Sunday, August 16

We all woke up a bit late (10:30) except for Bob who was out watching a flock of seabirds right up on our shore. He was happy. So after we all took showers, Bob made his famous sausage gravy and biscuit breakfast. I do not know how the guy does it, but he used two rolls of Jimmy Dean Sausage, 2 pints of cream, and made 20 biscuits, which were ALL gone in less than an hour. We ate outside on the picnic bench under a table umbrella. We packed up for the beach.

After an hour drive to Bar Harbor, and another hour of being lost and not being able to find Sand Beach, we arrived at Sand Beach. The cars were lined up along the highway, but since it was late we all decided to see if the parking lot was really full. Not only was it not full, but we got the closest parking spot to the entrance to Sand Beach.

Sand Beach is small and in between two rocky peninsulas. It is bordered by pine trees and this crescent shaped beach is hardly ever crowded. However, we have found that August, not July, is peak tourist time in Maine. It was pretty crowded but many people were leaving.

The water was ice cold (really--not exaggerating) but Antoinette, Scott and I managed to go into the water. Bob took many pictures. He doesn't like cold water. I stayed in most of the three hours were there but Antoinette, the sun goddess, and Scott took a nap and did some sun bathing on the quilts in the sand. The breeze from the water took the edge off the hot sun, but we all managed to get some "color." Then we drove back into Bar Harbor and had beers and chips with a seafood dip at a restaurant that Bob and I had gone to with the kids 20 something years ago--it didn't look much different, but had some new tables and chairs and a new menu. We decided after walking along Bar Harbor's Main Street, after buying just a few things, of course, that we should eat at the cabin because we had so much food. And that's exactly what we did. Dinner was late, but Bob grilled all kinds of hot dogs and sausages, rolls, and we had beans, leftover potato salad, cole slaw and dessert. Nothing was left (except some of the blueberry pie, vanilla ice cream, and brownies). Another three bottles of wine and numerous bottles of beer and a roaring fire (which Bob was paranoid about thinking we would start a forest fire) and we were again around the fire, talking and listening to music. Bob and I left the circle at 2:30 AM but Scott and Antoinette decided to take a walk along the drive and didn't go to bed until 3:30 AM.

My knee is killing me (maybe from swimming?) and I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight.

Tomorrow, Antoinette and Scott will leave for their slow trip along the coast back home and back to work. We will be trying to squeeze in anything we said we wanted to do and didn't because we'll have to spend at least a day and a half packing up so we can clean on Saturday morning. We have to be out by the 22nd (Saturday) 11:00 AM. So sad.