It's hard to believe that it's already been a week since Eliot and I went up to Bar Harbor for the 4th of July. (Summer is flying by and really needs to slow down!) We had a wonderful holiday weekend visiting with my family and spending time in my hometown even if things didn't exactly go quite as we had planned for the second year in a row...
As usual, we got a late start. I should have known this would happen, but I really thought that we'd be in Trenton Friday night. Eliot has worked so many extra hours that he was supposed to get Friday off, but he had a huge project that needed to get done, so he worked Friday and traded it off for Tuesday. (This actually worked in our favor so we could stay for the fireworks!) However, what was supposed to be only a few hours turned into a late night. By the time Eliot got home, it was 7:00 pm and I had no desire to drive three hours... even if I had taken a nap right before he got home.
After a quick discussion we decided to stay at home one more night. Mom was glad we wouldn't be driving at night and I was a little relieved myself. Plus, it worked out for the best as we got a lot done. I watched The Jungle Cruise on Disney+ and ate the Applebee's Eliot brought home for me. Meanwhile, he took a short power nap before he joined me for the second half of the movie. After the movie finished, we got a bunch of stuff done for both businesses before calling it a night and going to bed.
Saturday morning was a disaster. We got up early at 7 am as scheduled... except that I actually woke up at 5:30 am when Eliot accidentally hit me with his arm. It startled me enough to wake me up, and then my stomach wasn't doing well so I never fell back asleep. I tried to push myself to pack and get ready even though I felt like crap. One thing lead to another, and around 9:00 am, I was back in bed feeling nauseous.
I woke up again around 10:30 and I was feeling a little better at that point. Eliot had gotten up to take care of a few things. I helped him finish the business stuff, and then we showered, finished packing and got ready to leave. We definitely got a late start leaving the house around 12:30, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
On the way home, Eliot and I made a few stops. I wanted to check out the Michael's in Augusta. I was so excited to stop there, but as I walked around the store, I started to feel sick again. I tried to keep pushing forward, but it was apparent when we made our next stop at Barnes and Noble a few exits down, that I was done. I hopped into the passenger seat so Eliot could drive the rest of the way. I had planned to make a few more stops, but I was done at that point and I just wanted to get to my parents' house.
Eliot made one more stop at the Chipotle in Bangor since he was hungry. I was able to eat about 1/3 of my burrito bowl, but it didn't help my stomach much. I was still in a lot of pain, but we made it home in one piece around 6:00 pm. I spent the rest of the night relaxing on the couch and then went to bed early.
Sunday morning, I decided to take it easy. We had thought about going into the park to do something late in the morning and into the early afternoon, but I thought I should rest before our 3:30 pm reservation at the Jordan Pond House.
The highlight of the morning was having Mickey Mouse shaped waffles made with the waffle maker we got Mom and Dad for Christmas. (Mom told me they use it almost weekly.) My parents tried to get strawberries and blueberries so they could be red, white and blue, but the local grocery store didn't have blueberries. Instead, they had a combined pack with only 10 blueberries... so our blue was lacking as we rationed them between us. But we all got a good laugh out of it... and the waffles were delicious!
Around 2:30, the entire family loaded into two cars to head onto the island and into Acadia National Park. At that point, Daddy wasn't feeling well either, so he piled into the backseat of our Jeep. Eliot was driving our car since I still wasn't feeling great, so that meant Jeremy was driving Mom and Nana in the car.
Regardless, we all enjoyed our Jordan Pond House experience... especially our popovers. Dad and Jeremy also ordered regular food, (Jeremy doesn't like popovers) but the rest of us only had popovers and they were delicious. Since I wasn't feeling great, I stopped at three and gave my last one to Eliot. He stopped at five this time since he didn't want to over do it before our next adventure.
After we finished eating, we split up with Dad, Mom and Nana driving home. Jeremy, Eliot and I were taking a hike around the lake. Eliot and I hiked the trail with my best friend Katie a few years ago, and I remember it being a long trail, but not too steep or strenuous. I'm the one who suggested it, so I have no one to blame but myself. It was far too hot out (almost 80°) to be hiking it, even if it was about 5 pm when we started.
I had to stop to rest quite a few times... not because I was winded, but because I was overdoing it in the heat and I knew it. I drank a ton of water. Most of the trail is in the tree line at the edge of the lake, but there are parts in full sunlight. Thankfully, the second half was in the shade of the mountain and we saved that part for last. I don't think I could have done it if we'd started in the shade and ended on the sunny side.
It took us about 2.5 hours to walk the three mile trail. Usually, it would have taken less time, but I didn't want to pass out from the heat. We all had a great experience taking our time though. We saw things that other people just walked right past without even noticing them. We saw two loons from up close and the guys got a lot of great photos and videos. We also saw two frogs at the end of our hike. Plus, there were also a lot of other cool things that we discovered along the way! Nature is awesome!!!
