The morning sun shines gently on the pond as I wake from the comfort of a peaceful nights sleep. The children slumber while I brew coffee in the fully equipped kitchen. Looking out the kitchen window I watch a small chipmunk gather his own breakfast on the dirt road that leads to this quaint cottage. Carrying my Maine coffee cup I walk down to the pond and sit on the dock to greet the day. A bald eagle joins me on his graceful flight over the water as he searches for his own breakfast. The water is like glass and it mirrors the blue sky and a few white puffy clouds that glide out towards the salty ocean just beyond the trees. I drain the last of my New England coffee from my cup and walk back towards the cottage. I find my husband in the living room reading one of the local area books he found on the shelf. "Morning walk?" I ask. He agrees and we head out the door to the dirt road. We stop by the tiny pond behind the house and question what type of animals visit this fairy like location to get a drink. As we walk a little further down the lane we soon discover it was two large bucks grazing in the field of wildflowers. They are not frightened of us on our stroll and just eye us curiously as we continue on our way. We stop at the small family cemetery and read the incredibly old stones. "What history in this beautiful place" we say. We turn and walk back the 1/8 mile to the cottage listening to the sounds of nature all around us.

The smell of sugar is in the air as we open the door and find the four teenagers we have brought with us diving into the donuts I had left on the counter. Plans for the day are discussed over the orange juice and chocolate covered treats. A drive into Bar Harbor is requested to walk on the 'land bridge' at low tide and the girls want to do a little souvenir shopping. The boys plan to skip rocks into the ocean to avoid the stores and my husband agrees to go with all of us as he wants to stop outside of town and grab some fresh lobsters for our dinner- of course our kitchen has a lobster pot! What great Maine cottage would not?

Upon our return the teenagers head out onto the pond in kayaks and rowboats to swim off the anchored swim platform. My husband starts a fire in the BBQ to grill some steaks while I prepare to steam the lobster. (We learned this technique from the lobster woman we purchased them from). After dinner the boys head out for some evening fishing while the girls and I work on a puzzle in the cozy living room.