Tragedy at Acadia

If you look at the pictures 2 posts back, you'll see W standing on some rocks at the edge of the coast. That's the thunderhole attraction at Acadia National Park. Just over the weekend, Hurricane Bill bypassed the east coast, producing huge crashing waves. Thankfully, the hurricane bypassed Boston, however, at Acadia National Park, thousands of tourists headed towards the rocky coastline to view the magnificent sight of waves crashing upon rocks and there tragedy struck. Some of the tourists were washed off rocks and many sustained fractures. Amongst them, a 7 year old girl, who was washed out to sea with her dad, died. It was pretty shocking and very sad. It reminded me of the tsunami incident in Asia, when people went out to view empty beaches as the sea receded, resulting in high numbers of casualties. I think that many times, we don't respect the power of nature sufficiently. Because we have tamed so much of nature, we sometime forget that nature is much more unpredictable and powerful than we are and we take her for granted.
I guess the same occurs in my walk with God. I frequently forget that He is almighty and omnipotent, just as He is loving and forgiving. That's a sobering and humbling reminder.

This is the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/08/24/bill.east.coast/index.html

Kite Day

We chanced upon a kite flying day when we were visiting newport and I saw the largest kites being flown. Newport's by the atlantic ocean (you must have already guessed by now that we love the ocean) and there's a really strong breeze blowing inshore during the day. I think I learnt that somewhere in geography that the winds blow offshore in the night, right? Anyway, it was a really pretty sight and it was makes me happy to see families out together having picnics and fathers teaching their sons the finer techniques of kite flying. My favourite kite was the orange porcupine lying on the ground next to the psychedelic pink pig.

Acadia National Park

Summer's really a bustle of activity. It's all that pent up energy I think. Over the last weekend, we were at Acadia National Park, the only National Park within reasonable driving distance. It was a really gorgeous place! Rocky coastline with great hikes through the mountains. We took a 4 hour strenuous hike on the 2nd day and boy, it was a real challenge (only for me of course). During that hike, W's odac and army training was really apparent. As he skipped and hopped over rocks and granite surfaces, I was huffing and puffing and gingerly treading through the same paths. Don't tell anyone but I was overtaken even by little kids. Sigh...

By the third day, we were poofed and opted for more sedentary activities. We went on a nature cruise that brought us to Frenchboro, an isolated offshore island, where the major industry was lobster fishing. The captain of our boat, Steve, pulled up a few lobster traps and introduced us to the fish eat fish world of lobstering. Did you know that in the 1800s, prisons had a rule that you couldn't feed prisoners lobsters more than 3 times a week because it was considered cruel?? I would have undergone voluntary incarceration :) By the way, we got our fill of lobsters. W had this huge 2.5 pounder from a quaint little lobster shack we found.