We knew it was coming: the soggy remnants of Hurricane Gordon as it made its way through basically the entire eastern half of the country and eventually up to Maine. It arrived sometime in the early morning with extremely heavy rain (fortunately not much wind). It was still raining when around 9:00am we decided it was well past time for tea and coffee and we headed around the corner in 2-inch-per-hour rain (flooding the sidewalks and streets) to the Mount Dessert Bakery. Rich filled up a small cup with one of their coffees, I got a small Darjeeling tea, and we bought a lemon square to share. We sloshed quickly back through the deluge to our room, which was nice and cozy after a few minutes with the heat on. Note: yoga pants offer absolutely no water resistance!

We watched a few videos and did some more trail research, just resting mostly, until around 11:30 when it felt like time for lobster. It was still raining but not as heavily when we headed to SWH. Beal’s was crowded, to the point where there wasn’t an available spot in the lot (someone came out right away but sat in their car farting around on their phone until I went over and knocked on the window to ask if they were leaving anytime soon. It’s not something I would normally do, but it worked. :) There have been some changes this year , notably that they have heating in the enclosed seating area, the bar is there (where you pick up your beer), and they now bring meals tot he table instead of calling numbers or using buzzers. That worked out pretty well. The enclosed seating was packed, as you might expect on a rainy day at lunchtime, but we eventually found a decent table. (Some people seem to have a problem closing doors behind them!) We ordered a huge 2.5 pound lobster, a Centennial lobster roll (which comes with a dill mayo - maybe not traditional but so good) and 2 lobster ales. The lobster came out steaming and with a huge tub of melted butter - so good, especially when Rich cracked most of it open for me! I love the body and small leg meat, followed by the claw meat. The tails are OK but generally my least favorite part, although today’s tail was very tender and tasty. The lobster roll was as excellent as expected too. We shared both items and I thought I might have had enough room left for a slice of blueberry pie, and I probably did but I didn’t want to push it. We were still planning to take Dad for Rosalie’s pizza in the evening once he arrived.

The rain had let up considerably by now and it was just gray and misty at hte southwestern end of the island. It was light enough that we could take a quick ride to Bass Harbor to search for the BASS 2014 marker that I found out about only recently. Its a US Army Corps disk set at the wharf along Rice Road where we found two disks last year. We di look all around the wharf at that time, so it’s a bit of a mystery how we could have missed this mark that was supposedly set in 2014, if it was indeed there. We drove right up to it today and found it in excellent condition. I took my photos in the rain (still light, but annoyingly misty if that makes sense) and Rich found a lovely harbor scene for a photo as well. Then we took a nice slow drive back to our room. Within a few minutes of arriving back, Dad sent a text that he was in Ellsworth. We’d expect to see him in about 20 minutes.

Back at the room, we rested and warmed up and filled up with the knowledge of more BMs to search for! We discovered that the one at the t-intersection of Routes 3 and 102 (Z 144 - PE0272) was recovered 2 years ago by a professional surveyor who contributed new coordinates and description. We had looked for it years ago before we had the experience we have now, and we can see that we were looking too far south. We’re planning to go back and search again using the updated description. He also submitted a note for another nearby mark along Eagle Lake Road, X 144, that we’re not sure we ever looked for! He didn’t find it, but there’s always the possibility that he missed it (not likely given the quality of his written descriptions, but still possible). We may check for that one too, just in case.

After Dad arrived and I wet over to the lobby to get him checked in, and then brought some of his stuff into the room, we went to our respective rooms to rest for a while. (He really needed a nap!) We then met for Rosalie’s around 4:45. We had one of the booths in the back room, and the pizza was phenomenal as usual. We ended up getting one small and one medium. Crust was amazing tonight!!! We chatted for a long while and then wandered out for ice cream, Rich stopped along the way to take photos of the rather cheap looking and nondescript building that replaced the old opera house because we had been wondering what happened to it. As usual, Rich and I got sorbet at MDI Ice Cream (sour cherry - tasted like cherry pie! and blueberry basil, my favorite which they haven’t offered in years, at least not when I’ve been here). They also had a number of other new and really interesting flavors, like blackberry basil and blueberry mint. Dad got chocolate almond from CJ’s.

It was a warm night, surprisingly, as we walked back to the hotel through the fog. Dad marveled at what had become of the first Aurora Inn (completely gone and now a huge new hotel built on the site)!