A hike around Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park

Our vacation to Downeast Maine continues and lest you think I am some kind of hiking queen, I’ll have you know that I most certainly am not. I am always optimistic though, and when I told my husband I wanted to hike up the Sargent Mountain after reading a comment I received, he knew I may end up biting off more than I could chew.

So instead, when today dawned rainy and then changed to just thick gray fog on the mountains, we headed for the park, stopping at Jordan Pond for a much easier hike.

Visitors have been coming to this spot for a long time and it boasts one of the nicest restaurants on the island and a must stop on a beautiful day. They have the absolute best popovers with homemade strawberry jam.

On to the hike, though . . .

There are two trails we took today: The moderate-rated Jordan Pond Shore Trail and the easy-rated Jordan Pond Nature Trail. The loop totals 4.3 miles and I will say that by the end, my feet were hurtin’.

But everything hurts, truth be told. I have done a lot of hiking and kayaking this week.

We began with the Shore Path (above).

The trail turns into a plank path which winds along the western edge of the pond.

I’ve seen lots of people on this path in the past but today we only met a few. Even very small children seem to do fine on these planks.

And George had no trouble.

The fog was beginning to become more dense as we made our way around.

The plank path ends and you emerge into a rocky section.

But honestly, it’s extremely easy to navigate over these.

There’s even a picturesque, rustic little bridge at the half-way point.

This photo looks like it could have been taken in the 1800’s.

The trail along the other side of the lake is flat and has a couple more little bridges you will pass over.

Getting close to the ending point, it begins to rain gently.

After crossing this path, it’s a quick hike down the Nature Trail and if you like, a short stroll up the hill to the restaurant where, on a beautiful day, you have a gorgeous view of the pond and The Bubbles.

All in all, an easy fun hike.

Tomorrow is our last day and I don’t even want to think of returning back to my life. And so I will not.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Life in the fast lane continues

These are just a few more pictures of our little trip down to Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge last week on a dreary day. And then, I promise you, I'll stop, ok?

As I write this, it's rainy and cold. And dark too, because it's nighttime. George is asleep at my feet after several rousing hours games of toy fetching. Reading your comments on yesterdays post made me happy and frankly, surprised. I want to welcome all the new faces here!

After the Boardwalk Trail, we walked across the road and north a little bit to Boxes Point Trail, which is a nice hike through a little forest. Can you spot the bird in the photo above?

At the end of the trail is a nice little beach with a park bench to enjoy the view. I liked this cool piece of driftwood.

A lot of you asked what I do to my pictures and I'll tell you that I rarely use one that's Straight Out of Camera (SOOC). I'm a sucker for a good action and for the two lower photos above, I used Pioneer Woman's Soft & Faded. PW has two sets of actions that are absolutely free and available for download into your Photoshop program. All you have to do is visit her website and click on the Photography tab. Then do a search for free actions.

I also used TRA's actions, and the one above is called Technicolor Dreamworld. It's available in Set 2 (The Revenge). Please note that this is not a picture of my husband's back.

When I open up my pictures in Photoshop and begin to play around, I'll look at it and try to recreate how it looked in my mind when I took it. I know that sounds weird, but it's how it works sometimes. I wanted the water to look blue because it actually looked blue that day as the sun was just beginning to break through the clouds. But the SOOC was not what I expected. And adding the burnt edge to the photo above made the water more blue.

For the one above and for many of these photos, I used a slight edge burn, also available as a free download. It's from MCP Actions and there's several more to try out on her website.

These two trees are a silent testament to the ravages of time, aren't they? This was taken at Boxes Point looking north.

I liked how these reeds looked against the sky and water. This photo also has a burnt edge to it as well as an action called Rusty Cage, which I purchased in a set from TRA (Totally Rad Actions).

The sun made a valiant attempt that day but nothing ever really came of it. So we called it a day and headed north for home.

