Flashback Friday - Camping in Maine

I went to law school in New Brunswick and so one summer we went camping in Bar Harbor, Maine.  We went with our dear friends Brad and Melissa.  We lost Brad to cancer a couple of years ago, and so the fond memories I have of this trip are even more special.

We set off after work on Friday afternoon.  Dave and I took our own car and headed down to meet Brad and Melissa who had already set up their campsite.  We had packed our car with our camping supplies and food for the weekend, grabbed some take out and set out.  At the border, the customs agent asked if we had any vegetables or meat in our possession.  Dave says yes, thinking of course of our hot dogs, bacon and pork skewers.  I said to the agent, "no, we ate that already", gesturing to our fast food wrappers on the floor in front of me. The agent frowns, and must think Dave, or both of us, are pretty silly, and says "no, you don't need to declare food you've already eaten."  So we continued on our way and it wasn't until Dave reminded me of our food in the cooler, did I actually remember we had meat with us.  I certainly wasn't trying to pull a fast one on the border agent, but I managed to and we had no issue with our food.

That is until the middle of the night.  For some reason we thought it would be okay to leave our cooler outside on the picnic table.  The raccoons also thought that was okay.  They woke us up in the middle of the night.  Dave crept out of the tent with our ax, wondering what he was going to see.  The little bandits took off, and left this behind:

We also found our cheese slices off in the woods. 

 

 

In the morning we set out to Bar Harbor to go shopping (including, now, grocery shopping), and play miniature golf.  Bar Harbor is a very quaint little town, and very touristy, but that's okay since we were the tourists. 

 

 

 

 

I actually still use the place mats that I bought there.  I also bought a North Face winter jacket while I was there.  On our way back across the border, I didn't declare it and for some reason we got stopped at the border for a search.  The border agent found the jacket and asked where the receipt was.  I launched into a rambling speech about how I bought it in Halifax and yes, I did bring a winter jacket camping in August.  She somehow decided to let us go without penalty, but that was the last time I didn't declare something going across the border, even if I've had to pay the tax.  I still have that jacket though.

 

 

We do enjoy camping and have been several times since this trip.  We were supposed to go twice this year but had to cancel both times. Maybe next year we can get back in the habit of camping.