Saturday in the Park with Sock

You can't actually get food in Bar Harbor. Note to travelers: Always always always pack fruit, drinks, nutrition bars, or whatever, since you never know when you will NOT be able to eat a meal (or any meal) when you travel. Last night's delicious supper of a half bag of potato chips left over from the trip up to Ellsworth was, shall we say, unsatisfying. (I couldn't get seated in the hotel restaurant because they were too busy; I went into town to find a restaurant, and not only were they also too busy, but I couldn't find parking anyway.) And this morning, there was a 45 minute wait to get breakfast. You can tell where the restaurants are in Bar Harbor because of the long lines on the sidewalks in front of them. I couldn't even get into the the hotel restaurant, for heaven's sake, due to the four tour buses that had filled the place. Bar Harbor has too many people, and it is mid-October. I guess it is good for business, but ironically, I wanted to get away to be alone and to relax, and I *thought* Bar Harbor in mid-October would be perfect. Leaf-peeping season is usually over by now, but I guess it has been a late leaf season. Oh well, poopy for me.

So having not had supper or breakfast, I went into the only place in Bar Harbor that had food AND had no customers inside, the natural food store; that's telling, no? Apparently tourists don't like whole wheat and tofu. Who knew. So I stocked up on a day's worth of organic fruit, organic drinks, whole wheat fig bars, organic nutrition bars, and I got a big cup of organic coffee to go, with soy milk instead of cream. I would say "Yum!", but well... it was soy milk. In my coffee. Sigh... at least it did have caffeine in it.

I drove down to one of the back entrances to Acadia National Park and arrived at Sand Beach. Did you know you have to pay $10 to get into the National Park? Not that I mind, but I kinda thought the national parks were part of the national budget that our taxes pay for, like a park perk for tax payers, as in U.S. citizens should not have to pay a fee to go to the park that their taxes support. I'm sorry... I am being whiney. It's my conservative, soy-milk-in-my-coffee & too-many-tourists bitchiness catching up with me. I will try to do better!! I will get comments on my post today, you betcha. So to all you people who race forward to tell me how wrong I am and that it is perfectly wonderful to pay a fee for a national park, and I am just being a bitch, I say, Yes!! Today, I am a bitch!!! Tomorrow I will probably feel just fine! And to all my customers whom I have just offended, I deeply apologize. But now you know what I am really like.

Sand Beach is pretty. I had not been there since about my sophomore year in high school. It looked smaller than I remembered. I remembered it as a huge sandy beach, but now that I have been to southern California, Sand Beach looks small. However, it is very beautiful and the surf was really booming. I loved watching the morning sunlight through the tops of the waves as they crested, just before crashing onto the sand. I found a rock to sit on, pulled out my organic nutrition bar and some organic juice, and had breakfast while I watched the waves. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool but pleasant. There were tourists on the beach, but I walked as far away from them as I could and took a seat on a likely rock near the water. Here is where I sat (top picture) and some pictures of the water:

I had untangled my messed-up sock yarn last night, so I got comfy and prepared to cast on 72 stitches onto size 0 dpn's:

I knit a couple of inches and watched both the tide start to come in and the stream of tourists growing more and more numerous, and they had all decided for some reason that where I was sitting was the best place on the beach to be. So I left. But I took a picture of Sock in all his newly-knitted glory on the beach:

I decided to go to my other favorite point in the park, Thunder Hole, which is conveniently located just a bit down from Sand Beach. I did go down and look at it, but did not take any pictures or stick around too long. Although the tide had just turned, it was still a few more minutes before Thunder Hole began thundering -- it was more whispering, at the moment. I would have stayed, because one of my favorite things about Acadia National Park had been hearing the huge booming thunder and seeing the giant explosion of cold, salty water as the waves pounded into the cave at the end of the narrow inlet. I noticed that two tour buses were parked on the road up above, and they were both full of people waiting for Thunder Hole to become active. If I had stayed, I would have become trapped by a wall of tourists, and I am afraid my impulse either to jump into Thunder Hole myself, or to throw some of them in, might have overcome me, so I erred on the side of caution and left. I think maybe the soy milk was getting to me.

At this point it was noon. I needed gas, so I drove down to Somesville and pulled into a Mobil station. I have never been so happy to see a convenience store in my life, heh heh. I stocked up on more food which is sooooo NOT organic, and carbonated beverages. I figured housekeeping must be done with my room by now, and they were, so I am holing myself up in my room for the rest of the day and night, and getting up extra early in the morning so I can get out of here and back to my nice safe store, where I can work every day for the rest of my life, and I don't even care. At least they do not have soy milk in the coffee there.

This afternoon and evening I'll be knitting the end of clue #4 on my black Mystery Stole, possibly a hat that I haven't shared with you yet, and maybe more on my Sand Beach sock. We'll see. :)

Comments

[Denise]

Hmm I don't ever recall going to Sand Beach in all the times we were at Acadia.. at least till the last time we were there with our friends..
Of course I remember picking blueberries on Bluberry Hill.. but they won't let you do that any more.. sigh..

[Kathleen]

I have not been to Acadia for awhile, but I don't remember ever paying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!