UTOPEIA: Of Mountains and Beaches

About this time last month, my cousin, Suzanne came up from Georgia for the Maine experience, and because I'm the coolest cousin ever too of course. So needless to say, we showed her a lot of Maine, from the mountains to the beaches.

I picked Suzi up from the airport (a wee bit late...) and we had a nice chill lunch and yoga at the ol' tiny home, followed by dinner and drinks on the river where I had special ordered the prettiest sunset just for her. The next day we vegged on the couch while it rained all day but got off our butts to get fancy for an amazing dinner at a local gem downtown, The Fiddlehead Restaurant (highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Bangor).

Our lazy days were short lived as we had a white water rafting trip set up for Saturday which we were sooooo nervous about; me because I'd never been and Suzi because she had been and knew how freaky it is. And what better way to calm your nerves, than the owner of Fiddlehead Restaurant saying, "Oh you're rafting on the Dead River? A man just died on it last week...but it was a different rafting company." Greeeeaaattt.

So not only did a man die on the Dead River when his raft flipped sending everyone including the guide into the rapids (so sad), but the river has the longest continuous stretch of class 4 and 5 rapids in the northeast. As you can see in the picture below, Suzi and I were obviously not nervous at all. But luckily we were in good hands with our guide, Wilson.

After going through the first few rapids, I got my sea legs and was having way more fun than I was worried. We we're all having a blast!

At one point while we were going through 'Mile Long Rapid', a man fell out of another raft behind us. Our guide Wilson's laid back "If you fall in, it's just a refreshing dip" dimeanor quickly changed to "Oh my God, get him out!" and was able to grab him (after litterally picking me up by my lifejacket to move me out of the way) and pull him into the side of our raft. We were mid rapids when we we're told "Left side paddle hard!" but the man that we pulled in was on that side, scared and a little in shock and wasn't moving out of the way. Needless to say, it was quite an intense ride through one of the most dangerous parts of the river, where later I found out is where the man who died the week before fell out.

We successfully made it through our 16 mile stretch of continuos rapids on the Dead River and I was happy I stayed in the raft! Chris was barely fazed throughout the trip as you can see in the pictures below... <does he even have a paddle?>

The day ended with some well deserved ice-cream on the river and a beautiful drive through the Maine countryside and along birdhouse lined roads.

Our last day together was the crown jewel of the trip. A hike on the infamous Bee Hive Trail in Acadia National Park, followed by an evening in beautiful Bar Harbor. After our time in the park, we collectively decided Bee Hive was the best hike we had ever been on. My jaw was on the floor pretty much the whole time, partly because of the nonstop view of mountains and beaches (you like how I tied that in?) and part how technical it was. The trail is famous for iron rungs that you rely on to keep you from tumbling off the mountain cliff.

After our breathtaking hike on Bee Hive trail, we stopped by Sand Beach (which you can see from the trail) then headed into Bar Harbor for some drinks and shopping on Main Street, and of course, a fresh steamed lobster!