livin' la vida acadia

This Columbus Day weekend was our third visit to Acadia National Park, off the coast of Maine, and it was a particularly special visit because...guess who came with us? Yeye and Nainai. Moreover, we celebrated Yeye's birthday on 10/10/10. It was auspicious and filled with chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and colorful sprinkles. Here's Binbin doing his best Vanna White imitation



Here's the group effort blowing out the candles.



Our first two days in the park were spent doing hikes. The Acadia Mountain hike on the western side took us up for gorgeous views to the east and southeast. The hike is "moderate" according to our guide, and involved a fair amount of scrambling up boulders and rather steep descents. We had a nice lunch with good views before coming down. On Day Two we drove to the southeast corner to hike up from Sand Beach to Great Head. We were again rewarding with fantastic views for lunch. Our descent took us through rocky, dry terrain spotted with human-sized bonsai-looking pine trees. It felt like walking through the gardens of Kyoto at times. The fall color was at peak, and the hills were ablaze with reds, yellows, and oranges.

Our third day, we split up. Yeye and Nainai walked into Southwest Harbor to fetch lobsters (round two!), while we rented bicycles. Here's Jack and Binbin all set to start on the carriage trails to Aunt Betty's Pond and Eagle Lake.



Our first rest was at Aunt Betty's pond.



Our second, longer break was near the end our ride around Eagle Lake.





Time goes by quickly when you're having fun, and we had a lot of fun. This time, instead of camping out, we rented a cottage (The Veranda) at Anna's Quietside, just a three-minute walk from downtown Southwest Harbor. For Yeye and Nainai, the cottage offered creature comforts: hot water, full kitchen, a separate bathroom, and an outdoor, propane-fired lobster cooker! Binbin found good stuff in the hospitality suite, too: a bingo game (everyone played), various sizes of cars, wooden blocks, and wooden clothespins, which could be transformed with a little imagination into just about anything!

We made it home on Tuesday afternoon. This morning (Thursday), Nainai and Yeye headed home. We miss them already.

Since I haven't downloaded photos from my phone in ages...I found a few surprises with the Acadia snapshots.

Here is one of Binbin with friends Coco and Ellie one foggy morning in Boothbay Harbor. We're on our way to their island to catch crabs. That was in August!



And here's a picture from September: Baba's birthday!