Southwest Harbor, Maine - Day One - 3/28/10

After a LONG drive through the night, and into the morning, and then into the afternoon, we arrived in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Our long-awaited vacation has arrived! The boys did very well in the car and didn't get extremely antsy to be out of the car until the very last hour or so. We were all relieved when we arrived at our resort.

Southwest Harbor is on the western side of Mount Desert Island. Covering much of the island is Acadia National Park, offering miles to trails to hike, mountains to climb, creatures to discover, and much, much more. Then there's the harbor itself. Southwest Harbor is an operating fishing village. Much smaller than Bar Harbor on the east side of the island known as the tourist location to discover, Southwest Harbor is dubbed the "quiet" side of the island. Exactly what we were looking for on this vacation...quiet, rest, and just us. We're looking forward to a week filled with new, exciting things to do and many memories to take home with us.

This begins the tour of our townhouse:

The mid-level is where you enter the house. On this level is a half-bath, the kitchen, and the living room with a sleeper sofa where L & H will sleep. They told me tonight that I make the "bestest bed in the world!" There's also a deck looking out over the harbor.

On the lower level is T & J's room with two twin beds, a full bath, and the laundry room. They also have a patio off their room, but I've blocked it with their empty suitcase and a lounge chair. We've chosen to make that door off limits. Safer that way I say.

The top floor has the master bedroom, full bath, and another deck with a view of the harbor. Even though we don't have a "baby" in the house, we continue to use a baby monitor at home since our room is downstairs and the kids are upstairs. It's just reassuring knowing that we can hear them if they ever need us. We always take the monitor with us, so there's no worries that T or J will need something and we won't hear them.

We took a drive down to the harbor and walked a bit on one of the piers. Stacked all around were the "things" (good word, huh?) that they submerge to harvest mussels. Between each of these submersible decks are piers that allow access to check the decks. These piers were also stacked and boy did they smell awful. Some of them still had old mussels attached to them. Justin explained that they only harvest the mussels off the submersible decks and not the piers. We'll confirm this tomorrow when we actually talk to some fishermen!

And then, of course, there's the resort pool. The boys absolutely loved their time in the water!

T & J (you can still see some healing poison ivy areas) enjoyed playing a game of sharks and minnows with Justin. They also got a few lessons in swimming underwater from one side to the other with only taking one breath. They loved the challenge and both accomplished it too!

H & L just loved getting back into their "bob brothers" role! H did play some in the sharks and minnows game though. Lucas just paddle around saying he was always the shark because he had on his shark swimmy - Thanks Joy and family: He loves it and it works really well to keep him afloat!

Day one is complete.

The boys are in bed and I'm enjoying a cup of tea while I record our first day's memories! I know I'll sleep well tonight since last night only granted Justin and I about three hours total as we took turns at the wheel. We're hoping the boys sleep in tomorrow. If not, we'll get Hayden his "lots of cereal" at a reasonable hour and then see how the day unfolds!

P.S. Grandma - you have Justin so excited about a lobster that we've already found a fisherman who is open year-round. He runs a restaurant where he offers his boat's catch, but also sells fresh shrimp, crabs, lobster, etc right off his boat as well. Justin wanted to go tonight to get "his straight-from-the-ocean lobster", but the place is only open until 4pm. I'll let you know tomorrow if he's successful in his search.