This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
The Raine in Maine
Feb
28
2024
I traveled to Maine to visit family. Here’s a short recap of some of the events.
We stayed in a small house overlooking Union Bay. Here’s the view from inside the house.
And here’s the view from the backyard.
Our first Maine activity was hiking around Jordan Pond. Everything associated with it had the prefix “Jordan Pond”, so that became a short-lived running joke. To get there, you drive up Jordan Pond Drive. You know you’re there when you see the house, which is named Jordan Pond House. Etc, etc.
It was cold in Maine, but since everything there is ocean salt water, we mostly saw liquid water. Jordan Pond was the first place where a body of water was actually frozen. And it was a good frozen too – several inches thick, we could see a few layers. Other people were running and skating about, so we ventured onto the ice.
We went there not to slide on the ice, but to hike the trail around Jordan Pond. It was called, of course, Jordan Pond Trail. We started going north along the east side. It was a scenic trail, fairly well maintained, like this:
About the halfway point, there was a bridge, I’m guessing to cross over the Jordan Pond river that feeds it.
After that, the trail became less of a trail and more of a suggestion. It was just a bunch of rocks piled along the shore, and you had to guess where to go next, mostly judging by the shoreline.
The amount of effort to scramble over snow-covered rocks was more than we anticipated for our group, so we made up a plan B – just walk across the water.
It was the shortest distance between two points. The snow-covered sections were ok, but the bare ice was polished smooth by the winds, so that was pretty slippery.
When we got just past the point of land that jut out, we could see that the shoreline was no longer rocky and there was a path we could walk again. So we decided to abandon plan B and go back to plan A of hiking the trail. The trail for most of the rest of the time consisted of a boardwalk.
The boardwalk ended right near a bridge for the carriage road. There are a few carriage houses and various old bridges leftover from the Rockefeller days, before it became Acadia National Park.
We also visited Bar Harbor quickly. There is not much to do there in the winter. And a swing by the LL Bean outlet. Trying to fit in a bunch of typical Maine experiences. Including buying food at Shaw’s and perusing Marden’s for whatever we can find.
These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month, when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight all those in the valleys, to the east and to the west.
1 Chronicles 12:15
