Bar Harbor Day 1 - Last Lunch at Jordon Pond

 We are on our first family vacation with Zilly! And the first time Saphyar has traveled with us too. I'm so excited to travel with both of them! But the start of our trip wasn't so smooth. Poor Zilly wasn't feeling well and just as we finished packing the car, a phone call to the Dr led us to and ER trip to get her checked out. She was fine, suffering from bad constipation that did eventually clear up, but the ER is never fast and took about 5 hours.

Usually we take our road trips in one car, but because of some recent car trouble, we had to take two cars anyway. So when Zilly went to get checked out, James took his mom and Christian up to Bar Harbor. They took their time on the drive and did a lot of shopping and had a slow lunch since they weren't sure when the rest of us would be able to get up there. It was 7:30 before Jon, Saph, Zilly, and I were able to leave the hospital to start the four hour drive. I'm not great at driving when I'm tired but Saph and Jon were good company. Our only misadventure came when the McDonald's we stopped at didn't have a changing table so I had to hold Zilly in mid air while Saph changed a rather messy diaper. 

The road from Bangor, ME to Mt Dessert Island in interminable, and this was worse than most. But we finally arrived, just at midnight. The house we are renting is gorgeous. It's a little cabin on the water and even in the dark it was beautiful. Usually we stay in Bar Harbor but this time we are on the other side of the island near Southwest Harbor. 

Night view from our dock

Stars over the water

I woke up surprisingly early and heard Zilly fussing while on my way to the bathroom. I stole from Jon who was happy to go back to bed and for an hour the two of us had the house to ourselves. It was really warm this morning and the sun was so bright on the water that we couldn't go outside without blinding the baby. Christian woke up around 7 and started fishing on our dock. Zilly and I watched him for a while and then I sat down to read. I'd sat Zilly down on the couch and when I sat next to her she pitched over onto my arm and immediately fell asleep. I was stuck but since I had my book it was really a perfect morning. 

Naked baby! It was so warm this morning

Early morning fishing

Living my perfect life

Zilly and Opa in the morning

Jon and Saph explore the shore

Everyone woke up early today and eventually we headed out for our scheduled lunch at Jordon Pond. Without any luggage we were able to all squeeze into the rental car so that at least we can travel around the island together. I think it's been years since I've written about our trips here, but we come to Mt Dessert Island about once a year and every time we do, we have lunch at the Jordon Pond House restaurant. We loved their popovers so much that James started making them at home years ago. It is the only place where I've enjoyed lobster, in the form of a delicious stew. But today was hopefully the last lunch we will ever have there. The popovers were big and beautiful but devoid of flavor. They were almost inedible. All of our food, including the lobster stew, was bland, cheap, and unsatisfying, while continuing to be incredibly expensive. I am writing this now to remind us all to NEVER go there again. Our waitress though was wonderful and very sweet. And the view was still amazing. 

Last lunch at Jordon Pond

Sun dog at lunch

Baby cuddles. It was starting to get cold by this time.

After our very disappointing lunch we walked down to the water. The kids carried Zilly down the shallow stairs in her stroller. Then we were off to Cadillac Mountain to see the view. I remember the first time we were here, back in 2009. We had 4 kids under 4 at that time, Will, Jon, Colin, and Chesney, and we got some great pictures of them at the top of the mountain. I really should post those some time! 

The kids carry Zilly

Walking by the water

Jordon Pond

The Bubbles

On this trip we split up to explore the top of the mountain and most of our good pictures were taken by Saphyar. She has done very little traveling and this is the farthest from home she's ever been. But she is so fun to travel with. Her excitement is infectious and I think she might develop a taste for exploration. (I asked James how he'd describe Saphyar's personality and he says she's a hedgehog which is just perfect. She has a sarcastic spikiness to her while also being adorable. Zilly is amazing too of course, but I am so very happy that Saph is part of our family. She brings a lot of joy. And sometimes a bit of needed snark.)

Cadillac Mountain

I love all the little islands

It's a beautiful view

We used to take pictures of the kids
now they take pictures of us!

Flowers on the mountain

James and Jon from a distance

Anyway, after the mountain it was time to head back to our beautiful cabin and take turns napping. Christian of course did more fishing but became frustrated with the apparent lack of any fish. So the two of us did some exploring and eventually found a new and more promising area. James joined us there and they spent another hour or so in some fruitless fishing. Christian is getting discouraged and I really hope he can catch something on this trip! Maybe he'll have more luck in freshwater?

Afternoon fishing

Tonight has been quiet. We picked up pizza and watched a movie before retiring early. This cabin has three bedrooms and then a small separate bedroom about 20 feet from the house. Christian stayed there on the night we arrived but Saph and Jon convinced him to switch because they wanted the privacy. We'll see if the attraction of privacy beats out the annoyance of having to cross the yard in the dark to get to the bathroom. But they do have a little balcony out there and I'm sure their view is also amazing. 

