walking in front of me so I felt like I had some company but at about 200 yards or so from the exchange place he started to run and I was like, "Well if he's going to run then I'm going to run." So I started to run and it didn't hurt so I started to faster; then I was like, "I'm going to pass this guy." Well as I started to pass the guy he sped up, so I sped up and eventually we were full on sprinting. I loved it, I haven't run like that in years and it felt great! Once I passed the slap bracelet (the baton for the race) on to our next runner I realized the pain was back in my foot and it was so extreme (it felt like a broken bone for sure). When I got home from the trip I had to go to the doctor because my foot was still hurting. Turns out I tore ligaments in my foot because I had plantar fasciitis. Cured with physical therapy.

I was in van 1 and when we were finished running all of our legs and waiting for van 2, to finish so that we could all cross the finish line together, we all went to a park along the shore on Coronado Island and slept for a few hours. We probably seemed like we were loitering but it was the best nap ever taken and we didn't care.

You can't tell but I'm asleep in the red sleeping bag

After the race we all went back to the hotel to play in the pool and hot tub (it was probably gross that we had all been running for the past 36 hours and went straight to the pool). After we all cleaned up we went to Old Town (Near San Diego) for dinner and had some of the best mexican food I have ever had a nobody on the team seams to remember the name of the place.

The next day we went to Church and then took the team to the airport. Nate and I and two other runners had decided to stay an extra day so after dropping off the airport people we headed over to explore Balboa Park. There was a giant festival going on and no parking so after a half hour of trying to find parking we decided to head back to Huntington. (We'll have to go back for Balboa Park)

Our Ragnar Tattoos at Church

On our way back to Huntington we stopped at Laguna Beach and got some gelato to eat while we sat and relaxed on the beach. While we were hanging out on the beach we all saw a whale! All the girls got really excited and we started shouting "WHALE!" Nate was super embarrassed and was trying to hush us up but then other people started shouting too and then he joined in with the excitement. We named the whale Sassafrass.

Sassafrass

We eventually made it back to our hotel, got some pizza and then hung out in the hot tub until it was time for bed. The next day we all flew home; back to our every day lives where showering daily is a must and cheering for random people while driving past them is not normal.