Maine Adventure

It's been quite a week.  It's always hard (at least for me) to get back into the swing of things after vacation.  Especially with work.  Someday I will do a job I love.  I will.  That's what I keep telling myself anyway.  It's not that my job is all bad.  There are some nice things about it.  I just don't love it or even enjoy it.  But someday I will find my niche and I won't dread going back to work after vacation!  =)  But that is another story.  Back to vacation. (I wish!)  This promises to be a rather lengthy post, so if you aren't in the mood for lengthy posts, you can stop here.  Ok.  Don't say I didn't warn  you.  The first day is one of the most fun days of a vacation, in my opinion.  You have excitement coursing through your veins, combined with the relief of not having to go back to work for however many days.  I love it.  This time, however, my first day was.......interesting.  (But divinely orchestrated, which I will get to later.)  The plane that was to wing me from Raleigh to Boston had some sort of malfunction (not of the wardrobe type) that was going to take at least 2 hours to fix.  This of course meant that I would miss my flight from Boston to Bar Harbor.  I called the tiny air company in Bar Harbor to see when the next flight would be and it was going to be 6am the next day.  SO didn't work for me, but I figured if that was the best I could get, so be it.  Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that the Bangor airport (which I have used before) was not far away!  So when it was my turn to talk to the ticket agent  I gleefully told her that I didn't need to get to Boston, didn't even need to get to Bar Harbor; I just needed to get to Maine!  Well that was easy.  It just so happened that I could catch a flight to NY and from there to Bangor---and all in the same day!  What a relief!  Then there was the rental car, but that too turned out to be not a problem as Enterprise was very congenial and switched everything so that I could rent from Bangor instead of Bar Harbor.  So 3 hours later than I had planned, I was on my way to Mount Desert Island---the home of Acadia National Park.  I didn't get to do the food-gathering as planned, since I was late, but it was actually more fun because we all did it together.  5 women, most of them hungry, grocery shopping for a week.........you can imagine the pile of food we left with!  I have to say, though, that we did pretty well for ourselves in using it up.....=)  The rest of the week was spent exploring--again--ANP.  It's a beautiful place.  Like I said before, if you have not seen it you need to put it on your Bucket List immediately!  Although, if you do not care for nature and the outdoors and would rather have entertainment, you would not feel at home there, so you might as well go to Vegas or something. lol  For me, the ocean crashing against the rocks, the mountains, the hiking trails that take you up the mountains so you can see everything down below, the lighthouses---everything about the place, really, is so relaxing and refreshing.  I could (and did) sit for hours watching the sea curl and crash and spray.  What is it about water, particularly the ocean, that we find mesmerizing?  I haven't yet figured it out, I just know it is.  This year we went on a couple hikes, which are great because the views at the top are just spectacular.  You get up there and feel like you are on top of the world and looking down at lakes and islands and houses---all surrounded by the open water.  Worth all the huffing and puffing to get to the top!  And yes, there was much huffing and puffing.  I said we did the hikes, I didn't say we were all in tip top shape.......... Several other days we spent most of our outdoor time watching the water--and taking pictures.   If I told you how many I took you'd probably refer me to the men in white coats!  Suffice it to say that I took some ribbing about no one seeing me all vacation long because I was constantly behind the lens.  =)  Our days generally went like this:  Lazy mornings spent drinking coffee and checking the computers (eating too, of course!).  Noon or so we would amble out of the house for whatever ramble was on the menu for that day (one day was shopping in Bar Harbor--so nice!).  Most times we only stayed out until dusk/dark, for obvious reasons.  Then it was back to our cozy house to light the fire and stir up something tasty for supper (chili in the crockpot or tacos or shrimp pasta.....)  Yum.  After which there was more lazing around, with computers or reading or photo sorting, usually accompanied by a movie of some kind.  All of this to the sound of the fire crackling.......  The house was snug and cozy with nice water heat, a claw-foot tub upstairs, firm mattresses and a lovely beadboard kitchen.  The artwork was also beautiful---an eclectic collection of photos/paintings/drawings of Maine subjects---more than one of which I wanted to "accidentally" drop into my suitcase....=)  It was really a restful week and was over far too quickly.  Before I was ready, it was time to say goodbye to my sisters (too hard!) and climb on the plane headed South again.  (Goodbyes really are so unpleasant---both the ones to sisters and the ones to Maine!!  Yucky.)  The plane is another story by itself.  Remember I said that I would refer back to my "divine scheduling" from the first trip?  Well, here it is.  The airport in Bar Harbor is small---reeeaallllyy small.  Which means, of course, that only really small planes fly in there.  Unfortunately I didn't realize just how small until it was too late........  The plane that they sent for me was a Cessna propeller deal with 10 seats.  10.  That includes the pilot!  No cockpit here or flight attendant or even overhead/underseat space.  Nope.  Just the pilot and 9 of us crazy lucky people who needed to get to Boston.  Our pre-flight safety briefing was the pilot turning around in his seat and telling us where exits were and that our seat cushions were floatation devices, etc. One of my fellow passengers sat in the Co-Pilot's seat!!!!  If I could have turned and run away I would have!  I did NOT want to get on that plane!  But there it was, so on I went.  In one sense it was cool to see the islands and mountains of Maine up close and personal, as it were.  It really was like one of those sight-seeing plane deals where you go up just to tour a place.  That's what I had to tell myself---"You're just going up on a sight-seeing flight. It's ok."  And it was fun to hear my fellow passengers from Maine talking about the sights down below, identifying islands and harbors and mountains.  It made the flight bearable.  But I have to tell you, it was scary too.  Out over the open ocean in a plane not much bigger than a tuna can........*shudder*  Every now and then the pilot would angle the flight path out further over the water and I wanted to yell at him to "get back over closer to land"!  lol  I felt kind of like a missionary----the ones that have to use little planes like that to get to and from remote areas of the world.  =)  Of course we could see the pilots gauges and hear his buzzers (NOT pleasant!).  He was quite calm and efficient and seemed to know what he was about.  At one point one of his digital readings started flashing 0.00 and I thought "Oh please don't let that be the fuel reading!"  lol  I'm kidding, of course.  I know it wasn't that, but it was a bit disconcerting.  Thankfully it was a beautiful clear day so the flight was mostly very smooth, and in just over an hour we were landing in Boston.  I didn't quite bend down and kiss the earth when I got out, though the thought did come to mind......=)  I was very thankful to be on solid ground again though!  And here's where I knew that what I thought was a scheduling snafu on my previous trip was really divine intervention.  God knew that had I taken that little plane from Boston to Bar Harbor the first time, I would have dreaded that return flight my entire vacation, and might not have even been able to make myself do it (without medication, that is!).  So He rearranged things for me to spare me that.  I am so thankful.  Once again, I am amazed at God's busying Himself with our little affairs.  He's got the whole world to run, and yet He changed things up for me just to make them easier.  He didn't have to, but He did.  Of course, He may have had entirely other reasons than that for working things out the way He did.  But these ones work for me for now.  =)  So that's it in a (very big) nutshell.  My vaca to Maine.  We have already begun thinking about next year.  That's what Maine does to you.  Pulls you in and doesn't let you go.  Try it and you'll see what I mean.  Just make sure you fly into Bangor.......=)