Maine- Day Four

I woke up at midnight. Then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5:17. I was so nervous about missing my alarm! But I guess I didn't even need one since I woke myself up.

This morning of the trip was a monumental day for me. I finally checked off a huge life goal. I consider it huge because A) it's a far away one and B) it's been on my list since the first time I started making these goals and writing them down. The goal started as “Stand on that mountain in Maine and be the first person the sun touches that day.” Later in life I learned that this was a real thing and a specific mountain. So there we were! Maine. Acadia national park, Cadillac mountain. The tallest point on the eastern seaboard and the first place the sun touches the country this time of year.

I figured there would be other people around for this but wow! The parking lot was completely full at the summit. There are a lot of bare rock surfaces and people were spread all over them. I fretting over which spot would be the first the rays would touch but in the end I decided that it is what it is and I was going to be ONE of the first people the sun touched at least. That's still saying something.

The sky was a misty pink, stretching around the whole expanse. People were mislead by this and had positioned themselves facing the wrong way. But then we all realized that the sun was actually going to rise right behind the one patch of clouds in the whole sky. A brazen gold began to find slits in the clouds and everyone took photos but then, almost all the people left, satisfied with what they saw. It was a great twist to the morning as the sun rays hadn't actually touched us yet. You could see the actual light hitting the ocean far below, slowly coming our way.

We were patient. What was at first hundreds of people was now just a handful of us watching the white light get close to the tops of the clouds. And then it peeked over, kissing the land and then all at once it poured onto the mountain side, hitting us all at the same time. Boom. Sunlight. First people. Warmth.

It was actually pretty cool. I was surprised to hear Buck say that it was one of the coolest things he's ever done. Glad he can appreciate my life goals as well. 

We lingered for a bit and then left. My dad was with us also. He had to stop and read all the information signs on the way back to the car, as always.

And then later on once we were all awake and checked out of the hotel, we went on a hike! ...that ended up being bigger than we thought it would be- but it turned out okay. The girls did a good job walking and enjoying themselves picking up “treasures” and exploring. It was quite the beautiful hike. When you looked ahead you saw enveloping pines and other thick trees. When you looked to the right you saw the trees create windows to frame the perfect scene of ocean and rocks. We don't get hikes like that in Utah.

The trail eventually lead out to some tide pools and rocks. The girls loved climbing over and through the rocks. The tide pools didn't have star fish and stuff but were full of colorful sea weed, sea snails, and shells. Hazel sangs little songs the whole time as she poked the sea weed and pried snails off and then threw them back into the water. Buck chased some sea gulls. June loved practicing balancing on the rocks. It was a good moment. There were hardly any people there but us and the sounds of the waves. I love that. It's always so much more awe inspiring when there aren't other people around crowding the place.

After a while there we made our way back on a loop trail. Hazel was slow because she just wanted to play in the rocks on the trail. At one point June and my mom got ahead of us and some other people coming back past us told me, “Your little sister is ahead of you!” and I laughed and told them that she was my daughter! What is with people lately? 

Looking up at the tall trees and saying "Wow!"

June's treasures. Accidentally took some live sea snails that I had to go throw back

We stopped at a lighthouse soon after we got back on the road again

Then we went and got some dinner. The whole town was shutting down for the season and this was this restaurant's last day! We had mussels and clam chowder and we ended with some fresh blueberry pie. Blueberries are as big of deal here as lobsters. Who knew?

And then it was sad because we had to split ways with my parents. They went on to drive hundreds of miles to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which would have been so cool but.... not with the girls and all that driving. So we planned to stay behind. 

We drove along the coast line and through a lot of little Maine seaside towns. So many antique stores and Inns. It's crazy. We saw some mansions too! We finally got to our inn and discovered that we had some room with kind of two separate rooms and bunk beds. This made June's day. “This is the coolest hotel for us!” She was so excited to sleep on the top. This was probably the highlight of this whole week for June. haha