Pod Insights National Park After Dark Acadia National Park, Just Skip It! ft. Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet About this episode Acadia, it’s just not for everyone! Today we are joined by sibling hosts Christine and Xandy Schiefer of Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet to visit some of the most loved, and apparently loathed, locations in the park.
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Transcript 17,531 words · 6 speakers
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0:31 Speaker 01 Did you know that if your spouse goes missing, but you don't tell anyone, that's not necessarily a crime? That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand-new season of Bear Brook, the award-winning true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm your host, Jason Moon. In season three, A Private Matter, we investigate another New Hampshire mystery. A beloved Christmas tree farmer with dementia vanishes from his small town. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be found?
1:03 Speaker 02 If you knew Jay as well as I do, he's private. He doesn't want everybody to know his business.
1:11 Speaker 03 Pat, I don't believe you.
1:14 Speaker 04 I kind of revert back to that Bear Brook saying, what if we were to just come across something? And I wrote down, she said, "I found him."
1:24 Speaker 01 Follow Bear Brook on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:30 Speaker 00 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle. I'm Cassie. And we have a really fun episode today. We just finished up, and I'm still laughing and smiling because it's such a good time. We have some really fun guests on today to do a follow-up to an episode that we did a few months ago that people really enjoyed. Yeah, so if you tuned into our episode a few months ago where we... When we went to all the bad reviews on the park service, we have decided to come back to that because you guys came back and said, we love this. We want to hear more bad reviews of parks. So today we're picking on Acadia National Park a little bit because we love
2:14 Speaker 00 it, all in good fun. And we have Zandi and Christine from Beach to Sandy, Water to Wet Podcast with us today. Yeah, it's kind of like a full circle moment because that was the inspiration for that episode because we've been huge fans and we listen to them. And if you're not familiar with their podcast, they take reviews of all types of different things. They were just saying they just reviewed dude ranches. I think the one I listened to today was about jewelry, like it's anything and everything. Yeah, I listened to one about puzzles where people are really up in arms about puzzles. And they just have great banter and great reviews, or horrible reviews, I should say, that people leave that are really funny to listen to.
2:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, so today we have the honor of having them. We're taking them to Acadia and trying to convince them to go in a backwards way, but we hope you guys enjoy. And are also convinced to go. Yes. And please share your good experiences or poor experiences of whatever park you'd like. But yeah, Acadia is on the chopping block today.
3:37 Speaker 00 All right. Well, hello Christine and Zandi from Beach to Sandy, Water to Wet. Thank you so much for being here.
3:43 Speaker 05 We're so excited.
3:44 Speaker 00 It's an honor. Big fans. Feels like a natural collab. We're very excited that you guys reached out. Yeah, we're, we're super excited. And I think our listeners are going to be really excited about this too. One, because we know that they love your podcast, but also we did a episode not too long ago where we did one of reviews of national parks and people were like, You gotta do more of this. Please, this is so funny. There's something that crossover there is just, yeah, it gets really crazy. Yeah, people really love, we do too much like loving on the national park system day to day. And then so when we have an opportunity to share some. Dunk on them for a minute. Yeah, people eat that up. Yeah.
4:29 Speaker 00 Yeah. So we decided to pick a park that's kind of near and dear to us. It's our like hometown national park. It's the only one. Seven hours away. The only one we have up here. Yeah. Right in your backyard. Yeah. I mean, I live in Maine in the state and it's still five hours away for me.
4:48 Speaker 00 That's really wild. Okay. Yeah. So we decided to pick Acadia. Have either of you been? I know we were kind of just talking.
4:56 Speaker 05 Yeah, I literally just to see one lighthouse and I was planning on going to more, but I had a lighthouse and puffin cruise to get to. So, you know, I just.
5:04 Speaker 00 You know how it is when you got a puffin cruise. Oh, we did the puffin cruise up there. You did? Oh, my God. I'm the only one here who hasn't done a puffin cruise. You have to do it.
5:13 Speaker 05 I didn't even know if we were up there.
5:15 Speaker 00 Me either. I didn't know that for a while either. And we did it for my bachelorette. Yes. I need to get married again. That sounds like fun.
5:23 Speaker 05 I gotta go to that one. Your Vegas one was fun, but I want to be invited to a puffin cruise.
5:27 Speaker 00 A much classier type of bachelorette, I would say. Like a very mild. Yeah, just low key. We're all just kind of like in ponchos. We went kayaking. Getting seasick, looking up at her.
5:40 Speaker 00 I'm just puking over the edge.
5:41 Speaker 05 Okay, a lot of water activities.
5:43 Speaker 00 It's a little, kayaking is too far. All right, we've gone too far. I'm not doing that on my bachelorette. We're going. Water activities. Sorry, Danielle, looks like I just yelled at her. Like, how dare you? First of all, do you know where you are?
5:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, I did react a little too vehemently. I apologize. It's okay. It wasn't my bachelorette, but I was happy for the activities. What happened?
6:07 Speaker 00 But no, I'm not, is it obvious? I've.
6:08 Speaker 05 Not been to Acadia, but I've heard it's beautiful.
6:11 Speaker 00 It is. Yeah, it's really nice. You won't hear that today.
6:19 Speaker 00 Yeah. So for anyone who isn't familiar with Acadia, of course, it's located in Maine. It's right on the Atlantic coast. It's super beautiful. It's like the classic pines going right into this rocky shore, going right into the ocean. It's super picturesque. It was established back in nineteen nineteen and like we mentioned, it's one of the only parks in our area. But a lot of people love going here. Number one, because the ocean and the mountains kind of combo, but also because there's this place in the park that's super famous. It's called Cadillac Mountain. And most of the year, it's the place you can see the sunrise first on the east coast.
6:59 Speaker 00 So people like really love going there. It's a whole thing. We also did that for your bachelorette. We got up at fucking three AM.
7:06 Speaker 05 Oh, well, that part. Sounds less.
7:09 Speaker 00 To top it off, we should write a bad review. I'm just kidding, but we got to the top. It was so foggy. We didn't get a view. It was completely dark. We just stood there. You couldn't see five feet in front of you, never mind a sunrise. And it was freezing. It was like raining and we got up super early and then we just.
7:29 Speaker 05 One time Alexander. I was gonna say, what is it about sunrises where you just assume it's gonna be visible and then you show up? We did that. He, he dragged me to the beach for a photo. He had gotten a camera and he wanted to use it to watch the sunrise and it was just all fog. And I sat in the rocks. Their only photo we have is me just sitting there, dejected, all sad. And she thought it was really funny. But I did get to see the, at West Quadi Point up there near Lubec, the first sunrise of, for the US, because that's the farthest east point. Yeah, that's cute.
7:58 Speaker 00 That's really cool.
8:00 Speaker 05 I love Maine.
8:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, Maine is, have you tried, this is kind of off topic, but also not, have you tried lobster ice cream?
8:07 Speaker 05 No, I, well, okay, I don't know about, well, I'm vegan, so that sounds like doubly not vegan. But I was dying to find a vegan lobster roll and I couldn't find one. But that feels like a tough one. That feels like a tough one to replicate. Yeah, I don't need a lobster version of ice cream though.
8:26 Speaker 05 I'm not vegan and that sounds kind of terrible.
8:28 Speaker 00 It sounds disgusting.
8:29 Speaker 05 It sounds horrible. I do love both of those. Things separately, but. Do you have a review of it like in your head? One to five stars? What do you rate it?
8:37 Speaker 00 I didn't even touch it.
8:38 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah.
8:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, no, I drew a line. Yeah, but it's either all lobster or blueberries up here.
8:43 Speaker 05 Oh, right. Yeah, the more natural fit for an ice cream, I would argue.
8:48 Speaker 00 I agree. Well, so how we're gonna do this is we're gonna kind of like go through Acadia and some of the biggest stops that people tell everyone they should do when they're here. So we'll start off with a ghost tour because that is one of our favorite ways to explore a new place. The first things we do is either, I don't know, like a historic walking tour or a paranormal tour. I will accept both.
9:15 Speaker 05 And I feel like they go hand in hand sometimes, you know, you get a whole history lesson on a ghost tour. Yeah, I did one.
9:19 Speaker 00 Yeah.
9:20 Speaker 05 And it was like All history. Big mix of like, oh, yeah, all this old stuff. Yeah. And ghosts.
9:26 Speaker 00 Yeah, so we actually have not done a ghost tour in Maine, which feels
9:31 Speaker 05 You should.
9:33 Speaker 00 I know, feels like a missed opportunity.
9:35 Speaker 05 Get married there. Or I will, and we can do it. I would do the ghost hunt, not the necess- waking up at 3am and not the kayaking, but I would do a ghost hunt.
9:43 Speaker 00 Yeah, renew your vows up here.
9:45 Speaker 05 I might. Yeah, that's the thing. Or just let's just go. Okay, we could just do that, too. Let's just do it.
9:50 Speaker 00 There's obviously a lot of parks have, you know, spooky ties and their own fair share of hauntings and certain things, just as we're like everything else in in the world. But this part of Maine, or this park is actually really interesting because it first started off, like when you think of national parks, you think of like, I don't know, big, wild, open spaces, lots of wildlife, just undeveloped areas. But Acadia is a little bit different because it kind of started off as like this gilded age, wealthy, summer escape for a lot of people. And there was a lot of like really beautiful ornate mansions. And it's like, this is kind of like the Hamptons.
10:31 Speaker 05 It's like summer in there. Yeah.
10:32 Speaker 00 Yeah, they'd summer in Maine. And there was a lot of bougie things going on. And there was a lot of like human presence versus like
10:39 Speaker 05 Right.
10:40 Speaker 00 This is a lot of just wild, open land we should protect. But a huge fire came through and destroyed almost everything. But so because of the tragedy and a lot of human presence before, there's a lot of spooky stories and stuff. So.
10:56 Speaker 00 Yeah, so of course, there are a lot of different tour operators that have ghost tours in Bar Harbor, which is the town that is the gateway town to Acadia National Park. And we decided to pick somebody who was upset about their experience.
11:12 Speaker 00 Because why not? Because why not? So Christine, you can go first. I would love to. Okay. Okay. So this is a review by Sean, and it's of the Bar Harbor Ghost Tours. It's a two star review. I really, truly, honestly wanted to love this ghost tour. I'd been so excited for it, leading up to my vacation to Acadia. I can't express how let down I was with how lackluster and flat out boring this ghost tour is. If I could offer some advice on how to run this tour, the first thing I would suggest, not having the first stop at Legoland last literally 30 minutes. I noticed others in the tour becoming antsy and yawning and slouching as we reached minute 20 of the dull history of the family who lived and owned Legoland.
11:55 Speaker 05 Not the slouching.
11:56 Speaker 00 Oh, and I love how he's like-
11:58 Speaker 05 When we were slouching, she had a word, schlumping?
12:01 Speaker 00 Don't schlump like this.
12:01 Speaker 05 Don't schlump like this. Anyway.
12:03 Speaker 00 That's from Princess Diaries.
12:05 Speaker 05 Oh, that's what it was?
12:06 Speaker 00 Yeah.
12:06 Speaker 05 Okay, so she, our mother quoted Princess Diaries? That's wild. Anyway.
12:11 Speaker 00 I had a teacher who used to hit me with a ruler if I slouched down. Are you 95 years old? I know, it's crazy, but she was, it was in first grade and she was like, not hard. She would name me hard, but- First grade? It was first grade and I remember my teacher was like 70 years old and she'd be like, "Sit up!" And she would hit me with a ruler. Wow, I mean, we went to Catholic school, so I would have thought like a nun, you know, an angry nun. It was public school.
