Seeing fireworks from above

We saw the July 4th fireworks from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. That's the first time I've seen fireworks at a lower elevation than where I stood, and we saw fireworks from many towns on the Maine mainland- at least 10- as small flashes of light with barely discernable shape in the distance, across the bay that separates Mt. Desert Island from the mainland. Then, we saw the Bar Harbor fireworks, still small but much nearer and thus larger than the others, after a long wait.

Before this, we had driven to the summit which was enveloped in a cloud, and driven down a bit to a vantage point below the clouds at which we parked and saw the fireworks. As the night deepened and the Bar Harbor fireworks finally started, the cloud descended and pretty soon we were in the cloud....so of course it was cold and wet. So we left about halfway through the fireworks show, along with most people, figuring the rest of the show would be pretty similar.

As far as I can remember, that's the first time I've been in a cloud before.

The next day we went to Schoodic Point, which was really nice- it's a little out of the way, and you might not see it in a typical short visit to Acadia, but it's worth it, and has really great pounding surf on the rocks, better than anything we saw on Mt. Desert Island in that regard. Schoodic Point is, after all, a large outcrop of rock that looks like it belongs on a mountain, except that it juts into the sea and experiences its full power. Also, the water left stranded on the rocks when the tide receded surprisingly spanned a range of colors, from orange to deeper and deeper shades of red to almost black.

There's a lot more to write about, but I will keep this short and stop here. This new strategy of just picking a couple moments to focus on rather than trying to write a comprehensive summary of things is probably a good idea.

The Shake Shack

First post in ages (since I started working in fact...)!

The Shake Shack is a fast food stand in New York City's Madison Square Park. They are famous for exceptionally good burgers.....and exceptionally long lines. On Wednesday, I decided to try it out for lunch.

Unfortunately the wait time was longer than I anticipated- I spent about 45 minutes in line, and 10 more minutes waiting for my food to be prepared. Considering it's New York, it's really shocking that so many people are willing to wait so long for food! Is the food that good?

Well....the burgers are great, possibly on the level of those of In 'N Out Burger in California. Probably not good enough to warrant a wait of an hour for lunch though- and yet waiting in line outdoors in the park was actually quite nice. It's like an oasis from the fast moving pace of New York City. Perhaps that's why people are willing to wait so long for food here.

In my next 2 posts, I'll hopefully talk about Acadia National Park and Boston's newly renovated Harbor and Downtown.