28 June 2014

Happy Saturday!

My day off started quite gradually. I was a little sore this morning because of my run last night. Between having to pee and being really hungry, I coaxed myself out of bed a little before 9:00.

The rest of the morning wasn't too noteworthy.

I went for a recovery run around noon. Felt really nice to run in the full sun. I think I scared a few folks on the carriage roads as I ran by and showed off my farmer's tan.

I returned back to the dorm with only 10 minutes left in the Brazil versus Chile soccer game. Fortunately, the game went into double overtime and penalty kicks. So I was able to enjoy a full hour of soccer action. The dorm was rooting for Chile because Carrie had studied abroad down there for 3 months. We all became emotionally involved even though the link to the Chile national team was so distant for most of us. I think we all just like to be part of a team.

A gaggle of us headed to Echo Lake to hang out on the beach. The water was a little chilly. This is Maine after all. Still, it felt good since the temperature rose to about 80 today outside. After swimming for 15 minutes and lying in the sun for around 15 minutes I became bored. To overcome my boredom, I built a sandcastle. Although, Ana called it a "sand cake." I definitely would not advise having a slice of it.

This evening I learned how to play Bananagrams. I went on to win the first round. I then lost the next two, miserably. All well, you win one you lose the rest.

Today's picture of the day is my sand castle/cake. Please note the moat and bridge. Enjoy!

27 June 2014

Happy Friday!

Today was a busy day.

Sarah, Jami, and I were all on duty. That means one of us rotates out to patrol the parking lot. I volunteered for the 11:30 to 1:00 shift. I quickly learned that there is not much one can do to keep the parking lot flowing. Not that having someone out there is useless by any means. However, when combining people trying to park on grass, folks holding up the line while waiting three minutes or more for a car to back out, and constantly answering the frustrated motorists’ question: is there anywhere else to park?, the reality is the parking lot is always going to run as smoothly as TSA checkpoint during Thanksgiving at O’Hare.

The waitlist for outside seating exceeded one hour today. An awfu lot of people wanted to enjoy the sun. I understand their desire. I really enjoyed my parking lot duty because of the beautiful sun overhead.

After work, I went on my long run for the week. I planned on doing the “Around Mountain” loop. I was under the impression that it would only be 8.5 miles. When I was 1:15 into the run and still had two miles to go, I decided I should probably recheck the mileage when I returned to the dorm. As it turns out, the loop is 10.8 miles. Whoops.

My route was on the carriage roads. The backside of the loop consisted of a few miles of uphill. It was probably the longest uphill stretch I’ve ever ran (I never did much running in Montana). Fortunately, I had two breaks during the hard uphill. The first was when I ran over the Waterfall Bridge. At the base of the waterfall was a family extremely surprised and happy to see me run by. They managed to get my attention and I snapped a few family photos for them. The rest of my time I didn’t see any other people except for a biker speeding by.

My second break was when I saw a furry creature lumber onto the road. At first I had grave concerns it was a skunk. Upon further inspection, however, I determined it was a porcupine. I had never seen a porcupine before so that was pretty neat. I had to scare it off the road since it wasn’t in any too big of a hurry to move along. Ain’t nobody got time to wait for a porcupine.

When I finally crested the hill and looked to the west, I determined the run up was well worth it. The sun was sinking low in the sky, which it tends to do every night around 7:30 out here. The sea of sea water broke up the sea of trees as the distant hills kept watch over the blue-green Maine landscape. I’m looking forward to that view again in a few months as the chlorophyll leaves the leaves. I’m less excited about the run up the hill to get there, though.

I didn’t take my camera along today during my run so I have no exciting pictures for picture of the day. Instead, the picture of day is a shot from earlier this week when I climbed the South Bubble. Eagle Lake is in the foreground and mainland Maine is in the back. Enjoy!

26 June 2014

Happy Thursday!

Today I read in a Bar Harbor visitor’s guide that a few of the scenes from the movie Shutter Island were shot here on Mount Desert Island. Waking up to wind and rain the morning made me feel somewhat like we were experiencing the same storm depicted in the movie. Fortunately, neither the Jordan Pond House dorm nor Mount Desert Island is reserved for the criminally insane as the buildings and island are in the movie. Or are they? If I see Leonardo in a fedora running around I’ll be a little suspicious. He sure had a tough time in the movie figuring stuff out about what Shuttle Island is actually about…See the movie if you don’t get the reference here. Right before you watch it, Google pictures of Otter Cliffs and then look for them in the film.

Because of the rain, things were slow today at work. With completion of the north parking lot construction late yesterday afternoon and the bad weather today, we had an exponential decrease in negative feedback about parking. So that’s a plus I suppose.

While eating lunch, the wire behind my bottom teeth managed to dislodge itself from one of the anchor points. As a result, I suddenly had a sharp wire poking my tongue. I quickly learned that dental emergencies are not something you should have on Mount Desert Island. One of the three dental clinics told me they couldn’t help because the dentist just went on maternity leave. The one that office referred me to couldn’t get me in until Tuesday. They aren’t open on Fridays and had no space on Monday. If not Tuesday, the next available appointment would be on July 1. The final office on the island straight up didn’t answer their phone during their normal business hours. Plus, according to their voicemail greeting, they aren’t open on Fridays either. I finally tracked down an office that will be able to get me in for a quick fix…on Monday…in Ellsworth 45 minutes away.