12:39 Speaker 05 It lived in the school and everything.
12:41 Speaker 00 They were buried in the school and everything.
12:42 Speaker 05 Okay, buried. We walked over their graves every day on the way to chapel.
12:46 Speaker 00 Yeah.
12:46 Speaker 05 Anyway.
12:48 Speaker 00 The group is slouching.
12:51 Speaker 05 This is how it goes with these reviews. We don't actually talk about them.
12:54 Speaker 00 Okay. Sorry, we derailed. Okay. So get blah, blah, blah. Everyone's slouching during the boring 20 minutes of dull history. Get to the ghost stories. We don't need the whole tedious history of a family we don't know nor care about.
13:11 Speaker 00 First of all.
13:12 Speaker 05 Why are you there? Okay.
13:14 Speaker 00 Unless we as a group are actually entering the supposedly haunted locations, the ghost story should be snappy and fast paced and full of scares. A ghost story should be drawn out and lead the yawns from a tour group. Moving on to our second location, the graveyard itself was dark and foggy and wonderfully spooky, all things you want in a ghost tour location. Unfortunately, at this point, the group was shown purported pictures of ghosts taken at the graveyard. My tip, don't show these photos to the groups. Most giggled at these photos because they are so obviously not ghosts. The most egregious picture is just a blurry photo of a man in modern day clothing with a crew cut.
13:54 Speaker 00 A crew cut. Maybe that family that owned Ledgeland had crew cuts and that's the ghost of one of them. And if you were listening to the history.
14:06 Speaker 00 Oh my god. The modern day clothing with a crew cut, but it's supposedly the ghost of a man from the 19th century. To even show this photo to us was almost insulting to our intelligence. After this, we walked down to the Criterion Theater. We couldn't go inside, but the privilege of being able to enter the theater is not a guarantee every tour, so I took no issue with that. Once again, however, we were regaled with less than interesting minutia of the history of the theater. Now, I love history. Okay. No, you don't.
14:35 Speaker 05 Oh, I had to learn about some family I don't know?
14:38 Speaker 00 I had to learn history that I love. Hated it. As a history lover myself. But I didn't take this tour for history lectures. I'm here for creepy ghost tales. The history of the theater as a speakeasy would be much more fascinating if I wasn't on a ghost tour and expecting ghost stories. By the time we moved on to our last location, I was so checked out, I couldn't have cared less about the ghost story and the EVP played for us. This was the slowest paced, dullest ghost tour I've ever had the displeasure of partaking in. And as I already stated, I really wanted to have a great and spooky time. My ultimate pieces of advice, get to the ghost story sooner. Don't bore us with the history of people we don't have anything invested in. Don't show us obviously fake ghost photos and don't have us standing around in one
15:21 Speaker 00 location for more than 10 minutes. I give this tour two stars because Bar Harbor at Night was fantastically spooky in the fog. So the weather, I'm giving points to the weather. Wow.
15:32 Speaker 05 How generous.
15:33 Speaker 00 Wow, that's the end of the review. That explains the second star, though. You know what? Star for the weather.
15:40 Speaker 05 Yeah, sometimes you're surprised all the way through and you're like, two stars? How generous for someone who's so mean.
15:45 Speaker 00 Yeah.
15:46 Speaker 05 And then this one, okay, weather gets a point.
15:48 Speaker 00 It's the fog. Yeah. I love how they were like, just get to the ghosts. I want the ghosts. And they're like, could care less about the EVPs. You told me an EVP, I wasn't even listening.
15:58 Speaker 05 More than I've ever, I've never seen an EVP used on a ghost tour personally.
16:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, I feel like that's not really.
16:03 Speaker 05 Above and beyond.
16:04 Speaker 00 Yeah.
16:04 Speaker 05 I don't know.
16:05 Speaker 00 Yeah. Yeah, well, once they saw the crew cut, they checked out. How dare you? Dare you?
16:12 Speaker 05 What a bold, if they were using a fake, like, why would they use that photo then? Like, it just seems so ridiculous.
16:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, right. I think I would question a ghost with a crew cut as well. I'd be like, wait a second here.
16:28 Speaker 00 Hang on, 19th century. Yeah, well, Cassie and I went, we tell the story a lot, so I'll make it quick. But Cassie and I went on a ghost tour that I don't think we'll ever have an experience like this again. We, we kind of like talked out. So we went to, uh, we were in San Diego and we stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and, which was supposed to be like, obviously super haunted. Cassie actually had a little experience there, but we took this ghost tour and usually I'm the one who books them. And I was like, let's do a little something different. Let's shake it up. So I wanted to, which was a mistake, but I booked this guy who had a lot of great reviews, but it just wasn't the traditional, like,
17:12 Speaker 00 you're with a group and they're going through something similar to what we just heard about. So this guy, like, he's like, meet me in the, the square of Old Town. This dark corner. This dark corner. We're like, and so we're kind of, we're with four people and there's four. People in our group and we're like, where is this guy? He comes like out of the bushes.
17:36 Speaker 00 Dressed in plain clothes, like no indicator that he's runs anything like at all. So not even like an ID. You know, like sometimes there's a lanyard. That's like. Lantern and that gives them immediate authority.
17:49 Speaker 05 Some guy with a crew cut just like jumps out.
17:52 Speaker 00 No light source, let alone a lantern. No light source. Oh my God. So we're like, hi. And he's like, you know, obviously he's like here for the ghost storm. We're like, yeah, sure. And he brings us to just around the old town San Diego square or whatever, but he doesn't give us any back. This person would have loved it. We didn't get any history at all of any building. After jump scare. He was just like, yeah, so I had my first paranormal experience when over here at the, what was that really haunted place? The Waver House? The Waver House. Yeah. He's like, that's what like opened this whole thing up and every stop was legitimately what he sensed and felt.
18:33 Speaker 00 No history, no context, none. He's like, this is where Mary is anyway. And we're like, who the fuck is Mary?
18:43 Speaker 00 And then he's like, he would be like mid sentence. He's like, oh, hold on you. And he would like point to one of us and we're like, he's like, put out your hand. Stop. And go like this. He's like, do you feel that? Stop. Do you feel that? We're like, uh, he's like, close your eyes. He's like, there's a little boy right there.
19:02 Speaker 05 What a way to start.
19:05 Speaker 05 You are touching a little boy ghost.
19:08 Speaker 00 No, I don't think so. And that was it. That was the whole tour for like an hour and a half. And so we couldn't tell you one thing about Old Town, any of the buildings. You didn't even remember the name of the Waver House. That's incredible. Yeah, truly. Yeah. So anyway, I think his name was Joe.
19:25 Speaker 05 Joe wants a podcast.
19:26 Speaker 00 Joe needs a podcast. Hope he's doing well.
19:32 Speaker 00 It's a ghost tour. Never forget that. That is true. I think I might not forget it either, just hearing about it.
19:39 Speaker 00 Okay, shout out, Joe. Thanks so much for that. Um, okay, so we are going next to hotels and there's a lot of historic hotels in and around Bar Harbor and I kind of went off script. I'm like, I'm just gonna pick one that somebody's really mad about. Um, it has no like real, it was actually, it's an older hotel. It opened about a hundred years ago, but it's obviously been like renovated and a bunch of times and this woman, well, it was a woman, but I think she was using her husband's account, Howard182 from September of 2021. The review is the Inn at Bay Lodge, which I don't think we've been to, Cassie.
20:23 Speaker 00 I was like, a lot of the hotels and stuff I, I recognized, but I didn't recognize this one. But here we go. Here's the review, one star. "I am a widely traveled 79-year-old woman. My husband is 81. We have traveled extensively in Europe. We've been to the Middle East, in Japan, in Latin America, and all over the USA. We have camped. We have stayed in hotels, inns, B and Bs, and tents. But we've never had an experience quite like the horrible one we had at the Inn at Bay Ledge." This is a good start. It's like, okay, so you're, you're better than us. I got it. Yeah, I mean, clearly from the first word of this review.
21:04 Speaker 05 Like, I went to the Middle East. I love that.
21:06 Speaker 00 The Middle East, yeah.
21:07 Speaker 05 Such a like, what a drop. Why, who, who cares?
21:12 Speaker 00 She just had to set the scene of how
21:14 Speaker 05 Yeah.
21:14 Speaker 00 Uh, well-traveled they are, I guess. Okay. "We arrived on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We were impressed with the location of the inn on a bluff overlooking Frenchman's Bay. Alas, we were not assigned one of the rooms with a view in the main lodge, but rather to a room in a sort of cabin across the road. We did not complain, however, nor did we say anything about the mustiness of the room. We were disturbed, however, by the fact that the toilet was running as though it was filling up, even though we hadn't flushed it. And it ran not constantly, but in spurts, so we couldn't even treat the sound as white noise."
21:49 Speaker 00 So it's like intermittent white noise.
21:51 Speaker 05 Complaints and I'm like, yeah, I feel that.
21:54 Speaker 00 Yeah. We complained later in the day to the owner, Jack. He said he would check on it, but that night we had to close the door to the bathroom to keep the noise out. The next day, Jack came to our room while we were out and left a note scrawled on a piece of paper. I quote, best for now, turn valve online, turn off valve to stop. So turn the plumbing off if you'd want.
22:19 Speaker 05 And just stop using it.
22:20 Speaker 00 No, just, no. We had some trouble flushing the toilet later that day, but my husband reached into the tank to try and fix it. And he did, at least temporarily. It still ran. That night, we got home from dinner at nine forty five P M. The toilet was completely broken. It would not flush at all. My husband looked inside the tank, but couldn't see what was wrong this time. So we called the numbers listed on the sheet of paper we were given at check in, including the number that said, quote, if you need immediate attention, no response. We called three numbers. But it's like, just give it up. Just call it off. It's fine. It's like broken toilet. It's not, yeah, it's not that deep.
22:59 Speaker 05 The idea of sticking my hand in the tank, like, I don't do that, whatever, my own toilet. I'll stick my hand in the tank in a hotel. Why are you even doing that? The fact that you, I don't know.
23:10 Speaker 00 A musty hotel at that.
23:11 Speaker 05 I would not touch a hotel toilet intimately. I consider that intimate.
23:17 Speaker 00 I think I just have a less germ.
23:20 Speaker 05 I'm not germaphobe. It just seems off. I'm like, first of all, I don't trust myself.
23:25 Speaker 00 To do what?
23:26 Speaker 05 Fuck it up. I'm just gonna fuck it up more.
23:28 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:28 Speaker 05 All the spurting, I'm not gonna make it spurt less.
23:30 Speaker 00 There's all. But then you're just like, I didn't touch anything.
23:33 Speaker 05 That's true, too.
23:34 Speaker 00 That's so true.
23:34 Speaker 05 It's like the liability, you know, you probably signed some waiver. It says toilet issues. You gotta, you gotta not touch it.
23:42 Speaker 00 Hands off.
23:43 Speaker 05 My hotel.
23:43 Speaker 00 Hands off the toilet. Finally, my husband crossed the street to the main lodge and found another number. This time, Jack answered and in a few minutes came to our room. When he arrived, we told him the problem. He began screaming, and I mean screaming at my husband. You broke it. I had it fixed and you broke it. Alexander, you were told.
24:03 Speaker 05 See? And don't touch toilets that aren't yours.
