Maine

Yes, we've been back from New England for several days, and no I haven't gotten around to blogging about it. I have my excuses. First of all, we didn't have wi-fi access in Maine. I know I could have typed it up and then posted it when I found a hot spot, but I didn't, so there. My second excuse is that I picked up food poisoning somewhere along the way. I suspect a certain fast food Italian place at a rest stop in Massachusetts, but I don't have proof, so I won't name names. Once I was home and recovered from that I just got busy with life. Laundry had to be done, meals had to be prepared, errands had to be run. The boys start school in less than a week and they needed all of their school supplies. I never did find the "Primary" Composition books that the first grade teachers want. I go through this every time I've have a first grader. After four stores and several hours I gave up. Sean will be going into first grade with plain old Composition books.

That brings me back to New England, Maine specifically. I've glanced through my pictures to refresh my memory and now feel prepared to blog about our final New England destination. Maine is everything I hoped it would be. Our first full day in Maine we took the boys to Acadia National Park. I didn't know anything about the park other than it is a great place to find tidal pools (thanks Joy). But it is so much more. Our first stop was, of course, the Visitor Center. It was slightly disorganized and crazy busy for a Wednesday morning. We had to wait in two lines for a total of about 30 minutes to get our car tag and to get the boys their Junior Ranger booklets. I got slightly miffed when I was asked to produce the children before they would give me the booklets. Glenn had taken them to look around the visitors center while I stood in line. Anybody with children can understand this tactic. I gave her the disapproval threesome, the lip snarl, eye roll, deep sigh. Fortunately, Glenn was close by so I didn't have to shout across the room. Once I proved I had three children of Junior Ranger age she handed over the super secret booklets. She muttered something about people lying about having children to get them. I modified the disapproval threesome to an eye roll, gritted teeth smile and a head shake. I wanted to remind her that a majority of the people who wander into national parks every year are tax paying citizens and if they want a Jr. Ranger booklet, the park service should gladly hand them over. I let it go.

While Glenn was wandering through the Visitor Center he bought an auto tour CD. I would say the best $13 spent that day. We got our our map, looked at the Jr. Ranger booklets to check the requirements and planned our visit. One of the activities the boys needed to do was attend a Ranger led program. There was a "Secrets of the Summit" hike on top of Cadillac Mountain starting in an hour, so we decided to head up there. We popped the CD into the car and began our auto tour up the mountain. There were lots of beautiful places to pull over and admire the view as we ascended the mountain. Below us was the town of Bar Harbor, Maine. Surrounding Bar Harbor are several small islands called the Porcupine Islands because they sort of look like porcupines lying in the water. If porcupines had green quills that is. Reid was especially intrigued by the Porcupine Islands since he is currently developing his own super hero "The Porcupine". He hopes to get a job with Marvel some day and "The Porcupine" will be his ticket in. I digress. Bar Harbor, as seen from Cadillac Mountain, is breathtaking. There were sailboats gliding gracefully into and out of port, a tall ship with four masts off in the distance and a cruise ship from Celebrity anchored in open water several yards from shore.

We made it to the top of Cadillac Mountain and found a parking place, no small feat I might add. Parking is a bit of a mess at Acadia. They should talk to the people at Zion. No private cars are allowed at Zion, but the bus service is fantastic, so you don't mind. We found our Park Ranger and began the "Secrets of the Summit" hike. We hiked to the "True Summit" of the mountain, saw the remains of a hotel that was built and burned to the ground the same year in the early part of the 20th Century, and fulfilled a Junior Ranger requirement. After the program we hiked around the top of the mountain for a little while, sat and had a snack then piled back into the car. Sean wanted to go to the beach. He wasn't going to rest, or give up peace until he got to the beach. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the beach and the top of a mountain aren't that close. So we descended the mountain. Parking at the beach is even worse than parking on the mountain. We looked for a parking place for a good twenty minutes before we found a spot at least a mile from where we wanted to be. Sean and Reid were the only two Andersons the slightest bit interested in getting into the cold North Atlantic waters. When I say cold I mean 58 degrees. I got a little chill just now. Sean rushed in and if he was bothered by the cold didn't show it. Reid managed to stay pretty dry. He only went in about as deep as his knees. Maybe 6 year olds are impervious to cold. I can't explain it. When it was time to leave he didn't want to go. He was having a great time.

