I took a beautiful morning photo. The mist and the autumn colors and the empty country road are just begging to be made into a water color painting.
Breakfast was another amazing meal...overnight apple french toast, scrambled eggs, and locally made sausage sourced from pigs bred down the road. Sweetling and the Jedi very much want me to try to make the apple french toast (which by the way, was made with hemp milk and coconut oil so as not to trigger my lactose intolerance.)
After breakfast, we all packed up and bundled up, because it was a damp 35 degree morning, and headed to The Basin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This was a favorite hiking spot of our Vermont friends and it was easy to see why. Moving water had shaped the granite hills into beautiful curves and flowing shapes. In the fall, there wasn't much water in the stream or river beds, so a lot of sculpted rock was exposed. Young Chef asked if he could explore up ahead on his own, and I said yes. He had his cell phone on him and we had a strong signal....at least, we had a strong signal where we were standing at the time. I had no way of knowing a short way up the trail the signal would be gone. A tour bus disgorged its passengers, and our Vermont friends suggested we take the other fork in the path so as to be on our own, and not in the midst of a couple score of people. No problem. I'll just text Young Chef. No response. Fine, I'll call him. Goes to a voice mail box that isn't set up. I sent him a message on Discord, nothing. The Jedi and the Vermont dad both head up the trail on a search and recover mission. Meanwhile, I climbed on rocks with the Vermont boys and chatted with Vermont mom. Sweetling took pictures of mushrooms.
Young Chef got to an elevation where he had signal again, and his phone LIT up with messages and missed calls. He booked his butt back down the train where the Jedi found him. We called Vermont dad to tell him the target had been acquired, and once everyone was reunited, continued on. We quickly reached the exposed rock face of a nearly dry river bed. More climbing and exploring commenced. I took some great photos, the Young Chef explored, but not too far away. Vermont boys had a great time. Sweetling said the area reminded her a lot of the Grand Tetons.
All too soon we had to depart. Vermont friends tried to convince us to come back and stay a week next time. That is not a hard sell! (Also, I managed to limit myself to picking up just one fall leaf. Since I used to have phone books filled with leaves every fall, I think this showed great restraint.)
After the experience with the brakes yesterday, we had already decided to skip Mt Washington. I know the Jedi was disappointed; Mt Washington was an anticipated highlight of the trip for him. For time sake, we also cut out the scenic detour. That was my call. We had had two days of mishaps and wrecked schedules, and I did *not* want to risk missing the 4:30 deadline for purchasing a park pass at the Acadia Visitor Center. Plus, it was still overcast and foggy, and I didn't want to take the detour, risk Acadia, and not have decent visibility.
The drive was still pretty and pleasant. We made good time and at a little roadside BBQ shake with a drum smoker for lunch. The brisket looked like a a decent Texas style rub with a dark bark and sliver of fat, but it was a bit dry. The ribs were absolutely plain, with no rub on them at all. The beans and the chili and the cornbread were great, but the meat was a little lackluster.
We only had one other stop for gas and bathroom break, and the country road gas station sported a decent little gift shop. Sweetling and I picked out candy bars, but Eswin picked out a tiny $2 bottle of maple syrup, which he drank straight from the bottle. He did a happy syrup dance after his first sip.
We arrived at the Acadia Visitor Center at 4:10! We bought our park pass, a fridge magnet, and a sticker for the luggage carrier.
Acadia did not disappoint! We drove out on the Park Loop Road towards the eastern coastline. Our first stop was ThunderHole. The sea was calm and the tide was low, so no action at ThunderHole, but we did plenty of exploration along the rock coast. For years, Eswin's big complaint about national parks is that he hasn't been free to just go off and explore. But here, Eswin was aloud to climb and explore and chart his own path up and over and around the rock coast.
At Otter Point (I think) Eswin just looked at me. I simply said, "Be free" and off he went. He found a painted rock. I was super excited about that, and had him climb back down the small cliff to retrieve it. I thought it surely would belong to a rock paint-and-hide club. But it was just a selfpromotion for follow me on instagram. Not at all in the spirit of rock painting.
We stayed and played on the coast until sunset, and then drove to find dinner for the night. Dinner turned out to be carry-out from Rosalie's in Bar Harbor. We took our calzones and pizzas back to the rooms to get showers for the evening. (And do a tick check. Yay.)
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