On the ride home, we discovered more natural beauty when we passed by a deer on the way out of the park back to the main road. The buck was in a field just minding his own business. Eliot stopped so Jeremy and I could get a few pictures and video, then we were on our way! (I haven't seen many bucks with antlers!) We also caught a gorgeous sunset when we crossed over the bridge back onto the mainland.
Eliot pretty much passed out on the couch as soon as we got home. (He overdid it and didn't drink enough water since he was worried about me having enough to drink.) I tried to get some water into him before Jeremy and I headed up to Walmart with Dad to get a few groceries for our cook out the next day. Once we got home, we all pretty much crashed since we had an early morning ahead of us.
Monday was an early morning since we wanted to get into town early to find parking spots to watch the 4th of July parade. The three of us kids took turns showering and were ready about the same time as Mom, Dad and Nana. We piled into two cars and headed into town. Thankfully, Dad found a handicapped parking spot right in front of the Criterion. Eliot, Jeremy and I headed behind the bank and found a spot there.
While we were there early, we killed the time before the parade efficiently. Eliot and I got a cinnamon roll from the Pink Pastry shop for my breakfast and I sat in the shade of the Criterion while eating it. We watched people go by as we sat in our fold out camp chairs. Jeremy, Dad, Eliot and I all went into Walgreens for drinks. When Eliot and I went in, we found Jeremy with his hands full of Disney pride plushies. Naturally, Eliot and I needed to get some too... then we got our drinks before checking out.
Eliot and I went to visit my best friend Katie over at her work the last little bit before the parade started. It was good to talk to her for a few minutes. We headed out when they closed their shop for the parade, promising to see her later that night for the fireworks.
After the disappointment that was last year's rained out pandemic parade, this year was back to normal. It was it's usual length and a lot of the floats that were missing last year were in the parade this year. I was really relieved because I didn't really know what to expect! This year, I didn't bother taking photos, instead opting to sit back and enjoy it. Although, Eliot took a hyper lapse video of the entire thing.
By the end of the parade, my stomach was bothering me again and I just wanted to go home. I missed our usual lunch at Epi and then sitting in Agamont Park. But Epi is now an oyster bar and I didn't really care if I sat in the park or not with my stomach feeling the way it was. We all headed home instead.
Once home, Dad had me check his thumb again. It had been hurting him for a day or two and he'd had me check it Saturday when we arrived. It was red in a few places and looked like he had burnt it while burning stuff in the yard. He didn't think he'd burnt it though, so we decided to keep an eye on it and didn't think much of it at the time.
Jeremy went upstairs; Eliot, Mom, Dad, Nana and I fell asleep in the living room. They were all in their recliners while Eliot and I were passed out on the couch. It was not the exciting 4th of July that I had hoped to have, but I clearly needed the rest.
Later in the afternoon, I got up and had Jeremy help me with our dinner. We ended up having a cook-in since Dad wasn't feeling up to going outside and grilling. Jeremy cut the cucumbers while I cut the tomatoes and cooked our burgers. A few minutes later, Jeremy, Eliot and I were enjoying our dinner and preparing to leave for the fireworks.
We wanted to spend some time in Acadia National Park so we left home a few hours earlier than we usually would for the fireworks. Jeremy hopped into the driver's seat of Dad's Jeep Wrangler. Daddy took the passenger seat and Eliot and I climbed into the back. (Mom and Nana were staying home.) Dad had taken the roof off of the front section so we could get some air and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Then, we headed back onto the island to take a ride around the Park Loop Road.
Our ride around Acadia was gorgeous as usual. I was on the wrong side of the car to get a great view of the ocean, but Eliot was gracious and took a few photos for me. It was so nice to kick back and enjoy the ride since I'm usually the one driving. Before we knew it, we were passing by Cadillac Mountain and heading back into town.
Jeremy stopped at Kebo to have me take over driving. He had no desire to drive downtown with all of the people. I was pleased when we found a great parking spot up near the Town Hall. We hopped out of the Jeep, grabbed our things and headed down to the waterfront. Eliot found us a spot where we usually sit and we were ready to go!
The sun slowly set and the crowd grew while we sat there waiting. Eliot and I had Jeremy take a few photos and I took a few from the Margaret Todd dock. We played on our phones and relaxed. At 8:00 pm, Katie got out of work and she joined us a few minutes later. Katie and I spent the rest of the time between then and 9:15 catching up. It was good to see her since it had been a while and it went by pretty quickly.
Before we knew it, the band was halfway through singing the Star Spangled Banner and the fireworks were going off. We were far enough away that we couldn't hear the anthem over the speaker system and the song was half over before we even knew what was happening... That was the first time they'd done that, and while it was nice, it would have been more nice to know it was going to happen in advance. Anyways...
