Acadia '09 - Day Four

This was the day we made the SigO do the beehive twice. Don't even begin to feel sorry for him - he loves this stuff!!

Here's how it went. In the morning, I went up to Greathead (hey, I didn't name it!), which is a gorgeous hike with beach views almost all the way around. The first part looks down on Sand Beach - the only strip on the island that's really suitable for wading in the ocean - or swimming if you're a polar bear. I did part of this hike last year, and what we didn't know is that you can go all the way around Greathead and it will bring you back to your starting point, with views all the way around.

This first one is of Sand Beach, at the beginning of the hike.

This is a view of Otter Point, from the tip of our little peninsula.

Around the corner a bit, is a view straight down from our perch.

Then, on around, we saw this guy climbing the rocks.

Finally, this is one of the last of the views before you start heading around the backside of the peninsula to get back to the starting point.

After a brief lunch, we left the girls in town, to spend some money, and I drug the SigO back to the Beehive. If you wonder why he had to do it twice, it's because he and his daughter have been doing it since she was about 9 years old, and she continues to force herself to do it each year, although parts of the trail are a tad bit terrifying since you're walking across a very narrow span with a steep ("omigod, omigod, I'm gonna die" type steep) drop under you. She's a bit frightened of heights, so this hike is especially rough for her, but she toughs it out every year so she can face her fears and stare them down. I admire her greatly for it. And so does her friend. But that doesn't mean her friend is willing to do the same thing, so I usually take her friend up Greathead, while the SigO and his daughter do the Beehive. But hey! Last year, I missed the Beehive due to this and didn't want to miss it again. Hence the reason the SigO had to do it twice this year.

And get a load of these views - you can see why I didn't want to miss it again:

This first is only part way up - I'd guess around half-way. I can't remember what it is.The SigO will know, but since he's still not contributing to the blog (boo, hiss), we may never know.

This is, I think, the same area, from higher up.

And this is the top.

But the real fun of this climb are the places that are a bit hairy. You can see the abject terror in the SigO's eyes.

And here he is, showing you his gorgeous bod. Either that, or he really has lost his beach ball - I know he's lost his marbles!

So ended Day Four. Monday - The Precipice!!

Acadia '09 - Day Three

On Monday, one of the girls had an interview at the College of the Atlantic. Which left the other three of us kinda in limbo, since her interview was in the middle of the day. So, first things first, off we went to the Quiet Side of the Island, where one of my favorite yarn shops is, and where - big surprise - I spent a fair share of money on yarn.

1. Malabrigo Sock Yarn - for a vest

It's actually black - came out in the pic looking more blue.

2. Done Roving Sock Yarn - a mom/daughter team in Maine makes this- for over the knee socks for Christmas

3. Alpaca Sock Yarn - to re-knit the socks I knit for the SigO last year - which got lost. Weird story. Maybe another time.

4. Silk/wool blend for another shot at a camisole I want to go with my Noro short-sleeved jacket.

5. Lace weight yarn for this awesome scarf they had hanging there that I loved.The SigO and his daughter ate lunch while I happily yakked it up with fellow knitters and had a great time in the Lilac Lily.

Which, btw, is something I love about Maine. There are fellow knitters everywhere - some I've hooked up with on Ravelry already. What a great state! I found one in a quilting store, one in a wine shop, one knitting on the porch of our B&B, and one was a bartender! Knitters Rule!

I had to cut my shopping/yakking short so we could hightail it back to the college, just to wait another hour while the interview went WAY beyond the scheduled time, but she was really pumped about the whole thing, so it was worth the wait.

Not much time left at this point except to drive up to Cadillac Mountain, and check out the view.

So, yeah - it was a quiet day, but it was the only quiet day we spent and I know I had fun!

Acadia '09 - Day Two

The girls were a lot more lively on Sunday, after having slept nearly 20hrs, give or take. So, first thing after a sumptious breakfast, we headed back to the park - the B&B provided a good breakfast - not one of those hokey ones where you get a muffin and a banana and that's supposed to cut it for the morning - we got pancakes, eggs, bacon, etc, etc.

The first thing we did was check out Thunder Hole, and it was kickin' big time! Probably the best performance I've seen. I tried a few times to get a better angle, by climbing up on rocks, but I think the SigO and his daughter found the best spot.