24:07 Speaker 00 He screamed at the top of his lungs over and over. I told him we couldn't spend the night in a room without a toilet, which seems weird for somebody who's been camping and
24:17 Speaker 05 So true.
24:18 Speaker 00 Very good. I don't know. I would be mad. I've left hotel rooms or asked to switch hotel rooms for a broken toilet.
24:24 Speaker 05 But have you been to the Middle East?
24:27 Speaker 00 Yes, we have.
24:30 Speaker 00 Well, then you you And it wasn't there where I asked to switch. Yeah. It's just you're so well traveled. It gives you an automatic win.
24:40 Speaker 00 I mean, it's crazy because people who are have traveled to the Middle East and have seen toilets over there. This feels like not that big of an issue. But now she's like, but now like There's a toilet. She should be grateful. Yeah. There's a hole in the ground that you squat over.
24:58 Speaker 05 National parks, I think you know something about them. Their toilets are terrible. And this person's been camping. I'm like, not in a bad way. It's like, oh, at least I have something. But like, yeah, it's
25:08 Speaker 00 Are national park toilets terrible? Or did Xandi just like slam? Oh, yeah, no, you fight for your life. Oh, okay. It's a hit or miss, I would say, for sure.
25:17 Speaker 05 I will say, I've been to some that have like some great facilities.
25:21 Speaker 00 Here he goes backtracking.
25:24 Speaker 05 I've never been in an Acadia toilet, though. So that area, what can I say? I don't know. Not much.
25:29 Speaker 00 In their defense, they're very understaffed right now with That is true.
25:34 Speaker 05 I wonder why that would happen. So true.
25:36 Speaker 00 Yeah. Okay, here we go. He screamed at the the top of his lungs over and over. I told him we couldn't spend another night in a room without a toilet. Then he began screaming at me. You are nagging me. Quit nagging. You're nagging me. Stop it. At one point, he flung open the door of the room and screamed, get out. Just get out and go someplace else. Oh, my God. Of course, as elderly people at night in a town where every available room was already taken on this holiday weekend, we had nowhere to go, which actually is very valid. Acadia in Labor Day weekend is a nightmare. Yeah, I can only imagine. You're not I forgot that they were elderly. Yeah, there is also. She made that very clear in the first line. Will traveled seventy one year older.
26:21 Speaker 05 Yeah, the first line, huh?
26:23 Speaker 00 Yeah. I told him we would not pay for the night and that we needed some solution. He kept screaming at me. For a split second, I thought about calling the police. Oh. Finally, he went into the bathroom and started working inside the tank of the toilet. By that time, it was at least ten ten P M. He worked on the toilet for about twenty minutes, muttering that we had broken it. He's like, air air toilet. I'm so sorry, those mean people.
26:47 Speaker 05 I told you, it's an intimate thing.
26:49 Speaker 00 It's an intimate thing. You're right. After that, he sheepishly admitted that he had a plumber in some time before and the plumber had not set the valve correctly. And he complained about the money he had paid to the plumber. He promised to have it fixed the next day and apologized for yelling, but we still had no solution for the night. Finally, he said he would get us. This man just yelled at you and said you were nagging at me. I would not be sleeping at this point. I'd be like traumatized. Well, he's offering a solution. Oh. Finally, he said he would bring us a bucket for the night. Stop. That's not okay. Can you imagine flushing the toilet with a bucket in a hotel room?
27:29 Speaker 05 In my head, they're pooping in the bucket. Okay.
27:31 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
27:32 Speaker 05 In the bucket for flushing. Okay.
27:33 Speaker 00 She clarified.
27:34 Speaker 05 You dump a bucket of water in it like whooshes.
27:36 Speaker 00 I thought it was the new toilet. Okay.
27:39 Speaker 05 It doesn't spur. It whooshes.
27:40 Speaker 00 Okay.
27:41 Speaker 05 It's good. It's a good sound.
27:42 Speaker 00 Good. Yeah. We have no choice. Jack left and about fifteen minutes later, he returned with the filthiest bucket I have ever seen.
27:52 Speaker 00 He found the dirtiest one on the property. It was caked in mud.
27:58 Speaker 05 Yeah, everyone's like, oh, it's was pooping in this? No.
28:01 Speaker 00 It was caked in mud inside and out.
28:03 Speaker 05 Mud.
28:03 Speaker 00 I didn't even want this bucket near me, and I certainly didn't want to touch it. I took a photo of the bucket, but I don't know how to upload it to this site. Elderly.
28:14 Speaker 05 Oh, no.
28:15 Speaker 00 The bucket had a very wide mouth so that it was impossible to pour without spilling filthy water on the toilet seat and onto the floor. It was revolting, but again, we had no choice. I couldn't even lift the bucket. We made it through the night, though after being screamed at, we had a hard time relaxing enough to go to sleep. We decided to check out in the morning, thus cutting our vacation by two days. We drove back to Boston and got a flight home at great expense because it was so last minute. All because of this toilet, by the way. I mean, this toilet has caused some security problems.
28:49 Speaker 00 Jack's wife apologized profusely and of course, didn't charge us for the night without the toilet, nor for the other two nights that we were supposed to be there. Of course, because it was Labor Day, she could not get a plumber, and even if she could have, we were not going to stay in that room with a plumber working there all day. I think she should have just refunded our money for the first night also, but we were so glad to get out of there that we didn't argue about it. I do not recommend this inn because I think the owner, a man almost as old as we were, is kind of losing it.
29:20 Speaker 00 I know I said I'm elderly. This guy is off his rocker. I feel sorry for Jack's wife and the other employees. Well, to be fair, he did say that nagging word like a hundred times. And I did have to note, because I had to look into this, of course, because I'm like, God, because there were other reviews that weren't as in-depth of this, but kind of the same vibe of like, it was kind of gross and like, rundown and whatever. I'm like, what's going on with this? But the inn is under new management and it looks beautiful now. Intriguing, okay. So, there was like this lovely couple and their dog from Idaho, and they're like, yeah, we bought it like last year and it needed some love, so. Yeah, I've heard.
30:03 Speaker 00 Slightly. It needed a lot of love. So, yeah, hopefully that all the toilets are white noise.
30:14 Speaker 05 Burning regularly.
30:18 Speaker 00 Wow.
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32:52 Speaker 00 Okay, do you want to talk about Jordan Pond, Cassie? Yeah, so next on our stop, if everyone's enjoying their tour of Acadia so far.
33:04 Speaker 00 Yeah, I feel like I've seen it already. Basically, you've seen the best corners of it. Um, the next stop is at Jordan Pond, which is this beautiful iconic spot that when you go to Acadia, it's kind of like the place to go. And it's this restaurant that it's a restaurant and gift shop that overlooks Jordan Pond and also the Bubbles, which are these mountains that are shaped in like half circles. So they're called the Bubbles and it's beautiful. And they're known for their popovers, which is like you go there, you have a popover, you have the their blueberry lemonade. They have other food and stuff too, like classic lobster and a bunch of other dishes.
33:49 Speaker 00 But during the summer, they have all out on the lawn overlooking this pond. You can sit outside, servers come and bring you these. Oh, lovely. They do tea time with your popovers. So you get like fancy tea and your popovers and jam and butter and bread. And it's just like this fancy, beautiful, elegant way. And it started in the 1800s, like the popover thing. Yeah. So it's like a very ingrained and rooted thing.
34:18 Speaker 05 I have no idea what a popover is.
34:20 Speaker 00 It's like a biscuity. Okay, it's hard. Do you know what a Yorkshire pudding is?
34:26 Speaker 05 I love Gordon Ramsay content. I know what a Yorkshire pudding is.
34:29 Speaker 00 Okay, it's a Yorkshire pudding.
34:32 Speaker 00 I've never heard of such a thing in my life.
34:33 Speaker 05 For how he made his Yorkshire pudding. Anyway.
34:36 Speaker 00 Okay, it's a Yorkshire pudding. It's the same thing. Yeah. Sorry, I was looking up. I've never seen Yorkshire pudding. Oh, really? Either. I grew up my, um. That parent was or is British. They're divorced now, so he's not my step parent anymore. But we used to make Yorkshire puddings all the time at my house. So they're very, they're very, very similar. The name is deceiving because Deceiving.
35:01 Speaker 05 Yeah.
35:01 Speaker 00 Yeah. There's nothing pudding like about it. Mm hmm.
35:04 Speaker 05 Oh.
35:05 Speaker 00 It's not dessert-y either. It's like, it's very much like a bread. It's like a really fluffy bread. It's like a crescent roll. I'm just always mad at people from England. But nice.
35:16 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. I mean, watching Gordon Ramsay complain, I was like, come on, dude. No, who cares? It's a Yorkshire pudding. But he, no, he, he had some points about how it would deflate and stuff, but that's
35:27 Speaker 00 Yeah, if it deflates, it's ruined. It's trash.
35:32 Speaker 00 Okay, you just said you didn't know what, what, what Yorkshire pudding even was, and now you're saying it's trash? I feel like I'm an expert now. I feel like you kind of get it. Yeah. I get it because I get popovers and if they're the same thing. I'm the only one here who's totally out of belief. That's fair. Yeah. You just have to go to Jordan Pond in Acadia now.
35:51 Speaker 05 I would, that sounds amazing. I want to go, I want to go back to Maine.
35:55 Speaker 00 Yeah.
35:56 Speaker 05 September thirteenth is open lighthouse day, so I might, anyway.
36:00 Speaker 00 Well, I gotta get out there.
36:01 Speaker 05 Open lighthouse day on September thirteenth.
36:03 Speaker 00 Oh, I thought you said it's White House Day. I'm like, that's the wrong state. I know. I'm like, I feel like there's
36:09 Speaker 05 A lot of things.
36:13 Speaker 05 But yeah, no, they have, they open up all the, not all the lighthouses, but they have, they open up lighthouses across the state of Maine to the public. And I was the fifth person last year to go into the Portland Headlight and they only let, I think, 200 people in a year. So it was like really cool.
36:29 Speaker 00 That is cool. Super cool. Trying to find ways to brag on this show.
36:33 Speaker 05 Yeah. Anytime I can talk about lighthouses and force it in, I, I take the opportunity.
36:38 Speaker 00 I love that. Do you have the like passport?
36:41 Speaker 05 Oh, you better believe it. It's, I think it's in my backpack right there.
36:45 Speaker 00 You're like, I have it on me. Just in case.
36:47 Speaker 05 You never know. Except actually, whenever I go to an actual lighthouse, I forget it.
36:51 Speaker 00 Can you imagine there's like a natural disaster and they find you and they find your, like, we have his ID and it's just like
36:56 Speaker 05 Yeah, I know. I have mixed up that. With my actual passport, it is not like anything that bad. Like I didn't try to travel internationally with it, but I mixed them up before, but I have like a stack of papers, little papers, slips that I'm supposed to tape in because I went so many times without. My passport, they stamped paper for me and I haven't put them in. But anyway, I'd like.
37:17 Speaker 00 That's my struggle with National Park passport.
37:20 Speaker 05 Yeah.
37:20 Speaker 00 Yeah. We always forget ours and then so we have all the loose things and the stickers and the stamps and yeah. Overwhelming. Yeah. Yeah, we've been to so many before the park pass or we had the passport. So now we feel like, did they even count? Oh, because we didn't get the stamp. I know.
37:38 Speaker 05 No, they didn't.
37:40 Speaker 00 We gotta start over. I think it's pretty obvious they did not count.
