Summer Part 2 of Who Knows...

Once P arrived, all the tensions, worries and anxieties pretty much vanished instantly. I felt a wave of security and warmth come over me.

That night my dad was busy with his tournament, so we decided to grab dinner with my step-mother. This woman has been in my life basically since I was 3 years old. I've never had anything but good feelings towards her. This night though, I realized I didn't even really know her! I had never spent more than half an hour really being with her and talking. I had never gotten to know her as a person. Tonight I did and it was great.

We slept at the family's cottage by the ocean, with the stale house kind of smell, but somehow it was perfect. 

The next day we putted around because of a hard rain storm. We went to Sackville and visited around the area to give P a real sense of Acadia-land. We visited my grandmother's house in Cap-Pelé which has recently been somewhat gutted since she passed away. My grampa was looking great and the house was actually livable, even cute! I loved how he had old pictures of himself when he was 18 on the wall. the house was suddenly less about my (pack rat) grandmother, and more about my stay-out-of-the-spotlight-despite-all-his-accomplishments grampa. He is kind of amazing.

Then we made a curry for dinner -- the first dinner I have ever cooked for my family.

We visited with my mother's mother and then we headed back to my moms place in the backwoods. The sky was huge and full of stars and P was very excited about it. The next day was spent playing with the dogs, the kite and general lazyness.

It was surprisingly relaxing. I was afraid of what P would think of my step-dad, after all the stories he has heard of him. My step-dad was even a little bit more reserved than usual initially, but after a while he realized that P wasn't judging him, and he opened up a little bit, showed P his camera collection and other fun stuff.

I think that is one of P's best qualities, he's always willing to give people a chance. I actually appreciated this more than if he would have banded with me and my past hurt feelings. Because really, I'm gradually letting go of those feelings, and having him bond with me because of them might have been a step in the opposite direction of growth. (Even though I realize that growing is ebb and flow).

In the morning we left for Moncton after a few awkward family photos. I liked how P insisted on taking some. We spent the day with friends in Moncton and had a great old time.

The next day we headed to Hopewell Rocks -- which were more beautiful than I remembered. Hit the road and stopped in Alma for food and St-John for sleep. We hit the border the next day and reached Acadia National Park in the late afternoon.

This lack-of-planning (which I insisted on) was actually really good because it allowed us the flexibility of figuring out when to stop. Ultimately, we struck a perfect balance of planning and no planning for both of us, and my anxieties about it melted almost instantly that day.

Getting to Acadia was perfect. Setup the site, get some food, eat it, go to bed. Wake up early, make food, prepare a lunch, go hiking. The hike was good but once we got to the top of Cadillac mountain I was feeling really sick. We chilled for a bit then headed down. We had planned to do multiple mountains, but after that one, we decided tea and popovers at Jordan's pond would be better.

I was wearing a long purple maxy skirt that day and people kept staring at me -- like staring, I'm not kidding. It was really strange. I guess purple is foreign in Maine.

More to come later....