Maine

Acadia Maine!! We were so excited we were staying here for 5 Nights!!! That was the most our family had spent alone in one spot the whole trip! We got to Acadia late in the afternoon and were worried that we would have difficulty finding a place to camp within the National Park. We headed straight for the first campground and sure enough, they were out of spots. We had to go around the island to get to the other campground. Due to my stellar navigating skills, we got lost along the way. We would have enjoyed seeing so much of the island if we weren't so concerned about getting a spot! When we finally got to the campground, Marcus went in, and sure enough there was 1 spot and it was available for 5 nights!! They had just had a cancellation over the phone. If we had gotten there sooner, we would have been turned away. I guess we were lucky I got us lost, huh?! The campground was very nice. This was a National Park, so there were no hook ups or showers, but the place was just beautiful! They DID provide firewood for the season. Unfortunately, the season was over and they ran out of the free stuff, but we got some, and buying more wasn't that big of a price to pay for being in such a great spot for 5 NIGHTS!!

We decided to check out the tide pooling. We had heard such great things about it! I don't know if we were in the wrong place, but we were disappointed. We are used to California tide pooling where we see lots of crabs, star fish, and sea anemones. Here, we didn't see much besides snails and seaweed. The water was really cold too. I think it was colder than our water in northern California! We had definitely left the warm water behind us as we traveled north.

We had driven with our bikes on top of the trailer all over the country (which was not so easy on them with all the rain, bugs, hot sun etc. can I just say). We had taken them down as part of set up, and put them back up as part of take down, countless times with much sweating involved. Many times we didn't end up using them at all. Here, we were in a place where we could do some riding. The boys in particular, rode a lot. There was a group of kids that all rode their bikes all over the campground.

Our two tanks of propane had lasted us the whole trip so far, but we finally ran out with using the heater at night. Marcus left to go refill the tanks in the morning. It took him a few hours. After he got back and replaced the tanks the fridge still wasn't working. Here we were with no hook ups, so propane was our only way to make the fridge work. It was back to ice chests for us! Marcus is so ready to get rid of this trailer! (It turned out just to be an air bubble in the gas line that fixed itself during the drive to the next spot.)

One day Marcus took Colin to a ranger program on stream health, while Derek and I went to one on sketching in the park. We were led by an artist in residence. She taught us how to pick out what we wanted to draw, and then we all sat and sketched. The premise is that this way people will slow down enough to enjoy the park and get to know it instead of just drive by viewing. Colin and Marcus both really enjoyed the stream program and took the only walk we did on the carriage trails. Now we need to go back and explore all the other carriage trails in the park.

When in Maine one must eat lobster, right?! Marcus (our fearless hunter and gatherer) went out to search for the perfect lobsters. He came back with three big lobsters. We dined on claws and such, but when we broke into the main body, the boys were pretty disgusted with the insides. They were used to eating crab that had been cleaned out, this lobster was not. It was full of green stuff. That put Derek off eating any more of that, thank you very much! We had lobster one other night, but Derek didn't want any then either. It was yummy, but we think we must be crab people.

One of the things Marcus was looking forward to about Maine was the blueberries. He has fond memories of picking them wild to his heart's content as a child. We were hoping to do the same this trip. Only, we were a little late. We missed them all but the dozen stragglers Marcus found on a trail. Marcus did find a place where he could buy some, but they were the dregs and not so impressive. Now we will have to go back to Maine sometime and do it right.

We had a neighbor in the campground that was very friendly and that we enjoyed talking to! She was in her 80s, traveled alone in her camper with her kayak strapped on the back, and was just a friendly, happy person. She met up with friends here and there, but was quite independent. I told Marcus I want to be like that when I am her age. He said we're not even like her at our age... We have some changes to make! She is my new inspiration. Thank you Connie, wherever you are!

