Acadia, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Recipe for regrouping: grab some friends, your dog, and head back to nature. Headed up to Acadia National Park this past weekend with some friends. We camped at Blackwoods Campground with two tents, and managed to not get wet ("Stay away from the sides of the tent!"), eat some delicious food (despite some harrowing hibachi cooking, and Diane's efforts in the dark), and find all of Lucca's poo (a very necessary thing in a campground).

Met up with some other friends for some barbecue, and one of my best Fourth of July's. There were some amazing moments driving out of our misty campground, and being enveloped in sunshine — and vice versa. The weather this summer has definitely made an impact on everyone's moods. You can tell when it's finally sunny. Believe me.

We managed to hike the Acadia Mountain Trail (rated strenuous), most of the Cadillac Mountain South Ridge Trail (also rated strenuous, and booty-defying, considering how slippery the face was due to all. the. rain.), and swim in Echo Lake. Of course, there were jaunts into Bar Harbor for ice cream and parades, and an amazing ferry ride, or mail-boat ride depending on who you asked, to Cranberry Island — beautiful until the mosquitoes came out of hiding.

wiggle room

sometimes, after all the hectic happenings (and the impending hecticness... this weekend is going to be a blurrr!), you need to work in some downtime. so we headed to the Blue Hills Reservation, just a hop, skip, and a jump outside of boston for some hiking. And much needed doggie time (sidenote: his energy is endless. I'm not kidding. after hiking up and down, over rocky terrain, and slippery roads, he was still bouncing.).

The hike was beautiful, even though the fall foliage promised wasn't as eventful — still plenty green last weekend! We sat by Houghton's Pond afterwards to guzzle the last bit of relaxation before heading home. Sunday was cold, drizzly, and we lost our soccer game. boo. hiss.

But with the Boston Latino Film Fest, Open Studios, and free music throughout, we'll be wishing for that drizzly day, I'm sure. shmoozing, no matter what the cause, is never as fun as one would hope...

afternoon

ever get a feeling of starting in the middle?

made it to the woods this weekend...


Through lots of coaxing from the locals, we found a nice little baby hike for the hot day. When we made it to the top of our hill, the lake was hazy below us, and storms clouds were rolling in. The humidity was so oppressive, that it felt wonderful having buckets of water pouring down as we ran down the trail to the car.