In which Layla and Roz embark on a 37 day Farewell to America Odyssey

by Layla

On holiday for 37 days? Is this an elaborate Travelling Wives April Fools gag? Of course not: it’s July. And en route back to London after nearly four glorious years in Washington, what could be more fitting than thirty seven glorious days of holiday? Nothing, I say!

And so on Friday 17^th July, Roz and I left work at 5pm, walked home, grabbed two large suitcases, one small suitcase, and two little rucksacks, bade farewell to what was home, and dragged all our bags to one of our favourite DC restaurants, Rasika, where we had a last supper with some of our friends, before grabbing a cab, classical music playing on high volume as a fitting movie soundtrack as we whizzed past the Washington monuments, tears in our eyes, but a little thrill in our heart. It was Day 0 of the most decadent holiday of our lives.

We arrived in Bangor, Maine at midnight and headed immediately to our hotel, right inside the airport, then after a good sleep and a quick breakfast, hopped in another cab and we were off to our first destination: Bar Harbor. Now I must immediately call foul upon our American friends. We have long been asking for suggestions of where we could go for a week of hiking, biking, paddleboarding, and the like, without the need for a car. Nobody EVER mentioned Bar Harbor. And so far it is fantastic.

Bar Harbor is the tourist epicenter of Acadia National Park, a ye olde village complete with village green, touristy shops and pretentious crafty shops, perched on the beautifully scenic Maine coastline, on the tip of a beautiful forest, with free, frequent buses shuttling visitors between all the sights and trails of the Park. It is a glory of infrastructure. The weather, alas, has been a little less glorious. On our first day it was grey and lightly spitting (but luckily it has since perked up). We checked into our bed and breakfast, and headed straight for the Shore Path – a scenic stroll along the coast, with the waves breaking, the rocks in cool formations, islands popping up, and just a little mist rolling romantically across the water. Afterwards we strolled up to Two Cats, a famous Bar Harbor eatery which had superlative strawberry butter which we ate on biscuits / scones alongside a really excellent breakfast burrito which we split. We then sanctimoniously stocked up on groceries for our good intentions of eating at home, filled our fridge, collapsed in exhaustion… and then dragged ourselves awake and headed out into Acadia National Park.

Our first hike took us a few miles up the Jessup trail through beautiful forest, and along a boardwalk up to a little nature garden – and then all the way back down again. Back in town, we rewarded ourselves with local beer (and not-so-local hummus) at Lompok bar before walking over to Reel Pizza, a cool and quirky independent cinema which sold pizza, which we were happy to have for our dinner while watching Minions. I was so exhausted I fell asleep during it whilst children around me (and Roz) were transfixed. The shame. But a really lovely first day of holiday.

On Sunday we managed the first long lie-in either of us have had in weeks – nearly til 8am! We ate in our little studio apartment, then boarded our first free Island Explorer bus, destination: Jordan Pond. This is a really beautiful lake, the sort of scenery that makes my heart happy. The landscape felt similar to our recent trip to Banff in Canada. And yet again, hooray for Maine vacationing infrastructure: beautifully demarcated little paths and subtle signs steered us to a ridiculously idyllic woodland path around the perimeter of the lake (with a diversion on a path to Bubble Rock which was rather less pleasant in its vertical nature!). The sun was shining and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Until we reached the restaurant at the end of the walk and had an outstanding lunch overlooking Jordan Pond. Their specialty is popovers, which turned out to be very tall Yorkshire pudding-esque items you eat with jam and butter. Both of us were fans.

We took the bus home, collapsed onto the bed and fell into a coma-like sleep. When we eventually awoke we felt horrible. A brisk walk down to the water didn’t help waken us… but two giant ice creams served as effective medication. We had a delicious meal at home, cooked by Roz, and finished the evening with drinks at Lompok.

Monday brought the sun: hooray! After Roz shamed me by going for an early run while I read my book in bed, we celebrated the sun by renting bikes and heading out on the carriage trails. There are about 45 miles of these carriage trails, beautiful wide gravel paths that wind through the National Park and around the lakes, with no car, just charming signposts and only occasional hills: perfect for cycling. We went around Eagle Lake and some other pretty lakes and had a picnic overlooking Bubble Lake. Literally picture postcard perfect scenery, and glorious warm-but-not-humid sunshine, and paths shaded by trees. This part of the world is amazing.

When we got home, we bought local cheeses and a bottle of Chardonnay and spent the afternoon reading in the pretty garden attached to the B&B, which we had all to ourselves. Roz cooked a delicious salad dish incorporating all the delicious ingredients you can think of. And then we walked down to the water and to the paddleboarding shop… oh yes, it was time to seize the sun! They wouldn’t let us paddleboard on the sea as it was too rough, but they would let us do paddleboard yoga on Echo Pond. Roz was delighted. It was a bit chilly by the time the yoga started, especially as I’m not very good at yoga on dry land, much less on a paddleboard! But the scenery was idyllic, the sky felt huge and blue, the water was warm and less polluted than our regular Potomac River experiences, and Roz, the yoga teacher and one other bendy girl had a beautiful time doing various yoga poses while I managed approximations that sometimes earned a patronizing compliment that made me giggle. We did yoga on the lake til sunset, at which point the sun slipped behind the hills, we all shivered in the chill, the teacher instructed everyone to do the ‘warrior three’ pose and immediately fell into the water, I tried to disguise my amusement, and Roz cannily seized the moment to suggest we paddle back to dry land. We walked home via the scenic shore path and had the rest of the wine and cheese before bed.

Today the sun had taken his hat off and the place was shrouded in mist. Undeterred, we had some coffee (Roz) and weird Japanese drink (me) in a cool wee Japanese coffee shop before getting on a bus to Sandy Bay to embark upon a couple of miles of Ocean Path, commonly described as one of the most scenic walks in the area. Obviously the describers were not there in the mist. But we had fun anyway. After returning to town for a rather excellent lunch, we got on another free bus bound for the Pirate’s Cove Adventure minigolf. I am a sucker for minigolf. This one was particularly fun and kitsch, being elaborately pirate-themed, complete with a full pirate ship. We played both courses, and Roz annoyingly beat me in the first; we drew in the second. And Roz won an icecream which she generously / smugly shared with me.

After enjoying said ice cream in the drizzle, we headed back to town to put on a warmer outfit, have a beer in Lompok, eat a tasty dinner at home, and then head out to ImprovArcadia – a daily improv comedy show just down the road. It was surprisingly good though Roz is still chastising me for not being one of the volunteers. An excellent end to an excellent start of the holiday.