Yup, you read that right -- five star day on the Odyssey. Count 'em for yourself -- 1,2,3,4,5 big ole stars, burning bright, in the forests of the night. We've been close before -- Ocracoke Island, Manti Lasal National Forest, Lake Louise -- but never been quite able to get over that hump. Today, we positively pole-vaulted right on over into the promised land, reveling in lobster, love, and literature.
Details -- what did it take? Well, to start with, it takes sleep. Not a ton, but enough to say, "I'm rested, I'm ready, and I'd like to swallow life whole today, thank you." We got that, plus a bowl of cereal for breakfast on top. Then, it was off to tour Acadia National Park. Though we suffered a few minor map-reading missteps, we eventually got ourselves on the straight and narrow and managed to make a go of seeing the park. Acadia is not like other National Parks. Instead of being a solid mass of parkness (like, say, Yellowstone), Acadia is a loosely-linked set of Chunks O' Park separated by little fishing villages and whatnot. This owes mostly to the fact that Acadia wasn't made into a park until well after the area was already settled. As the National Park Service acquires new bits of land, they are added to the whole, creating an ever-evolving park for all to explore and enjoy. |
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We set out to do the Acadia Loop Drive portion of the park, flaunting our Golden Eagle pass yet again to avoid paying the $5 admission fee. Art, Lisa's father, worked many summers as a ranger at Acadia, so he gave us the low-down on what to see and what to avoid. We saw a lot, enjoying the seascape of lobster traps, rock cliffs, caves where sea urchins flourished, and beaches. We wanted to do a hike Art recommended on an area called The Precipice, but were dismayed to find that the area was closed for peregrine falcon nesting. Solace came in the form of a muddy sighting of a peregrine through a ranger's telescope. One more bird for the life list! |
| After a picnic on Cadillac Mountain (where you can be the first person in the US to see the sun rise...if you get up and do it), it was off to drive through some of the small towns in the Acadia area. Coming through one particularly charming area, we espied the sign at right. Never ones to pass up an obvious photo op, we took the photo and headed off for a short hike out to the beach near our campground. |  |
We were getting tired. We craved resuscitation before heading out on the town for a lobster dinner...how 'bout the pool? The pool it was. Though heavily chlorinated to withstand the ravages of children and their bladders, it was still refreshing. The best news, however, came as Chuck sat leafing through a little local newspaper dedicated to a rote recitation of the week's events and advertisements for florists, B&Bs, and the odd deep sea fishing charter. I had spent much of the previous couple days prattling on endlessly about the book I was currently reading -- "The Risk Pool," by Richard Russo -- and how much I was enjoying it. Yadda, yadda, yadda -- yap, yap, yap. Apparently, however, some of my spewing had sunk in with Chuck. "Hey, Sid, you know that book
you won't shut up about -- who's it by?" As it turned out, none other than Richard Russo would be reading from his new novel, "Straight Man," at the Port in the Storm bookstore, right there in Somesville, Maine, a mere 15 minute drive from our very campground. This pretty much qualified as a minor miracle, since Somesville is a pretty tiny town and I have never been in it before. We freaked on that for awhile, and then went back to the campground to get ready for some eating. |
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And I'm talking serious eating, too. Lisa had her game face on. She'd been talking about two-pound lobsters pretty much from the moment we had woken up. Now, her face had taken on something of a possessed look. Her eyes glazed and her nostrils flared as we came up on the parking lot for the establishment that would satisfy our needs. We had decided to avoid any schmantzy-pants restaurant and stick with the essentials -- lobster, and plenty of it. To that end, we found a place that billed itself as a "working lobster dock." It sounded good, and it was. It was basically a fish market on a pier with about 20-odd picnic tables set up outside facing the sea. You went inside, picked out your live lobster from a tank, and then went outside to wait. If you wanted to, you could grab a beer from the concession stand nearby while you waited, or you could just enjoy the salt breeze. |
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Inside, they batched your order together with the other folks in your party and threw everything in a heavy rope sack. There was corn on the cob, too, if you wanted it. When they had all the lobsters in the sack, they threw the whole squirming mass into one of the multiple nearby tanks of boiling sea water. After a while, your number was called, your lobsters appeared on wax paper in a plastic bowl without adornment, and you were ready. Ready to put aside the trifling tasks of the day and sit down to eating. Ready to test your mettle against the biggest lobster you've ever seen. Lisa was so ready, it was downright scary. Before Chuck could even ask her to pass the salt, Lisa had the claws off her lobster, and the meat into her mouth. A sort of ecstatic glow seemed to surround her as she ate more and more of the lobster. If you look closely at the photo at the top of this page, you can even see it for yourself. The rest of us loved our lobsters, but Lisa lived her lobster...all two pounds of it. I'm not sure I've ever had a better meal than this one. Definitely in the all-time top three, that's for sure. |
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Things only got better as we headed over to Somesville to hear Russo read. Port in a Storm bookstore was tiny -- only about 15 folks showed up to hear Russo read. Russo is not little known, either -- his last novel, "Nobody's Fool," was turned into a great movie starring Paul Newman. The new book, "Straight Man," was sold to the movies before it was ever written. He's pretty much made it as a writer -- a known and respected commodity. That was why it was pretty darn exciting to get to hear him read and then talk with him for a bit as he signed a copy of his new novel for me and Kristanne. I'll stop my gushing with one further admonition -- read Russo. You'll like him. |
Brushes with literary fame over for the evening, we returned to camp to prove my utter inferiority as a hearts player. Fickle game, I tell you. Kristanne, however, rocked the house, pounding her brother, Chuck, into unrecognizable oblivion. She's a good card player, that Kristanne.
Check in tomorrow as we attempt the impossible -- to return from Acadia and make it to New York City by 6:00 PM. See you next time!
Total Miles for 7/26 = 104