Finnegan Meets an Older Woman in Bar Harbor

We are now on the coastline of downeast Maine. It is the home of Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. It's actually an island - Desert (pronounced Dessert) Island and Bar Harbor is that little town nestled along the water. The highest point on the island and in the park is Cadillac Mountain. It's elevation of about 1500 ft. isn't much to us highlanders from New Mexico, but the view it affords is beautiful. Even through the haze you can see how spectacular the coast is.
So here begins our story about Finnegan and the older woman he met on the island. Her name is Stella, sometimes Stella Bella. She is a beauty...and she's 4 years old - 3 1/2 years older than Finn.

We had barely parked the RV and set up when I went to the market and bought my first lobster. (The going rate is $4-$5 a pound.) He was just a little guy - barely over a pound - and known as a shedder with a new not very hard shell and room to grow inside. Common this time of the year. These Mainers really know their lobster...and they say the shedders are the sweetest. He fit right into the pot outside on the Coleman stove. I was warned not to cook him inside and let the smell soak into the RV. Even the restaurants cook them outside - at least the little roadside ones. He was perfection. Sweet and juicy - like shedders are supposed to be.

There will be more...

There's lobster lore around these parts. Seems there used to be so many lobsters that they crawled up on the beaches. They were fed to prisoners until there was a revolt in the prisons. There's still a law on the books in Maine that states lobsters cannot be fed to inmates more than three times a week.

Now back to Finnegan's story: I have an internet friend I have emailed and spoken to on the phone. Her name is Sharon Riley. She lives in Bar Harbor, and we had a glorious meeting.

Sharon is an artist, a person of heart, a very lovely woman whom we both enjoyed immensly. She gave us one of the maps of Bar Harbor that she created and signed it for us.

Sharon's four legged companion is Stella. She and Finn had an introductory run around a field behind Sharon's home before we took them to the beach. It was immediate love.

Sharon and Stella took us to their favorite little spot along the coast. Here's Finn having his first look at the Maine coastline.

The dogs romped and ran all over the rocks - and then Stella showed Finn her favorite thing to do - get down in the water.

She began coaxing him to join her.

Sharon and I sat on the rocks and watched them run and play while Ed took all these wonderful photos.

Stella kept coaxing but Finn was only going to get his feet wet.

Finally she got a stick...and took it into the water.

Finn went in up to his tummy, splashed around until he was soaked, but he never submerged to enjoy the water Stella-style. He preferred to try to get the stick away from Stella.

We had so much fun with Stella we made a date to meet again the next day.