We wake up this morning and discover that Tenzin’s leg has improved overnight. He is still limping a little, but not hopping and definitely getting better with each step. We realized that he had fallen into a grating walking on Saturday in Falmouth and could have hurt his leg then. We also remember that he refused to walk on Sunday and insisted we carry him when we went to the race. Tom thinks that if his leg had been hurt, carrying him the way he did could have put pressure on it. We resolve to keep an eye on him and keep the hiking expectations for him to a minimum and keep an eye out for him to not get hurt again. He’s an old dog (12 years) and we can’t expect too much.

We decided the best thing to do with this first day at Acadia would be to get a lay of the land. But first, 5 minute showers. Or 10? We both take 2 tokens and Liisa discovers 5 minutes is enough and Tom feels challenged that she was able to do it. We’ll see who needs how many tokens tomorrow! Hmm. Maybe Somes Sound View isn’t so bad.

So after making some eggs and bacon at camp, we head off to see the NorthEast Harbor and then to hook up with the Park Road for Acadia. The day is sunny and just below 80 degrees with a light breeze. There is fog as we head into the NorthEast Harbor and wander around looking at boats.

We find that the roads significantly improve when you are in Acadia National Park. There are definitely crowds here, but the views are spectacular. We check out Otter Point and other spots along the road before making the classic car trek up Cadillac Mountain and getting stuck in a traffic jam. This becomes our first of many experiences of having to circle a parking lot before finding a spot so we could get out and wander. There is a cruise ship in the harbor near Bar Harbor and you can see the fog in patches across the tiny islands in the Harbor. Liisa is impressed with the pink granite that the mountain is made of and resolves to find a small piece for the collection.

Side Note- Tom is calling this the “Find the Perfect Rock” vacation (among other nicknames) because we are collecting a rock a day along the way.

After Cadillac Mountain, we head into Bar Harbor to get some sandwiches and we have a picnic on the lawn by the harbor. We wander the harbor path and note the Margaret Todd, a huge 4 masted schooner docked in the harbor. We add it to our list of possible things to do while we are here. Tenzin enjoys the picnic (he’s a sucker for roast beef sandwiches) and the walk along the harbor path. We are careful to make sure he doesn’t fall into the gratings since they have a lot of them here as well.

We head back to camp to check out the rest of our campground and see if the water access there will be good for kayaking. The path down from the pool at camp is steep and the sites along the way are small. There are several sites right along the waterfront with tiny tents pitched. We realize that the Somes Sound has a pretty significant amount of waves and decide that it isn’t the right place for us to kayak.

The campground is growing on us. Since it is sited on a hill around an old quarry, it isn’t really an appropriate place for people who are camping with big rigs. It’s more of a spot for tents and small campers. The sites are all somewhat unique and many are on large rocks or surrounded by rocks. The whole place is heavily wooded and few sites are sunny, which is rare for many of these places who are trying to pack in the campers. Tom overhears the woman at the desk explaining that it’s expensive to run a place like this and they have to have good months in June/July/August to survive the rest of the year since their season is so short. We get that. People here are pretty serious outdoorspeople who are quiet at night and out during the day. There is almost no one around camp during the day expect for a few new people setting up. At night there are no camps with lots of lights- just a few lights, a few fires and the people wearing their headlamps.

As we walk back up to camp, we stop by the bathhouse which is close to the playground. Tom overhears one big kid on the swingset tell the others “Hey- you homeboys better go home! I am king of the swings here!”. Tom tells me he thinks maybe he wants to be king of the swings. That’s nice honey. You have to go near the swings to be king.

We made a nice supper and got ourselves snugged into the Shadow to watch an episode of Better Off Ted on the iPad before reading and going to sleep.

Pics from today are here- http://bit.ly/926krs