Southwest Harbor Fun

Typically, we head up to Southwest Harbor at the end of the school year to camp and kick off summer. This year, with my parents now in town, and not having seen Irene and Dana much due to Covid, we decided to rent a house and invite both sets of grandparents to join us. It would be a great way to spend time together! We found what looked like the perfect spot, right downtown in Southwest Harbor, and it really did work out nicely. Really nice location and a very well equipped, comfortable house. 

Wednesday:

And so it was that we all traveled north on Wednesday morning to MDI, meeting up at A Slice of Eden for lunch (and a big creme puff for me - YUM!) before heading over to Sieur du Mont for a walk before we checked into the house.

It was a really nice afternoon, but wow, was it busy in town! We couldn't believe it! End of June is typically fairly quiet so this seemed a bit nuts to us. Maybe everyone had the same idea about a start of summer vacation?! 

We headed out on Jessup Path through Great Meadow, enjoying the breeze and the birches before wandering through the Wild Garden of Acadia at the end of our loop. (1.7 miles walked)

Love these birches 😍

Mourning cloak caterpillar

Lots of jack in the pulpits in the garden

Spreading dogbane - such a weird name for a pretty flower

Partridgeberry

After our walk, we headed over to the quiet side and got settled in the house before ordering the obligatory lobster and fried food dinner from Beal's for our first night! No pictures because it was so good and we all just dug right in 😆😋 Yum! 

Thursday:

This would be a bit of a different trip, as we were working not only on corralling a crew of 7, which is tough work, let me tell you 😉😂, even if well worth it, but also making sure we found hikes that were comfortable for everyone! However, we knew no matter what, we had to start the day off with a walk down to Cafe Milagro for breakfast. Delish! (0.5 miles walk there)

Poppy at the Cafe Milagro 

On the return trip, we took a short detour and checked out the Charlotte Rhoades Butterfly Garden. Such a pretty little pocket park, with a truly lovely view and some nice blooms too! (0.85 miles walk back to the house)

Once we got back to the house, we got ourselves organized and out the door for our main adventure for the day, a walk around Lower Hadlock Pond. It was so nice out, with bright blue skies and pleasant temps. Perfect day! We enjoyed the leisurely walk through the woods and the beautiful pond, which was replete with tadpoles and big bullfrogs. Despite how busy it was at other trailheads, we saw hardly any other hikers! (1.9 miles walked)

So many tadpoles!

Such a pretty walk in the woods, in amongst all these pond-side cedars

Exploring the pond outlet

💗

We saw about a half dozen HUGE bullfrogs along the backside of the pond on the sandy beach. Cool!

We had a late snacky lunch back at the house and then took the drive out to Seawall, just to check out the open ocean and to finish up a fun day.

Always love the rose rugosa blooming oceanside.

An algae heart! 💗

Friday:

I got up early and headed out into the foggy, misty, muggy, cool morning for a run. Ran up Long Pond Road and hooked up to Valley Trail to traverse the ferny woods and ascend Beech. After a quick stop to see what I could see through the low fog, I descended via the South Ridge down to Long Pond.

In the past, I have taken the Perpendicular Trail up to the top of Mansell and gone along the ridge that way, but for this morning's run, I decided to take the Long Pond Trail along the shore of pond and head up into Great Notch that way. The run along the pond was quite nice, mostly flat and non-technical until the trail turned away from the water and began to rise up through the deep woods to the notch.

From the notch, I headed up to Bernard and then out along the edge of the trail system and back to Long Pond Road via the old roads through Gilley Field. It was a fun route and it is always nice to traverse these quiet western mountains! Only saw two people the whole way. I'm definitely not in technical mountain shape but this was a nice mix of road, easier trail and some rocky, rooty rough stretches. (13.2 miles)

Lupine fields and one deer in the early morning along Long Pond Road

Beech views

Long Pond

Farther out along the pond

While I was out running, Ryan, Dad and Dana headed over to the Causeway Club for 9 holes of golf, and Sam, Mom and Irene walked down to Cafe Milagro for breakfast. Fun for everyone on a Friday morning!

The guys got back from golf just as it started to pour and we hung around the house until there was a break in the weather, at which point we bundled up and headed down to Wonderland. We figured it was the perfect afternoon for it as with the iffy weather, there wasn't likely to be many people out there, and indeed we were right! The trail was a bit flooded in spots with numerous large puddles, but it turned out to be pretty nice once we got out on the rocks. And so many roses! (1.4 miles walked)

A bit of a puddle 😂😂

Beautiful, if slightly smelly, colorful seaweed piles

😍

😂😂

We looped around and stopped at Bass Harbor Light before we headed back home, but apparently we lost our weather window, as it started pouring just as we were finishing up our walk down to the lighthouse. Fun to check it out though! (0.35 miles walked)

Rainy afternoon fun

Saturday:

I had hoped Ryan and I would get out for an early morning run together, but Ryan wasn't having it 😂😉 So instead we headed down to Northeast Harbor for a garden tour on what was yet another foggy, humid morning. But it was perfect for accentuating the beautiful colors in both Asticou and Thula Gardens.

We started at Asticou and then Ryan and I walked the 1/2 mile between the two gardens while sending one car on to the small Thula lot. We met up there, and ascended Asticou Terrace to the more curated gardens of Thula. Then it was back down the rock steps and back to the car. So many beautiful plants blooming and views. Always a fun exploration! (2.5 miles walked)

Asticou

Love the flame azaleas!

The perfect spot for photos!

Peony pods all tied up for seed collection once dry

Camouflage bark of the American sycamore tree. So cool!

Asticou Terrace & Thula

Headed up the rock steps of the Terrace

Northeast Harbor views

Headed back down

We headed back to the house for lunch and then Ryan and I headed out for an afternoon run up St. Sauveur. It was foggy and misty and muggy and humid, and all the rocks and roots were insanely slick, but it was fun to get in a few miles together! Even more fun, we returned via the Causeway, which we had never checked out before and which was pretty neat! (5.4 miles)

Valley Peak view

Silly soggy summit selfie to send to Sam 😉😆

Running back over the Causeway

While we were out running, Sam, Mom and Dad took a walk down to the harbor and around town. 

                                                    

Sunday:

I intended to get up and out early for a road run before we packed up and checked out of the house but I fell back to sleep after the alarm. Vacationing with family is tiring 😆 even if it has been a great trip with everyone! So instead, we got ourselves organized, got the house cleaned up and were on the road by 9:30 am down to Ships Harbor for one final walk before heading home. Always a good spot to visit! (1.5 miles walked)

This was such a fun trip with everyone! We are so glad it worked out that we could all spend time at one of our favorite places together 💕💕