3 Foot Swells in a Kayak--Whee!

A rock to rest the weary travelers

Acadia National Park is heaven for bikers and hikers. We are in our 2^nd week parked near Bar Harbor, Maine. Our first week we were joined by friends, Jessica and David from Richmond. The week before they had spent a lot of time in Maryland as David’s father was put in hospice. He died on August 31 and their plans to join us September 4^th were moved to the 5^th. Their first evening in the RV, Steve grilled steaks for all of us and we enjoyed a campfire.

Arriving at Sandy Beach

Jessica's Midwives For Haiti shirt got some attention that day. People ask about it and we are happy to tell them about our programs. Jessica is the new Executive Director. 

Thursday it rained off and on so we all went in the car to Bar Harbor and followed some roads to get acquainted with the park. Friday we hiked near the ocean, enjoying beautiful views of the coast. There was talk of renting a sailboat, but we opted for going on a kayak tour off the coast of Bar Harbor on Saturday.

I have only kayaked once before- in Michigan, on a peaceful lake, in a one person kayak. When we arrived at the Sea Kayak tour office, we discovered that the group would be just the 4 of us and Laura, our guide. We received some instructions, which included how to put on the “skirt” that would keep most water off our laps and legs. The need for the skirt should have told us something.

These kayaks were two-person kayaks with the person in back doing the steering with some foot pedals inside the kayak. We put on life jackets, climbed in the kayaks, putting the men in back, putting our skirts over the ledges around our seat area and took off, following Laura out into the OCEAN!!  At first it was pretty calm and although I discovered the kayaks would tip easily with just turning my head. It took me a bit to get the hang of turning my shoulders to put the single oar (with a paddle on each end) in on one side and then on the other and hold the rest of my body very still from waist down. I did not want to tip over!

All felt doable until we got between some islands and the current and waves were fast and high. I remembered from white water rafting that having the paddle in the water helps keep you in the boat. Dip paddle in on left, paddle in on right, paddle in….The waves were getting higher and we were all paddling like mad. Jessica said she heard Laura say, “Wheee!” as we bounced from one wave to the next and it helped her to find it all fun rather than fearful. I couldn’t hear them but evidently there was a lot of screaming and yelling in the Jess/David kayak as David’s steering was not to Jessica’s liking- ha! And regardless of the skirts, we all got wet butts when the waves crashed over the kayaks.

Steve and I getting ready to leave the island to head back WAY OVER THERE around the next island to Bar Harbor. This is the one and only picture we got of the kayaking time because we were all so scared to move we couldn't get our phones out of our dry packs. Laura was young and fearless. See the yellow skirts?

Once we got close to an island out of the cove, the waves calmed down. Low tide was minutes away and we barely made it through a shallow path between islands. Laura had us stop and climb the rocks on one island so that we could see the surrounding ocean, neighboring islands, and get some snacks. Three of us were thinking with some fear that we had to go back through those waves again to get back to Bar Harbor.  Steve said he had complete faith in me to get us home and had no worries.  However, the ride back was not quite as scary as the ride out. All together we were out on the water about 3 hours. And we had survived. Will I ever do it again? Probably not, unless I could be assured the waves would be calmer. But it was a thrill!

Jessica and David

Biking along the coast

Sunday we biked 13 miles of the “carriage trails” in the park. No cars are allowed on these so that made this ride more enjoyable. Everyone always has to stop now and then and wait for poky me but no one seemed to mind. We were all exhausted at the end of the day. Up until then we had cooked dinner each evening back at the RV but that night we splurged and had lobster dinners at the Chart Room restaurant (all except Steve, who, of course had beef- again).

Lobster dinners

The day before we had had sandwiches at the Side Street Café and ordered one piece of blueberry pie to share. That pie was so good we looked for a bakery that would make it like that but could not find one. The top crust was baked with raw sugar and lime zest. After the lobster dinners, we drove back to Side Street Café- where every table was full- and bought a WHOLE PIE! We took it back to the RV and finished the night with blueberry pie and some vanilla ice cream.

Our guests had to leave Monday. Jessica has to go to Haiti by the end of this week, weather permitting. David has to go to Weems and get his sailboat out of the water in preparation for the  hurricane coming. 

This was our first experience having overnight adult guests in our RV. Before that it had been grandchildren only. We made some space in drawers and shelves for David and Jessica’s stuff, and with two bathrooms, it was really less crowded than we expected. We fed them breakfast in bed one morning and many mornings, David had coffee ready for us all. Evenings around a campfire were pleasant. So now that we know we can do it, sign up for your week!

Bacon, scrambled eggs and bagels in the RV guest bed.