We just got back from our summer vacation. This year we went to Acadia National Park in Maine. I have wanted to go there since we moved to Ohio but the drive is so long. In March when the kids did OK going to Miami I decided they could handle the drive to Maine and they did!
It was much more crowded than we anticipated. We camped in a tent and had a fire nearly every night. Taylor and Miriya fought over who would get to start the fire. Isaac and Nick just ran around the campsite looking for stuff to throw in. Since Maine has a rocky beach like the coast of Oregon, we were expecting a lot of creatures in tide pools like we found when we went to Oregon. Unfortunately, all we mostly found was seaweed. It was still a lot of fun to climb all over the rocks. Tom has decided that he would like to try some rock climbing. He found a big cliff with a tiny rock at the top and was all ready to sling the rope over the rock and start rappelling when I sensibly freaked out. When he saw how freaked out I really was he decided that maybe that idea wasn't as good as he thought it would be.
The other thing we really loved were the biking trails. Acadia is made of of donated land from several very wealthy families. One of them is the Rockefellers. They had bought up land and then made carriage roads to beautiful areas of the park. When the park service took over, they converted the carriage roads to bike trails. They were so much fun and well worth the ride. On the way to Acadia we strapped the bikes in the bike rack onto the back of the car. We even brought Isaac's tag along. Somewhere along the way, the clamp to keep the tag along attached to the lead bike fell off so there was no way for Isaac to ride. We called REI to see if a part was available but no luck. Tom, in his Macgyver way, fashioned up a clamp with a door hinge and some screws. The day was saved! Tom is so smart.
Here is a picture of us on one of the bridges along the carriage roads.
There were lots of hiking trails and the neat thing is that the trails to the top of the mountains are actually short enough that Nick can climb them. We hiked all over the place and only rarely had to carry Nick. Isaac and Nick both earned Junior Ranger patches to sew onto their backpacks. We played with frogs, crabs, mussels and snails. We ate hot dogs, smores and lobster. All in all, a good trip.
Did you know that when you step on clams they squirt?
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