Radetzkystraße VRBO - Vienna, Austria

 Wahoo! We have a direct flight from Logan to Vienna on Austrian Air. We arrive the prescribed two hours early, find a nice bar in the international terminal with entertainment.  A lovely parade of mice scurrying across the entrance to the kitchen.  The bartender says that if you wait until closing we can get quite a show.  Unfortunately, our flight is leaving so we’ll miss it.

Our new collapsible luggage.

We are flying “Premium Economy” which seems like an oxymoron, but I’ll let it pass.  More than half the compartment is made up from a single extended family, from infants to grandparents, uncles and aunts.  I kept wondering what the occasion was. Wedding? Family reunion?  Now, we’ll never know.  The flight was non-eventful but I don’t think I have ever been fed so much on a plane.

We reserved our VRBO a day earlier than we were arriving so we could crash when we got in at 8:00 in the morning.  We got the key, the tour, and some detailed instruction about not inadvertently ringing the neighbors doorbell when trying to turn on the hallway light.  Then we took a tiny little three hour nap!

Hanover Inn - Hanover, NH (Last day)

 

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial 

Went to the Dirt Cowboy Cafe for breakfast.  The only seating was outside, but it was pouring rain, so we ended up eating at the desk in our room, not quite the plan.

After breakfast, we made a slight detour on our trek home to visit Saint Gauden’s National Park.  I used to live fairly close to it and bicycled to it once.  He was an incredible sculptor, some of his works were on display.  Our original plan was to hike a nice little trail in the park, but it was wet and buggy, so we did an abbreviated walk and spent more time looking through his studios and other displays.  

Adams Memorial 

The drive home was all in the rain, and 20 degrees cooler.  It was a really good trip!

Hanover Inn, Hanover NH

 Now that our youngest son has escaped the tsunami we can get on with the matter at hand.  Hanover has a restaurant called “The Works.”  We have one at home and know the menu.  After breakfast, we are going to do a morning hike, while it is still cool.  Not far from Hanover is Boston Lot.  It checked all the boxes, not too long, not too steep, not too tough.  Everything going well till a woman talking loudly on her cell phone got behind us, and then in front of us.  At Deb’s suggestion, we found an alternate trail, a little too long, a little too steep, and a little too tough.  It was warm and sweaty, but back at the hotel with a shower and a fresh change of clothes we were ready to face a new challenge…lunch!

A quick dash to Vermont and we were at King Arthur Flour.  They have a nice café, and we had our lunch before…yes…our annual first Christmas shopping trip.  We got some nice presents, we’ll see if we can find where we put them, come December.

King Arthur Flour

Well yesterday was Molly’s which means that today has to be Murphy’s.  After a drink or two, we settled for Fish and Chips (still at 4:00, still had to split it). Back to the hotel for a nightcap (yeah, still around 6:00)

Well, at least the heat wave is over.  Tomorrow is suppose to be rainy, and in the sixties.

Hanover Inn - Hanover, NH

 It’s déjà-vu all over again.  In May, we planned a trip to Bar Harbor and it turned out to be during a heat wave! In June, we planned this trip to Hanover, NH and it turned out to be in a heat wave.  Should we tell the weather people that we are heading to Europe at the end of August, or should we just let that heat wave be a surprise as well?

The drive was short and very pleasant.  The Hanover Inn is much more hotelish than innish, but that’s okay.  So for dinner, there’s Murphy’s and Molly’s.  We settle on Molly’s and their $3 Margaritas.  Deb says it’s more of a Margarita spritz, kinda of a three buck suck!  By 4:00 she is hungry and ready for an  appetizer.  Just so you neophites understand, an appetizer at 4:00 is going to be shared and more importantly, it’s going to be dinner!  Yup, half a tiny chicken quesadilla.  Live free or die(t).

Back to the hotel for a nightcap (it’s only 6:00 by the way).  Deb is sound asleep by 8:00 only to be awaken by our son who is vacationing in Hawaii to tell us that there is a tsunami coming his way.  The hotel tells him not to worry because he is on the sixth floor unlike those unfortunate people on the fourth floor.   The tsunami is going to strike at 1:17, our time (such precision).  We are up watching the weather channel, remembering the destruction in Japan as a huge wave rolled in years ago, with views of the beaches in Hawaii.  Some tsunami expert describes the anticipated !slow rise of water.  It’s kinda like watching bread rise.  We’re too tired to watch anymore, hopefully he’ll be okay! (He was fine.)

Home - Bar Harbor Trip

 Breakfast and Checking Out done.  We wanted to do a quick stop at Eagle Lake.  It’s lovely, with the carriage road (no cars). No Class 2 or Class 3 E-bikes either. I have no clue what that means.  Although I thought I might do some fishing, the lake is way too shallow near the shoreline.  We did a nice 3 mile walk, before heading home.  

Blueberry mojito 

Lunch in Belfast, ME after going over a bridge with a 400ft high observation tower.  Deja vu, we checked our blog at lunch and found that we climbed that tower in June of 2015 on our way to Nova Scotia.

The trip was great, Acadia National Park has changed, adapting to more visitors and to new climate issues.  It’s still a great place to visit and not too crowded.  Bar Harbor was very crowded.  Lots of touristy type stores, some nice bars.  We had a good time, but probably won’t be back.

Bar Harbor Inn - Bar Harbor, ME

 

Taking a short nap zzzz

Breakfast places in Bar Harbor appear to be bars that open early…so back to the inn for their complimentary continental breakfast then off for a hike.  Deb had a few requirements…less than 4 miles, no more than 500’ elevation.  Next time she might throw in a difficulty parameter!  The hike that fit the bill was Acadia Mountain coming back on the Man O’War trail.  We added “scramble” to our hiking vocabulary (it’s how you get up or get down a steep granite rock face). Needless to say, our stamina batteries were drained by the end of the hike.

Back to Bar Harbor for lunch at an outdoor beer garden. I had reserved a 3:00 time slot to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain, assuming correctly, that we would be too tired to do anything else.  Forty-three years ago, we were standing on the top of Cadillac Mountain and we for no reason, simultaneously both kicked the same rock at the same time.  Today we revisited the rock, a nice couple took our picture for posterity.  

Yesterday, we didn’t get to sit at the umbrella tables.  Today we said we were eating dinner and got an umbrella table with a view.

Tomorrow, maybe some fishing at Eagle Lake.

Mission accomplished!

Bar Harbor Inn - Bar Harbor, ME

 Several months ago, I said, we need to plan some little get away…maybe back to Lincoln, NH.  That was met with abject silence.  Two days later came, “how about Acadia National Park?”  So a plan was hatched…with no knowledge of the impending “heat dome” that was to consume the northeast!  But a plan is a plan, and we departed Portsmouth in 95 degree heat, to arrive in Bar Harbor nearly four hours later in a balmy 90 degrees.  We are staying at the ritzy Bar Harbor Inn, with a lovely view of the Harbor. 

Although it is warm, there is nice patio with umbrella tables, but if you just want a drink and lite refreshments, they request that you sit in the Adirondack chairs around the fire pit…not bad, until you realize the gas fire pit is lit and throwing out quite a bit of additional heat..ah…no thanks.

We found a nice little bar, with an overheated bartender, a beer, a blueberry mojito, and a fish taco with blueberry and pineapple salsa (way better than you would think).  Finally a stroll through Bar Harbor ending up at the pier for margaritas, oysters and dare I say, Mozzarella logs (definitely not sticks).

Peony

Back to the hotel where Deb suffered a serious food coma!