Rocks, waves, crash!

We were worried about what today's weather would hold. The news reports indicated the storm was passing us and that today would be clear and the temperature would come back up to around 60. However, as last night progressed, the storm grew stronger, the wind blew harder, and the thunder boomed louder!

However, we woke this morning to calm winds and only a slight drizzle. As 9am turned to 10am, the drizzle stopped, the sun attempted to break through, and the thickest fog I've ever seen began to lift. Now we were ready for our vacation to continue...

If yesterday was a restful, boring kind of day,

this morning made up for if in adventure and laughter.

Just south of where we are in Southwest Harbor is Bass Harbor. Located on the southern coast of the island, Bass Harbor has an operating lighthouse that is run by the Coast Guard.

There are two ways to view the light house - walking down a path right beside the house or walking down a very steep set of stairs to view the light house from below as you stand on the rocky coast. We opted to try both.

Here's a few pictures from beside the light house. I like how Justin looks

similar to Mary Poppins in the picture on the left with his umbrella in hand!

Here's the view of the rocky coast from up beside the light house.

This is the view from the top of the stairs down to the shore. To say that they were steep does not quite described them. From the man-made steps, the path became this beautiful God-made stone path. To say it was beautiful also does not do it justice.

I made the boys crawl/climb out to the furthest point out on the rocky coast so that I could take their picture. Though not the most willing crew, they usually concede to my wims when I get an idea for a picture I'd like to take of them. Once they got out there, they really seemed to love it! The waves were crashing on the rocks right in front of them and they seemed awed by it all.

As I began making my way out toward them so that I could get a picture looking back toward the coast and along the coast, it happened!!

The monster of all waves decided to crash onto shore while we were all standing in it's path. As the wave crested and broke on the rocks, Justin managed to squeak a warning that didn't quite register in our brains in time. Not that we could have done much as it took about five minutes to creap and crawl through the craggy rocks to get out there in the first place. We were soaked! Oh, wait. Justin was behind the kids so he came out of the experience mostly dry. JJ and I were drenched!

The kids weren't thrilled at first, but I loved it! How many people can say that while they stood on and admired the rocky coast of Maine, they got wet when a giant wave crashed in front of them? If this wasn't an experience of a lifetime, then I don't know what is!

The kids headed back across the rocks,

and since I was already drenched, I headed out to where they were to

take the pictures I was on my way to get in the first place.

Here's a picture from the bottom of the steep stairs. It's much harder to climb stairs in soaking wet jeans I must say! JJ whimpered the whole way up and it wasn't until about lunch time that he was willing to admit it was a cool adventure after all.

Before we were blasted by a wave, I had taken a video of the waves crashing. As I pan right, that's where we were all standing when the wave crashed on us. Awesome adventure!