After Thunder Hole, we went back to Otter Cliffs, and hung out watching the wave action, but it didn't quite compare to the day before, so we headed over to Otter point, where you can sit down, right next to the waves.

After a quick lunch, where the SigO modeled his new look,we headed over to one of our favorite hikes - Jordan Stream. This hike was much more exciting than the first time we went, since portions were flooded. Yes - that's the trail - with the completely useless bridges spanning portions of flooded trails. Unfortunately, this also meant that the place where we left the trail last year, was unavailable - as it was now, no longer a gorgeous meadow, but instead a giant marsh.

As a result, we hiked a considerable distance further than originally planned, and missed the main point of the hike - the meadow full of blueberries. The girls referred to this as "the hike based on false promises and lies".

Still, we did come out on a gorgeous meadow, overlooking a lake, and the ocean. Lakes, oceans and mountains - only in Acadia!

That night, we headed to Rupununi's for lunch, where we laughed so hard, one of us (no names!) threw up. Literally! Can you just hear that conversation later: "Today, Dad made me hike five miles, through marshes and over flooded trails - and then he made me throw up!" That's how I would have worded it, but not everyone is as bad as me, I guess.

Day three will be posted tomorrow, where I bought BOUCOUP yarn, and one of the girls went for her interview at the COA.

Acadia '09 - Day One

Another year has brought us to our favorite vacation site, Acadia Natl Park, Maine. As usual, we did the marathon drive, 13 hrs up the east coast. This years drive was made more exciting by a tropical storm, and a navigation system trying to avoid all toll roads - pretty much impossible when driving up to Maine. When we got to our B&B (Mosley Cottage), the girls were too exhausted to do anything, so they just crashed out for the day.

The SigO and I headed to the park and got some great views of an ocean gone wild.

As you can tell - it was a little chilly/wet out, but that made everything even better as we almost had the park to ourselves. This is Thunder Hole - as deserted as I've ever seen it - undoubtedly partly because of the rain, and partly because of the tragedy the week prior.While the ocean was really kicking, it wasn't putting on an impressive display at Thunder Hole, since the water was so high.

So, off we headed to Otter Cliffs.

This is about the happiest I've ever seen the SigO, watching the waves crash against the rocks. And he really enjoyed the solitude out there, as did I.After a power nap, we indulged in an expensive restaurant, where I had lobster (it's Maine! What did you expect?). And he had Veal Roulade. We were both too stuffed for dessert. Which is really saying something.

So ends day one - a very satisfying start to our vacation.

Stay tuned for days two - six.

Surprise Visits

I had another great weekend with the WWO.

This time, we went kayaking down the Susquehanna.

Such a beautiful peaceful trip. And the first surprise visitor of my weekend was this young eagle. So young, he still had some of his white feathers. He wasn't alone either. There must have been a nest around somewhere, because we had multiple eagle sightings that day. Not to mention the Osprey ignoring us while she decaptitated her freshly caught fish; or the cranes, herons, and kingfishers. As I said - a beautiful and peaceful trip. We stopped on one of the islands for lunch. I wonder who used to live here? This wall wasn't the only evidence that there used to be people living on this tiny little patch in the middle of the river.

We were back to our cars and ready to leave by 3, and I hotfooted it over to Ewenique Yarns in Bel Aire, MD. There was a small group of knitters in the back, laughing over life in general. They were a little worried they were being too graphic and I might be scared away. Silly girls. Didn't take much to set them straight. Needless to say, I found some gorgeous yarn - which, duh, means I bought some gorgeous yarn. But then, I've been on a bit of a yarn feeding frenzy lately. Really need to slow my roll since our vacation is next week.

My next surprise visitor this weekend was one of my oldest friends. She and I went to college together (until I jetted off to Europe for 13 years), and she is also retired military, so she can take advantage of the military airlift transportation - which means she can fly around the world, when space is available on a military flight, for free. So, she's enjoying some free time and I was one of her stops. Very fun. We spent the day in Old Town Alexandria, where, of course, I visited Knit Happens. Yes, I know. I had just been to a yarn store, the day before! What's your point? Yarn Feeding Frenzy. Remember? She spent a few days with us, and made us some Carne Guisada - something hard to find here in DC metro. Quite yummy. I took her to DE where last we spoke, she was trying to get a flight to Europe - I still don't know if she made it or not. Hope so.