37:46 Speaker 00 Um, okay. Yeah. So I think we have a review of the, the restaurant, the Jordan. Yeah, we've talked so highly about Jordan Pond. Yeah. Um, this review is not so great.
37:59 Speaker 05 This is from reviewer cardio M D twenty two. Um, that's not my kind of name. Let's see, August twenty twenty four, and it's titled the Jekyll and Hyde of Jordan Pond.
38:09 Speaker 00 Whoa.
38:10 Speaker 05 Believe it or not, it's a one star review. Here we go. Those who are reading these reviews should carefully note the widely disparate, oh disparate experience.
38:19 Speaker 00 I know they're making us read some hard words today.
38:21 Speaker 05 What the heck? We delete you on purpose.
38:24 Speaker 00 He's a thesaurus. We're like, easier way to say.
38:29 Speaker 05 Those who are reading these reviews should carefully note the widely disparate experiences shared by reviewers. As did I before booking a reservation for JP House as we were told by multiple people that we just had to try the popovers and tea while here. Well, let me say, and all four members of my family were in complete agreement here that popovers and tea at Jordan Pond House may be the biggest food scam in America, if not the universe.
38:58 Speaker 00 What? America and. The natural next step is the entire unit. Sure.
39:04 Speaker 05 There were only two aspects of the experience that were positive. The view from the restaurant lawn is terrific and probably why people who give this place positive reviews are lulled into satisfaction. And the service we received parentheses Jekyll.
39:19 Speaker 00 Is that the good one?
39:22 Speaker 05 Actually, I guess I didn't realize.
39:23 Speaker 00 Oh, I don't know. Yeah.
39:25 Speaker 05 Hyde is the bad one. I don't know.
39:26 Speaker 00 Jekyll sounds like it's gonna be the bad one.
39:29 Speaker 05 It does sound pretty evil.
39:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, cuz he's the, yeah, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
39:35 Speaker 05 And this guy's also cardio M D. So this person is also a doctor.
39:39 Speaker 00 Oh, shit.
39:40 Speaker 05 Right. About Jekyll.
39:41 Speaker 00 Okay.
39:42 Speaker 05 Makes sense somehow. However, the popovers and tea are simply not worth the $14 a pop, as others have said, for 50 cents worth of food, if that. Excluding tip. Oh, no. And $14 excluding tip, which I generously provided because I legitimately felt sorry for the harried servers. The popovers could best be described as what a flavorless Dutch baby pancake would taste like if it were molded into a hollow muffin.
40:13 Speaker 00 Oh, that's what it is.
40:14 Speaker 05 Why didn't you say that to describe popovers?
40:17 Speaker 00 That's such a great description. It's evocative.
40:22 Speaker 05 Yeah, I knew what half the things were. Dutch baby pancake? I'm not sure which. Oh, flavorless, though.
40:28 Speaker 00 Yeah.
40:28 Speaker 05 Oh, man. They give you smuckers, strawberry jam, and some butter and your choice of tea, coffee, or lemonade. The parking situation is awful as described, as is the chaotic check-in situation. Parentheses, Hyde, Hyde, Hyde.
40:44 Speaker 00 Shit. Bad, bad, bad.
40:50 Speaker 05 Oh, I get it now. But is it true they give you smuckers? That would surprise me unless smuckers is like a main.
40:56 Speaker 00 Do they?
40:57 Speaker 05 That's.
40:57 Speaker 00 I don't remember being handed smuckers. I remember getting a bowl. Jam and this person's just being like.
41:04 Speaker 05 Cuz that's what, you know, Cincinnati diners only have smuckers. And I'm like, if they have that here, come on, do better, especially with the blueberry jams.
41:12 Speaker 00 They probably are not giving out smuckers.
41:14 Speaker 05 $14.
41:15 Speaker 00 I remember having a bowl with it filled with jam. Just claiming they know it's smuckers and it's probably not.
41:21 Speaker 05 They needed another Hyde to throw in the parenthesis.
41:24 Speaker 00 Yeah.
41:26 Speaker 05 Do yourself, your family, and your wallet a favor and skip this experience entirely. Or do what we did, which was validate the poor experience of so many who have already posted here. Your choice, Jekyll or Hyde.
41:39 Speaker 00 Oh, this is so like, I mean, really.
41:42 Speaker 05 That's the end of review.
41:43 Speaker 00 That doesn't even make sense. Like, why would that be the Jekyll and Hyde? Like, that doesn't even make sense. It's not the same person. It's not like.
41:50 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah.
41:51 Speaker 00 It's an inanimate object. It's a restaurant. It just is a weird.
41:54 Speaker 05 Person was like, I know two things that represent good and bad.
41:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, yes, right. It's like literary. If you don't like popovers, just say that. I mean, truly, like, you can just say, I didn't like it.
42:08 Speaker 05 They, there's no nuance. It's like, what? It's not your taste. That's okay.
42:12 Speaker 00 Yeah, they are.
42:14 Speaker 05 Maybe, but.
42:15 Speaker 00 Pretty plain. I'm just gonna say it. Like, don't come for me, but. Flavorless pancake? Almost precisely exactly that. Yeah. Wow. Did you rate this review?
42:27 Speaker 00 I'm a big Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fan, and I wanted to work it in somehow.
42:32 Speaker 05 Yeah. Oh, it was all because you, and then you did get defensive about whether or not Jekyll had an M D or not. You were like, it's doctor.
42:40 Speaker 00 It is doctor. Yeah. I see the connections. Yeah. A lot of people were also really upset at this restaurant for the bees. They, a lot of people, because there's bees everywhere.
42:52 Speaker 05 And you love smokers. That's true.
42:54 Speaker 00 They love the smokers. I like that lemonade spilling everywhere. Yeah.
42:58 Speaker 05 I don't think I've ever been stung by a bee at a restaurant. And that's like, no, there's a swarm of bees hanging out. They want some jam. They don't want me.
43:07 Speaker 00 I've been stung by a bee at a restaurant?
43:09 Speaker 05 Doesn't count. You were harassing them. I saw it.
43:12 Speaker 00 I was four.
43:13 Speaker 05 Yeah. Exactly. Well, it does not disprove my point.
43:18 Speaker 00 Okay, well, I feel like it's not the restaurant's fault that you're drawing bees, you know?
43:25 Speaker 05 Oh, I agree. Unless they like, purposefully put like, I don't know, cover the trees in smuckers or something. I'm trying to think how they track bees.
43:35 Speaker 00 Well, here's the thing. This restaurant is also in the middle of a national park, so it's like, the bees belong. Yeah, this is the bees' house.
43:42 Speaker 05 It's not your home.
43:43 Speaker 00 Yeah.
43:43 Speaker 05 And they're surrounded by wildflowers. They have even, I don't know if all of them are wild, but Jordan Pond.
43:49 Speaker 00 And the restaurant has a bunch of planted flowers everywhere. And then there's wild flowers all in the fields off to the side. So it's beautiful and incredible. And of course, there's going to be pollinators there. Yeah.
44:03 Speaker 05 We would hope so. I love bees.
44:05 Speaker 00 My favorite thing is people complaining about nature in nature. Yes.
44:10 Speaker 05 When you did your review episode, I'm sure that was, I, there's just, national park reviews are so wild for that, where it's like, they complain about not having modern, or not modern, just amenities, specific amenities in a national park.
44:23 Speaker 00 The weather. Yeah.
44:24 Speaker 05 And then they're like, oh, it was beautiful, but it's like, what the fuck did you want?
44:30 Speaker 00 Yeah.
44:33 Speaker 00 Well, next on our list of places that we're going, we kind of already talked about it earlier is Cadillac Mountain, which is a really cool mountain too, just because Acadia is on the coast. And then this rises to fifteen hundred and thirty feet above the ocean. So it's pretty dramatic. It sounds small if you're comparing like out west mountains or something. But from the ocean to the top of here is pretty cool. Uh, but there are people who have not good things to say about it. I've been there three times, never seen the view. Really?
45:06 Speaker 05 Oh, man, that foggy.
45:08 Speaker 00 Yeah. So I feel like I should just give it up. Well, we did a group trip there with our listeners a couple of years ago. And of course we go up there, it's fog, like you can't see like your hand in front of you. And I have this like picture or a video of somebody who got the actual view on Google and just held it up. Yeah. It's like, just use your imagination. And how beautiful.
45:33 Speaker 00 I saw it once a few years. I think it was two thousand and seventeen I saw it, but it's been almost a decade since I saw it.
45:43 Speaker 05 That you like know the year was like that.
45:45 Speaker 00 It was so special. It was a rarity.
45:49 Speaker 05 I had the best weather when I was in, I, everyone told me that, that I was so lucky. I don't think.
45:53 Speaker 00 What time of year did you go?
45:54 Speaker 05 Um, I went twice. Once was in like spring, I want to say March, like early spring. And then the other was September. So like middle of summer. Yeah.
46:05 Speaker 00 The weather is usually good. It's just like that fog before it burns off is like, and of course you're there for the sunrise. So I don't know. It's kind of like 50 50, but I've lost every time.
46:16 Speaker 05 I will say I did only wake up early one time. So it's not, I shouldn't be saying how great the weather was because I don't think I thought a single other morning. So.
46:26 Speaker 00 All right. Well, this review is from Nazi 42. What?
46:36 Speaker 00 That's their Nazi. N A T S Y.
46:41 Speaker 05 They've misspelled nasty, I hope.
46:44 Speaker 00 Yeesh. It's from July 2017. Oh my, so maybe we were there. Maybe we were there at the same time. Could be. They titled this, what's the big deal? Two stars. Before heading into Acadia, everyone kept talking about Cadillac Mountain and how amazing it was. And it was on a lot of bucket lists and you just had to see it. Maybe if we've gone at sunrise, which was impossible because I can't be anywhere at 4:30 in the morning. LOL. It would have been more exciting, but in the afternoon, there really wasn't anything that spectacular. It was some views, but I didn't see anything that breathtaking or
47:29 Speaker 00 unbelievable. It was just kind of meh. Oh, come on.
47:35 Speaker 05 This person better live in like the most beautiful place in the world.
47:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm from Fiji. I don't even know Fiji. Like, like, shut up. You're overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and you're in a national park, but okay. There's tons of people and you have to be lucky enough to come when someone is pulling out or you won't get a parking spot. You can wander around and look at a couple of views, but as I said, I didn't find it at all remarkable. I won't say, don't go because if you don't, you'll just be wondering what you missed, but don't expect much. It could be that coming from living in the midst of the mountains, I just found this one a bit underwhelming. If it hadn't been so hyped up, I may have left with a more favorable opinion. Sorry, people told you it was nice. Damn.
48:24 Speaker 05 They'll give you their opinion. So then I didn't like it.
48:26 Speaker 00 Mm hmm. And also what mountains? Because. People have different definitions of what the mountains are like. Yeah, it's true. Coming from the mountains. Okay.
48:34 Speaker 05 Yeah, whatever.
48:35 Speaker 00 Yeah. It's like, you're on the ocean. It's different.
48:39 Speaker 05 I also, I hate it when people complain about like car things like parking in a review like in.
48:45 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
48:46 Speaker 05 It's like, you're part of the problem if you drove there.
48:48 Speaker 00 Yeah.
48:48 Speaker 05 Especially in a national park. If you're driving in a national park, like, that's fine. It happens all the time. Like, I did that. It was crazy traffic because of all the construction. And I'm not like, how dare they do construction in my national park? It's like, yeah, part of the problem. I'm in the traffic because I am traffic.
