Jordan Pond House

While enjoying a day at Acadia National Park, we decided to eat lunch at the lodge – known as Jordan Pond House.

Jordan Pond House is in the park itself, overlooking (you guessed it – Jordan Pond). During warm weather, they put tables outside so you can eat overlooking the pond.

I read that it’s busy in the summer, but we were there in October – peak of the color season – and it was still very crowded. You can make reservations, which we didn’t know, so we registered with the host and then wandered around the gift shop waiting for our buzzer to go off. (I truly can’t remember how long – but I’m thinking 40 minutes.)

Not a good picture, but you get the picture!!!! (Not a good sentence either.)

I did find maple sugar candy at the gift shop, which is a treat which brings back memories. Seemed like all Eastern historical sites had boxes of maple syrup candy when I was growing up, and my dad always bought me some. Now, you don’t find it quite as often, though every once in a while …

Once inside the crowded restaurant, we ordered popovers and blueberry lemonade, because that’s what the restaurant is known for. Nellie McIntire started that tradition back in the 1890s – though I’m not sure who she is. Guessing she was a cook at the restaurant and not just some tourist who happened to be walking by hungry for popovers.

The popover is served with strawberry jam and is delicious. The lemonade was good, too.

I also got a lobster roll, one of several I had while in Maine, don’t remember liking it as much as I liked the popover, but it was ok.

Like I said, they were busy and the people at the table next to us (maybe a foot and a half away), had finished their meal and were waiting for their bill when the server came with another round of their exact food. Somehow, he had forgotten that he already served them!

So – all that to say this. If you visit Acadia, stop at the Jordan Pond House and have a popover and some blueberry lemonade. You’ll be glad you did.

 

A Hunt for the Planets

This adventure happened last fall, but because of some computer glitches, etc., I am not getting it up until now … I hope (unless the computer glitches again).

Last October my friend Cindy and I headed up to Maine to do some in-depth exploring and to speak at a conference. We wanted to head up the East side of the state, but after you get so far, there aren’t many famous landmarks to visit.

But we were determined and wanted some fun on the journey. One of us (I truly can’t remember which one) found this solar system model. The catch was, it was to scale so you had to find the different planets over a distance of forty miles. We did have a map or sort of a map guiding us to the next planet and how far it would be … but some of them weren’t that easy to find … especially when they moved  from the hotel parking lot to the gas station next door. (Don’t remember reading about that in my science books.)

The first one is on displayed at the visitor center in Houlton – which is Pluto, which I know is no longer considered a planet, but so be it.

The picture isn’t good because this one is behind glass and indoors. But now the fun began

The evening was beautiful as we headed north and soon came upon Mercury.

And the earth.

I think this was our favorite.

Saturn was also rather impressive.

 

We knew our last find – the sun would be at the University of Maine, Presque Isle and truly expected to see something magnificent – since this was to scale. We walked around the building a few times, not thinking it would be open on a Sunday night.

But it was open and we walked in – no one was in sight – past classrooms and computers and trophy cases.

Where was this sun that HAD to be massive?

Well – not quite. Actually it was part of the railing – sort of anti-climatic.

But the evening was perfect weather-wise and we agreed we had never been on a planet hunt before.

The anti-climatic sun.