Hope all this talk of actions and burnt edges hasn't totally put you to sleep!

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Oh, and that's my new favorite hat that I bought in NYC last month. I love it!

My life in the fast lane

Last week, my husband and I took several small day trips and one of them was to Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge, on an island off the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. On the map, it's just south of Rock Hall and just northeast of Kent Island.

It's about an hour drive from our home and I shot some photos out the car window during our drive on this gray morning. The photo above was taken while we were driving over the Bohemia River. Hey, I know someone who lives over that way . . .

Further down the road, a deserted old farmhouse intrigues me. I ran TRA's 'Super Old Skool' action on it to make it look even creepier.

We drove through the little town of Rock Hall and continued south. This was shot going over the little bridge that connects Eastern Neck Island to the mainland.

The Chesapeake Bay washes over the bridge during storms and I assume that's what's lying all over the road here.

Just down the road is Tubby Cove. You're familiar with that little pit stop, right? I posted a similar picture of the Boardwalk trail (above) out to the observation deck on my Picture A Day site a few days ago. I am thinking of doing a series entitled "My Husband, From Behind".

Not really. He'd kill me!

Here's another one anyway. This was taken inside that little crop of trees you see in the distance from the Boardwalk Trail which leads to the viewing platform. We didn't see much and the wind was really picking up, so we got back in the car and headed to a more sheltered spot which I'll continue tomorrow.

Hey! You still awake?

I mean, I know this is a thrill a minute, but I warned you not to get too excited, didn't I? I put it right in the blog header!

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

A walk in the woods

Today dawned a bit colder than yesterday and because I still have off for the week, I luxuriated in the flannel sheets, sleeping in until nearly 9 am.

Oh, my! Very unlike me.

After a breakfast of coffee and some oatmeal, we departed for nearby Fair Hill Nature Center in Maryland.

Fair Hill encompases nearly 6,000 acres and is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north and lies less than 1/2 mile west of Delaware. It's known for its natural beauty, woodlands and pristine fields. It also houses the Fair Hill Training Center, so horses are everywhere.

At one time, it was one of the largest private land holdings in the East and was formerly owned by one of the DuPonts. It was purchased by the state of Maryland in 1975.

When we lived in PA long ago, and my husband was competing in mountain biking, he regularly trained at Fair Hill. We took trails today that were familiar to him and believe me, it's beautiful there.

We could hear the hounds in the distance, as a fox hunt must have been going on.

When we got home, we looked at some of the pictures I took. Or rather, I loaded them onto the hard drive and my husband looked at them.

Here's our conversation:

DH: You didn't take that many pictures today, you know.

CG: Hmmm.

DH: And of the 51 pictures that you took, 15 of them are of my back. 15!!

CG: What are you talking about?

DH: Look at this. My back. There's my back again. Oh, there it is again. And again. I'm only up to 8 here.

CG: Well, um, your back is mostly what I see since I'm always behind you.

DH: Yes, but there's rock formations you could have taken. And more shots of the stream. The stream is nice. And there was that fox.

CG: The fox was gone before you even told me it was there.

DH: Well, I'm thinking that the next time we go for a walk, I'm giving the dog to you to hold and I'll take the pictures.

CG: YOU'LL WHAT?

DH: Well, I can take pictures as well as you can.

CG: What?

DH: You heard me.

CG: Hmmm.

DH: You heard me, right?

CG: I said hmmm, didn't I?

I said Hmmmm. But what I was really thinking as I was silently seething was "who do you think you are? I am the picture taker!! I can't believe you just said that!"

But I said nothing. I didn't want him to know how miffed I was. I think it's best not to let him know everything.

And this is of the side. The side is not the back.

I rest my case.

Help a worthy cause!

Head on over to Mental Pause Mama's site where she's celebrating her One Year Blogging Anniversary by donating a dollar to the Humane Society of the US for every comment she gets on this post. It will be open until the 30th, so go ahead and spread some comment love.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

If the sign fits, park there

Ok, people. Raise your hand if you need to park at Tubby Cove.

