Apple Picking

We're ending a great month in New England, and since fall is around the corner, we do what seems perfectly fitting: apple picking. Though they are early apples, they are super-crisp, juicy, and a little tart, just the way I like them. Pippa has a hard time eating them since she is now so toothless.

 

At Shelburne Farm, it's not just about the apples. There's also ice cream, apple cider donuts, and some very sweet time with the grandparents.

 

All in all, it seems like a fitting way to end our trip to New England and to usher in fall. The girls and I can't eat one more gigantic American "kiddie" scoop between the three of us; we are leaving my parents with about 20 pounds of apples that we, sadly, can't smuggle in to France; and the girls have started to complain about going swimming every day. Now we can't wait to get back home to Paris.
 

The Cape (Finally!)

You wouldn't think 100 miles is so far, but this is a trip four years in the making. Our good friends (who recently visited us in Paris) live in the Bay Area but have a family home on Cape Cod, and we have been invited there ever since the summer of 2008. That year, we were literally just heading out the door to get in the car for the trip when the phone rang. My friend Daniela told me that both her kids were throwing up with fevers, and since it was just days before we would be getting on an airplane to go back to San Francisco, where Gigi was going to celebrate her 5th birthday on her first day of kindergarten at her new school, I decided not to risk getting her sick. So we skipped the trip.

Summer after summer, there has been some reason it didn't work out. One summer, our trips East didn't coincide. Another summer there was again some illness, I believe. I can't even remember all the issues, I only know that summer after summer we talk about visiting them on the Cape, and it never seems to work out. Until this year. Finally!

We are late getting there, due to a host of things like not being able to locate the bathing suits to pack; pit stops along the road; having to detour to my parents house to pick up forgotten items; hitting rush hour traffic jams; etc. But still, we refuse to cancel this year. And we are rewarded right away with this sight, as we arrive:

Though the visit is briefer than we would like, we enjoy every minute of it thoroughly. Great friends, great surroundings. How can we go wrong? We hit the beaches, both bay-side and pond-side, and several local treats, including one coated muffin which is nicknamed the "sugar bomb".

 

There is kite-flying involved, and much moving around of crabs and small fish.

 

But perhaps the best nature lesson is helping Bill the neighbor and experienced turtle volunteer check the turtle egg protective enclosures. After several letdowns, the kids are rewarded with a nest of real, live baby turtles.

 

 

 

And we see this guy at the side of a road. He's not a protected class of turtle. He's just a regular slow plodder, but we stand guard over him until somebody goes back and gets Bill's expert advice which is that he'll be just fine and will get himself over to the woods. Even if he's not endangered, we like him, and all the kids suddenly understand why turtlenecks are so-named.

Like this turtle, we are slow getting to our destination. We just hope we don't need to wait another four years till we visit them again on the Cape.

 

Maine in Technicolor

Do not adjust the color on your screen. If you are blinded by technicolor, you're seeing it just as it should be.

 

From Acadia, it's the Moss and the Gloss. (Or should I say, we're Likin' the Lichen!) First we have the girls in their birthday suits -- literally, that is: the bathing suits given to them for their birthdays. And then some beautiful moss/lichen growing on the rocks at the top of Cadillac Mountain.

 

 

 

Up at our rental in Southwest Harbor, it feels like a like a little bit of Nepal has snuck in. The owners have decorated their dock with these gorgeous flags, and I can't help but photographing them -- repeatedly.

 

  

 

Back at Cape Elizabeth, we stop by to see the rock at the entrance to town that is covered with messages, with the police chief's approval. The latest is the gift from a graffiti artist who was staying with my sister's family as an exchange student from France earlier this summer. Besides having special meaning for my sister's family, it's also generally acknowledged to be the best rock ever painted here. Yes, the town is even selling it on a sweatshirt.

 

 

Here's the colorful Cape Elizabeth ice cream stand.  

 

 

 

And the birdhouses the girls paint are planted in Aunt Lisa and Uncle Paul's garden. Lucky birds! 