I think most of this trip will be fairly quiet. We've got four generations here, from 2 months to almost 78 years. It's a wonderful blessing to be able to travel together! And some time to rest is really needed.

Grandma with her great granddaughter

Germany day 9 - Dachau

Today, on our last day, we went to Dachau. Camille and Christian stayed at the hotel and had a nice breakfast and a relaxing morning. The two of them have been doing some bonding on this trip which makes me happy. Although today Christian drove Grandma a little nuts with the phone and his music. He found a closet and sat in there listening to music. 

 

Christian hides in the closet

Dachau. I'm not really sure how to write about this. I do not have the words to do it justice. We'd left Christian at home because we didn't think he was mature enough to handle the gravity of place in a respectful manner. But we also thought it was really important for Will and Jon to go. The boys have learned about the Holocaust of course, and they've read accounts of the concentration camps, but for "Never Again" to be true, it is important to bear witness. Especially with current attitudes about the Jews and with the likelihood of the kids running into people who claimed it never happened. I don't want to get political here. I guess the bottom line is that we think it is important to not shy away from looking at evil. 

 

Today was cold and rainy, which seemed fitting. The drive wasn't too bad, under 40 minutes. There was public transportation available but that would have added on another hour to the ride. There were many other visitors but it wasn't crowded or full, although it seems like it did fill up more as the day went on. The walk in was somber and tastefully done.  

 

Then we came to the camp itself. First there was a little arched passageway where there were three plaques on the wall commemorating different battalions of American soldiers who freed the camp. As we went through I continued to think about those soldiers and how they must have felt when they entered Dachau for the first time. At the end of the archway was an iron gate. A small door in the gate carried the words "Arbeit macht frei" or "Works sets you free". Seeing that famous phrase in iron was chilling and as I walked through the gates I felt a heaviness settle on me that wouldn't leave. 

 

Dachau

I didn't take a lot of pictures here. I couldn't. Nothing I could take would capture the spirit that was here, and there were certain places, like the gate or the crematorium, where it felt wrong to bring out a camera. My first impression was surprise at the size of it. The camp seemed quite large, too large for us to fully examine. We didn't have much time to spend here, we couldn't leave Camille and Christian alone for too long, and the atmosphere suggested solitary reflection rather than discussion, so we split up and agreed to meet again in an hour. 

 

Will and Jon went off, they saw the main exhibit and a church which I never made it to. James and I mostly stayed together, although we wandered through the exhibits separately. I wasn't emotional or overly imaginative (you wouldn't want to be there) but tears flowed from my eyes almost the whole time. We saw the cells for special prisoners, the standing cells where there was no room to sit, the rooms where the SS tortured people, the cell for the prisoner "helpers" who assisted the SS. We read stories of a few of the people imprisoned in the special cells, men like Georg Elser who tried to assassinate Hitler.

 

Special cells

 

From there we moved to the main exhibit and saw where prisoners were brought in processed. Nothing was overly graphic here, there were pictures of a few of the prisoners, some of their stories, a few personal effects. But I couldn't see the whole thing, even the large rooms of the main hall seemed claustrophobic. Being outside didn't change that feeling though, the whole place here feels heavy.  

 

Tree lined path

After that we moved to one of the barracks where prisoners were stacked like firewood in bunks.  We saw the small bathrooms where hundreds of prisoners had only a few minutes to wash up in the mornings and read about how they would be punished if they didn't leave everything, including the floor, spotless. Behind the barracks we were in was a large field with long rectangular sections filling the space, the foundations of over 30 other barracks. Dachau had been designed for over 6,000 prisoners, but after a pogrom in 1938 they moved 11,000 Jews into the already full camp. It is hard to fathom. 

 

Three tiered beds

I've mentioned before that the place felt heavy. And maybe this will seem foolish or imaginative on my part. Sometimes (often) when I am up on a mountain top and able to see the wonder and majesty of God's creation, I feel His presence and am filled with awe and rejoicing. This was the opposite of that. As our time went on the atmosphere there began to feel almost Sisyphean in its weight. It felt hard to walk, hard to breathe, the weight of all the years of horror settling in. It felt like a place where demons had won, it felt like hell. For the first time in my life I felt the desire to cross myself, to do something physical to ward off the evil that was there. Will said he felt the same, he was praying and saying "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."

 

Foundations of the many barracks

The time we had flew by. We met the boys by the gate but felt that we should see the crematorium before we left. It was a little outside the main part of the camp, reachable by a short walk. I couldn't take pictures here, the horror was too heavy and I felt it would cheapen it for me to hide behind a lens. It was as you have read, the story of the "shower", the room where they disrobed, the gas chamber itself where 150 people could be crammed in together, the room for piling bodies, and finally the ovens themselves. They would sometimes execute prisoners by hanging them in front of the ovens. It is hard to write about now, but even harder to walk through. The rooms were surprisingly small. 

