In defense of Finley's strange fascination (since we do laundry at home and she's never indicated an interest...), the laundry building is directly across from our campsite - and she's 8, so novelty is the name of the game)
After finishing one load, we decided to finally head out and see what we could do despite the rain.
Thus far we'd kept to the east side of the island, so we determined we'd head over to the west side. We drove to a lobster restaurant we'd heard and read good things about.
Thurston's Lobster Pound did not disappoint. The girls each chose to have a steamer and Melissa and I had lobster rolls. These are the girls' "chosen" lunch specimens, pulled directly from the tank and weighed before steaming.
While we sat waiting for our food, something surprising happened - the sun came out! The weather here seems to change quickly, going from sun to clouds to rain to sun again in quick succession.
The sun lit up Bass Harbor and made it even more picturesque.
Our food was no less exciting than the view!
I must say that while the steamers were excellent (I may have stolen a bite or two while assisting in their disassembly) our lobster rolls were a lot easier to eat.
After finishing our lobster (and some pie, of course - blueberry and strawberry rhubarb) we walked down the shore a bit, taking in the beautiful view and a highly decorated fishing building.
A short drive away, right on the other side of the harbor is the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. The main walkway takes you down to the lighthouse itself, allowing a close up view, which was stunning.
But, after visiting the lighthouse close up, we observed some visitors taking a second, non-advertised path into the woods near the parking area. We followed it, and it up took us down some wooden steps and then stone steps toward the sea. (Here's a view from the bottom of the stairs and steps)
At the bottom of the short climb, it became clear why people were taking this walk.
The path brought us down to the boulders on the shore, giving us the opportunity to climb out and get a different view of the lighthouse.
As you can see, I took a few. 😀
The girls also enjoyed climbing on the boulders and checking out the life in the tidal waters trapped in some of the crevices.
Finley didn't want to leave the boulders. She was having a blast climbing around and exploring. But, alas, we drug her back up the steps and to the truck, so we could get in a hike before the next band of expected rain arrived. It was already clouding up again.
We drove on to Flying Mountain - a short hike to the summit of a mountain, just inside the edge of Acadia, that overlooks the Somes Sound.
For this hike I strapped the GoPro to Finley's head (and then to Cadence's 7 minutes later when Finley complained it was too heavy), but my Mac doesn't currently have enough memory available to process the footage, so I'll have to publish that hiking video later. Until then, I'll just have to share a few photographs.
The hike up was pretty much straight up and we arrived at the summit and a few overlooks near it in a matter of minutes.
While we were there we took a couple of family shots, using the timer on the Nikon. The first one resulted in me rushing around and falling down, landing seated on Cadence's foot.
For the second one, I didn't fall down, but instead steadied myself by sticking my left leg out, which wasn't great either.
I think I like the picture where I'm on the ground better.
The path continued from the summit and back down the other side of the mountain, bringing us to sea level, with easy access to a small cove on the sound, which we also stopped and explored.
Apparently Cadence, while still wearing the GoPro, spent a lot of time looking at sea snails during our visit to this cove. I'm looking forward to seeing that footage on the GoPro...
While we were in this cove, the rain started to roll back in, so we got back on the trail and finished out the hike on a fire road that led us back to the parking area. The fire road led us through a thick patch of fir and pine trees, which, in the rain especially, smelled heavenly.
With the rain rolling back, we decided on getting some early dinner. A friend from work had recommended a little pizza place called Pepper's, and it was on our drive back to the campground.
They had delicious pizza and bottled soda. Melissa and I enjoyed Blueberry soda, while Finley had Root Beer and Cadence had Black Cherry.
The rain was still threatening, but elusive, so after pizza, we took in some quick mini golf.
After that, it was back to the camper (and our lovely furnace that helped take the chill out of the air) for showers (yes, we have a hot water heater and shower in the camper too - like a hotel suite on wheels) and a movie (uh huh - flat screen tv and DVD player). Everyone was out pretty early.
