At the height of feeling like we were trapped during this pandemic in July, we booked a staycation with friends of ours to visit Mount Desert Island over Indigenous People's Weekend. There were four adults present at the booking, but some how we all got on board with the wrong dates...kind of... maybe it was the length of time, maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe it was the chaos of the pandemic and constantly having to change plans. Whatever it was, we had our first adventure of the trip on Friday afternoon when Gabe and I were sitting on the green in Bar Harbor having a picnic lunch with the kids when Shannon texted to ask for directions to the house we were renting and supposed to check into at 3pm. I looked up the directions and discovered, that our reservation didn't start until the next day! Ugh, now all our commenting on the way in about all of the "no vacancy" signs at all of the hotels between Bangor and Bar Harbor seemed like a cruel joke.
We quickly recalibrated (luckily for them, our friends were still at home) and mercifully found a place to stay for one night that was both on the island and not exorbitantly priced. Ironically, at the last minute the previous tenant had to leave a day early to catch a flight out of Bangor. Once that was settled we now realized that our reservation was extending one day longer than we had originally planned on the other end with us heading home on Tuesday instead of Monday. We moved things around and figured everything out on the fly and in under an hour we veered back on course with our stay-cation. Phew!
We spend the afternoon hiking the Beehive, relaxing on Sand Beach, and even ran into some friends from Wilton! Despite living in the same town we have't seen these friends since before the pandemic started. It was great to catch up with them and enjoy a campfire with them that night at their campsite which was just across the street from the last minute motel room we rented! Life certainly can be crazy sometimes!
On Saturday we mini golfed, explored around the island, had a windy take-out lunch in Northeast Harbor, explored Asticou Gardens, and eventually landed at our rental house. Obviously we knew what was at the house from the pictures/descriptions, but it turned out to be so much more impressive in person! There was a huge yard with a fire pit, a full basketball court, a sand volleyball court, a hot tub, and so much room for the kids to run free. Inside there was an enormous kitchen, plenty of sleeping/playing space, etc., etc., etc. AND there was an indoor pool... like a legitimate full sized pool inside. Who doesn't want to float in the pool and watch the Adams Family at the same time??
On Sunday we spent the morning hiking Beech Cliffs followed by afternoon tide pooling at Wonderland. In the early evening we had a Halloween party. The kids all dressed up and we had a blast playing lots of different inside and outside halloween themed games and eating way too much candy... just in case Halloween doesn't happen the way we would like it to at the end of the month;) Monday morning we took an adventurous loop on the carriage trails with everyone on their own bikes! It was a great way to get out and see another part of the park. The kids started to complain a bit at this point and we spent the rest of our time just relaxing at the house.
We were so thankful to get away with great friends all while staying so close to home!
No comments:
Post a Comment