 

 

And last but not least, a tradition, but one that is so colorful, I had to include it in this posting: picking bouquets at the local flower garden. Besides its physical beauty, what makes it so lovely and quaint is that there's just some scissors and empty vases hanging around, with a pay-by-honor system. Pick what you want and pay what's appropriate! Borrow a vase if you need one, and just bring it back with you the next time! (As opposed to Paris, where my wallet has twice been stolen -- from inside my bag and inside my pocket.) This time at the garden, in addition to my normal two beautiful models, I also have some little creatures that poses for me quite obligingly.

 

 

    

 

It's going to be really noticeable to go from Maine in technicolor, back to Paris in black and white!

 

 

 

What Does GPS Stand For?

Getting Pretty Stranded....

Gorgeous Pine Stand...

On our way out of Acadia, we try to stop in the town of Ellsworth at the AAA office so that Anthony can get an international drivers' license for when we rent cars in Europe (which is not entirely kosher, but that's a whole other posting). Anyway, the GPS takes us directly to...this spot. Apparently, we are not the only ones to find ourselves on an Oak Street that is not in town but, rather, in the middle of the actual oaks. The lady at the AAA is able to give us better directions over the phone, and eventually we get there.

The town of Ellsworth has an excellent California/gourmet/creative/not-authentic-but-highly-delicious burrito shop called "86 This!" where we stop for lunch after the AAA errand is done. So GPS could also stand for Gorging on Pollo & Salsa. That's a taste we miss in Paris!

 

The Epic Lobstah

For dinner tonight, we walk down to the lobster shack in Southwest Harbor. The price list says $11.45 for < 1⅜ pound and $12.45 for >1⅜ pound. That seems like a decent price, and not too high since there's a glut of lobster this year. At the stores, we can purchase it retail for $4/lb, so this seems like a fair mark-up.

Well, it always pays to read the fine print. They pick out big lobsters for us and put them on a scale. I assume it's to make sure it's over 1⅜ lb, but it's actually to get the real weight. Three of us order lobsters, and it turns out to be over 10lbs, at $12.45 per pound for the jumbo lobsters. So, instead of a 1.5 lb lobster for $12.45, we have now each bought a 3.4lb lobster for about $42. Live and learn.

 

Anthony, who has grown up eating these creatures, excitedly declares it "the most epic lobster ever!" Sure, people who really know lobster will tell us that the smaller ones are actually sweeter and better, but don't forget: this is a 3.4 pound lobster! It's the lobster that ate New Jersey! Run for your lives: It's Godzilla vs. Megalobsta!

Some prefer the chicken nuggets and fries, instead. Given the creepy-crawly factor, I can hardly blame them.

 

 

  

 

The setting is beautiful, right on the dock where the lobster boats come in. It's buoys and traps and quintessential Maine, right out of a picture postcard. And the lobster? Well, it's epic.

 

 

 

 

Acadia Adventuring

Something I find almost too incredible to contemplate: Anthony grew up in New Hampshire, with a family that likes nature, hiking, and traveling (within means), and yet he had never visited Acadia National Park -- the most-visited national park, just five hours from his home in the neighboring state. Until now.

 

And so, we go kayaking in Southwest Harbor...
 

 

 

...hiking on the famous Bumblebee trail and others, and picnicking at the top of Cadillac Mountain...

 

   

  

 

 

...swimming in a pond, but rather trepidatiously once leeches are found...

 

...and riding bikes along the carriage roads inside the park -- all the way to Jordan's Pond. There, we take in all the calories we spend for the day (and a whole lot more) eating huge meals and multiple hot, fresh, buttered-and-jammed popovers, which are the specialty of the house.

 

                                                                                                                                   photo of popover from: http://ruthsrecipes.com/Drecipes/donnapopovers.html

 

And perhaps the highlight of the week: rock climbing on the South Bubble. Anthony used to be a pretty serious rock climber, and I think it is particularly special for him to introduce this to the girls (who have only ever done an indoor wall before). Our girls are half monkey, half mountain goat, and entirely fearless. So this is a perfect activity for them.

 

 

Well, it's perfect for them to be the climbers. Would you trust this child to belay you?!