Kind of last minute, Ryan and I booked a trip to Maine! Our 10th wedding anniversary is in a few weeks but that timing wasn't working well to get away . . . and life around here has been more than a little bit stressful the past few months. I don't really want to go in to that all here but between lots of life situations and still waiting for our little boy, we were more than ready to get away for a little bit!
Addyson and Braden stayed with Grammy and Papa and got to do plenty of fun stuff.
We flew to Portland, Maine and then rented a car and drove to Bar Harbor, Maine where we spent most of our time.
The first leg of our flight we got to share with a family from church on their way to Peru to bring home and complete the adoptions of two precious children. I was excited to get to be there for at least a tiny part of their journey; it was sure a surprise seeing them at the same gate as us waiting to catch the plane.
But I can not tell you how much I wished we got to catch a different connection and fly overseas to meet a little boy. My heart was pulled to a different place than Maine while we sat on our flights. We were hoping to be traveling to a different destination and my heart ached. . . a lot. But God is good and even though it seems like a really long wait to us, none of this is a surprise to Him and He has better plans than I did. It is just hard to sit and watch, even though I really do rejoice at all the progress other families are making in their processes and all the babies I've got to hold over the last year.
Just a quick update on where we are on our process - things in the country changed not long after our documents arrived there so it is taking longer than we had hoped. Before we left on our Maine trip, we got documents submitted to update our expiring dossier and now we're in the process of updating our home study too. We have our interview in a couple weeks and then we should be all set again. There was some good news upon our return, as a key agreement was approved in the lower courts in country. It still has several steps before it is anywhere close to a done deal, but at least there was some sort of movement. Now it's summer vacation time for the courts so probably no news anytime soon. But it was a step, so we are thankful for that! And we are more confident about several part of the process after our Maine trip - Addyson and Braden are completely fine without us for a few days! We didn't even get the car in park when we left them for the airport before Addyson said Bye, mom. She was SO ready for us to leave. No tears there! Braden did great too. So they should be just fine back home during the trips we will make overseas! Also, Ryan and I managed to make all our connections and every single flight was on time - this has NEVER happened for us. We have had lots of delays and missed connections in past trips! And we successfuly navigated the busiest airport in the world too (Atlanta). So I think we're ready. Bring it on!!!
And now, Maine!!!
This was the view from the little balcony in our hotel room. It was a great place to relax!
The view looked really different depending on whether it was low tide or high tide.
At low tide there is a bar that you can walk across (you have just a few hours each day) to an island. It is mostly rocks and just a few muddy spots but you can walk over or even drive over!
Ryan found rocks for Braden and seashells for Addyson.
Some people found starfish. I didn't get a picture but one girl had a HUGE starfish. It was pretty gross and she had it stretched all the way across her back. This one was a little cuter! :) And someone else had a really tiny one. It was even cuter.
I found a little crab - see the green thing??
Then Ryan ate it.
Just kidding.
It was a really pretty view at sunset!
This is looking back toward the main island (that's our hotel in the background).
And this is one of the pool's at the resort where we stayed - beautiful views of the ocean everywhere!
One day we took a scenic drive through Acadia National Park. It really was beautiful. There are lots and lots of trees!
and pretty ocean views!
This was the sand beach - one of the only ones in all of Maine.
It was really pretty there. And the sand was clean and had lots of crushed seashells in it so it had dark specks but you didn't feel like you were walking on crushed seashells. I don't really know how to explain it other than it was not like any beach I've ever been to (California, Alaska, Oregon, Texas). But I'm pretty sure it was my favorite. I think Addyson and Braden would LOVE it there.
Did I mention that the weather was awesome??? There was always a cool sea breeze blowing, so even on the days it was a little warm it never felt hot as long as you were somewhere you could catch a breeze. It was great to wear a jacket!! The evenings were absolutely gorgeous. The sun came up at 4 something, but we only saw that the very last day when we got up super early to catch our flight home.
Ryan climbed a mountain.
Or maybe just a big rock.
There were pretty views all along the way.
And it was gorgeous at the top of Cadillac Mountain. The pictures don't really do it justice.
You could look at all the little islands and see Bar Harbor from way up high.
Ryan did some hiking - he said there was a really cool canyon just over the ledge that you couldn't see from up high.
Or you could look out to the ocean and see nothing but sky and water for as far as you eyes can see. All the different colors of blues and greens were awesome to look at!
We ate our meals outside a lot.
Ryan does not like to eat outside.
We walked pretty much everywhere in town.
Ryan does not like to walk or hike.
But he liked Bar Harbor. The views were gorgeous eating near the water. Like this view from Stewman's:
And it wasn't too windy or hot and there weren't a million flies like at home! It was actually really enjoyable.
And the breeze was so nice and walking together with not much of a time table was pretty fun and relaxing.
We ate lots of Maine blueberries - on ice cream sundaes, in pancakes, muffins, and cookies.
I don't like blueberries.
But those were yummy!
We didn't eat any lobster but they were everywhere!!
It's kind of a big deal in Maine!
They catch them in these lobster traps. They are usually under the water but this one got in the area that dries up at low tide. There are buoys everywhere in the water and lobster boats anchored everywhere in the harbor.
Our favorite place to eat was Geddy's, even if it was run by a Texas fan (amazing how many comments we got on our OU shirts!) They had yummy guacamole. You can really only eat so much seafood :) There's nothing quite like some good cow!!
We did lots of relaxing.
Ryan beat me pretty badly at mini golf more than once but there are no pictures to prove it.
We went on a nature cruise.
We saw a bunch of mad seagulls chase a bald eagle away,
A light house,
Lots of bald eagles,
seals,
One seal even popped his head up in the water to check us out!
And more pretty ocean views!
There was a house on this little island all by itself. That would be fun to stay at! There were "cottages" on the islands, but they are really huge mansions. It was fun to see all the Cape Cod and Colonial houses on our drive to Bar Harbor too.
Here are some of the pretty views from Mount Desert Island where Bar Harbor is, or Ba Haba as the locals say. It was fun to hear all the accents - there were lots of New Yorkers there. But also lots of Boston Red Sox fans so Ryan got plenty of comments about his Yankees stuff! I'm sure they thought our hick accent was hilarious.
And some shots of the main street of Bar Harbor.
And this was our rental car for the week:
I have never used Hotwire before but I would totally recommend it for renting vehicles. This was a pretty loaded brand new Ford Explorer and it was great! The last time we rented a vehicle it didn't even have power locks so this was awesome!
We had a really great time away. It took a while to remember how to function with just the two of us - meals were enjoyable, we slept in some, and we could be out during nap time and even after dark! It was a lot of fun. It took a little bit to remember that we were responsible for kids again once we got home too! I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since we got married. I'm glad we could get away now and looking forward to celebrating the actual day in a few weeks!
