Maine, Chapter Two.

Before you read Chapter Two in our Maine vacation memoirs, perhaps you should revisit chapter one (parts one, two, and three). Chapter one gives you the background, the everything you need to know about Liberty and our little house so I won't have to go too much into detail. And that's good, because I can get caught up in the detail.

What I will do in this chapter is give you more of a highlights post, because there's just too much detail to recount in one post (and who needs a three-parter again?). And I'll start with kayaking. Doug and I have become huge fans of kayaking, and we got to do a fair bit of it this vacation. We did some group kayaking and some night kayaking and we even kayaked with some of our favorite waterfowl, the geese. (Note Doug's binoculars. We got them on Craigslist right before we left for our trip, and I have to say that they were a great acquisition. Birding here we come!)

We got some fishing in, too, although I only cast out a few times myself and caught nothing. Doug caught a couple of fish (two small bass), none of them while doing this lazy-man's version of fishing, by the way, so we can't recommend this style for the serious fisherman. Chris was more of a serious fisherman, going out to a secret spot in the lake and catching quite a few, including this one, caught on our last night at the lake. Nice one!

And then there were our excursions, our time spent away from the lake and the house. We made it to Isle au Haut. The boat ride there is worth the whole trip (we saw an island of sun-bathing seals on our way out there, in addition to numerous sea birds) but the island itself was pretty cool. There's nothing much to do there but hike, and thanks to the National Parks Service and Acadia National Park there's plenty of that to be done. Very early on in our trip I fell into a huge section of quick sand, and while I managed to get myself unstuck I spent the rest of the day sloshing around in wet, muddy shoes and socks. Thankfully I did not let the unpleasantness in my shoes distract me from the beauty of the island. I highly, highly recommend a trip out there (and I'll happily go back with you, this time with a spare pair of socks!).

We also spent some time in Belfast again, walking around Liberty and soaking in the local sites, and hiking in Camden Hills State Park. Camden Hills is a really nice park, offering some pretty challenging hiking. The challenges were worth it for us, though - look at the view from Oceanview Trail! You can see all of Camden and Penobscot Bay from up there. I'd do that trail again in a heartbeat, too.

Finally, there's our food. Our lovely, lovely vacation food. I eat well on vacation. Doug and I eat poorly during our normal lives (by poorly I mean sporadically), but on vacation we have a chance to be healthy. So, in addition to our walking and treking about, we also crammed a lot of great stuff into our bellies, like this pie (we had Moody's pie two times during our vacation week! That was such a treat.). Starting each day off with a beautiful breakfast like this, and eating a lunch or dinner like the one showcased here (and note the baby in the background! She was such a wonderful mealtime companion) made each day worth living, that's for sure. And lest you think that we spent a week in Maine but did not have lobster, think again. On our way back home we stopped off at The Lobster Dock for one of the state's most iconic specialties. We got one and shared it. Our verdict? Interesting. The flavor was fine - really almost non-existent - but the texture would definitely take some getting used to. When you bite into the roll there is a crunch to the meat, but then it's so chewy. Not rubbery, but it does take a lot more chews to break it down then you would think. We plan to try another next year, so it was good enough to try again, but we're okay waiting to try again until Maine, Chapter Three.

But how terrible is it that Maine, Chapter Three will be a year away! We have so much fun there. The scenery is just breathtaking, the weather is divine, and the company we keep could not be better. Do we really have to wait another year to take another of these on the steps of our vacation abode? Too bad we couldn't make this a bi-annual trip. I'd see Maine in the winter. I'd actually love to see Maine in the winter. I'd love to ski, snowshoe, even just drive around and see what it looks like covered under snow. Maine's really making itself quite comfortable in our hearts and our minds. We feel relaxed there, peaceful, rested, and alive. We really are beginning to love Maine.