








The title of today's tale comes from Dad. He tells me it's the opening line of an ode he had to memorize early in his college days as part of an initiation rite. These days, he can recall only the first two lines. But he says that's plenty because all thirteen words are chock full of youthful faces carrying wonderful memories. The moose, by the way, is the official animal of the state of Maine. In today's tale, I'll take you there and back again.
Remember Auntie Minjeong? A couple of tales ago, I recounted our visit to their house in Massachusetts. We had such a great time we made another trip to visit her in early fall 2016, this time adding 2,000 miles to our Odyssey's odometer. After a quick stop at her house, we repacked the van and drove north to the Pine Tree state, home to Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, and Acadia National Park.
Here's a fun fact about Acadia National Park you may not know. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the son of the founder of Standard Oil (Exxon), donated a large part of it. He opposed automobiles driving everywhere on the island. So, to preserve the environment, he built a network of dirt roads for use by horse-drawn carriages only. Today, they're preserved for use by non-automobile vehicles and, during winter, double as cross-country skiing trails. Note: If by now you're wondering whether Dad visited Acadia as a boy, you'd win a prize if I had one. 🍰 Before I came along, he took Mom there during a summer vacation. This time, on the drive up, they regaled Auntie Minjeong and her mom with 'lobster' stories. How big and cheap the lobsters they ate were, and how delicious they tasted. 🦞 One glance at a lobster claw was enough to convince me I'd rather have a strip of chicken jerky.
Despite the warning signs on the highway, we met no moose other than the life-size replica you see in the first photo. Dad was happy about that. He has a high school friend who moved to Alaska during their second year. That friend told him about horrible accidents occurring up there when illiterate moose, ignoring the 'Moose Crossing' signs and underpasses, ventured onto the highway and destroyed cars and lives. In Maine, it seemed, all the moose can read.
The town of Bar Harbor is extremely popular with tourists, like us. We walked around the square and the waterfront, and window shopped at the many shops lining the quaint streets. The next morning, Mom, Dad and Minjeong disappeared to have breakfast at a famous restaurant in town. When they returned, we drove to Acadia National Park and spent the day touring its many wonderful sights.
As the pictures show, it was a great day to visit. In some elevated spots, the Atlantic Ocean seems to go on forever and ever at a peaceful pace. Luxury cruise boats ply those waters today. When Dad was a kid, more pedestrian car ferries shuttled passengers to and from Canada. Meanwhile, at lower elevations, that same ocean thunders in to shore fast enough to wear away the rocks. Touring a national park can build up quite an appetite, and when the dinner bell rang, Juno and I ate first. Then we camped out in the parking lot of a nearby lobster restaurant while Auntie, Mom and Dad waited for a table.
And waited and waited.
An hour or more passed by before they could eat. But Juno and I didn't care. His grandma's soothing words were enough to relax us after we went into attack mode whenever a monster approached our car. Finally, after they devoured their lobsters, we all returned to our hotel. The next morning we returned to Massachusetts, and the following day we said goodbye to Auntie and her family and… took a detour to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
Both towns are famous spots in US history. We spent most of brief visit in Concord. That's where, as Longfellow said in his poem Paul Revere's Ride, "On the eighteenth of April 18, in Seventy-Five," one of the Minutemen fired what Emerson called "the shot heard round the world". That's me and Dad standing in front of the famous Minute Man statue. After touring the battlefield, we headed home to Ohio.
The rest of 2016 passed by quickly, and in January2017,7 our house erupted in focused activity. Cleaning, organizing, pile after pile of stuff getting tossed out in the garbage. Mom and Dad had some big plans, and I tell you about them next time.
Until then, thanks for reading my blog tales.
Tango 🐾
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