Trip to Maine - Part 1

This is not going to be a real trip report, but I am going to post a bunch of photos from our visit this year. For us, a couple of weeks in Southwest Harbor, Maine (on Mt. Desert Island where Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are) is an annual tradition. My husband Tom spent his summers here as he was growing up, and even though his parents have retired to Southern Maine they still trek up to Southwest Harbor every June and stay through September! In fact, most of his childhood friends from summers here return as well, now with their spouses and children.

So our trip to Maine each year is our chance to see Tom's parents (and usually his sister and her family), as well as visit with old friends, and relax in a familiar setting. For many years we were able to stay for 3 weeks, but for the past 2 years I could only leave my job for 2 weeks at a time, so that is the length of our trip this time. And I know I am INCREDIBLY lucky to be able to go to Maine for 2 weeks - but I have to admit that it still seems short to me!

Despite the fact that his parents have a large house, for the past 10 years we have rented our own house for everyone's sanity! Lately we have been staying in a cute house just around the corner from his parents. It has a lot of advantages - it is big enough that everyone gets their own bedroom, it is within walking distance from town, and his cousins and their children are across the street. It is a funny house (we call it a "hobbit house") full of old-fashioned furniture and tons of knick-knacks, but we are very comfortable there.

Here are two old photos (I didn't take any of the house this year):


So here is a quick visual tour of our trip.

This is us visiting at my in-law's "summer cottage." It is an absolutely beautiful house, right on the water with its own dock. This is really the only time each year that we spend time with Nana & OG, and we try to get some good visits in.





These next pictures are some nice photos that Hannah took when she went out on a walk. She was only able to be with us in Maine for 4 days this year since she was going to Spain, so we tried to fit in a lot of stuff while she was still there.





Aren't those photos nice? Hannah wants to be a journalist, but we keep telling her she should consider pursuing photography.

The 2 things at the top of Hannah's list were going to Jordan Pond House for tea and popovers, and going for a sail on our boat.

Here is Jordan Pond House. This is an annual tradition for our family - I can't imagine going to Maine and not eating here! The popovers are wonderful, and so is the seafood chowder. The view is also amazing:



The sailboat has been in Tom's family for about 60 years. It is a wooden day-sailer that was built on Mt. Desert Island in the 1920s or 30s. Only about 15 were ever built. It is beautiful condition, and Tom sails it beautifully! We did about a 2-hour sail, and the highlight was seeing a small pod of porpoises as we were sailing. It is always so relaxing and fun to be out on the boat.






The other 2 things Hannah wanted to do before I drove her down to Boston to fly off to Spain was swimming off the ledges on Long Pond:




and eating a lobster at Beal's Lobster Pier (highly recommended!):


I am going to break this photo journey through Maine into 2 separate posts so that this one doesn't get too long. It makes sense - it was after this that I drove down to Boston and put Hannah on an airplane to fly to Spain for 4 weeks.