Leaf Peeping

So another thing I'm learning about, and enjoying, is the fall foliage and how beautiful it is when you actually have four seasons. I was starting to wonder why Sean and I have stayed in Maine so late in the year but after yesterday it was all worth it. A term the locals use (and I'm starting to use) to describe the tourists that show up in Maine in the fall is "leaf peepers". In all reality, leaf peeping is dangerous. Imagine a bunch of people, with out of state plates, driving 5 mph, staring off into the woods instead of the road. It's beautiful to look at but very annoying to those of us that live here and have to drive behind these people.

Sometimes Sean can really surprise me and do something so sweet and thoughtful - yesterday was one of those days. He took Duke and me on a day date and it literally was an entire days worth of activity. Here's what all was involved.

First off we got up earlier then I would have liked (but I didn't mind in this circumstance) so we could leave Camp. We headed to Bar Harbour where we had breakfast at The Looking Glass. This was a cute restaurant at the Blue Nose Inn that sits up on a hill and overlooks the ocean. The entire wall was windows so you could take in the view. This is a picture of the view we had during breakfast.

After breakfast we went into Bar Harbour and looked around at a couple of the shops. We found the cutest bird feeder made of slate and birch by a local artist. We got it and will be taking it to Dallas where there aren't any squirrels. A couple of cruise ships were docked in Bar Harbour so the place was packed with people shopping. They all had foreign accents and wanted to pet and love on Duke since they hadn't seen their pets since they left on their holiday.

After I got my shopping fix, we got in the Jeep and headed up to Cadillac Mountain to become leaf peepers. Sean had taken me leaf peeping around Bangor last fall when we came up to Maine to get our engagement pictures taken. That was at the beginning of November though. It's only the beginning of October and it looks like we are almost to peak season. Here's the view we had during our drive.

On your way up the mountain there are several places to pull off the road and take pictures. Our first stop you could see Jordan Pond. It amazing how the trees change earlier around water. It was cloudy so the colors aren't as vibrant in the pictures as they were in person. Here's a picture of Duke in front of Jordan Pond.

When the sun came out you could see the colors better.

Here's Duke and me enjoying the view. As you can tell it was a little windy and chilly.

We made it to the top where the clouds were rolling in. We were so high that we were actually in the clouds. Here's Duke leading us around the paths.

This is the view from the top. I just loved the color of the ocean in some of these but in this one I loved the islands in the background.

In this picture you can see the two cruise ships. They were HUGE!!!

Duke and me enjoying the view.

Duke and I went hiking down the mountain a little to see if we could get a better view.

On our way up the mountain we noticed a waterfall on the side of the mountain. The parking spot was actually on the other side of the road so we stopped on our way down. There isn't a river at the top of the mountain so I guess this is just run-off because it's rained so much lately. Perfect example of the stupidity of the leaf peepers is that while we were taking picture someone actually stopped their car in the middle of the road to look at the waterfall. Coming up the mountain the waterfall was right at the end of a sharp left turn.

Duke enjoying the waterfall view.

There was also a cute bridge over a creek with beautiful leaves we wanted to get pictures of. Here are some of my favorites.

Seeing how Sean grew up in Maine sometimes he knows some special places most people don't know about. He really wanted Duke to get to see the ocean so he took us to one of those special locations. It was beautiful to see the ocean up close with the changing trees in the background. Since no one was there we let Duke off his leash to run around. He had so much fun sniffing all the new scents and chasing the seagulls.

Duke running around in the sand, ears a flopping.

Duke and me on a rock in the water.

After the ocean stop we headed to Sean's parents house for a visit. Then we headed back to the Camp to drop off Duke and went and had dinner with Brian and Julie. It was such a great day with my two favorite boys and now I'm officially ready to head back to Dallas!