 

After the crematorium it was time to leave and the walk to the gate felt interminable. It was a cold day and the rain had been failing steadily since morning, but I was too hot and stuffy for my light rain jacket. It was a relief to finally pass through the gates and return to the car. We'd only been able to see a portion of the camp, but it was enough. Our ride back was initially rather quiet. The boys tend towards dark humor and I was expecting it here, but they seemed somber. I'm so glad we didn't bring Christian, he is still too young. On the drive back we discussed the obvious question, "Why did God let this happen?", and James reminded us all of Job. As we talked about evil, free will, the deserved righteous judgement, and processed our grief and anger, we also took comfort in the fact that God was still there, that there are millions of small miracles which show His presence in the camps, that He cares for those who were in that hell. 

 

Graves at the crematorium

Alright, I have taken a little break from writing and will now get back to our regularly scheduled light vacation fare. I'm not sure if I conveyed any of that accurately, but I am glad we went even if I was not glad to be there. 

 

After the camp we drove into Munich (big mistake!) with the intention of eating at an Anime restaurant the boys had found yesterday. Driving in was a huge error. Driving in the middle of cities is usually not a good idea and Munich has particularly small streets. Our cramped seven passenger car was almost the biggest thing on the road and incredibly hard to park. We did eventually find the very top floor of a parking garage and we ended up leaving the car there and taking the subway back to our room. 

 

The Anime restaurant was great. It had lots of cool decorations and lifesize characters from some of the boys' favorite shows and movies. We ordered variations on corn dogs and the guys got Boba tea and mochi. We had to hurry back to our hotel room though because by this time poor Christian and Camille were also hungry and ready to go out. 

 

Boys at the Anime restaurant

Totoro!

Anime restaurant decorations

Anime restaurant

Once back, James took Christian and his mom shopping while Will, Jon, and I relaxed at the hotel. I was able to get in a nice bath and then work out some things at home which had been weighing on me. It was a successful trip out for the others, Camille was able to get her special German feather pillows although they wouldn't ship them to American so we needed to also buy an extra luggage. They also ran into a bachelorette party and the bride was giving away free hugs. She gave one to an older woman so Christian said "Where's my hug?" and she gave one to him too! 

 

                                                        Dance party with Christian

James was nervous about leaving the car downtown, so as soon as he got back the two of us went out again to pick it up. The rain started up again and James had forgotten his raincoat. But we were both having such a good conversation that neither of us wanted to take the subway. Once again I rejoice to be married to a man I so love to talk to! On the way there we were stopped by three girls who heard us talking and asked if we were Americans. They were from Mississippi, had been here for three weeks, and were missing some American conversation. They were so nice and we had a very pleasant little chat. 

 

Dinner was a little chaotic tonight. Will and Jon went off on their own, they really wanted McDonald's. And Camille was nervous about all the packing we needed to do tonight because of our early flight, so we just got her a couple slices of pizza to go. If we'd known how good the pizza was there we'd probably all have done that earlier. 

 

Around the corner from our hotel is a street full of great restaurants and there was a little Afghani one that James wanted to try. We didn't have a reservation but the owner was able to squeeze me, James, and Christian in anyway. It was amazing. The decor was very cool and we set on very low benches on a raised platform. Rugs decorated the walls, and there were lots of cushions on the benches. We had a pumpkin appitizer, grilled chicken and lamb, mango lassi (lah-see), and meatballs. It was all delicious and frankly too much food. I've never had Afghani food before but I absolutely loved it and we definitely need to go here again the next time we are in Munich. 

 

My meal

James' meal

Christian's meal

James and I at dinner

But we have a very early flight tomorrow and I must go back. Soon we'll be back to real life! 

Germany Day 8 - Shopping in Munich

Good morning!

 

We did not get enough sleep last night and I am starting to worry that I'm going to come back from this vacation utterly exhausted. Having only one master switch in the room is continuing to prove to be massively annoying. Jon wanted to charge his phone this morning but in order to do so he had to turn on all the lights which include two very bright ones directly over the bed. 

 

Boys in bed

Since sleeping in was out of the question, I joined James, Christian, and Camille for breakfast. The hotel has quite a spread, a full and fancy breakfast buffet. Of course there was lots of bread, sausages, and cheese. And a cook making fresh over easy eggs for anyone who asked. The orange and grapefruit juice was freshly squeezed and there was a comb of honey available for the bread. We ate our fill and then James and Christian left us to go to a car show, but I'll let him tell you about that. 

