Day 7: Acadia National Park and Manchester, NH

Living close to the ocean, I thought I had a good picture in my mind of what Coastal Maine would look like.  Here's the hardest thing to determine, "is that body of water fresh or saltwater?"  In Maine, there is no way to tell where ocean begins and ends.  It wraps around every piece of land you could imagine and the thousands of tiny islands and inlets make it difficult to judge what exactly you are looking at.  Where the sea meets the land is not sand in Maine.  Thick vegetation and trees runs right up to the cliff or beach.  Rolling sand dunes are non existent and bodies of freshwater overlook the ocean from mere footsteps away.  The coast of Maine is heavily populated and the city of Bar Harbor is intertwined amongst Acadia National Park, making difficult to understand where the city ends and the park begins.

We began the day at National Park Canoe and Kayak Rental on Long Pond in Acadia National Park.  The canoe rental is on the northern tip of the pond and the National Park begins about half way down.  Fishing rods in hand and accompanied with two Maine fishing licenses, we chose the three hour rental for 36 bucks and dipped our canoe in the seven mile long body of water.  Side note, there are multiple names for bodies of water in New England...and I really cannot tell the difference so in my head I have come to determine that they decide based on whatever sounds best.  I have seen rivers, streams, brooks, lakes, ponds, none with any obvious name choice based on size, width, or length.  Regardless, we paddled what appeared to be about halfway down the pond and began to set our sites on another goal, catch a fish in another different state.  After a while of trying different lures and different depths, we settled on a rocky outcropping that looked the part.  The water was crystal clear so my inclination was we needed to find where the shallow water meets the deep.  I was right but Alyssa's fishing prowess struck first as she landed a smallmouth bass.  1-0 to the wifey.  

The catch was a much needed shot in the arm as it now became a competition.  I just couldn't lose...could I?  Nothing had been working and the wind had started to blow.  I set my pole down in my lap to pick up my paddle.  My lure hung just off the tip of my pole skimming on the surface of the water.  As I started to paddle, I heard a splash behind me.  Miraculously, I looked behind me to see a fish had come up to the surface, grabbed my lure right next to the boat and all of the sudden...tie game.  Thanks to a bit of blind luck and a fish that was barely bigger than the lure, the competition was on.  

As our time on the canoe was running out, we drifted back to the launch ramp with the help of a breeze at the stern.  We stopped one last time on another rocky outcropping and made some casts.  Focused and determined to avoid the tie, we each made perfect casts, one after the other.  We hardly spoke and eager with anticipation.  Who would it be, who would win the contest of the greatest fisherman or woman in New England?  Finally a bite, the hook was set, and the fish landed.  2-1 me!  Game over!  Adding my two fish together may have equaled Alyssa's fish, but the game was quantity and I'll take it.

After the great morning on the water, we hit the road again to Manchester, New Hampshire, a mere 50 miles or so north of Boston, our destination for tomorrow.  Side note again...when traveling on the east coast, make sure you have cash on hand to pay for tolls.  We squeaked by, literally down to our last dollar of cash on the New Hampshire turnpike.  

Anyways, we had done some research and noticed that the Portland Sea Dogs and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats were playing a Double A baseball game so we decided to check it out.  We quickly checked into our hotel and drove to the game.  We settled on a parking spot that was questionably in an apartment complex but with no signs indicating we couldn't park there.  We took the chance knowing it was on the opposite end of the main entrance of the stadium so we wouldn't probably be noticed anyways.  As we began to walk around the stadium, we noticed a large gate near right field was open, so we figured we could walk up and ask the gentleman standing there where we could grab some tickets.  Only the gentleman looked at us, turned his head, walked away, and there we were...standing inside the stadium with no tickets, confused as we could ever be.  Yep, we got in free...how, I have no idea.  Most of you are probably thinking it, so I'll say it..."yes, cause it's me."  

The game ended 15-8 in favor of the home team.  However, it was quite odd to figure out the fans' interests.  The Portland team is the affiliate of the Red Sox, the closest MLB team to Manchester, NH and the favorite team of most of the residents.  The Fisher Cats, the home team, are affiliates of the Blue Jays.  I took the crowd as kindly cheering for both, but secretly not really caring and being there for the fireworks.  The pyrotechnics did not disappoint and as we left the stadium and returned to our un-ticketed vehicle, we were still baffled by the good fortune of the evening.  However, we won't have a ticket stub to remember the game by....

--KT

30 for 30 continued.  Note: these two actually would technically be #19 and #20 but I messed up the chronological order.  For the sake of not repeating, I have labeled them as #23 and #24.

23. New York Mets (June 27, 2015)

• Mets beat the Reds 2-1 and 7-2.
• The night's previous game had been postponed so we actually got to see the continuation of a tied game and then another game.  
• College teammate Josh Smith started the second game for the Reds, first time watching him in the bigs.
• With Alyssa
• Steven Matz in his debut for the Mets threw a 7.2 inning gem.
• Josh only gave up 1 earned run but got the loss.

24. Philadelphia Phillies (June 28, 2015)

• Brewers beat the Phillies 7-4.
• Phillies fans ruthless with constant booing of their team.
• Lame atmosphere.
• Very nice usher lady gave Alyssa a Phillies children's book for her classroom.