Camping in Maine: Call-Waiting of the Wild, or Return of the Mozzies

Today's post comes from the wild backcountry of Desert Island, Maine.  Adina is sleeping next to me in our tent, and I'm here on her Mac wondering why there was no wi-fi at the campgrounds we went to when I was a kid.  We arrived at Acadia National Park this afternoon and did some drive by sightseeing around the park before pitching our tent, grilling our hot dogs, and heading out to play mini-golf.  I guess some things are still just like the old Alpert family vacations.  I think Saturday night we'll hit up the Friendly's to make it official.  There is tons to do here, but we're not sure what we're going to be able to get to in an entire weekend of rain.  After the bizarre rains in Chiang Mai, the earthquake, the tornado, and the typhoon, we kind of thought coming back to the states would ease up the weather a bit.  We weren't counting on the first hurricane to threaten New England in Buddha knows how long.  They say they're expecting wave swells of up to 24 feet for coastal New England, so maybe sea kayaking isn't a great idea.  Does any one know if rock climbing in a thunderstorm tends to have good results?  Right now we're assuming our little tent can withstand the wind and rain, but we'll let you know if we could use a life preserver or something.  Luckily we enjoyed the super pretty scenery in beautiful weather today (nice break from the heat in NY), and we're not spoiled enough to expect much more than that.  We also hope the rain will scare away some of the mozzies, who are far more vicious here than anywhere in SE Asia.  We stepped out of the car for two minutes and had half a dozen bites on our arms.  Though I suppose not carrying Malaria is considerate of them.  

Since our last update we've been hopping around NY, NJ, and even RI seeing some friends and their new apartments and/or babies.  If we missed you the first time around don't worry, we'll be back next week.  We're especially excited to return to Tova and Steve's, who always deserve special mention.  On an unrelated note, I met an old student of mine who works in Hollisters on Broadway and Houston.  If you happen to be around there, it is worth peeking in to witness the absolute absurdity that is their store.  I can't even describe it well enough, I'll let the boys dressed as lifeguards outside the store or the teenagers in bikini greeting you inside do that all on their own.  Suffice it to say that the only way I could explain it to Adina was that the place was ridiculous to the point of being stupid.

Aside from catching up with a parade of friends, and playing softball in central park for the first time in 2 years, the big activity in NY was a trip to Citi Field to see the Buffalo Bisons play in Mets jerseys.  We didn't mind that the entire roster is on the DL because really we were there just to check out the new field, which I thought was fine but did not stand out above the other new generation parks of been to.  It's lower concourse level is great (except for the section behind the plate where you are removed from the field because of the luxury suites - something that also pisses me off about Nationals Park), the food we can't eat seemed creative and plentiful, and I kind of like the quirky dimensions and large field.  My problem though is with the upper concourse.  You can't see the field well while walking around, it is a VERY steep view to the field because of the vertical middle levels, and it's not so easy to get up and down between there and the main concourse.  Oh, and ALL FOUR kosher stands were out of hot dogs by the seventh inning.  Since they still had dozens of buns, I'm pretty sure they still had hot dogs in there somewhere, they just wanted to be able to shut down and start cleaning up early.  Jerks.  Overall it really didn't measure up to Citizen's Bank Field, which is still my favorite.

On tap for the next few days could be hiking, climbing, whale watching, perhaps scuba diving (we found a dive shop and really want to know where they dive here), or maybe a slew of backup indoor plans.  We'll see.  

Then it's off to Boston, Albany, back to the city and home.  Only 10 more days!!!  

Sunrise is going to wake me up in a few hours (ah the great outdoors), so I better get some sleep.  Plus the laptop battery is running low and I wouldn't want it to run out before we check the weather forecast in the morning.  Ah, the great outdoors?