I think I could park there for several weeks after all the holiday consumption that's been going on lately.

I also found a new site that's not helping with the tubby situation.

I warn you, though, please don't go there.

There are treats galore.

It's called Bakerella. And I want to make cookies like this. I truly do.

Unfortunately, if I begin making lots of cookies, I'll be parked in Tubby Cove for quite some time.

For those who are into the photography thing, I used my Photoshop program with Pioneer Woman's "Seventies" action on these two photos and I really like how pink the sky looks.

Ok. I'm off to take another walk, or I'll be changing the name of my site to something like The Sisterhood of the Tubby Pants or maybe I'm Not Fat, I'm Fluffy.

Oh, my.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

More pics from NYC

I had such a nice time on my visit to the Big City last weekend and just wanted to share some more photos with you. Click on photos to enlarge.

We stayed at an apartment in Greenwich Village that is leased by a relative of a friend. The relative was travelling and the apartment was available, so this was a huge plus.

This is the memory wall I mentioned two posts down. My friends are shown here looking at it. On the right is Mary Ellen. She's a former student at our school and graduated the year before my eldest. It was her aunt who allowed us to use the apartment for the weekend.

On the left is our school's art teacher, Margie. She's been my friend ever since I started working there, ten long years ago. She taught art to both of my sons and while in upper school, my eldest chose to continue with the subject as an elective course for four years. It was Margie and her husband, Charles, that suggested that since my son was so interested in pursuing a degree in architecture, he should spend a day at a firm owned by a friend of theirs in Wilmington, DE. They contacted their friend and an invitation was issued.

Spending that day working at that firm cemented my son's decision and we were so thankful to Margie and Charles for helping him. And while we were in the city, we went to visit my son. He was working on a deadline and could only get away for a short while, but he invited us up to tour the firm where he's employed.

We got to see all the models on display in the front lobby, and if I remember correctly, this is a model for the city of Berlin. But I could be mistaken because there was so much to look at.

This one is a school and Mary Ellen was wondering how the children could learn to read, when they they can't even fit inside the building.

And my son explained that the center would have to be at least . . . three times larger for them to fit.

(This didn't really happen, but if you Name That Movie, you will have my undying respect. Really.)

We received a wonderful tour from my son, who seemed to know what every photograph on this wall was and where the building was located.

Then we left and walked to one of his favorite restaurants and had a fantastic meal. We talked and laughed and it was great.

And when we left, we realized that it had begun to snow! The snow was laying on the pavement and swirling all around. It is so beautiful looking up into the sky and watching it fall. We walked him back to his building and stopped at Trinity Church along the way. I've got a picture of that up on my other blog today.

We passed the big Christmas Tree on Wall Street, all lit up in its holiday finery.

And I'll leave you with one final photo, and this is of my son and I at the restaurant.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Different day, different views

As I write this, it's Sunday night and time for bed. I returned from my trip to the Big City just a couple of hours ago and I walked for miles and my feet are hurtin' (name that song). Just wanted to share a couple of photos with you before I turn in for the night.

I had to take a pic of these pigeons. And no, I was absolutely NOT on the ground. They were at eye-level. We'd just gotten off the subway in the center of Chinatown, crossed the street and I looked to the left and there they were. It must be a small park that was somehow elevated and in the center of the street.

This was in Greenwich Village, near where we stayed. These tiles were lined all over this fence. I'm sure it has something to do with 911. They're really sweet.

We just liked this guitar.

I have no idea what surprises these bins hold, and I don't read Chinese. But even if I did, I'm sure that some of them have feet. And I don't think I could eat feet. The restaurant where we had brunch on Sunday morning in Chinatown, however, was fantastic. It may have had some of these ingredients in it.

We also visited my son, who was working late at the architecture firm. More on that to come.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .