Finally!

Timed perfectly so we're standing underneath New Zealand

After more than a week of packing, unpacking, and packing again, we miraculously managed to fit everything in Adam's car, with a genius organizational system designed by Janine (Adam appreciates it already), and we were finally ready to BEGIN!

The adventure began Tuesday with the long drive up to Acadia National Park in Maine. Although the weather predicted a 100% chance of rain, we hit surprisingly clear skies! (Note to Janine's favorite meteorologists: don't predict a 100% chance of rain!) Along the way, we stopped at a map store in Yarmouth, home of the world's largest rotating globe! And it was HUGE. We thought it particularly appropriate that our first stop on the around-the-world adventure was a giant globe. =)


Our next stop was the LL Bean outlets in Maine, where we attempted to buy the few items we thought we would still need for our camping stops, only to be appalled at how overpriced everything was, and we left empty-handed. One more stop for groceries, and we finally arrived around 10:30 pm, just in time to pitch the tent and fall asleep.


Wednesday, we were hopeful about the weather- it was sunny when we woke up, and we biked to breakfast on the shore of the park. However, after a few hours of exploring the park and a few easy hikes, our luck ran out and it started raining. Since then, we've been exploring the [lovely but touristy] town of Bar Harbor, taking shelter indoors between sprints in the rain.

We write to you today from the lovely public library, whose internet limit of half an hour, even on a personal laptop, is hampering our trip-planning and traveloguing progress. However, it looks like the weather is clearing up, so our hopes are much higher for rock climbing tomorrow!

Bear with us- we're still trying to figure out how to make these pictures embed ok.