 

Today Christian and I split the party and decided to go to a car show 45 min south of Munich.  The trip did not start out great, I paid the ticket to get out of the garage, got to the gate and it would not let me through, then I had to back all the way up with cars behind me, parked again, went back to the machine and found that in fact my ticket was paid.  I got back in the car and when we got back to the gate it was open, I still don't know what happened.  After that adventure we were off, going through the city traffic then flying down the autobahn at nearly 130 MPH, our rental car was very fast.  Soon we made it to the Tegernsee auto show, it was not very large, maybe 100 cars in attendance but the cars were amazing, almost everything you would want to see and never thought you would see in real life, from pre-war Bentleys and Alfas to newer Lamborghinis Koenigsegges  and Ferraris. 

 

 

Christian was amazed looking around but what he really wanted to do was stand at the entrance to hear the cars come and go, hoping some would rev there engines for him. I think the most important car for him was a new Countach and for me maybe the pre-war Alfa race cars, it was something I did not think I would ever see in person.  Eventually we got lunch and waited at the entrance a bit longer hoping for something special.  Christian noted that is was like fishing, sometimes you see a lot right away and sometime you wait for an hr and nothing comes by. At around 2 pm we headed home for shopping in the city.  

 

After they had left, Camille and I convinced the older boys to join us on a shopping excursion. Really I just wanted them to help with the wheelchair for a bit, and because it would be good for them to get out of the room. Will and Jon walked us almost all the way down to the shopping district before setting off on their own. Since they'd skipped breakfast they were hungry but didn't want any of the German food we passed. Finally they found McDonald's and enjoyed some familiar food. I think I've gotten better as I've gotten older, either with expanding my pallet or with just knowing how to find food I like. But I still very much appreciate how difficult it is to have nothing but unfamiliar foods available. It can be very stressful, especially over long periods of time. 

 

Headless accordion player

After they left us the boys wandered and window shopped. They walked pretty far but failed to get any pictures. They did find an anime restaurant that they want to eat at tomorrow. Apparently it has lots of full size anime characters. They also found a good Boba restaurant and Jon was able to get a necklace.

 

Anime restaurant

In the meantime, Camille and I did some shopping. The wheelchair has been invaluable here because there is a lot of walking. The first thing we came to was the Glockenspiel in the Marienplatz. The Glockenspiel is a carousel like display that happens every day at specified times. We arrived just in time for the twelve o'clock show. After the church bells stopped ringing the Glockenspiel started up with its music. Soon the figures at the top began to turn, showing a scene depicting a wedding procession and a jousting tournament. When that had finished the dancing men below began to move. This scene depicts a time after a severe plague when barrel makers ventured out into the city and danced to raise the spirits of the population. 

 

Marienplatz

Rathaus (townhall)

Glockenspiel

                                                                                Joust

 

                                                                    Dancers

 After the Glockenspiel had ended, Camille and I set off for some shopping. We went to a large department store in search of some square German feather pillows, and visited a few small souvenir shops as well. By this point we were starting to get hungry so we stopped at one of the many restaurants and had a light lunch. I had a Bavarian appetizer of beef tartar, bacon, a pretzel, and cream cheese made from Camembert. The cream cheese was an utter delight. For drinks I ordered my usual coke and when the waiter brought our drinks over he said "here is the sparkling water, and here is your dark beer". I panicked for a moment and when we saw my face he laughed. "A joke, it is only a coke". I laughed too, he really had me!   

 

Church tower

The walk back felt a little long. We were both tired and it was threatening to rain. We felt a few drops but thankfully it didn't start fully raining. The streets here are not particularly wheelchair friendly. There are lots of cobblestones but the biggest difficulty is that at every crosswalk there is a lip from the sidewalk to the road. Even where they have tried to lower it is it not flat and we need to tip the wheelchair back to get the front wheels over. Will and Jon had made it home before us and even James and Christian got back to the hotel before we did. James came down and met us and helped push the wheelchair up the steep hill to our hotel. I'm so thankful for him!

 

Monk on a building

The rest of the day has been pleasant but unexciting. I had a nice nap, James got me and the boys kabobs for dinner and then took his mom to a restaurant so they could eat some pig knuckle. Jon and I were happy to skip that one. :-) Then tonight James and I took a long walk in the rain. We found a small cafe where we had some cake and Italian hot chocolate (which has seemingly no sugar at all) and we talked about the trip and our growing family. 

 

Munich at night

We have a lot of upcoming changes: adoption, marriage, a grandbaby, and Will's leaving. This is a year of change and it has been really nice to have this bit of time together before it all happens. Will and Jon have been particularly great on this trip, good company and good men. Neither of them has over indulged, despite the opportunity. And we've been able to have good conversations with them. This is the year too where they both step into adulthood in big ways. I am proud of the men they are becoming.