Maine really is the way life should be...

So about 8 years ago, I went up to Maine to meet up with some friends I had met on my Europe trip. My parents drove me up from North Carolina on a 16 hour roadtrip. It was me and 3 other girls (Katie, Stephanie, and Amanda) meeting up in Stephanie's hometown for a small reunion of sorts.

This past weekend, I went back up to Maine because now that I'm living in Massachusetts, it's only 2 hours away. The great thing I've learned about New England is that EVERYTHING is in driving distance. If you decide to go one place, why not drive a little farther to see something else while you're at it. In the case of my last roadtrip, I decided to drive all the way up to Acadia National Park and stop in to see my friend Stephanie on my way back down.

I love national parks. I think it's one of the best things about the United States and I wanted to finally visit the first national park east of the Mississippi (true fact, the NPS says so). I have to say that Acadia NP may be my second favorite national park - second, of course, to Glacier National Park in Montana. Maine is a lot like Montana... except it's got that rocky coastline putting one both at the beach and at the mountains at the same time. After rushing to the park to get a nonreservable campsite (yes, Mom, I camped by myself!) and setting up my camp hurriedly so I could get back to exploring... I drove along the Park Loop road and stopped along the way to check out some of the sights. Park Loop road is like GNP's Going-to-the-Sun road, except not as scary and not high. I went up to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a great afternoon view of Bar Harbor (you kind of have to use a Maine/Boston accent when you say it) and the Frenchman Bay. I devoted the rest of the day to driving the loop more than a few times and stopping to see Thunder Hole (a cool inlet that at the right time sounds like a thunderstorm when the waves crash), Sand Beach (the only sandy beach in the area - the rest are rocky!), and the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse.

After camping in the rain (no worries, my tent was dry thanks to my rain fly), I got up at 4:00 to drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain again... this time to see the sunrise. It was densely foggy and windy when I got to the top. Luckily, the fog cleared for a good 20 minutes as I watched the sunrise over Bar Harbor and the Frenchman Bay. This is the first place to see the sunrise in the United States!

Since I was up, I thought I'd drive along and hit the cool spots again, though it was like I had the whole park to myself since it was so freakin' early. I stopped by Thunder Hole again to see if I would finally get to hear it sound. It did. :)

After packing up my campsite, I started on my hike on the Bear Brook trail to the summit of Champlain Mountain. It was a great hike... though I must say that hiking, while it's fun by myself, it's more fun hiking with a friend (Katie!). Besides, how many self portraits can you take... well, I took many.Made a quick stop in Bar Harbor - for an hour because parking was a highway robbery total of $5/hour! Then I headed down to Poland, ME to stay with Stephanie and her new family! Poland, ME... yes, where Poland Springs water is from. Cool fact: Stephanie has Poland Springs water straight from the tap!!! Awesome.

Stephanie, her husband Rick, and their cute little boy Andrew brought me to the Auburn/Lewiston Hot Air Balloon festival. It was really cool getting to see the the balloons and the hot air at night, though I think Andrew was a little overwhelmed. :)

The next day, Stephanie, Rick, and Andrew set off to Old Port - the historic part of Portland. It was super cute with lots of cool shops and restaurants. I think I could live in Portland... or at least outside of Portland since it's expensive there. They also brought me to Ocean Park to the beach and then back to Auburn to a family party. It was great hanging out with Stephanie and her family (her parents and sister are great!!). Later on, we went to a driving range and played miniature golf in the dark. :) Since it was the last roadtrip of the summer... why not take a more scenic route and go through the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I drove to the top of Mount Washington - a stop on the Appalachian Trail and the home of the highest recorded winds (213 mph in 1934) - where it was snowing, foggy, windy, and cold. It was great! Middle of August and I got to see snow and ice... and almost blow off a mountain! After coming back down, I saw a moose that had just caused a motorcycle accident on the roadway. crazy.

All in all... a great roadtrip and a great way to end the summer. Seeing Stephanie was great! And since Portland is only 2 hours away, I know I'll be seeing her soon. :) School starts next Thursday... and orientation starts this Friday. Here's hoping I get excited somewhere along the way...

I'm a Travelin' Wo(Man)

Another delayed post. I've been super busy and traveling all over. Well, not all over, but for the past 2 weekends and then another 2 weekends straight in May!

Two weekends ago, we took a roadtrip to Pittsburgh, PA. Why Pittsburgh? Seriously, because it was there. Pittsburgh is one of the few cities up here that none of us have been to. Surprisingly enough, P-burgh was actually very interesting.

There's a lot of museums to go to-- random ones, like the Andy Warhol and there's one about the French and Indian War. We went to the Andy Warhol one and saw some of his great works. I'm not a fan of Warhol really-- maybe it's the drugs and the sex with everyone, I don't know. But I like his "Silver Clouds" installation. Silver balloons floating around an empty room. Very fun!



We also went to the Heinz History Center to see an exhibit showing all of the Pulitzer prize winning photos. What did I learn? To win the Pulitzer, you have to shoot something sad and depressing. Looks like none of my photos of silly faces is going to be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon.

We also got to tour the Heinz Field-- where the Steelers play. Obviously, I'm not a fan of the Steelers, really, as I dislike football (unless it's the Dillion Panthers on Friday Night Lights). The stadium was still very cool to go around and see. Got to go right down to the field, go into the Steelers locker room, sit in the super expensive club seats. The place is HUGE, but I suppose most NFL stadiums are.

On the way back home, we stopped off to see 2 Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We're big on Frank Lloyd Wright houses. We saw his famous Falling Water house and his lesser known, cheaper Kentuck Knob. Falling Water was what you'd expect-- very cool and interesting. Kentuck Knob was also cool but in a different way, like someone could actually live there. Falling Water is one of those houses you'd love to have, but wouldn't really be able to live in it. Kentuck Knob has cool sculpture garden and a more lived in kind of feel to it.

So that was Pittsburgh.

This past weekend, Gordon and I drove up to Waltham/Boston to go apartment hunting for me. We left Friday night (without any sleep really) and got into Waltham at 6am -- 3 hours ahead of my first apartment viewing! After seeing 5 apartments, sleeping in random parking lots just trying to get ANY sleep at all, and driving all over Waltham... I've found a place that I think will be very good for me. I'll be living with 2 girls in a very nice apartment complex (almost like the cute new-ish ones in Chapel Hill). I'm very excited, though the decision between places was really hard! :( Luckily everyone was understanding and I got to make the decision without feeling too guilty.

I got to show Gordon my new school-- Brandeis University. It's a very cute campus. Nothing like Chapel Hill, but I guess not a lot of schools are going to be like it. I bought a t-shirt that says Brandeis, but in Hebrew! How cool is that? I'll post a picture soon.

We also got to see Fay!!! Yay, Fay! She's living in Brighton and going to BU for Public Health. I'm really excited that we got to see Fay since we haven't seen her since we've been back in the states. I'm also superexcited that she'll be in the area for a little while when I move up to Waltham.

So now that I'm back in DC for the next 2 weekends before my next two trips, I plan to sleep and recover. Well, sort of. Next weekend, we'll be volunteering with Servathon 2007/Greater DC Cares by rebuilding a nursery playground. We'll also be catching up on movies-- Hot Fuzz (Have you NOT seen Shaun of the Dead???) and Spiderman 3 (so we can finally end the madness that is Tobey McGuire as a superhero).

Check out the pics from my Pittsburgh and Waltham trips.