Robin had mentioned that she wanted to bike around Eagle Lake in Bar Harbor since she used to run the 6 miles in the past so, this past Saturday we loaded our bikes and headed towards Eagle Lake. The weather was in the mid-seventies with mostly clear skies which would make the riding more enjoyable. Upon arriving to the main entrance of Eagle Lake we found the last parking spot, unloaded our bikes and started out. Since the Carriage Trail takes you around the lake you can go in either direction; I chose the opposite direction that most people take and am glad. The route we took starts off going up a hill with a slight elevation however after about two miles of incline the remaining 4 miles was decline or mostly level.
There were several areas where you could stop and hike down a path to look at the lake, get water and rest which I took many breaks not having the best endurance for biking, especially compared to Robin. The lake is a fairly small lake being 436 acres, it is surrounded mountains, two of which are very familiar to people who have visited the Acadia region. They appear to be two lumps side-by-side and usually they reflect nicely over the lake on a calm day- unfortunately it was windy the day we visited which resulted in what I call messy photo. If anyone knows the name of those two mountains, please post a comment to let me know.
After our 6 mile bike we walked Sand Beach for a while taking photos of the coastline as well as looking for any type of sea shells, glass, etc to take home and use for decoration. Later in the evening we met up with Robin’s parents and went to diner.
I haven’t abandoned my website, in-fact I have been tweaking the code here and there as well a adding a gallery feature to the IEDB categories. The reason why I haven’t written in a while is due to Robin and I had been looking for a house; we been looking ever since we got married but got more serious about it since last Thanksgiving.
One Sunday morning on our way to Church in Exeter we passed a house that had been up for sale for a while but we had just noticed that it was for sale; so on our way back from church we stopped to take a look at the land and exterior house. While looking at the back yard I noticed that the sliding glass door was open so we went in and looked around. We knew the house was a foreclosure and were surprised at how clean and good shape the house was in – minus some of the interior doors were that damaged and the odor of #2 fuel oil spill in the basement. We called our realtor to give us more information on the place and found out that the house had been vandalized & sat through a winter un-winterized. The damages were mostly in the basement where the electrical wiring was stripped, copper pipes removed and 1 of 2 245 gallon oil tanks taken which is where the ~1 gallon of #2 fuel oil had spilt. Other than that, the house was in good shape as it’s only 6 years old.
We looked at the house several times in November, including running a water test on the well to determine if the water had radon & arsenic which came back much lower that what the Government says is safe which was good news. I also had our Pastor, Stan, who runs his own Oil company run a pressure test on our heating pipes, shortly after he put the pressure on water started spurting out of the dining room ceiling where a hole had been- this to say the least discouraged me. We were still un-certain about it and had a “falling-out” with our realtor and decided to end our contract early with her and got advise from one of Robin’s friends of the family. After Thanksgiving had passed I was still very nervous about the house due to the potential freeze damage to the pipes and electrical damage. Robin and I prayed a lot about this house and another 3-4 weeks had passed with me up late worrying about house, going over figures and quotes from friends of the family, etc until I finally stopped relying on myself and trusted God. I should have come to this point much sooner; I basically asked the Lord to open or close doors with this house if this is what He wanted for Robin and I and all of the doors opened and stayed open throughout the entire process. I’m very thankful for the advice from Robin’s family and my family as well.
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Lately I have been going through some of my childhood toys which gave me a nostalgic feeling of pastimes. I looked over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda games and even played some of the games on our widescreen TV- boy did that make the games look different compared to my families’ old 20” RCA 1980’s set.
One evening while trying to fall asleep I thought to myself, “What type of ‘world’ would I want to visit if I could just choose one?”
I could travel the fields and dungeons of Hyrule with Link just as long as I had a shield and sword to defend myself against its foes or I could roam the different worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and stomp Goombas, smash Koopa shells and find power-ups with Mario. I could explore Middle Earth with Gandalf or go on my own in search of items of old like Bilbo Bagins did. I could hunt down Metroids with Samus as long as I could have a suit similar to hers or I could travel from planet to planet with Daniel Jackson through Stargates in search of artifacts and maybe even spend some time with the Asgard. I suppose the other thing I could do is explore the galaxy aboard the Enterprise, either the NCC-1701-A with Captain Kirk and have debates with Spock or the NCC-1701-E with Captain Picard and even enjoy some conversations with Commander Data.
I think ultimately I’d have a difficult time choosing but I think I’d choose Middle Earth as long as I could take my camera!
You may think I am a geek and that is fine with me, however I think its fun to have fantasies despite them not being “true” which is the whole point of a fantasy. Live Long and Prosper!
It’s been one year since Robin and I got married; it went by very quickly for us. I wanted to do something special for Robin and I, so I secretly booked a Bed & Breakfast in Greenville, Maine for 1 night and 1 day. There has always been a B&B in Greenville that I’ve wanted to eat and stay at; Robin and I always drove by it while heading to Kokadjo. I called Blair Hill Inn to reserve the 3rd floor room that overlooks the Moosehead Lake, a couple of months in advance just in case.
Our anniversary is October 4th, which happened to fall on a Sunday- so after church Robin and I headed towards Greenville. I told her we are going to go somewhere for the night but I couldn’t tell her where. The weather was rainy and cloudy. Upon arriving Greenville, a large fog cloud hovered over Moosehead Lake which rained on my idea of having a good view of the lake. I pulled into the B&B under the guise that I was lost and going to ask directions. After checking in I asked Robin to come inside and told her this is where we were staying.
The inside of the Inn was beautiful, it resembled its original charm with a large fireplace, dining room, game room and sitting area. After checking in, we headed up to our room that overlooked Moosehead Lake, had a king size bed, wood-burning fireplace and all-tile bathroom. We stayed in for the evening, exchanged our gifts and drank our sparkling grape juice and ate the remainder of our wedding cake, in front of the fireplace.
The next day, we got up early and ate our complimentary breakfast which was home-made by the owners themselves, while watching the previous day’s fog start to burn up from the rising sun. Later on in the morning we checked out and headed towards the boat landing for Mt. Kineo. I originally was planning on having us kayak to Mt. Kineo; however I was told it’s about a mile from the shore which normally is not bad when kayaking along a stream or river but Moosehead Lake is very large and usually has large cold waves. I decided to pay to take the ferry across the lake which was $10 a person round trip. Upon arriving on the island, the Sun started to peer through a section of the cloud veiled sky. I was looking forward to climbing this mountain as this was a first for both of us; I’ve read about the island’s history. It got its name from an American Indian that was banished there and then later on it was “discovered” by “white man” a hotel chain erected a hotel on the island however several years later you can read about the hotel during the process of being torn down and it burnt down.
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