Click here for Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV to hear the start of our story!
After Joe’s graduation on Saturday, he packed his belongings into a truck, said goodbye to his friends, and joined our family at the cottages. The next morning, Joe drove down to Washington DC, where he will have an internship this summer…living with Heather and Michael. Terry, Dad, Tom, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, Heather, Michael, and Evie all drove down to Portland to catch their airplanes. And Bryan, the kids, and I hopped in our car and headed north for our further adventure.
The drive was just beautiful! Little New England towns sprinkled along the coast. Peeks through the woods at the ocean and islands. Harbor towns with white church spires rising above the green forest, beautiful homes, and sailboats and colorful buoys dotting the deep blue water. I think that on our three-hour drive, our favorite little town was Camden. So pretty! So picturesque! Wish we could have stayed there for a while. It actually reminded us a lot of Bayfield, Wisconsin on Lake Superior!
When we arrived at Bar Harbor (a town on Mt. Desert Island where Acadia National Park is located), we stopped for lunch at a lovely outdoor cafe. Andrew colored on a children’s menu, and that menu came with us for the rest of our journey. Andrew declared (dozens and dozens of times) that it was a map that could tell us how to go all ways. At one point, we asked for some wisdom from the all-knowing map. Andrew said, “The lobster on the map says we should turn left. … Or right. … … … Or maybe go straight ahead.”
For a look at a real map of the park, click here.
Following the map’s advice (or maybe not), we traveled down to Sand Beach in Acadia National Park. Most of the coast line is really rocky, but in this cove, the beach was long with rough sand. It was full of people…I can’t imagine what it must look like during the real tourist season!
Sylvia was really worried about the water, so she and I sat on the beach and tried to keep the sand from getting on her (for some reason that became really important to her). Andrew, meanwhile, was at the shoreline chasing the waves and then running from them. I was busy with Sylvie, so I wasn’t able to get any pictures of Andrew, but he was so gleeful and joyful. Over the course of the hour we were there, he played with lots of different kids as they ran toward and away from the waves. Oceans are so cool!
He had a little adventure at one point when he waded in a bit and the undertow pulled him down. Before he could get up, a big wave splashed over him and pushed him up the shore…covering him with sand. Bryan pulled him up right away, and it took him a moment to decide whether to be stunned or cry. While he did cry a bit, he was back on the shore a bit later, having a blast…his scalp and ears full of gritty sand. That night, the tub looked like a beach.
After getting mostly dried off, we took a little trek up the Beehive trail. Unlike some of the other trails we’d walked down, the part of the Beehive we hiked was made up of large boulders. Bryan or I carried Sylvia, and Andrew bounded ahead. He reminded me a little of a dog who is given the job he was bred to do. A hound who’s been taken pheasant hunting or a collie who’s been given some sheep. My little Andrew man was hopping about on those boulders like a mountain goat who has finally been released on a mountain. It was a lot of fun to see.
I didn’t take my camera on that hike, but here’s a couple of us walking on some flat terrain…
After our hike, we drove past some really lovely ocean views back up past Bar Harbor to supper at a Lobster Pound.There, we enjoyed the largest lobsters I have ever seen in my life. One of them had a claw that had to be a pound on its own.
This lobster pound was a neat place. You stand in a line and order your lobster at the counter. They stick the yummy crustaceans in these outdoor pots to boil. You stand around for the 25 minutes or so that it takes for them to cook, and then you grab a picnic table or one of the little tables inside and chow down. Expensive. Casual. SO YUMMY. The kids weren’t too adventurous, but that just left more lobster for me and Bryan to devour. And chow down, we did.
Well past the kids’ bedtimes, we rolled into our hotel, checked in, and got them to bed. Sylvia slept in a bed for the first time. There was actually a very nice crib for her to sleep in, but the room also had two twin beds, and she wanted to be just like Andrew. While it took the kids a long time to settle down and go to sleep, they finally did, and I passed out while reading my book. What a great day it was!
