It's 3:30 am, why not wake and jump on the bike to climb a 6 mile mountain, Cadillac Mountain, to see the first place the sun hits the United States each morning? What an early rise with an amazing outcome! At 4:00 am we hit the pavement with headlights and rear flashing blinkers to ascend the mountain that people all over the US come to Acadia National Park to summit for such the experience.
I reached the summit at 5:00 to see the sunrise at 5:10. Closer than I had expected, but I did just climb 1528 feet in only 6 miles. It was truly an amazing sight and an early start to the most active day of my life. The ride back down was swift and I had worked up a great appetite for breakfast.
We all returned to our rooms for some rest and relaxation before breakfast at 7:00 am. For the next adventure I slathered on my SPF 50 sunscreen to protect my glowing white skin from the sun. After breakfast, we went on a 2 1/2 hour sea kayaking trip in the Bar Harbor on the Atlantic Ocean. What an amazing way to see Maine; other than via bike which is unbelievable in its own right. It was a very calm day on the water. We saw one of the nesting parents of the Bald Eagle fledgling known to be in the area. There is a nesting pair known to return yearly on nearby Porcupine Island. We saw Cormarants, Porpoises, starfish, and lots and lots of lobster traps. We went under a dock and there were hundreds of starfish attached to the metal pylons holding the dock up. From the water we were able to see the mountain that we had previously climbed. Yes, it felt as high as it looked.
After kayaking, we returned back to the hotel to have a picnic lunch provided by our guides. It was quite tasty. Then around 2:15, after reapplying my spf 50 sunscreen, we went for a 2 1/2 hour hike up another mountain that overlooked Sand Beach , which is the only sand beach in the area, which was in the area that we rode today. It was a very strenuous hike with beautiful vistas. After hiking back down to the road close to where we started, we jumped on the Island Hopper, which is a bus that continuously runs transporting people all over the island. We arrived back at the hotel around 5:30 pm which was enough time to shower and get ready to board the Margaret Todd, which is a four masted sailboat that we were taking a sunset cruise on.
At 6:00 pm we boarded the Margaret Todd for a 2 1/2 hour sunset cruise in the bay. Apparently raising the four sails is quite strenuous as they asked for volunteers to share the wealth with the strenuous job. So of course I volunteered. How often does one get the opportunity to help raise sails on a huge sailboat? Afterwards, we sailed around the harbor looking for porpoises, whales, and dolphins. All I can speak for that was seen in the water were some porpoises. I was kept quite busy helping our on-board entertainment, Dan from Key West, whom walked the 154 foot vessel playing his guitar and singing. Dan was a bit out of tune as was his guitar. Dan was taking requests for songs and I requested Margaritaville, which awakened my need and desire to start a conga line for some reason; which consisted of about six women from my bike group. So we followed Dan around the boat helping him sing to the tune of Margaritaville. We can only hope that we didn't get future Woman Tour groups banned from the sunset tours.
And that is really all that I did yesterday! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Maine, as I have met some amazing women and have yet again made some good friends. If you have never been up here, add it to your bucket list. It is amazing!
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