Day 5 - The spirit was willing

Monday morning broke as a perfect day for hiking and experiencing the natural wonder that surrounded us. Unfortunately, my body definitely did not agree with this. I still wasn't feeling well, but decided that really all I needed to do was get moving and hydrate with water and Gatorade. I was wrong. We hit the park fairly early and navigated the park road to the trail head for Cadillac Mountain. At a little over 1,500 feet, Cadillac is the highest point on the eastern shore of the United States. The trail is a little over 2 1/2 miles long and should have taken about an hour and a half to climb.
We started up with no problems and were treated with frequent views of Bar Harbor and the "Porcupine Islands." These little islands are sharply humped, upcropping granite that are covered with bristly pine - thus their name. The kids and Karen were doing fine, but I was quickly flagging. About a third of the way up the trail, I had to call it quits. I was feeling down right awful. Cadi and Cole weren't happy about the decision to turn back and we discussed options but finally arrived at the decision that the only choice was to all head back down and go back to the cabin.
After we got back, I laid down and Karen and the kids had lunch, while they planned their afternoon. They decided that they would tackle Great Head, a low uprise that overlooks Sand Beach and gives a beautiful view of the ocean... I'll let Karen take over from here.