Visiting Family in Bar Harbor, Maine

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do." ~Martha Grimes

August 18-19: We had a fabulous time visiting Jon's brother and his family on Mount Desert Island. On Saturday they took us to the top of Caddilac Mountain, the highest point on the island. It was super windy. My hair flew in my face and I could hardly see where I was walking. Afterwards "Uncle" Jon and Joel went to the Lobster Pound to pick up five softshell lobsters for dinner. Out west we would call it a seafood market or store. In Maine they call it a Lobster Pound. Sounds like you buy your pet lobster there, like the Dog Pound. We had a fabulous dinner with fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden.

On Sunday we went to the company picnic for Jackson Laboratories, which is where Joel and Lindsay are genetic research scientists. It was raining, so the picnic was inside the new cafeteria. Some researchers had booths set up demonstrating the part they play in genetic and medical research. We looked at some of the booths and saw lots of specially bred mice: some obese, some naked with no fur, most of them cute, and all of them genetically very unique and special. Then Joel and Lindsay showed us their offices and gave us a tour of the new exercise center and some of the buildings.

After the picnic we changed clothes into something more casual and drove to the mainland and around the bay to Acadia National Park, to Schoodic Scenic Byway and Schoodic Point Park. We spent a good bit of time watching the waves crash as the tide slowly returned. Carolyn, the six year old had a great time digging in puddles and enjoyed the wave spray. It was a lovely sunny day.

Below is a photo of me at the farthest eastern point on my trip. It is interesting to note that only eight days ago I was on the beach in Oregon at one of the farthest points in the continential USA. We can be such jet-setters today without even trying.

On our way home from Schoodic we stopped in at a restaurant facing a quiet little harbor. coastal Maine is full of hardworking seafolk and the boats in the harbor were a picturesque assortment of working lobster boats. In fact there must be one million or more lobster pots attached to bouys along Maine's rugged coast. We saw hundreds of them everywhere we looked.

After a long drive home to Bar Harbor area in the dark, us "grown ups" stayed up to watch "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," a great fantasy film by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam. I'm a big fan of Terry Gilliam's work, and "The Time Bandits" is one of my top three alltime favorite movies.