49:03 Speaker 00 Yeah, that's my second favorite thing. Visiting. Yeah, it's like, I, there's just way too many tourists here. It's like, you are one.
49:09 Speaker 05 What do you think you are?
49:10 Speaker 00 Yeah.
49:12 Speaker 00 Could be, yeah.
49:13 Speaker 05 Oh, gosh.
49:14 Speaker 00 Um, well, next up is another location that people seem to be disappointed by in Acadia, and that's Thunder Hole. So Thunder Hole is this feature in the park that it's really popular, number one, because it's like a really cool phenomenon if you catch it at the right time, but it's also legitimately right off of the main road. So you don't have to like hike over to it or try and like travel far to get to it. So a ton of people try and see it. And it's like this rocky little inlet of the shore where when the tide comes in right, it thunders in and crashes up and makes this giant booming sound. And it has like this giant wave. I think a few people have died there.
49:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, people have died there. It goes up to, the wave will shoot up like forty feet in the air sometimes. Yeah. When we were there, a woman broke her ankle and there was like search and rescue there because it's really wet because of all the waves that are crashing right here. So, and you have to kind of climb down these rocks. There is a pretty like known path, but there, they are rocks that you have to walk down to get down there. Yeah, but if you catch it in the right time, I guess it's supposed to be amazing, but. I think most of the time it's kind of just pretty average. Dangerous. And dangerous. It's just a cliffs. It's just a rocky cliffside. Yeah. Beautiful. Great. Amazing, stunning, but some people are pissed.
50:41 Speaker 00 So this is a two star review from by Sir Rob written of Thunder Hole. Here we go. Visited Thunder Hole with high hopes of being dramatically drenched by ocean fury and deafened by nature's subwoofer.
50:55 Speaker 05 Uh oh. Nature's subwoofer.
51:00 Speaker 05 I feel like if this were a five star review, that'd be amazing. I'd be like, yes.
51:07 Speaker 00 Instead, I got a polite burp from the sea and a light misting like Poseidon sneezed politely and said, pardon me.
51:18 Speaker 05 Pretty cool.
51:19 Speaker 00 That's pretty cool. I timed it perfectly. Two hours before high tide as instructed by every enthusiastic blog and ranger I consulted. What I got was a small gurgle that sounded like a bathtub drain finishing its shift. The only thunder I heard was the rumble of my stomach waiting for lunch. End of review.
51:40 Speaker 05 So is it like one time it happens? Like it seems weird that it's like, oh, I got a gurgle as if like that was the only opportunity that it would make a sound.
51:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. Is it like when it's storming, you have to go there? It's during the tide to have to during as high tide is approaching, I think is the best time. But I mean, it's always doing something because it's just a rocky and then there's ocean waves crashing into it all the time. But to get the like full on, I don't know wrath or fury, whatever they said. The Poseidon's fury. Yeah. Yeah. Poseidon's fury, uh, instead of just a gentle sneeze, you have to go in the right time.
52:16 Speaker 00 Politely.
52:18 Speaker 05 Poseidon said, pardon me.
52:19 Speaker 00 That was nice. That was really thoughtful. Yep. Um, and then we added just another one that. Oh. It was just funny. Okay. I didn't even notice. Okay. Yeah. This is a one star review from by Syed of Thunder Hole. Here we go. There is no thunder and definitely no hole lol.
52:38 Speaker 05 What?
52:42 Speaker 00 What?
52:44 Speaker 00 Little cliff, that's all. Not much to see. If you've never seen a cliff before, this is the place for you.
52:52 Speaker 05 Once you see one cliff, you've seen them all.
52:54 Speaker 00 That's right. That's right. Yeah. Don't even bother. Their credit, it's not a hole. It's like a slice in between the rocks. Oh. He wasn't wrong, I guess. He's not wrong. It's not, okay, technically a hole. Technically, yeah. He was deceived on both counts. No thunder, no hole. So the next one up is the Carriage Roads. The Carriage Roads are one of the fan favorites of the park. They're kind of unique. Rockefeller was one of like the big philanthropists. He actually donated a ton of money to Acadia when it was being established.
53:31 Speaker 00 And he created these carriage roads. It's like a huge network of like 45 miles worth of these. They're now gravel roads that kind of wind throughout the park and people either horseback ride or bike or walk them. And it's a really cool play way to see the park, especially for people who don't want to do like huge extensive hikes or anything like that. They're super popular. We did them. We didn't do them on Your Bachelorette. We did it on the trip. Yeah, we did it on a group trip. We rented bikes and because there's no cars on them. Right. And so it's just people who can, and they weave around ponds and through the forests and it's really pretty. So we rented bikes and It sounds lovely. Just kind of rode along them. Yeah, it's really nice.
54:13 Speaker 00 But I do remember we lost a couple of people in the beginning because they're like, all right, it's a nice gentle ride, but first you have to get up this hill. That's like, They should have gave us e-bikes. They should have gave us e-bikes for that portion, but um, yeah, I don't know. We've, we did e-bikes one time and I feel like we can't go back. Oh, I was gonna say.
54:34 Speaker 05 Never used one.
54:35 Speaker 00 Me neither, but the second I do, I'm not going back. Also, when you realize you don't have. Have to pedal that mu- that hard to get places.
54:42 Speaker 05 Great.
54:42 Speaker 00 Yeah.
54:44 Speaker 05 The idea of biking until I'm doing it. So that sounds like the good mix.
54:47 Speaker 00 Yeah, good combo.
54:48 Speaker 05 Yeah, but our dad is obsessed with e-bikes and I think that's.
54:55 Speaker 05 He likes e-bikes. I don't like e-bikes.
55:00 Speaker 05 Thirty year old children do with their parents.
55:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, I would give them a chance. We we rented them when we were doing the maroon bells in Colorado. And on the way down, I hit like almost forty miles an hour. It was scary as fuck. I'm like. I was cruising.
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56:50 Speaker 00 Okay, so anyways, we're gonna be on regular bikes for this, I think. Of the Carriage Roads. This is from Cynthia321 from July of 2013 of the Carriage Roads, two stars. Title, not recommended. Most of the gravel roads, AKA carriage roads, are surrounded by trees. From time to time, there's a nice view, but the nice views can be accomplished via a hike or a car ride. In any case, it's boring. Complete with the long uphills and long downhills. I was going to give it a three, but I lowered it to a two because my wife almost got stampeded by a horse. Oh.
57:24 Speaker 05 Oh.
57:25 Speaker 00 The reckless equestrian was a guide on horseback who was in front of a horse. Giving it a two, though. He's like, ah, after my wife almost got killed, I guess I'll drop one star. Holy shit. The reckless equestrian was a guide on horseback who was in front of a horse drawn wagon. Later, I yielded to the horse wagon as we were on a tight bridge. Do you think I get a thanks or excuse me? No. In sum, I would say the equestrian crowd here at Acadia seems rather entitled. Okay, we're going into a different. For a horse. This is supposed to be the.
57:57 Speaker 00 Oh, my god. They're going after the equestrian community. How dare you? First of all, that's a dangerous community to go against. I wouldn't recommend it.
58:04 Speaker 05 Vegan, I don't talk much about it because they scare the shit out of me.
58:07 Speaker 00 Yeah, I live in Kentucky and I don't even mess with the horse stuff.
58:10 Speaker 05 I don't want to talk about my opinions on horse.
58:11 Speaker 00 As a former horse girl. See.
58:14 Speaker 05 I didn't say anything.
58:15 Speaker 00 Yep.
58:15 Speaker 05 I'm scared of you.
58:16 Speaker 00 Be careful. It is, yeah, I don't, I don't doubt it for a second.
58:19 Speaker 05 Yeah, that's why.
58:19 Speaker 00 I had to get out, you know, I had to get out of that, that community.
58:23 Speaker 05 Yeah. She, yeah.
58:24 Speaker 00 It's a daunting.
58:25 Speaker 05 It's scary.
58:26 Speaker 00 It's, it is scary and I will say entitled. There's a few people in there that. I'm glad you said it.
58:33 Speaker 05 Someone had to say it, other than.
58:34 Speaker 00 It's a very rich sport. It is very rich. Yeah, especially like, I think there's a difference between, like, when I was a true in my horse girl era. I was still living in the East Coast and there's like, you do like, English and I did hunter jumper competitions. And I was like, in that world. But then out west, when I lived out west, it's like you just throw on a western saddle and you're going through the mountains and like. Right. Cowboy camping and. Yeah. It's a, they're different worlds. This, this world, the Acadia, I know exactly what they're saying.
59:08 Speaker 00 Okay. In sum, I would say the Equestrian crowd here at Acadia seems rather entitled. So avoid the bike ride unless you want a vacation exercise workout where you occasionally see an inland lake and never get a glimpse of the ocean. It's like, did you not look at a map beforehand? Yeah. That. Carrot roads are very clearly mapped out on every single thing when you're in Acadia. Like they advertise it so hard. Rockefeller did this just for you to be able to see the ocean. So.
59:36 Speaker 05 Yeah. Gratitude for Rockefeller.
59:39 Speaker 00 And I almost pulled another one that was like, they basically were complaining. They were like, the views are nice, but until you realize the view is just forest. Oh, look, more forest. Oh, there's forest again. Tree. I'm mad I'm outside. I have another tree in this camp park. I mean.
59:59 Speaker 05 Complaining about not being like able to see the ocean. I feel like if they were that close to the ocean, the horse would have run his wife off the cliff.
1:00:07 Speaker 00 Oh, true. Yeah. You wouldn't have wanted to get stampeded near the, yeah, near cliffside.
1:00:12 Speaker 05 Be grateful you were only by pawns.
1:00:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, could have been, could have been a one star review, not a two. It's true.
1:00:18 Speaker 05 My wife died, so I can leave.
1:00:21 Speaker 05 Review or one more star.
1:00:25 Speaker 00 Well, our next place that we're heading to for Acadia National Park is the Beehive Trail. And have you guys heard of the Beehive before? No. Okay. It is, it's called the Beehive because when you look at it from afar, it's this big rock structure that kind of is in the shape of a beehive. It's a relatively short hike. It's about 1.4 miles to do it, but it's straight up rock and it has all of these steel ladders that come out that you have to like physically climb up these different sections. So. And you're on the cliff face. Dangerous. You're on the cliff face. You're on the side, you're climbing up these rocks. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
1:01:09 Speaker 05 Yeah, that was very.
1:01:10 Speaker 00 Once again, people have died here. All people.
1:01:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I will say when we did it, this trail is so popular in the park that there will be lines of traffic of people in it. So we, something that would have been very strenuous because you're like climbing and you're walking straight up and you're kind of taking long breaks. Okay. Because you're waiting for other groups to climb up the ladders. And so it takes a little bit longer in that way. But it definitely is not a hike that you would do when it's raining or something. Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah. Yeah, but it has beautiful views. Yeah. Have you seen the videos of like Everest when it's like people are just in a traffic jam going up?
1:01:57 Speaker 05 Oh, yes. I've seen that like TikTok. I think when I was in Maine, I had a thing about the lines of people. And I said, and I'm like, oh, my God, they're like on the cliff face.
1:02:06 Speaker 00 It's very, it's probably this trail, like because that's how busy it gets. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, so something that could be really awesome and fun. Like, yeah, you are. I feel like we were there. Half the time we were just kind of like standing there waiting because if anybody has any sort of like panic attack or can't maneuver the ladders or get scared, like you're jammed up. There's no other way around. Yeah. So. And no one's rushing each other because we're all standing on a cliff edge and we're all climbing up these rocks. So it's like, just take your time. We'll get there when we get there.
