Upsides and Downsides

Mount Desert Campground is hands down the most beautiful campground in the Acadia region. A large number of their campsites are on the water (Somes Sound), and most have platforms for tents so the ground isn't all soggy or lumpy under your ass (if you are unfortunate enough to still camp in a tent like a girl scout). No reservations are accepted after labor day, and you don't need them. And our dog is allowed during the off-season.

The downside is that other people's dogs are allowed, too. The dogs across the street from us were barkers, and the owners were shouters. The mornings greeted us with the lovely sounds of chirping birds; barking, snarling dogs; and "PETER! PETE! NO! PETER!"

When you travel in a teardrop to the coast, it's hard to avoid an occasional trailer park atmosphere. Though Leah has quickly become an expert at backing into small sites, the more private sites just aren't accessible enough for us. So we were in a bit of a neighborhood. Besides our neighbor "PETER! PETE! NO! PETER!" , we were also near "KEVIN!!" and "Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" That last one was an infant. I'm assuming there were grownups in the site with it, too, but they we relatively quiet, perhaps because they lacked brains large enough to provide them the ability to master language, which goes hand in hand with thinking it is a good idea to bring an infant tent camping, and with the absence of opposable thumbs.

Quiet hours were still quiet, so technically we couldn't complain. No generators. And most of the people were very nice and friendly. A couple of our hipper neighbors were in airstreams.

I do miss having a living room. Because we have a sturdy waterproof screen tent with rain flaps, the two brief periods of rain were not a problem. But we had a couple of very cold nights. The teardrop gets steamy inside, so we turned in early. I would have liked to sit at the picnic table longer, drawing or playing music. The campfire only gets you so warm.

In the eleven days we were gone, we only went out to one restaurant, for brunch. (And they didn't have mimosas. What's the point of brunch without mimosas?). We visited our marine mammalogist friend Courtney in her ocean front home and pigged out on the biggest lobsters I had ever seen, caught fresh that morning. Otherwise, we were content to enjoy home-cooked meals in the teardrop galley, with sake (Leah) and gin and tonics (Amelia) tying to win the "drink of the week" title.

(I'd like to imagine that this Maine restaurant spelled 'cocktails' wrong on purpose, only because it hurts me to imagine otherwise.)

-Amelia