I’ve been in New Hampshire since May 5th. Jenny was down in New York for a good chunk of it, but relative to how much we’ll be moving around over the next few months, May has been an absolute standstill. Before the virus hit, the original plan was putting the camper in storage and staying together in New York for the month of May, but plans had to change when New York became the epicenter of everything through April. So we’re doing more than originally planned and I’m still getting antsy.

That being said, we’ve done our best still getting out and exploring. I always had the idea of escaping for a little mini-adventure within this much bigger adventure. A sub-adventure. An adventure within an adventure… wrapped in an adventure. Some Inception s**t for sure.

We went on a hike last week with Jenny’s buddy Sean, who strongly encouraged a visit out to Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine. Combined with my long standing desire to see a good sunrise, we pulled the trigger on a drive out east.

We headed out sans camper on Tuesday morning for a 4.5 hour drive out to Acadia. We were given the explicit instructions to do the Beehive Trail, and it did not disappoint. It’s a short hike, but there are hand rails set in the face of the cliffs and you basically climb the side of the mountain. I took one picture of Jenny climbing, but she didn’t like how she looked and it must remain unpublished. But you get to the top, and the view over the islands around Acadia is simply f**king amazing. One of those views that just don’t seem real. It was like looking over a fantasy world with wizards and goblins and… I don’t know, Jenny kept making Lord of the Rings references that I didn’t understand, but you get the point. Narnia, Middle Earth, Neverland… take your pick. 

The last time I had the feeling was the Grand Canyon. It’s just so beyond an every day view you almost can’t process it. Especially considering the physical effort it takes to get there, it was a great experience.

Next we headed north on the trail (you don’t go down the way you came up… that would be nuts going down that) to The Bowl, which is this little lake set in the middle of the woods.

Then we headed south through the woods toward Gorham Mountain which gave us some more views around the park. It’s further down one of the peninsulas, so you’re almost surrounded by awesome views of the water.

We headed back towards the eastern coast to hike back to the car along the rocky water’s edge.

The parking lot is right next to a little beach, so when we got back we decided to dip our feet in and cool off a bit. I convinced Jenny to leave the phones in the truck, and immediately regretted it once I saw the view from the beach. Even more when we realized there were a bunch of cute dogs surrounding us. And MOST OF ALL when we saw a young couple with a puppy Corgi trying to get her used to the water.

First of all, the water was f**king freezing, so I’m not sure it was the best time or place to do it. The woman would pick the Corgi up and cradle her like a baby. Then she’d slowly start crouching down to dip her back legs into the water. And the lower and lower she got, the higher and higher the puppy would start climbing up the woman’s body. Just absolute panic hanging on to her arms and legs for dear life. I swear we thought the dog was going to end up balancing on this woman’s head by the time this was over. It was semi successful endeavor for that couple, but absolutely hilarious for this one, watching this dog do everything in her power to stay out of the water.

At this point we decided to walk around Bar Harbor a little bit before checking in at the campsite. We grabbed a beer to celebrate our hike at Bar Harbor Lobster Co. where we were able to sit out on the sunny patio and enjoy our drinks. We also walked past a pastry shop and decided to grab a cookie for the road.

You know those things that literally everyone knows but somehow you missed that day of school? For example, you know the Burger King logo? I never realized that was a burger until I was WAY too old. Jenny’s sister (I won’t say which one to protect the innocent) never knew pickles were just pickled cucumbers. Stuff like that.

I was yesterday years old when I learned that macarons and macaroons are not the same thing. I literally thought Americans were just being typical stupid Americans and added an “o” just to be dicks. I mean, it’s not the wildest theory. We just decided to drop “u”s from British words, maybe we just decided to add “o”s to French ones?

But no… I’m just dumb. So I thought I was getting a macaron (which I love) and I instead got a macaroon (which I hate). Lesson learned, and now I can never make that mistake ever again.

We also walked by Ivy Manor Inn which had a little outside bar and garden you could sit outside, so we obviously grabbed another drink and did just that. It felt very European for some reason, so we went with a British beer.

We grabbed some beer for the campsite, and headed out there to clean ourselves up a bit for dinner. In our walk we saw a restaurant on the water with people out on the patio having dinner. Cool, we thought, let’s do that. No biggie.

We got back to Bar Harbor and took our seats on the patio. As soon as we sat down, we realized it had been THREE MONTHS since we were last out to eat. The last time was March 15th at Superior Seafood in New Orleans. And we immediately realized how much we missed it. We had convinced ourselves that carry-out and curbside was just as good, but… no. Just, no. We have no problem making such an insignificant sacrifice for the good of everyone else, but when you have it back… MAN did it feel good. 

We still found ourselves unconsciously leaning away from the server whenever he came over, as if those extra three inches was going to make or break anything. But it didn’t feel like we were doing anything risky. I’m generally paranoid about… well, everything… and I didn’t feel at all nervous about it. The next table was a good 10-15 feet away, our server was masked, and we were outside on the very windy coast. 

If we end up feeling ill over the next few days, I wouldn’t consider any point of our walk around Bar Harbor as when we caught it. I think Bar Harbor (and Maine in general I would assume) as handling it very wisely. Be smart, wear masks, stay away from people, and we can have some nice things again.

SIDE NOTE: Arizona is spiking in cases. BIGLY. If you’ve read past posts, you’ve heard us comment on how the people in Arizona were NOT doing the above things. To the point we were semi shocked when we left the area and saw how serious other parts of the country were taking it. So as you read about cases spiking there, just know that. And I’m not saying people in Arizona are purposefully irresponsible. I’m saying their timeline screwed them and set up a false sense of security. Think about it…

Step 1 – Pandemic starts, your area doesn’t get hit

Step 2 – Your state shuts everything down, but still… not many cases

Step 3 – Pandemic starts to calm down, your state starts opening back up… still not many cases

Step 4 – You haven’t worn a mask, haven’t socially distanced for months and now it’s ending. Still not many cases. AKA yay, woo, we beat it!

Step 5 – Watch the numbers in your state go through the roof.

After dinner we headed back to the campsite for a little bit of sleep. We brought our tent and sleeping bags, but in the end decided to just sleep in the truck. Was it comfortable? No. No it was not. But, we laid down around 10pm and were leaving 2am, so f**k it. This way we didn’t have to try and pack up a tent in the pitch black.

We drove another two hours east to the easternmost point of the continental U.S., West Quoddy Head. We originally were going to hike up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia which I was led to believe is where the sunlight actually hits first. This way we could say we were the first people to see sunrise that day. However, this is only the case from October to March. This time of year that point is actually Mars Hill apparently. Since that was the only real reason we were going to try and hike in the middle of the night and risk dying / serious bodily injury, and Mars Hill was a 3.5 hour drive away, we decided to just say we went to the easternmost part of the country. We plan on going to the westernmost point of the U.S. when we head to the west coast towards the end of the summer, so we’ll be able to say we saw sunrise in the east-est east, sunset in the west-est west, and everything in between. Which I think is pretty cool.

From there we drove back to Bar Harbor, grabbed some breakfast, coffee, and gas and headed back to New Hampshire. Jenny was able to nap on the ride, but I was running on less than six hours of sleep over two days. Needless to say, I slept well last night.

It’s rainy and s**tty today, so another laundry day. Tomorrow I finally leave New Hampshire! We head to Plattsburgh to see Jenny’s college territory, visit some old friends, and drink in their breweries. Seriously, one of her friends owns a brewery in northern Vermont. Super psyched.