1:02:43 Speaker 05 No horses, I hope on that.
1:02:44 Speaker 00 No horses allowed. I did see that some people were saying, like, trying to describe this trail. And I want your opinion. Do you think it is like a mini Via Ferrata? Or do you disagree with that? I disagree with that. Same. I'm like, okay, that's giving it a little more credit than I think is due. Because Via Ferratas, you are literally climbing up these huge rock faces almost. Rock climbing, you have to be strapped in. This is not something where I think there were any points where I felt like you needed to be strapped in. Same. You know, like you're not hanging over a cliff edge on these ladders. There's something. Platform, right? Exactly. So. Yeah, I've done one via Ferrada against my wall and I'll never do one again. I was so fucking scared. You did great.
1:03:29 Speaker 00 I don't even know what it is, but it sounds terrible. It's literally like, so we did it again on a group trip. We bring all our listeners on really fun things. Um, damn. We, where were we Quebec? Yeah. And we did, I don't even know how high it was. You would have to look it up, Cassie, but it was, you basically strap yourself in to this like harness that has these, you have a harness on and you have these two kind of like bungee cord things out like this and they have two carabiners on the end of each. And you're going straight up a cliff face on all these like little, um, either footholds or rungs and you have to clip yourself in on every step or you fall. And it's really, really scary for somebody who isn't the biggest fan of heights.
1:04:15 Speaker 00 And once you're up past a certain point, like they tell you, they're like, this is your last time to bail out because no one can help you. So.
1:04:25 Speaker 00 Type two fun. The only other time I've heard someone say that was at Mammoth Caves when I was in there and they said, this is your final chance to turn around. Otherwise you're stuck. And that was terrifying. So this must be a national park thing.
1:04:37 Speaker 05 It's like the opposite though. I love that. Like you had that experience in a cave.
1:04:41 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
1:04:42 Speaker 05 Because it was, and then it's like, oh, but all that happens.
1:04:44 Speaker 00 On a cliff. Yeah. Yeah, why not?
1:04:47 Speaker 05 Interesting.
1:04:48 Speaker 00 Park staff will only help you up to a certain point and then. I get it. Yeah. Your life's in your own hands.
1:04:56 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:04:56 Speaker 05 Will clean up your body. Sorry. I think about my own, if I've experienced it myself. I just read the title of it. It's in all caps, people have died here.
1:05:07 Speaker 00 Oh, God. Okay.
1:05:09 Speaker 05 Anyway, that's according to Ryan K. from July 2015. So it's been 10 years plus. So who knows if I'm anymore. So one star review. Having grown up in Maine, I thought I'd enjoy a fun hike with my brother who is an experienced climber and lives on MDI. It's MDI.
1:05:29 Speaker 00 Island. Yeah, where the Which is where the park is.
1:05:31 Speaker 05 Oh, okay, okay. Oh, so people do live like, is it a good amount of people or is it just like a?
1:05:37 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:05:37 Speaker 05 Oh, okay.
1:05:38 Speaker 00 The park's really interesting because when you like when you drove down to the lighthouse, like that portion that the lighthouse and some of the land around it is technically part of the park, but you drove through people's like communities and neighborhoods, you know? So it's like, it's a park that's kind of fragmented a little bit throughout the island. Yeah.
1:05:58 Speaker 05 While at the base of the trail, the face of the hill looks quite intimidating. Seeing the look of trepidation on my face, a man who just completed the trail said to me, she did it and pointed to his 10 year old daughter.
1:06:10 Speaker 00 I think that would comfort me. If I saw a 10 year old and I was like, all right, okay, that does make me feel better.
1:06:15 Speaker 05 Yeah, that settled it.
1:06:16 Speaker 00 Oh.
1:06:17 Speaker 05 My gut was still saying this was a bad idea, but I went ahead anyway. So it doesn't sound very settled. I don't know. It's like, oh, that's settled.
1:06:24 Speaker 00 If your gut is saying, don't do this.
1:06:25 Speaker 05 I still didn't want to. Okay. After a certain point, I couldn't take it anymore. Iron rungs and exposed cliffs. I've never been a fan of heights, but this was starting to press my panic buttons. The problem was there's no turning back.
1:06:39 Speaker 00 What did we say? You said it. Last chance.
1:06:43 Speaker 05 You simply can't turn around on this trail as it's more perilous to do so. I trudged forward. Yeah. So that 10 year old had no choice. Like, it's like, yeah, she did it, but she would have died if she didn't.
1:06:53 Speaker 00 Probably.
1:06:56 Speaker 05 I'm just, I'm in this review.
1:06:57 Speaker 00 You're a realist. Yeah.
1:06:58 Speaker 05 Realist. Yeah, you're gonna die, everyone. Okay. I trudged forward. Panic had deepened and I spent the next half hour hyperventilating and sweating over exposed cliffs, tenuously clinging to iron rungs as I stepped numbly upward into even scarier territory.
1:07:15 Speaker 00 Holy crap.
1:07:16 Speaker 05 Like, it's not funny, but it's funny. I love these. At one point I stopped and was wondering how much it was going to cost me to have a helicopter extract me.
1:07:26 Speaker 00 Oh, my God.
1:07:26 Speaker 05 I'm not kidding.
1:07:28 Speaker 00 I wanted to add real quick.
1:07:29 Speaker 05 Yeah, helicopter ride.
1:07:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, I feel like they're like looking whether their insurance covers it, like Anthem, like benefits. Like, how much is a heli?
1:07:39 Speaker 05 Honestly.
1:07:40 Speaker 00 Airlifting.
1:07:40 Speaker 05 Sounds more perilous to be airlifted out of there than just trudging.
1:07:45 Speaker 00 Climb down. Yeah. That is true. A lot of people, we have come across a lot of rescue stories where. It's like the helicopter comes in and that's great, but then like the helicopter crashes.
1:07:56 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:07:57 Speaker 00 So. Well, that's a nightmare. There's also that. Have you all seen that video of someone being rescued in a helicopter and they put them? In the litter? In the litter and they care, they carry him up and the rope just starts spinning. And this person is just like whipping around the whole time and the comments are like, just leave me there. Cut the rope. Down. I don't care anymore. I would be, oh God, oh God, that's my nightmare. I'm pretty sure, I'm not positive if this is accurate, but I'm pretty sure it was an older woman too. Oh my God, not the seventy nine year old.
1:08:39 Speaker 00 The well traveled lady.
1:08:40 Speaker 05 Flying the fucking helicopter. Oh no.
1:08:44 Speaker 00 Yeah. Imagine they probably also had like a significant injury, like a spinal injury.
1:08:50 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:08:50 Speaker 00 Right. I'm like, they're already being rescued. Things are already looking bad. Yeah. Very grim.
1:08:56 Speaker 05 After what was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, I made it to the top. The views are beautiful, but I was a shaky sweaty mess. Thankfully, the descent down the back of the hill is simple. If you want the views and you're even slightly scared of heights and understand the simple physics of your body bouncing off rocks and boulders after one fall slip. Then I highly recommend taking that route. I didn't see this warning sign until I descended and there is a warning sign. And it says, I'm not going to read the whole, it's pretty long, but it says, this trail follows a nearly vertical route with exposed cliffs. That requires climbing on iron rungs as a start. And it says it resulted in serious injury and death. Small children and people with a fear of heights should not climb this trail.
1:09:40 Speaker 00 And it's on the descent side.
1:09:44 Speaker 00 It's at the end.
1:09:47 Speaker 05 I'm not sure, but it seemed that.
1:09:50 Speaker 00 It seems pretty, I mean, it's bright yellow.
1:09:53 Speaker 05 It is bright yellow. And it says, I didn't even mention, and it says, warning at the top.
1:09:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah.
1:09:59 Speaker 05 So it's one.
1:10:00 Speaker 00 Like didn't see it. Blended right in.
1:10:02 Speaker 05 Yeah. You know what?
1:10:06 Speaker 05 And then it continues a little bit. Here we go. You've been warned. If you're uncomfortable with the idea that that just one small slip could mean serious injury or death to yourself or loved ones, then exercise caution. Your 10 year old might slip and die. Like it sounds like they're kind of calling out that
1:10:25 Speaker 00 Yeah, it feels a little like unnecessarily like like judgmental.
1:10:30 Speaker 05 I don't know. How dare you go on this trail? How dare you?
1:10:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, if you're happy following your death, I guess you'll have a great time on this trail. I mean, okay.
1:10:38 Speaker 05 Yeah, yeah.
1:10:39 Speaker 00 Yeah, we've seen some kids do some pretty incredible things, though, throughout, like. Kids have no fear. Yeah, they're built different, so. It wouldn't be me.
1:10:49 Speaker 05 The physics of them bouncing down the cliffs, they survive, so they're just bouncing successfully, I guess.
1:10:55 Speaker 00 All right. And then lastly, we're gonna wrap it up with some boat tour stuff because of course, Acadia is on the water, boat tours are wildly popular. And of course, how are you gonna go see the puffins without being on a boat? I mean.
1:11:11 Speaker 05 Exactly.
1:11:11 Speaker 00 You gotta get out there. And then certain times of year, there's great whale watching and things like that. And there's like a lot of wildlife photography stuff. They do on boat tours and things, but I'm, I love a whale watch. I haven't been on one in quite a while, but I really enjoy them. Have you guys been? I don't think I've ever done that.
1:11:30 Speaker 05 No, just the puffin watch and lighthouse watch, you know? I would love to, though. That sounds so, so cool. I want to see like them dolphins.
1:11:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, dolphins, whales. Yeah, we've done, I don't know, I think we did the last one we did together was in Alaska. Was it? A whale watching, like a whale watching tour? Like the wildlife boat tour thing that we did. I mean, you could arguably say that. When we went to Antarctica, that was a wildlife boating. We went to Antarctica.
1:12:05 Speaker 00 Have you been to the Middle East?
1:12:12 Speaker 00 Yeah, we did a group trip to Antarctica last March.
1:12:19 Speaker 05 I'm, I'm getting on the next one. This is crazy.
1:12:21 Speaker 00 Let us know. We'll happily bring you. We're going to Norway next, or next year.
1:12:26 Speaker 05 I want to see a fjord.
1:12:28 Speaker 00 Yeah. I've already seen a fjord, so.
1:12:39 Speaker 00 Being from the mountains. From the fjords, been there, done that. You know what I mean?
1:12:46 Speaker 00 Well, this, this review is something. Uh, this one is from Taylor and it's from a year ago. For the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Tour, they said, do not go on this tour and gave it one star. My family and I went on this tour and six out of 10, it was truly something nightmares are made of. First, the company crams way too many people onto one boat. Good luck finding a seat anywhere outside. The boat goes at an insane speed. I have been on multiple boats and have never been on one that went so fast the entire time.
1:13:27 Speaker 05 On this, that is like the quickest way to show that you haven't been on that many boats. When you say, I've been on multiple boats.
1:13:37 Speaker 00 Like, like three? Like a handful.
1:13:40 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:13:41 Speaker 00 And they were all rowboats.
1:13:48 Speaker 00 It's comical that the company casually tells you over the speakers before taking off that passengers are free to walk about the boat as they desire, when in reality, the boat is going so danger. Seriously fast that walking around is incredibly difficult, requires you to hold on tightly. And I saw multiple people fall. How is this safe? This doesn't even compare to the vomit horror I witnessed for five hours.