The fireworks show was incredible. Bar Harbor always impresses me with the length of their fireworks show. Sure, it's not perfectly timed and set to music, it's not over a castle and it's certainly not Disney. But the show has come a long way since I was a child. Surprisingly, it lasted about 30 minutes which is it's usual length. I thought they might shorten it, but it doesn't seem like they cut any corners.
Afterwards, we packed up our stuff and made the trek back to the Jeep. We were taking Katie home so she, Eliot and I piled into the back seat. Daddy drove home since Jeremy still wasn't interested. It took us a while to get off of Cottage Street, but once we did it was smooth sailing. We said goodnight to Katie when we dropped her off at home. Then, we headed off the island and back to Trenton.
We were exhausted by the time we got home. Mom and Nana were watching the CNN 4th of July special. Eliot and I stayed up to watch the 11:00 news and then we said goodnight to everyone. Before heading to bed, Eliot, Jeremy and I talked about getting up to go play a round of mini golf at Pirates Cove before Jeremy headed out. We figured we'd see how the morning went and if we didn't get to do it this trip, we'd go a few weeks from now when we're home the weekend of the Backstreet Boys concert.
Tuesday morning, Eliot and I slept in way past the time we should have been up to go mini golfing. I didn't set an alarm, but I was grateful for that since I clearly needed the sleep. Instead, Eliot and I got up expecting to be heading south around noon. We went downstairs and visited with Mom, Dad and Jeremy for a few minutes before Jeremy said his goodbyes and headed out.
Unfortunately, Daddy still wasn't feeling well. At this point, his entire thumb was red... and a burn wouldn't do that. It suddenly dawned on me that the only other time I'd seen something like that was when Mom had cellulitis in her leg. I told Dad that, and it was like a lightbulb turned on in his head. After being pretty adamant that he didn't need to go to the doctor, he started to change his tune.
Eliot went to do his virtual reality work out while I sat on the couch and worked on a few things on my laptop. When he was almost finished, I went upstairs to shower. We had it timed almost perfectly and were both showered, packed and ready shortly after that. By the time we got downstairs, Dad was ready to go to the walk-in clinic. He was lightheaded though, so Eliot and I volunteered to take him.
Things got worse between the house and Ellsworth. Eliot had pet one of Dad's client's dogs when he had dropped by and he must have rubbed his eyes. He was having a bad allergic reaction and almost couldn't keep his eyes open. Dad and I checked in while Eliot washed his eyes out in the bathroom. Then, he headed around the corner to Walmart to get medicine. I sent him off after making him swear he'd text me the second he got back to the walk-in clinic so I knew that he was alright.
Dad and I waited and I talked to the other women in the waiting room. (I must have looked like a friendly half-masked face because they all wanted to talk to me.) Finally, Dad's name was called. After the doctor looked it over thoroughly and did a few tests, he announced that Daddy did indeed have cellulitis. He got him a prescription for it and we were on our way. Thankfully, Eliot was in the parking lot feeling better by the time we got out. (His eyes looked a lot better too.)
We then had time to kill before the medicine would be ready, so we went to TJ Maxx since I had wanted to. Eliot and I found a few Disney treasures but none of the 4th of July stuff was on sale yet. I settled on some Mickey and Minnie signs and we checked out. Then, we killed a little bit more time going to McDonald's to get something to eat.
I drove over to Walmart to wait for Dad's medication. We ended up there for quite a while. Eliot and I ate our McDonald's. I checked in with Mom. We played on our phones. It started raining and we had the roof of Dad's Jeep off. Eliot and I finally figured out how to close it. We waited some more. Dad eventually came out with his medicine in hand and we drove home. At that point, it was about 5:00 pm.
Eliot and I made quick work of packing our stuff up. We grabbed a few Christmas presents that we had left at Mom and Dad's house. We got our weekend bags and backpacks. I grabbed the extra groceries that Mom insisted we take home. Then, we said goodbye to Mom and Nana- Dad had already dragged himself back to bed- and we got on the road. I started out driving while I was still feeling ok.
We stopped at the Lowes in Brewer to see if they had any Halloween stuff out yet, but it was still way too early. Then, I drove down to Walmart in Waterville where I pulled over. I was so tired at that point so Eliot took over. He went inside to grab some soda to perk up, and we were on our way. We pulled into our driveway around 10 pm and it was raining. Eliot and I grabbed the bags we needed, ran inside and called it a night.
It was definitely another crazy holiday weekend, but it was fun. I'm glad the 4th of July celebrations in Bar Harbor felt more "normal" after cancelling them in 2020 and last year's pandemic and weather effected events. It was wonderful to be home, to spend time with family and friends and to celebrate what's beautiful about our country. °o°
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