Liz and Brad's Big Adventures: Sarah and Joel's Maine wedding

When one of my best friends announced her engagement, I knew I had to make the trip to her Maine wedding!

The big event was Memorial Day weekend. We flew into Boston on a direct red-eye. Won't be doing that again! But it was a great way to get some extra time to explore Maine. We arrived Friday morning, drove the rental car north to Georgetown, Maine, grabbed a much-needed nap and then dressed for dinner.

We were so happy to be included in the rehearsal dinner lobster bake at Taste of Maine in Woolwich, a few minutes from where we were all staying. We were among the first to arrive, so we got to sit with the couple of the hour!

That was one big lobster a big bag of clams! The pescatarian in me had a tiny freakout but then remembered that I crack and eat crab all the time. No biggie. Thankfully, Sarah coached me as we went along.

Yes - I had to do the bib!

I managed to get down about half the clams and the lobster claws and tail. That was a massive amount of food (plus salad, chowder and dessert!)

Brad opted for the haddock option. Haddock was everywhere! We don't have that here.

Besides the lobster and getting to hang with Sarah and her family, it was great to meet some of the friends I've heard so much about over the years.

Saturday was the big day! We were prepared to lend a hand, but Sarah said they had everything under control. So we went running.

Brad used the magical interweb to find a wooded 5-mile bike path in nearby Bath that looked promising. We had a little trouble finding the trailhead at the YMCA but eventually got on our way.

The landscape is very different from home. It's very hilly, but they are tiny, rolling hills. We crossed a road near a sports facility and spotted this sign. We laughed and laughed that they were warning bicyclists about this hill. It was so tiny you might need to pedal to keep up your speed ;)

Everything appears to be built on one big glacial rock, and there was very little underbrush in the woods. And there were dried leaves everywhere, as if it were fall. My mind tried to make sense of it and decided that the winter snow must just make a big blanket, and since it's not rainy, the leaves don't degrade very fast.

So this bike path was actually a mountain bike trail. VERY rugged. There wasn't a single part that wasn't covered with big rocks or tree roots. Because it's so rocky, the roots just sit on top. Fortunately, neither of us bit it, but it was definitely the toughest trail run I've done. Brad likened it to running tires - high stepping with each footfall. The dried leaves and the roots and the rocks and the dirt were also about the same color, so we had to pay very close attention.

We came around one corner and spotted dozens of turtles sitting on this log. Most slid into the water when they heard/saw us. I've never seen turtles in the wild at home, so that was very cool!

We hadn't brought fuel with us, and not wanting to get stuck in the woods and miss the wedding, we decided to call it quits before we reached the end.

I ended up running about 6.25 miles in all on the Whiskeag Trail:

We did have some extra excitement in the form of illicit trail booty! I spotted a dollar bill on the trail and then a second one. There were also some papers folded up in a plastic bag. It was all hidden among the ground-colored leaves and definitely looked like someone took something from their pocket, likely in the dark, and lost the contents on the ground.

Then Brad spotted a bag of weed! We decided we shouldn't just leave it since a kid could find it or something. Brad was going to put it in his jacket but I didn't want the smell to transfer so I wrapped it up in a leaf and carried it the rest of the run. It might have been the complete lack of sleep from our red-eye flight, but we found this totally hilarious!

And we had to take a picture!

I was just going to throw it away, but Brad thought we should flush it. So I went into the YMCA with my bag of weed and dumped it in the toilet.

Bye-bye, illegal drugs!

We laughed so much! Actually, it was more the giggles of a couple of prudes finding drugs in the woods and not being cool enough to do anything with them :)

OK... with our drug adventure behind us, we made it back in plenty of time to get gussied up and head next door for the main event!

The wedding was at this beautiful inn right on the water.

Sarah looked absolutely gorgeous!

And if it wasn't magical enough in this setting, a bald eagle flew overhead during the ceremony!

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons!

There was a cocktail hour while Joel and Sarah did pictures, and then a dinner of salmon and steak in a tent on the lawn. Then we all came inside for cake, drinks and dancing. It was such a beautiful day - and they looked so very happy!

We got back to our B&B next door and realized we didn't take any pictures of ourselves all dressed up. One quick one before bed!

Sunday, we decided to take care of unfinished business on the Whiskeag Trail. We started at the other end and did another 4.7 miles. We brought our heart-shaped butter cookies from the reception for mid-run fuel: