A Very Special Day--My 62nd Birthday!

Trenton, Maine   Narrows Too campground   High:  84   Low: 60

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Hugs to everybody who follows us and reads along now and then!

I love birthdays...I loved planning special birthdays for my daughters when they were growing up. I loved celebrating with friends when they turned special birthdays...like 30, or 40, or 50. I love celebrating my own birthday! It's like, HEY! I made it through another year. I had many rough times when I was younger, both growing up and as a single mom. Somehow, birthdays were a little ray of sunshine that brightened a dreary day, or a tough period I was going through. When I was single, I would buy myself flowers, it didn't matter to me that flowers seldom lasted very long, I was just happy looking at them...And after the kids grew up and left home, I celebrated my birthdays with friends. Have some great memories of going to the Japanese restaurant, Hana Yori for my birthday, in Mishawaka, IN, of going to Tosi's Italian restaurant in Stevensville, MI, for birthday celebrations, when I was living back in the northern Indiana area. Eating out at a nice restaurant was one of my most favorite ways to celebrate ANYBODY'S birthday! (AHA! No wonder she likes to eat out!) And now, I have Eldy to help me celebrate. And we celebrate birthdays all over the country! How serendipitous is that? (E. explains, that's my granddaughter's favorite word of the week that she learned while she was with us.) Lucky and blessed, that we are!

So, when my birthday comes along, I make sure everybody knows about it! I talk about what I'm going to do on my birthday, where I want to eat, what I'd wish for if I had some extra birthday money. Hint, hint...I throw out gift ideas just for fun, nothing really expensive, I just don't want to get something that I have no use for, or don't really want, like the time my first husband gave me a vacuum cleaner because he thought my domestic skills weren't up to snuff. (Eldy is remaining wisely silent here...) Eldy won't ever forget my birthday, because I won't let him! :-)

Up and at it early this morning, I was, because it's time to celebrate, all day!  I get a "Happy birthday and love you" text from Eldy, who went and washed our really dirty Honda, so that was sweet! Next, he tells me we are going to "Jeannie's" for breakfast, in downtown Bar Harbor. Yes, there really is a "Jeannie's" in Bar Harbor, and they have "bearylicious great Maine breakfasts"! I had my favorite...a breakfast burrito, and man, was it delicious! It had homemade salsa on it...Yum!  (I swear, she's part Hispanic, as much as she loves Mexican food! says E.)

We saw this truck outside the restaurant...Boy, have those guys come a long way! (An obscure reference to an old TV show called "Sanford and Son")...I liked that show....

We walked around town for awhile.....admired the beautiful little park in the center of town that overlooks the harbor...

We checked out the price of lobster, which is still high at this particular restaurant. That's surprising, because the lobster catch is plentiful around here, and local talk is about how to get more people to eat lobster, as the supply well exceeds the demand! There are some fantastic lobster dinner specials at the "lobster pound" local eateries spread out all over town. We've seen a soft shelled lobster dinner can be had for about 7.99 so we're going to make sure Eldy gets some lobster soon. But, for now, this restaurant is not worrying about their pricing.

Bar Harbor has some really cool restaurants and shops that are fun to go into and walk around...Sparky got a pressed penny for her collection, which she missed the first time here at Bar Harbor.

We walked down onto the docks, past this open window...It reminded me of old TV shows where kids would sneak a hot pie cooling off an open window. The Andy Griffith Show, maybe?

Two years ago, we ate at another Grumpy's, on another part of Mount Desert Island at one of the small harbors. I remember they had a fantastic breakfast served outside the little harbor. It was wonderful! We checked out the whale sightings on the whale boat tour. Sparky LOVES seeing the whales and never gets tired of going to look for them. Not one of the cheaper touristy things to do, but there might come a day where you don't see whales any more, so why not see them every chance you can!?

Later in the day, we went over to Acadia and drove around getting more information about carriage tours of the bridges, and hiking trails. Here's an entrance to one of the carriage roads.

And one of the many bridges....

We're gonna get off our duffs soon, and start hiking and biking. The carriage roads were very crowded today with cyclists, and it was the hottest day so far since we've been here, so we're gonna wait for the weather to cool down tomorrow and maybe get a hike in...Or not!  Sparky stopped off at the visitor's center at Acadia and got her lifetime "Golden Age"/ senior pass. It enables you to get in FREE to most national parks, national forests, recreation areas and monuments. It's the best deal going for seniors and NOBODY should pass this up for a one-time processing fee of 10.00.  You also get a 50% fee reduction for federal fees charged for camping, boating, swimming, and tours and other stuff. Fantastic!

sure don't feel like 62, at least not today!

For dinner tonight, Eldy took me to Jack Russell's Steakhouse and Brewert, a great little restaurant with a pub atmosphere and handcrafted ales....I had a wonderful steak dinner, served with garlic mashed potatoes, with my first clam chowder in Maine...It was terrific! And, I had my very favorite dessert, we seldom eat desserts, but if CREME BRULEE is on the  menu, I'm gonna eat it! And I did, all by myself!

Eldy really liked his steak dinner as well....What a wonderful 62nd birthday I had! But I will say that as the years go by, I'm probably not going to be looking forward to birthdays as much, but who knows? As you get lots older, birthdays are about the only thing you can celebrate--that you are still here for another year! ....Time to go home and rest up for a fun day tomorrow....some hiking and biking..(BOTH???!!!! Woman, you're going to kill me! says E.) OK, one OR the other.... Buy for now......