1:14:16 Speaker 05 No.
1:14:19 Speaker 05 Who are you?
1:14:21 Speaker 00 They can't stand, they can't walk. Vomiting everywhere. Why are you guys on a boat?
1:14:28 Speaker 00 I prepared with multiple doses of Dramamine, hydration and pressure point bracelets. But due to the speed and waves, I have never felt so sick in my entire life. It took all of my husband and I's strength to not get sick. Meanwhile, over 50% of the passengers were vomiting on the floor into bags and off the side of the boat. I'd be done for. Are you a contact vomiter? Yeah. Oh, no. Hundred percent.
1:15:00 Speaker 05 I would.
1:15:01 Speaker 00 Especially if I'm already nauseous, like I'm done for.
1:15:04 Speaker 05 But like 50% plus, like there's something else is going on. There's a move going on. That's crazy.
1:15:11 Speaker 00 I just jump off at that point.
1:15:15 Speaker 00 The water's filled with vomit.
1:15:20 Speaker 00 That water is cold, too. People, including myself, were in tears and in the fetal position on the floor, waiting for the horrible ride to end. This is like a nightmare from hell. Not one person on the boat appeared to be having a good time. Except the guy driving it.
1:15:42 Speaker 05 Might be having a great time. Having to watch the vomit. I, yeah, that's a good.
1:15:48 Speaker 00 All of this horror for 20 minutes of apparent whale watching, which I could not even see due to the fear of getting out of my seat and having a breakdown. And I'm in fetal position on the floor. I couldn't see the whales. I am so frustrated that I had to pay $150 for my husband and I to endure such horrific conditions and so many hours out of our short vacation, especially.
1:16:14 Speaker 00 Since we got to see a whale jump out of the water while we were on our hike along Otter Point and Acadia the next day for free. This company and tour zero stars if I could. Wow.
1:16:27 Speaker 05 Wow.
1:16:28 Speaker 00 That's rough.
1:16:29 Speaker 05 Yeah, I think we ended with a great cliche that we love. I'd give it zero stars if I could. Oh, my gosh. Um, that's, I can't get, I'm just picturing all these people vomiting.
1:16:39 Speaker 00 I mean, don't get me wrong. It sounds like a nightmare.
1:16:41 Speaker 05 I mean, yeah, I'd hate to be on that boat if it actually happened this way. I am so doubtful that this many people were like, yes, I do get seasick. Yes, I've only been on multiple boats. I'm gonna do this and throw up everywhere. Fifty percent.
1:16:57 Speaker 00 I don't know. I'm also trying to picture this, what's happening here because every whale watching tour, I've like, especially if you're going out to specifically to see wildlife, you're not fucking gunning it. Like, you're kind of. That's what I was wondering. Like, are they chasing the whale?
1:17:12 Speaker 05 Great whale chase.
1:17:13 Speaker 00 I guess probably a normal speed. Yeah. And also they didn't mention like, any sort of like bad weather or waves or anything. So, like, I will say, if you get seasick, it doesn't really matter. Like, I know that Cassie got seasick after we stopped. Oh, my god, yeah. I had gotten used to. Oh, now you're like suddenly wobbly. Yeah. And then when we got on land, my body was just like so thrown. And I didn't throw up, but I was so nauseous for like two days, just because. It's the worst feeling.
1:17:48 Speaker 05 Yeah. I've been, I don't get seasick, so all my shit talking about.
1:17:52 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm like, what are you talking about? I get seasick like instantly.
1:17:55 Speaker 05 Yeah, but like, I'm sorry, the way they described it, I'm like, there's no way. Yeah, going so fast and it's because of all this stuff. It's like, no, you just get seasick normally.
1:18:03 Speaker 00 And then everybody's sick, you know?
1:18:05 Speaker 05 I got you, but.
1:18:06 Speaker 00 I don't know.
1:18:07 Speaker 05 No, I don't know.
1:18:08 Speaker 00 I'm more inclined to believe this.
1:18:09 Speaker 05 But then they, they stop at places. There's no way. Yeah, they're just like, doing circles around this pot of whales that obviously doesn't exist. So never mind. But what are they doing? They're just, I don't know.
1:18:19 Speaker 00 And I also love that, like, the crew or like captain was just like letting it ride out. They're like, eh, well, fifty percent of you are fine. So we're gonna keep going. I'm vomiting, but that's okay. Yeah, I feel like this like happened to an extent, but it's probably exaggerated because I'm thinking of when we did the puffin tour when we were in Acadia, there were definitely people who were seasick, but there was probably like, I don't know, six or seven people who were seasick. And then you saw a couple other people who like clearly weren't feeling okay. But it was fine, you know? So I feel like it probably happened, but it was probably a less percentage of the ship.
1:19:01 Speaker 05 But I remember how many people there were, like a few hundred people. So like,
1:19:04 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:19:05 Speaker 05 one ship.
1:19:05 Speaker 00 Or in the fetal position on the ground.
1:19:10 Speaker 05 No, like these cruises are huge. I mean, I assume this one too. I don't know if it was the same company I was on.
1:19:16 Speaker 00 How many people are on this boat, would you say? I would say probably at least a good hundred. Oh shit. Okay. Well, that changes everything.
1:19:22 Speaker 05 Like a giant ferry looking thing.
1:19:23 Speaker 00 I'm thinking fifty percent is like three out of six people on like a private.
1:19:27 Speaker 05 No, I was thinking like tens of people minimum.
1:19:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, I suddenly have a lot less.
1:19:32 Speaker 05 Picture.
1:19:32 Speaker 00 This is a lot less credible to me now.
1:19:34 Speaker 05 Puking off.
1:19:35 Speaker 00 No, no, no. Fifty percent is a little much, I think.
1:19:38 Speaker 05 So yeah, my experience was different. Not that that necessarily means anything at all.
1:19:41 Speaker 00 I was picturing much closer quarters and also like, I mean, I guess it's close quarters with a hundred people, but like I was picturing like a group of six.
1:19:48 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:19:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, I don't know. There are some people though, that are like, you just gotta ride it out. Like when we were in, um, we did a like, it was different because we were on like the little Zodiacs, you know, like the little rubber boats that kind of like get deployed off of a bigger boat. We were doing that. We were going out to like this seal colony and that was kind of sketchy. Like talk about, maybe we should turn around like, and didn't. It was, the weather was like getting really bad. The waves were crazy. And they're like, well, get on this boat. We're gonna, we're gonna actually gonna, I've been on multiple boats.
1:20:29 Speaker 00 So I have some experience on this, but they were like, even I was like, this feels a bit sketchy. But they're like, we're going, we're going the fastest you've ever been on water. You're straddling. You're not, they're like, hold on to this rope with your fingers. And we're like, Wed your thighs into the side. Wed your thighs into your side.
1:20:50 Speaker 05 Hard exercise or something.
1:20:52 Speaker 00 We're going out there and then they're like, okay, we're here. We're next to this cliffside that all these waves are crashing so hard. They're like, don't get too close because you'll get smashed onto the rocks. Jump in and no life jackets, whatever. We're just on this, in these like wet suits. They're like, jump in. Didn't ask if we had like strong swimming experience, nothing. We go in there, we're surrounded by hundreds of seals. And we had just been talking, we're like, oh yeah, this is where they film like Shark Week for South Africa. Like of all the great whites like coming and eating all the seals and stuff. People are fighting for their lives, like drowning. People are getting like hypothermia. The waves are crazy. What is wrong with you?
1:21:38 Speaker 00 And nobody, none of the people were like, yeah, we should probably call it until after. They're like, oh yeah, we canceled every other tour that day. Well, me, I'm not a strong swimmer and I'm in like these waves and I see everyone swimming around. I'm like, fuck this. I got back in the boat. And I, and I asked the captain, I was like, is this normal? Like, is this how you normally operate your tours?
1:22:01 Speaker 05 That's a bad thing to have to ask.
1:22:03 Speaker 00 And he was like, no, we've canceled everything for the day. Like we're getting out of here after this. And he like, we all load up and we're going in. And we can see the shore, but we're at the point right before the waves start breaking for the shore. Cause we've been riding out these pretty large waves and I'm feeling a little seasick and a couple of other people are too. And he stops us and he's like, all right, everybody, what I need you to do is you're going to have to hold on tight. He's like, this is either going to go really well or really bad. He's like, I have to hit one of these waves. He's like, the waves are so big at this point that
1:22:41 Speaker 00 I have to hit a wave just right or we might flip. So I'm going to ride this boat onto the beach. Yeah, there was no like dock. You just like gunned it onto the beach. Onto the beach. And he was like, prepare because we might flip in the water. We might flip once we hit the beach like. We're gonna go and I'm just sitting there. I'm like, what are we doing? What are you doing? Oh my God, how did I end up here? I'm so far from home. I don't want to go home. I just get me out of this ocean right now. And I remember vividly, I hold on to these ropes and I close my eyes. And my husband was with me at the time and he just looks at me and I'm like, close my eyes, put my head down and this guy just guns it.
1:23:26 Speaker 00 And he hits the wave just right and we land on shore and we slightly tip over. Oh my God. Nothing dramatic. And I was just like, I have never jumped off a boat so fast in my life. After that, like a long nap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then we took a group photo and we all look so happy. I know. We're like, we're like green from nausea. Like we did it. We lived.
1:23:52 Speaker 05 But I don't know. He's like, oh yeah, they're too, it can go really well or really bad. It sounds like it just could have gotten like really bad or less bad.
1:23:58 Speaker 00 All around. Like we were out here for too long. This storm came in and we're, Yeah. Yeah. Like, good luck, everyone. Have your, everyone buckled up? Everyone have your life vests on?
1:24:11 Speaker 00 Yeah. Well, I did add one other review for this whale watch from the same company because I thought it was funny. This one is from Rochelle three years ago and they gave one star. They said, great experience. We saw numerous whales and seals. The only negative part was when your employee yelled at me. A bunch of people were crowding around trying to see a whale that surfaced. In an attempt to see a little better, I put my feet on the seat and leaned against the railing. The boat.
1:24:45 Speaker 05 Sorry. I'm like, why are you doing that?
1:24:49 Speaker 00 Rule number one. Put your feet on this. What? I just got it. I thought it was the other way around.
1:24:55 Speaker 05 On the railing? That's worse.
1:24:57 Speaker 00 Well, I felt like sitting in the seat and put feet on the rail.
1:24:59 Speaker 05 Oh.
1:24:59 Speaker 00 And I thought, oh, you're just like putting your feet up, but no, okay. It's like, wait, are they? Wait, are they over the boat railing? Oh yeah, they're leaning over the boat. Okay.
1:25:07 Speaker 05 Being higher off. Oh my gosh.
1:25:08 Speaker 00 Standing on a. See leaning over, they tried to justify it by saying, the boat was stopped. Your employee came over very short with long brown hair and yelled at me to get down like I was a dog. She was very rude and disrespectful. I understand it was a safety concern, but she went about it completely wrong. My fiance and I spent a lot of money to go on this trip and your employee's behavior. Idiot, like come on. I'm doing my job. Literally, please don't die on me.
1:25:44 Speaker 05 But she could have asked nicer. She could have said, please, do you mind getting your?
1:25:49 Speaker 00 Getting the fuck off of the railing.
