Acadia...four years later

We just came back from a 1 and a half week trip to Acadia National Park.  We first went to what we call our "favorite place ever", on our honeymoon back in 2007.  We decided to celebrate our fourth anniversary with a trip back to the park and some much needed relaxation.  

 Here's an overlook at the top (well, what we discovered to be the first of the three "peaks") of a mountain that we grossly underestimated the climb.  At the top, you could look out over the lakes, oceans, and land of the island.  It was a great first hike of our trip and an excellent place to enjoy a soft pretzel and maple mustard that we packed from our new favorite bakery.  (I admit that I became rather obsessed with these pretzel nuggets of glory....and the mustard was phenomenal.  I could eat one everyday.)

This is from my favorite "secret" spot along the park loop in Acadia.  There is a little pebble beach that isn't marked at all and you wouldn't know it was there if you weren't looking for it.  I have no idea how we found it on our honeymoon four years ago, but we did and we think of this place when we think of Maine.  There are all kinds of gorges between the mountain of rocks and when the water is rough, you can witness some pretty intense wave crashes.  I love this sheltered hole of water along the edge.  Check out the those colors!

Kinsey skipping stones on the "secret" beach.  

A trail in the woods we followed.  Who doesn't like the quiet of the forest with soft pine needles on the ground and moss?

Two of the videos stocked in our cabin.  We aren't movie people (we have only been to the movies 4 times in the seven years we've been together), but these scream us.  Seriously.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to watch them.   

We did have time for these books.  A Walk in the Park proved to be an invaluable guide.  It list all the trails in the park with detail information on the elevation, difficultly, terrain, and different routes.  We learned that when the author says "different and strenuous", he means it.  We wanted an easy hike one day and chose a trail described as "one of the most difficult and dangerous trail in the park".  (Jordan Cliffs, anyone?)  

I loved the bright orange book (which takes a certain person to enjoy) and the one with the raccoon proved informative when on our last night at the cabin, we saw a family of raccoons come right up to our (glass and locked) screen doors.  Raccoons are much larger in real life than you may think.  The only other time we saw one was in the middle of the day at a nearby creek back home and yes, it definitely wasn't healthy.  

We stayed here.  The cabin was in a wonderful location in the park and really close to trails (walking distance).  We loved this fireplace in the corner.  The window to the right of the fireplace is where the family of raccoons came up.  The cabin even had a small loft (which I named the "puzzle loft" because there were puzzles up there).  

Here's the outside of the cabin.  Complete with a birch tree growing in the middle of the wooden walkway to the door.  Love it.  

wildflowers as far as the eye can see.....

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is the pick your own wildflowers that a local farm offers. Kinsey and I have gone at least once every year since 2007 or 2006. You just grab a coffee can, a pair of clippers, and walk out to be faced with rows and rows and rows of flowers in every color.




This summer has been incredible dry with very little rain, so the flowers weren't flawless, but compared to everyone else's flowers, it was amazing that they looked so good!



I loved these rows of bright purple flowers.  They grow in sort of a "Y" shape with groups of little paper like flowers at each end.

We always seem to pick one of the hottest days of the summer to go flower picking.   Yesterday was no exception at about 95 degrees.

One coffee can full of flowers came to about 8 different arrangements for us. At around $9 a can, this is definitely quite a deal.

gardens, wedding, donuts, and owls.....

This past weekend was Kinsey's sister's wedding. The ceremony was held outside in the Hershey Gardens, in Hershey Pa. The weather was beautiful and was quite an enjoyable time.


Here's the rehearsal. They got married beneath the archway.



These were the centerpieces on the tables. Yes, donuts. The reception was all breakfast foods catered by the Hershey Hotel, which is a Rice favorite for breakfast. Yum!



Here's my sister in law, Hilary and my new brother in law, Shawn (Shawnzie).



Here's Kinsey and I after the ceremony.


Just one of the many butterflies hanging out.


This tree was in the Japanese gardens. I love how curvy it is.


Hello owl!

This is the first of two sibling weddings K and I will be attending this year. My brother is getting married in October. This was actually the first wedding we've been to since we got married ourselves. It's nice to just be able to sit back and get a chance to talk to people who you never see and eat the food at the reception. I found that I hardly had time to eat much of anything at our reception and could barely say more than hello to everyone that came. It's hard to believe that it's almost been 3 years already!


Our wedding in September of 2007.

Summer on the Porch

A little bit ago, K and I went to Ikea to look around for a desk for his art studio. We came across their outdoor furniture section and fell in love with this four piece set. After carefully making sure it would fit in our hatchback, we set our sights on setting it up and all the great meals we'd eat out on our back porch. I must admit, I bought the set really for the bench seat. I've wanted a good bench for a while, and loved this one. The entire set cost what I've seen just a good wooden bench cost. The large chairs are really comfortable as well.


The bistro like chairs didn't come with the set. But did come from Ikea as well.


My favorite seat.


A shot at dusk.