The Cougar Chronicles: Acadia Trip 2011

Every year the team piles into vans and cars and drives to Mt. Desert Island for three days of camping, swimming and, of course, running! Before I get to the actual running part, there were several occurrences I would like to highlight. In the mornings, the team goes on an easy run before breakfast. On the first morning, we were running and saw a desolate beach down the road. I noticed something big on the shore that was reflecting the sun off of it.. and it was definitely not a rock. "You guys, is that a whale on the beach? Oh my gosh, there's a whale on the beach down there!" As we approached the beach, we could tell that it was, in fact, a beached whale. Obviously we all sprinted down to investigate. There was a marine biologist from the College of the Atlantic who was down there, and informed us that it was a nineteen-foot sub-adult male minke whale. The smell of rotting whale, by the way, is absolutely nasty! The whale's tongue was lolled out onto the sand, and it was rather dried-up.
The second major event happened on the last afternoon in Bar Harbor. I'd gone to the sketchy old bathroom in the park to change into street clothes, and literally bolted myself shut into the huge stall (whose walls were made of concrete). There was no way I was going to be able to climb over the stall door, and the space under it could not accommodate the size of my body. My friend said to stand back, and she was going to kick the door in. She did, and I was free :D
Okay, running. So the team is a fairly young one this year, but don't I seem to say that every year!? In the two mile time trial we do on the carriage trails, I bettered my previous time by twenty seconds. Louisa Stancioff (my savior :) followed a little less than a minute later. The rest of the varsity (as of now) will include Fr. Katherine Gunther, So's. Sarah Wade and Macee Qi, Jr. Maryam Norton, and joining us this year, my cousin, Sr. Emily Roberts. We're ever so pleased for all of you to be on the team!! The guy's team is showing promise as well! Looking forward to Scot Laliberte tomorrow :D