On one of the days we walked during low tide across to another island. We had 90 minutes before the tide would came back in. Part of the walk over was quite strong smelling of rotting seaweed. When we got to the island, we found bunches of cairns made by other such visitors. Of course this meant that we too had to leave our mark! We found some that were particularly nice with arches and keystones and everything! That was fun. We also sat and watched the seagulls as they picked up clams, flew high in the sky and dropped them so the shells would break and they could eat the insides. After our 90 minutes, we went to breakfast in town and did a bit of window shopping. I was intrigued by all the Tourmaline in the windows. It turns out that Tourmaline is Maine's state rock. We were intrigued enough to get a gift for Li and one for me! Next we took an auto tour on Park Loop Road. We stopped at Sand Beach to enjoy the view and the ocean. The weather was unseasonably warm for Maine... in the 80s. But again, the water was very cold. My three crazy boys still got in! The boys enjoyed digging in the sand, and we had a picnic on the rocks there. As we were sitting on the rocks, a family behind us was eating and a seagull swooped down and stole some of the woman's sandwich right out of her hand and scratched her a bit with its claws during its getaway! Those were some aggressive gulls! As you can see in the above photo, we had some Cheetos with us for our picnic. Colin likes to get into his food! Next it was on to the blow hole. It was the peak time for it... just before high tide. We found a great rock to sit on for our vantage point. It was hard to time the photo to get the full impact, but I got some good video footage. Finally, we hiked around Cadillac Mountain. We learned about the type of granite found there, and the geological history of the area. Acadia really is a very cool place with lots to do and see. We met people that have gone there every year for generations.

One of my most exciting adventures of the whole trip happened at Acadia. I believe I mentioned there were no showers at the campground and that we were staying there for 5 nights?! Well, I think we can all agree that that is entirely too long for a family of 4 to go without showering, yes?! There was a small local grocery store about 5 miles away that had showers available. They had a men's and a women's shower room with a little hallway in between the two that goes through a part of the store. Anyway, the showers were a dollar for 3 minutes. Derek likes to take long hot showers and he was complaining that 3 minutes wasn't nearly long enough. I thought to myself, heck, I can take a business shower in three minutes or less, grabbed four quarters from Marcus and headed into the women's shower room. I was smart. I got myself all organized so that once I put my quarters in, I would be ready to spring into business shower mode, thus maximising the use of my 3 minutes. What I hadn't thought of, was that it might take a high percentage of that time to get the water temperature out of the scalding or freezing zones and into one that I could stay in. I had just gotten all soaped up, when I thought this would be a really bad time for the water to turn off on me. Sure enough, that is what happened. I could hear Marcus in the men's shower room with the boys telling them of course 3 minutes was enough, mom only took 1 dollar with her because she knew it was enough. That's when I piped up. I explained my wet and soapy situation. Unfortunately, Marcus and the boys were in their own showers soaped up, so they couldn't help me. It was time for desperate measures. I wrapped my soapy self in my towel, and dripped my way across the hallway of the store, entered the men's shower room, got my quarters from Marcus, and dripped my way back to the women's shower room all while the store owner smirked. I got clean, I got dry, I got out of there. We all giggled about it in the car on the way back, and I think I will always laugh as I think of that!

While we were staying in Acadia, Colin did another Jr. Ranger Badge. Each park has their own way of handling the badges. Some make bigger deals out of them than others. This ranger made a very big deal out of it. He interviewed Colin, and really asked him about the things he had learned. He let Colin wear his Ranger hat, and had him raise his hand as he took the oath to protect the park. He made sure I had a camera so that I could take a photo of the event. It was nice. He also told us all about how Peregrine Falcons get married. Apparently, the male shows off his flying skills to the female. If she seems interested, the male then goes and hunts to offer the female something. If the female is really interested, she flies underneath the male and takes the offering from his talons and they become husband and wife and live happily ever after. Kinda cool, huh?!

We were well rested, and ready for the next leg of our trip, the long journey to Niagara Falls. But we were still sad to leave! We had been there so long it almost felt like home!