25 Years

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary! I remember a friend, about 20 years ago, celebrating this anniversary and I couldn't quite imagine getting there myself. Not because I thought my marriage wouldn't last, but because it seemed like an unfathomable length of time. Marriage is often hard, often joyful, but mostly just living together day-to-day. My husband and I each are grateful to have found a partner that is patient with our foibles and loves us despite our imperfections. I'm happy to celebrate 25 years with my best friend!

To celebrate, we went camping. We started camping the first year we were married (it was something my family did a lot of while I was growing up), buying a used tent with some of our wedding gift money. That canvas tent is still in the garage, but we have upgraded, big-time. We have a big tent with a screened "front porch." Don calls it the "fabric cottage." We've also upgraded to a full-size inflatable mattress, though I haven't convinced him to bring sheets and blankets instead of sleeping bags yet :)

This trip was to Lemoine State Park, near Ellsworth, Maine. It is a lovely, little park, right on the water. It is on the mainland, just across from Mt. Desert Island. Maine's state parks are wonderful gems! We started out on Friday in a leisurely way, stopping for lunch at the Riverside Cafe in Ellsworth. We may try the Irish Pub in Ellsworth on the next trip. Then, on to Lemoine where we set up camp. At that point, we realized that we hadn't followed our usual camping protocol and used the packing checklist developed by my family (I still have a photocopy of the one I typed on our old-fashioned typewriter many moons ago) and had left a few things at home. The pots and pans, for example, and the dishpan and tablecloth. Luckily, Reny's is just 8 miles from the campground, so we went on a bit of a shopping adventure and stocked up. Then, we cooked dinner.

It rained all Friday night, but was just gray and misty on Saturday. Again, we moved at a leisurely pace and had a late breakfast after which we struck out for Acadia's carriage trails. We picked out a 6 mile loop around Eagle Lake and headed out.
The view was somewhat obscured by fog, but it didn't rain on us.
One of our "rest" stops -- the first two miles were all uphill!
Near the end, we stopped for lunch, lakeside.
And then, on to Bar Harbor for a walk-around which included running into other people from Waterville in the brewery where we were enticed in for the free beer tasting. I can highly recommend the Thunder Hole Ale -- we brought some home and had it with dinner on Sunday. The finale was an Italian dinner at Guiness & Porcelli's and a campfire back at the campsite.

Breaking down camp was pretty easy, if wet, and after a walk around the 1-mile loop trail at the campground, we headed home (with a stop for coffee in Ellsworth). A very satisfying camping trip and a great way to celebrate 25 years of togetherness and talk about plans for the next 25!