Once we dragged Sean out of the ocean and got him changed we took the mile hike back to our car to head to our next destination "Thunder Hole". Glenn put the car in gear, drove about 10 yards and we were there. We had no idea we were so close or we wouldn't have given up our parking spot. We literally turned a corner and there it was. Fortunately it was getting late enough in the day that parking was no longer an issue. We got back out of the car and crossed the street, went down the stairs and waited for the tide to come in. "Thunder Hole" did not disappoint. "Thunder Hole" is a small inlet, naturally carved out of the rocks, where the waves roll into. At the end of this inlet, down low, is a small cavern where, when the rush of the wave arrives, air and water is forced out like a clap of distant thunder. (This definition provided by acadiamagic.com) It was very exciting. It was just starting to thunder. I'm sure if we had stuck around for an hour or more we would have been treated to louder thunder and large sprays of water. We have three children with us, there was no way we were going to stand around for an hour.

Next came the tidal pools. I was so excited to see the tidal pools. We drove a ways down the road and came to a rocky area. We jumped out of the car and climbed down to the rocks and began looking around. Soon we came upon another couple who were holding sea urchins. I don't think the park service approves of such thing, but since they were holding them, what could we do but take a look, right? As soon as we got down there the man held his hand out to me and then brushed the sea urchin into my hand. Not what I was expecting, but interesting. I held it down so the boys could see it then quickly placed it back in the tidal pool with its sea urchin friends. We jumped from rock to rock finding more and more sea life. Mostly seaweed, and clams, and crab shells. These rocks seem to be a favorite feasting place of seagulls and crabs seem to be their favorite feast.

It was starting to get dark, so we regretfully left the tidal pools and went back to the Visitor Center to collect our Junior Ranger badges. They didn't have badges there, so the boys picked up spiffy patches. Sean was happy. He prefers the patch over the badge. I'm not sure why. Three tired boys and two tired parents crawled back into the car and made our way back to the campground.

The next morning we had breakfast at the "Log Cabin" which had wonderfully crisp bacon on the buffet. I love bacon nice and crispy, but unfortunately rarely get it when eating at a restaurant. Log Cabin had it and I was pleased. Once we had our fill we drove into the town of Bar Harbor. More parking issues cropped up, but we finally found a spot. Thank goodness our tow vehicle is a Ford Fusion. Anything bigger and we would not have fit into that parallel parking spot. The main item on our agenda for the day was to walk across the dry sand bar from Bar Harbor to Bar Island. This feat can only be accomplished during low tide. Once the tide comes in the bar is covered and I don't know what happens to the people stuck on Bar Island. Once onto the dry sand bar we marveled at how clear the water was around us. We also marveled at the fog that was covering several of the Porcupine Islands. It was "mysterious" as Reid said. I've never seen anything like it. The fog just hung over a couple of the islands, it didn't roll into Bar Harbor or over Bar Island. At one point a four masted schooner sailed by one of the islands and it made for a picture perfect scene. On the walk we all tried our hand at skipping stones and watched a seagull pick up a clam, fly high up into the air, drop it, and start the whole process over again. The seagull repeated this process three or four times until the clam was broken open enough to get to the oyster inside. How smart is that? I have a whole new respect for seagulls. Robert was starting to get nervous because he knew that eventually the sand bar would become covered by water, and he didn't want to get stuck. Glenn and I were confident that wasn't go to happen, but didn't see any reason to let him stress, so we got moving.

Bar Island is a primitive island with hiking trails and nothing else. We didn't know where the trails led but decided to take the one most traveled. It was a good choice. It led us to the summit of Bar Island. From there we had a great view of Bar Harbor and the other islands, as well as that mysterious fog. We had a snack on top of the island then headed back down. Over the sand bar once again and back to Bar Harbor. Once back in Bar Harbor we hiked the Seawall trail past beautiful homes on one side and luxurious yachts on the other. We didn't see any "open house/yacht" signs, much to my disappointment, so we could only admire from the outside. The breeze coming off the ocean was very chilly and helped keep the kids moving. The end of the trail dumped us into a neighborhood and we had to rely on our collective sense of direction to get us back into town. Fortunately, sense of direction is something Glenn and I both have. I can't tell my left hand from my right hand, but I know my directions. In town we stopped for ice cream before leaving Bar Harbor behind.

Back in our RV we had a nice meal together, played round after round of Spoons and called it a night. Early the next morning we began or trip home, essentially saying good-bye to our summer of fun. We packed a lot of excitement into a short summer vacation. We put over 5000 miles on our RV and were awed by the beauty and majesty this great nation of ours has to offer. This is a summer we won't forget. It has brought our family a little closer together and we are all excited about planning our summer odyssey next year. Until then, I will keep my blog followers entertained with the day to day experiences of being a "Mother of Boys.