To remedy my dental problem, I rode the free Island Explorer shuttle into Bar Harbor after work to get some dental wax. I have now successfully separated my tongue and the pointy wire. They weren’t playing together very nicely, and after several hours of contact, my tongue was beginning to lose badly.

While in town, I stopped by to check on Luke at the ice cream shop. He kindly let me sample the Mocha Oreo. I sort of wish we sold ice cream at the info booth. Although I suppose that would be too long of a job title if we did. I’d be known as an “Ice Cream Scooping Information and Reservation Agent.”

While in town, I also went to the public library to get my library card. There the librarian, Mrs. Woodside, pleasantly guided me through the application process and then spent a good chunk of time answering my question about what books I need to read to understand the island and Acadia. I told her that I work at the Jordan Pond House information booth and wanted to be able to answer visitor questions.

As I checked out my books we got to talking a bit. During the course of the conversation, she casually mentioned that her husband is the president of the Acadia Corporation—the company which lost the National Park Service contract bid last spring to operate the Jordan Pond House for the next 10 years. Now, I am not interested in throwing my opinions out onto the web regarding that topic.  If anyone is allowed to have an opinion on the bid outcome, however, it’s her. 

Mrs. Woodside as an individual has my utmost respect.She graciously equipped me with resources to become better at my job of helping visitors to the Jordan Pond House understand and appreciate this place. Her actions today effectively showed that she is much more interested in upholding the tradition and dignity of the Jordan Pond House than she is in projecting any personal frustrations or anger she has on me as a new seasonal worker for a company she probably doesn’t care for after the bid outcome.

Unsurprisingly, she also promised to put up one of our ACMNP worship service posters after I asked. I heard that she and her husband are Christians and have been very accommodating for ACMNPers they’ve employed in the past. Today, Mrs. Woodside certainly exhibited the very Christian idea of not letting anger and frustration be what controls and dictates her life and actions. Rather, she exhibited grace and compassion because I’m sure she recognizes that the God she serves has showered onto her so much grace and compassion that there is no room left for anger and frustration in her life.

This evening I read one of the books Mrs. Woodside recommended, The Story of Mount Desert Island. It was a nice and short one so I finished it in about two hours. That means my completed book tally for this summer is up to two already!

Today’s picture of the day is a shot of all the books and DVD’s I came home from the library with. Enjoy!

25 June 2014

Happy Wednesday!

This evening I went into emergency mode. Following my post-run shower, I discovered that I had no more clean underwear. I concluded the best solution was to wear my swimsuit. An issue arose, however, in that it is not warm enough outside to wear just my swim trunks. It's blue jean weather. Therefore, I now find myself uncomfortably wearing swimwear underneath my Levi's. Fortunately, the drier only has another 50 minutes left. Relief is coming soon.

Compared to my crisis this evening, the rest of the day was a piece of cake. Although, work was steady and heavy today. Jami and I received a lot of phone calls for future reservations. The place is starting to hop a little more each day.

For my run today I headed down to the Wildwood Stables. They do the carriage rides on the carriage roads in the park. The place has a distinct odor of equestrian fecal matter,  but it's a better smell than that of the common dorm room area. During my time down there, I managed to avoid contact with any horses. I'm a little ascareded (the proper pronunciation of the word "scared" according to Dad) because they are big. I'm weary of anything bigger than me: horses, bears, elephants, my roommate Nenad...

During my cool down after the run, I ran into Luke, my ACMNP (A Christian Ministry in the National Parks) teammate. He was waiting for the Island Explorer shuttle to take him from the Jordan Pond House back to Bar Harbor. He spent his day off "peak bagging" several of the mountains on this side of the island. Judging by his route, he had some ambition today. During my next day off on Saturday we'll find out if I can match his ambition. I sort of doubt it.

This evening I read over some of the blogs from the official ACMNP bloggers...not ones on the down-low ("DL" for you cool people) like me. They have some pretty interesting, inspiring, intriguing, and intertaining stuff. Check them out: http://www.acmnp.com/team-experience/team-blogs

Today's picture of the day is a welcome sight in the men's hallway: a plug-in air freshener. Already there is a noticeable increase in pleasant smells in the cooridor. I hope the scent can make it into our common area. If so, it may start to be less pungent in there than it is at Wildwood Stables.

24 June 2014

Happy Tuesday!

The best way to describe the flow of visitors to the info booth today was "steady but heavy". I imagine that will be my go-to description of work many times over the next few months.

On my evening run I did a negative split workout. It worked out really well because my time dropped by almost 4-minutes coming back on my two-mile course. The only problem is that the hill climbing on the way out was significantly harder than on the way back. So my chosen course had a tactical flaw.

This evening was bowling and trivia night. We ended up getting all the way into Ellsworth (a 45-minute drive) only to find the alley closed. So we went to Wal-Mart instead. In the clearance section I found a back of 50 envelopes, a pack of 12 razor cartridges for shaving, and a box of 250 plastic bags. Woo-who!

