Friday, July 2, 2010

Finally, a relaxing day!





We are settled in our site at Smuggler's Den...no mishaps there! Yesterday, we went to a wonderful little restaurant on the bay, called Grumpy's. Fantastic food, reasonably priced, and no, the waitress wasn't grumpy. Then we explored downtown Bar Harbor(on foot, ha ha!) and the stores are so cool! Bought myself a good pair of hiking shoes, and took some photos. There is a restaurant there called "Jeannie's" so I told Eldy we HAVE to go eat there some day this week. We stopped by the whale watching cruise ticket booth, and on a whim, decided to go whale watching at 1:00 PM. They told us temperatures would be in the high 40's while out on the ocean, so we headed back to the campsite to dig out our heavier coats and out we went! For awhile, it looked like we weren't going to see anything, when Eldy called out, "I see one!" at the same time the guide did. We got lucky! TWO humpback whales, one they were able to identity as "Triton". (Don't you just love the names they come up with for these whopper mammals!) Triton and his friend were teasing us with close flipper/tale showings, but nothing spectacular, like in a National Geographic shot. well, just when I was fiddling with focusing my camera, up comes the companion whale and breeched right in front of me and Eldy!A breech is when they come up out of the water and show the bulk of their body, then slam back down for anybody wondering about what that is!) But I was so busy trying to get the perfect whale shot, I missed the breech! Eldy saw it, though, and it was spectacular and up close! I got pictures of spouting and a few of the humpback arching, but I missed the big one! Darn it! When we got back, we ate at a wonderful outdoor restaurant called Runioni's or something like that. What surprises me is the number of restaurants that have open walls to the street. You wouldn't expect that in a colder climate in the summer time, but there are MANY restaurants in Bar Harbor with outdoor seating, and walls totally open to the air and street. We're looking forward to trying a few of these this coming week. For the finale of our day, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park..the granite slabs everywhere were amazing. All the roads in and around the park have pink granite slabs that were placed to keep carriages, walkers, and cars from going off the side of the road. Amazing!


Thanks to everybody who is reading our blog. I have simplified how to make comments, and hope it will be easier to hear back from you....Jeannie

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you guys had a wonderful day. Whales are awesome, we saw some in Hawaii. I can relate to the missing out because of messing with the camera. Glad you are finally having fun and relaxing. Love ya.

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  2. Jeanne - Your photos are great! It sounds like you are having a fabulous time. Hope you and Eldy are getting into a comfortable routine together. I had no idea that your motorhome was so big. We saw a huge one the other day - Heather and I - when we were coming home from Shipshewana. She told me that it was about the same size as yours. I was thinking of more like a camper - but she said yours was a motor HOME! I went to Yellow Stone with Adam, Amy, Wyatt, and Charlotte. I really enjoyed the Badlands as well as Yellowstone. It was beautiful. We saw lots of wildlife. There were pronghorn, mountain sheep, elk, deer, bison, prairie dogs, and some 40 species of birds that Adam identified. The weather was a big rainy and cold, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Early June is obviously not the ideal time to go. Late June would have to be better. The day we left, it snowed two feet in the campground we had stayed at. That campground had a snowbank it in when we got there! I was gone about 12 days. Tomorrow Amy, her mom, and the kids are coming for the 4th. They will head back to Wisconsin on Wednesday. We are going antique shopping. I think this may become an annual girl-thing. This is the second year. I'm going to Michigan for a week at the scrapbooking B & B later this month. Then, I go to the Lilly Teacher Creativity Workshop where I signed up for drawing. Yup! You read that right. Drawing. Well, I guess it can't hurt to try. Then Bill and I are going to North Carolina to spend a few days in the mountains at a cabin with my dad, his wife, my aunt and uncle. Three of us are in our 50's and the rest are in their 80's. Hmmmm! Glad to hear you are having such fun. Jill

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