Enjoying Acadia National Park

 For the last two weeks we enjoyed the natural beauty of the Acadia National Park on the Maine Coast mostly on Mount Desert Island. (Pronounced "Dessert".) For the first week of our stay much of the park was closed due to the lack of agreement between the political parties in the USA.

 Our home base was the resort of Harbor Ridge in Southwest Harbor on the island. The resort had units that stretched through three floors.  Two double beds and a bathroom were on the lower floor, a fully equipped kitchen, and half bath, and a large living room with pull-out couch on the main floor, and a full bath and king-sized bed on the upper floor. The init we had provided an excellent base from which to explore the park and surrounding coastline.

 The park is criss-crossed with "carriage trails". These made excellent surfaces for bike riding though the long sweeping slopes taxed our abilities given our "training" on the gravel bed of a disused railway thrack in Kanata.

 This photo was taken by the one cyclist we did pass on a long up-hill climb. His pedal would not lock on his crank, and his tools, and the ones we carried did not do the trick. He, and three companions were using the carriage roads as a precurser for a bike-riding holiday just a few days away. We hope he managed to get the right tools before embarking on that trip.

 Besides bike-riding trails, the park had many hiking trails. The easier hikes had stairways such as the one hear. We were told the more difficult trails had iron ladders bolted into the rocks to climb. We accepted such as true but did not try them ourselves.

 A feature of the park is the stone bridges.

 Another way to explore the park is my road. The Park Loop road is an excellent way to see the majesty of the park. And the road goes to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA> The view from there on a clear day is spectacular.

 Another mountain top was reached after a bit of a scramble.

This interesting wood bowl was a sight to see on another of our biking expeditions.

We plan to return to the park for another two week stay next year. There's so much more to see and explore by foot, bike and car. We hope to be there later in the season when it could and hopefully will be drier and warmer.

Getting ready for next year's travels.

Its time to get ready for next year's travels. The first step is to assemble all the necessary materials to renew our passports. These expire in June of next year. So its time to renew them. We will get new photos today or tomorrow, fill in the applications and then go to a nearby Passport Office. One of the perks of living in the National Capital is the nearness of Federal government facilities. Our new Passports should then be in our hands before the New Year begins.

Another step, one taken this morning, was to renew my travel insurance for my pre-existing medical conditions: the heart attack and remediation steps taken to safeguard my health after that (stents and medication), and my disease of the esophagus (Barrett's disease), a potential pre-cancerous condition.  That renewal was done over the phone after navigating the dreaded phone menus.

The Travel Insurance covers costs up to $2 000 000 and is basically to cover any medical costs that might occur while we are in the US. The insurance fee would be much lower if we did not travel there. Travel Insurance costs, if limited to travelling to England, would be much lower.

Our travel plans for 2013 include a one week trip to San Francisco in January, a potential trip to Maine for two weeks in May or June, and a two weektrip to England in August. The San Francisco trip will be our first to California. We plan to visit friends there who once lived across the street from us. The Maine holiday will be a relaxing sea-side vacation. The England trip will include Anne's niece's wedding and the celebration of my twin-brother's 70th birthday.

2013 looks to be a good year for travel.