September 25, 2009 – A true non-tourist tour

We spent the morning writing, doing photos and reading. There is internet access here, if we want to sit in an unheated shed, on a picnic bench with five of our closest friends.

Our friend Karen works at the Jackson Research Laboratory here in Bar Harbor. She has been doing genetic research with mice for about eight years. We met with her for a tour and lunch. The tour of the lab was fascinating. She showed how they can measure blood pressure, respiration and do an EKG on these little creatures. All is done humanely. We stood at a window while one of the technicians presented a variety of mice. Karen would describe each strain and how each had been used in the research.

After lunch, we stopped back in town. Carol had seen a shop she wanted to visit. The owner is an artist who creates glass sun catchers. There was lots of stuff I would never buy. I did find an interesting piece that we could hang outside at home. It was interesting until I saw the price tag, then it was just expensive.

Down the street, we got some homemade blueberry gelato; excellent.

We drove back to the campground to spend some time before we met with Karen again to watch Hamish play soccer. It was cold, so I built a fire and we sat with a glass of wine, read some and took some pictures. A nice relaxing afternoon spent at our campsite in the woods.