At trivia tonight my crowing contribution was knowing the interstate bridge collapse in 2007 which killed a dozen people occurred in Minneapolis. I vividly remember watching the news coverage while down at the Woods Grandparents' house in Missouri.

Today's picture of the day is a shot of the street sign for the trivia location, Finback. Enjoy!

23 June 2014

Happy Monday!

Today wasn't looking too good at first. The contractors working on the road to the boat launch for Jordan Pond starting paving operations today. That wouldn't have been a big deal, except that meant the big machines cut off access to the overflow parking lot for the Jordan Pond House. As a result, parking spots were at an all-time premium today. Some people had some very creative and liberal ideas on what constituted a parking spot.

We only had a few folks come to the info booth and voice concerns or frustrations about parking. And even with limited spaces, we still ended up with a waitlist for most of the day. Somehow, folks found a way to the Jordan Pond House.

The lack of parking reminded me a lot of what Logan Pass in Glacier is like on the sunny days of July and August. It's a bummer how much the parking situation in a National Park can affect the visitation experience. Often times, no easy parking means no fun. Fortunately, National Parks can be and are best experienced in boots or on bikes and not while sitting on butts.

A bright spot of the day was the penny-smashing machine is back out in front of the gift shop. I think where it's at will be its final home. I look forward to a summer of listening to cranking, crushing, more cranking, and then clinging.

After work I headed up to the South Bubble mountain. It was on one of my classic run/walk/hikes. The view from up top was awesome. Jordan Pond is the main feature of the shot with Pemetic Mountain rising from the left side shore as the Park Loop Road cuts through its forested slope. To the right is Mount Penobscot. In the distance is the Atlantic Ocean with the Cranberry Isles breaking up the big scary waves and currents of the sea. The big blue thing on the top two-thirds is the sky. This will serve as the picture of the day. Enjoy!

22 June 2014

Happy Sunday!

For the third week in a row, we had a bright and sunny Sunday. I hope the trend continues and we keep the good-weather Sundays a’coming.

Our morning worship service at the Blackwoods Campground had our highest attendance ever! Miles came with his two dogs (both were happy and healthy this week). In addition, we had two families join the party. Both of the mom’s had served with ACMNP years ago at other National Parks. Pretty cool to be a part of such a long-running and extensive tradition that is ACMNP.

No one came to our service at the Seawall Campground, which wasn’t too surprising. None of us made it over there to walk around the campground and invite folks nor have we put signs up yet. Seawall proved the point that if we don’t invite them, they will not come. We’ll be changing that for next week.

Since we didn’t have the 10am service at Seawall, we went to the 10:30 church service at the church of a couple on our Ministry Support Committee members. It was a white-steepled, 200-plus year old Congregational church hidden among the beautiful homes of Southwest Harbor. To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in going to church on a day that I’d be helping to lead two worship services. I’m sure glad we went, though. God certainly communicated through the words of the Pastor Blake. 

The message was on the third mark of a true follower of Christ: worldlessness. He based his sermon off 1 John 2:15-17 and rephrased the passage to say (roughly), “Do not put your time and commitment into the values, aspirations, and principles of what the world pursues. This is because love of the world (in regards to materialism, convenience, and power) is incompatible with loving God. Plus, our time on this world is temporary anyway, so why invest so much time and effort in the impermanent.” John is fairly straightforward in the original text, but I enjoyed hearing Pastor Blake’s interpretation live and in person.

After church we had lemonade and cake out on the lawn with the rest of the congregation. Between the children running around in their Sunday best, the shade of the big deciduous tree out front, and the sweet taste on summer in a glass, it felt like we were in a Norman Rockwell painting. Awfully idyllic.

In the afternoon, Luke, Ally, and I went to the movie theater in Bar Harbor for the screening of a documentary sponsored by the Sierra Club. The film was good, but I’m almost positive I’ve seen it before. I guess after going to school in Montana and studying recreation resource management, I have been exposed to most of the wilderness appeals and such. 

There was a line one of the ladies interviewed in the film said about equating camping in a Rocky Mountain alpine meadow alongside feeding deer with heaven. I agree that does sound nice, but I’m not sure if that would be heaven without Christ. That’s sort of the main feature of eternal life: the eternal presence of God. I wouldn’t be surprised if a ACMNP sermon comes out of this idea. Stay tuned…

In the afternoon I stocked up on some snacks for the week during a trip to the grocery store, caught up with good ole Dad on the horn, and watched the first half of the US vs. Portugal soccer game. Sabrina, Ally, Luke and I then headed up Cadillac Mountain for what became our biggest worship service ever! I’m not sure our final count because we had some folks come and go during the service, but I know we had over 20.

Afterwards all of us ACMNPers had equally powerful talks with different attendees. And of course all of this occurred against the backdrop of a gorgeous sunset from the highest point on the Atlantic seaboard. Through the worship service, the setting, and the people who came with the same goal of being intentional about deepening their relationship with God, I truly felt the presence of God on that windswept mountaintop. Awfully idyllic.

Today’s picture of the day is the Southwest Harbor Congregational Church. Enjoy!