So, that's my excuse for being so late this week - was off playing with friends.

Next week, I'll be on vacation, so no new posts til Sep.

Posting pictures

As usual, I procrastinated getting pictures taken of my knitting, which means I didn't have anyone around to take a picture of me wearing it - so it's just hanging up, or laying down, or whatever, but at least you can see I've been busy.

First, here's the Beachcomber Tunic - still in progress. As you can see, once I got it on the blocking boards, the decreases became much more obvious on the front piece, so I'm going to have to rip that back and go at it again. You can't say I'm not getting plenty of practice with my crochet on this piece.

Back looks good though - i think -and after only three tries! The next, most recently completed, is my Silky Liesl, knit up in Art Fibers Kyoto, in an autumn-like colorway (color #27). I really love the lacy hang of this, but wish I'd made the yoke bigger. The funny thing is, the reason I didn't is because someone else on Ravelry lamented that she wished hers was smaller. Oh well. She's probably a tiny little thing.

This quickie, fun little cardigan was made from Be Sweet magic ball-which has several different fibers all knotted together. It was very quick, very easy to make, but I had to keep re-knotting the fibers together. I never bothered to block this, and it really needs it - have worn it several times. Very cute.

Finally, this Noro cardie is one of my favorites - I think it's very elegant, but also VERY warm, so it's going to have to wait for winter.

So, here's some news. I'm trying to get the SigO to do an entry in my blog - one per week type thing. We're thinking of calling it SigO Soundoff, and I'd let him talk about whatever he wants. It's going to take me some convincing though - he thinks it's too much pressure. So, feel free to offer some encouragement!

Been a Long Time Coming

Yeah, yeah, yeah - I know. I've been slacking off. In my defense, since I got back from the Netherlands we've done nothing at all except sit around the house. Day in. Day out. Weekday. Weekend. I was just about to lose my mind. This past weekend came just in the nick of time.

I certainly hadn't planned on sitting around so long. In fact, I had plans to go to the Quilt Odyssey on July 29th. Instead, I sat in traffic for five straight hours - and never made it out of DC. To give this some perspective, both my Mom and I left our respective houses at 1:30 EST. She lives in Texas. I live in Northern Virginia. She drove all the way from her house to Katy, Tx, a total of 158 miles. I drove from mine to Washington D.C. in the same amount of time. A total of 30 miles. When it became apparent that there was no end in sight to this traffic, I turned around and went home. Welcome to N. VA. Expect Delays.

So, that's why no blogging lately. Nothing to inspire me. When I don't get out of my small little environment, I have no inspiration for philosophy, wickedness or thirst quenchers. I do get lots of knitting done and will post pics of all that as soon as I remember to take some.

But we did finally get out of our hole this weekend. We went to the Lancaster, PA area for a nice camp trip at Hibernia County park, and then a nice bike ride in Atglen, PA.

I had assumed there would be showers at the campground, but no joy. They did have a nice deep sink with a tall spigot, so we had ourselves a bit of a birdbath - in the middle of the night when we could strip down to our skivvies without too much fear of being caught.

The campground was gorgeous - tall, tall (over 150') tulip poplar trees. We left our rain cover off the tent to give us more breeze, and when we woke up in the morning, those incredible trees loomed over us. It wasn't too crowded at the campground either - which begs the question: When there are 20 campsites, and only five groups camping, why, oh why do people decide to pitch their tents right next to another tent? Why not spread out a bit? If any reader out there can explain this, I'd really like to know. I'd also like someone to explain to me how we managed to get sandwiched between a site with two young couples, who stayed up singing songs from Dirty Dancing (I can't make this kind of crap up) til 2AM, and a site with a young family, including twin 2-year old girls, who went to bed before 8PM, and were naturally back up by 7AM. In case you ever wonder what the appeal to back country camping is - this is it. Total peace and quiet.

But, of course, this helped get us up and out early, so we could go on our ride before it got too hot. It's really gorgeous country and I should have taken more pictures, but I was just enjoying being there. I did get a shot of this old mill, and this gorgeous house both seen on our bike ride.

Then on our way home, I got some pictures of the Amish, driving home from Sunday services, and a few pictures of the country side. They're blurry because I was trying to take them from a moving car.

So, that was the weekend. Sanity restored.