1:25:54 Speaker 00 My fiance and I spent a lot of money to go on this trip and your employee's behavior definitely negatively affected the remainder of it. Teach that snot nose some respect. Jesus, like, it's always when the like, the vitriol on the other like, comes back so much more intensely. I'm like, what is happening? Like, there's no reason you should be getting this. Upset. Upset and like cruel with your words.
1:26:19 Speaker 05 You did something wrong that was unsafe and then to be like, ah, snot nose.
1:26:23 Speaker 00 I'm no dog.
1:26:24 Speaker 05 How dare they treat me that way?
1:26:27 Speaker 00 Jesus, what do you talk to your dog like? I don't want to know.
1:26:31 Speaker 00 Whenever you go on one of these ships, like one of the very first things that they say is keep all your limbs inside the boat. Do not lean over the railing. Hammer into you for the first like 10 minutes of the ride. It's like a toddler, like, yeah, you sometimes have to be like, stop it. That's dangerous, you know?
1:26:50 Speaker 05 Like when you ran in the street that one time to try to get hit by a car. As a toddler, not recently.
1:26:54 Speaker 00 Not recently, okay.
1:26:57 Speaker 05 And then she had to be told, you don't do that. And she was like, I wanted to. I wanted to get hit by a car.
1:27:02 Speaker 00 Okay.
1:27:03 Speaker 05 You did. Am I wrong?
1:27:05 Speaker 00 Who was older? Who was older?
1:27:06 Speaker 05 She's older.
1:27:07 Speaker 00 Okay. You weren't even there.
1:27:10 Speaker 00 Were you born yet? You were in an in.
1:27:12 Speaker 05 I was in the car.
1:27:18 Speaker 05 No, it's fun to see if our mom would cry when she died.
1:27:21 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, I mean, that is a litmus test, but yeah. And then my mom goes, you wouldn't have even seen me because you'd be dead. And I went, oh, yeah.
1:27:33 Speaker 05 That toddler toddler path, I don't know.
1:27:34 Speaker 00 Anyway. Well, thanks, guys, so much for, do you want to come to Acadia now? Did we sell it for you?
1:27:41 Speaker 05 I actually very much so.
1:27:42 Speaker 00 Wanted nothing more ever.
1:27:44 Speaker 05 Yeah, I I have heard amazing things about it, so I will be very disappointed, but I look forward to going there.
1:27:49 Speaker 00 Uh, in September, I guess. Yeah, open September, open.
1:27:53 Speaker 05 No, okay, that's the thing is, yes, I was technically in Acadia, but I was focused. I had I had a goal. Lighthouse, lighthouse. I saw like at least, I think, ten lighthouses that day. So I was like, I've.
1:28:05 Speaker 00 That's impressive.
1:28:06 Speaker 05 I, yeah.
1:28:07 Speaker 00 You were on a schedule.
1:28:08 Speaker 05 I really was, and I actually didn't even hit my number that I wanted. I think I wanted to get like thirty. Um, so I have to come back for like, I think, another fourteen or something.
1:28:18 Speaker 00 Did you go? Are you trying to get all of them in Maine?
1:28:21 Speaker 05 Um, that would be nice. There are so many that are like, you know, as you know, on like islands that aren't as accessible, but um, at least.
1:28:29 Speaker 00 He's a strong swimmer.
1:28:30 Speaker 05 I am.
1:28:30 Speaker 00 Swim over. Just kidding.
1:28:33 Speaker 05 That's, yeah, just kidding. I'm not a strong swimmer, but no, I want to see all of the lighthouses in the country, ideally seven hundred. Um, one day, we'll see. Um, but yeah, no, Maine for sure. I do want to see as many as I can at least. Yeah. And some in Canada that are up there too.
1:28:48 Speaker 00 I'd love to see a puffin, so.
1:28:49 Speaker 05 That is awful. I saw a lot of puffins.
1:28:52 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:28:52 Speaker 05 They're tiny.
1:28:53 Speaker 00 It's good reason to. They are really small, and it's so interesting that they're only, they're just really concentrated to that one area.
1:29:00 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:29:00 Speaker 00 They're like, it's a guarantee. We know they're here, which is super rare in like wildlife viewing stuff. It's like, it's a crap shoot. It's like, maybe we'll get lucky, but they're like, oh, no. Yeah, we heard night and moose tour reviews that Matt was talking about, not sure. Don't even get us started on moose. We have a whole thing on moose. You already know about the moose. Yeah. All right. Well, did people see them? Are they pissed that they didn't see them? Is that the whole thing?
1:29:22 Speaker 05 Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah. And then they were pissed even if they saw.
1:29:25 Speaker 00 Because then the tour was just a DVD on the bus about moose.
1:29:29 Speaker 05 That didn't work. They're like, the driver kept having to leave the bus to fix the DVD.
1:29:35 Speaker 00 This is a night tour. Anyway, so, yeah, I've, uh, daytime puffin tour, I'm in.
1:29:40 Speaker 05 Hmm.
1:29:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, we say moose aren't real because we've never. Seen them in New England, even though they're like supposedly all over the place. Everywhere.
1:29:48 Speaker 05 And big, they're hard, I imagine.
1:29:50 Speaker 00 They're hard to miss.
1:29:52 Speaker 05 Never seen one myself, I don't know.
1:29:54 Speaker 00 We've seen them in other parts of the country, but never here. And allegedly, I had to look it up because I, well, we're from New Hampshire and like, New Hampshire is kind of small, right? And we're like, how many moose can really be in New Hampshire? But now that I'm in Maine, like, how many moose are in Maine? Allegedly, there's almost 70,000 moose here. Jesus.
1:30:14 Speaker 05 Allegedly, I agree.
1:30:15 Speaker 00 Allegedly.
1:30:15 Speaker 05 I love that.
1:30:17 Speaker 00 I'm like.
1:30:17 Speaker 05 I haven't seen.
1:30:18 Speaker 00 Where? Where? Yeah, they're certainly not. It's like a little city.
1:30:25 Speaker 05 There's one city in rural Maine.
1:30:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, maybe they're not in other towns or just in their one little.
1:30:31 Speaker 05 I love that idea.
1:30:32 Speaker 00 Yeah. So anyway, well, thank you guys so much for coming on and tell everyone about your show really quick. Yeah, thank you so much for having us. This is an honor. Um, I know we do have a lot of crossover of listeners and you guys put on such a great show. So thank you for having us. We host a podcast called Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet. We read one star reviews in a dramatic fashion, as you just kind of encountered all of us doing. And you can find us anywhere you listen to fine podcasts such as this one. What has been, before you go, I have to ask, do you guys have like a favorite? Topic? Topic that you've covered? That's a great question.
1:31:10 Speaker 05 I will say, and I'm not just saying this, uh, what did we just, we recorded something that was so, oh, dude ranches. We just recorded an episode on dude ranches.
1:31:18 Speaker 00 There was a lot of forced humor in that one, too.
1:31:20 Speaker 05 Wild. Like, that was one of the most surprising, funny, like, times searching for reviews.
1:31:26 Speaker 00 I think it's when people go outside, they, all bets are off. Like, people, myself included, are like, whoa, what's happening out here? Like, help, you know?
1:31:34 Speaker 05 You've seen all the national park reviews that people are like, they've discovered bugs for the first time.
1:31:38 Speaker 00 Yeah. Yeah, this is crazy. I wasn't expecting this.
1:31:43 Speaker 05 Nobody warned me. Show in Salt Lake City, and that has one of my favorite reviews because it was someone going, I don't think it was Salt Lake, but it was, or it was a park right by the Salt Lake or something. And there are so many bugs and they were talking about.
1:31:53 Speaker 00 Oh, Antelope Island. Yes.
1:31:56 Speaker 05 That sounds right.
1:31:56 Speaker 00 And someone did their wedding photos there.
1:31:58 Speaker 05 And there was someone dressed as a vampire, like went outside and experienced like 10 things that you shouldn't experience outside.
1:32:05 Speaker 00 And she's like, I started.
1:32:06 Speaker 05 About the things you do experience.
1:32:07 Speaker 00 She was in a wedding dress. She's like, I started sinking into the sand and then I realized it wasn't sand. It was just tens of thousands of bugs.
1:32:16 Speaker 00 On my.
1:32:17 Speaker 05 And then someone dressed as a vampire.
1:32:19 Speaker 00 Oh, and then she's like, and then the guy dressed as a vampire took my ticket and I'm like, are you?
1:32:25 Speaker 00 What dimension are you in?
1:32:28 Speaker 00 Where are you?
1:32:29 Speaker 05 It's hard to pick, but I will say like the.
1:32:31 Speaker 00 Any outdoor ones really do. Yeah. Always kind of present some, some challenges for humanity.
1:32:37 Speaker 05 I'm excited for what we've got in store for you because you're gonna be.
1:32:40 Speaker 00 Oh, that's right. Oh, my gosh. We gotta say that, too. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna do like a part two type of thing. That's right. You gotta follow up to find out what happens, you know? That's right. Um, I'm interested, Cassie, if you listen to the dude, right? Because she kind of worked on one. I did work on one. Cassie? I'm so curious if any of the reviews are from the one I worked on.
1:33:03 Speaker 05 Eight were you in? Was it?
1:33:05 Speaker 00 Wyoming.
1:33:06 Speaker 05 Okay.
1:33:07 Speaker 00 Did we read? I read a lot of Wisconsin ones.
1:33:09 Speaker 05 Yeah, you had a week. I feel like you only read Wisconsin ones.
1:33:12 Speaker 00 I only read reviews from that one person named Andy who lives in Wisconsin.
1:33:16 Speaker 05 Andy who just was like, oh, I know. And then gave a lot of good reviews, but I'm trying to think Wyoming feels like one of those places that of course we would have had. But it also feels like a place where people understand how dude ranches work.
1:33:27 Speaker 00 Like was. You'd be surprised.
1:33:30 Speaker 00 When you're like trying to experience. Yeah, anyway.
1:33:33 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:33:33 Speaker 00 You know, I've never read the reviews on that ranch that I worked at. So now I feel like they need to.
1:33:40 Speaker 05 Do you have any, a review of any like specific people you interacted with? Any crazy experience?
1:33:46 Speaker 00 A counter review, if you will. Counter review? Um, I, not a bad review there. I remember there was this one woman who she, it's not a bad review of her. It's, she went horseback riding and she was older and she fell and she broke her hip and she ended up having to stay out there way longer. And she was such a good sport about it. And her husband was like, well, I guess I'll just hang out at the dude ranch and go horseback riding and do all those things while she's in surgery. And then I actually came back to visit. I mean, I'm sure he was at the hospital when she was in surgery and stuff. But then I came back to visit a few years later and she was back visiting again, horseback riding.
1:34:30 Speaker 00 That is, and it was just such a freak thing that I was there at the same time because it was like years later. I just happened to be in the area, stopped by to visit old coworkers and she was there. Riding, she was on a horse when I saw her. Wait a second.
1:34:46 Speaker 05 Nice to know after all those one star reviews, be like, oh, those people exist who break their hip.
1:34:50 Speaker 00 And come back.
1:34:51 Speaker 05 Like immediately.
1:34:52 Speaker 00 Yeah. You know, she didn't leave a bad review. She's like, I'm back. I love that. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks, guys, so much. And we'll, um, I guess in like a week or so, maybe we'll do it this all again. Perfect.
1:35:08 Speaker 05 Yeah, I can't wait.
1:35:09 Speaker 00 Can't wait. Yeah, we're excited to be on your podcast. Thanks for having us.
1:35:12 Speaker 05 Thank you.
1:35:15 Speaker 00 Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.
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