Back to our happy place: Acadia

The first day we drove back into Maine, it was raining. We were tired. Oliver was pooping everywhere. We almost gave up and went home.

But we didn't.

We went to Acadia National Park and camped for a few more days.

We played in tide pools. That is Phoebe's pile of snails.

We hiked to Bar Island. I loved all these beautiful purple flowers. It was a short hike and it is only passable at low tide.

This is the summit (it's not that big of a hike, so it seems silly to mark the top with a giant rock pile, but here it is); Oliver climbed to the top of the rocks and refused to get down, so after awhile I had to just pull him off and carry him down like a football while he threw a giant tantrum. 

I went for a few runs on the carriage trails with Bruce and Phoebe on bikes.

They loooove biking. There are some big uphills that they had trouble with, but Bruce powered up them and Phoebe got a little push on the bum from me.

Success! 

We were back to tent camping and roughing it, but eating our daily s'more made it all better.

On our last full day in Acadia, we packed a lot in. Bruce and Phoebe and I went for a run/bike, then Scott and Bruce hiked Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on Mount Desert Island.

While they hiked, Phoebe and Oliver and I mailed postcards in Bar Harbor...

...went window shopping and got some chocolates...

...and went to a nature center to check out exhibits.

When the guys were done we headed to Sand Beach and stayed for hours. It was in the 60s and the water was so cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Phoebe and Oliver got in the water. Bruce chose to build in the sand instead.

This place is so beautiful.

Relaxing.

Oliver fell asleep as soon as we left the beach. We were going to stay one more night but decided to pack up right then and drive back late at night. We figured they'd sleep more and fight less, which turned out to be true. 

Fun in Fundy

The coolest thing about the Bay of Fundy is the tide. The bay gets narrower and shallower the farther north it goes, causing the biggest variation in its high and low tide in the world. 

So when the tide is out, it is waaaaaay out and leaves an exposed ocean floor to play on.

At high tide, this is a raging river.

This is the tide coming in later in the day.

Bruce made this lovely heart at Herring Cove Beach.

Each night we went to the beach and watched the tide and skipped rocks and hung out. Ahhhh.

While at Fundy National Park we stayed in a yurt-like structure. I was glad: it was chilly and this little yurt had a space heater in it. It was nice to not have to unpack all the bedding too: it had bunk beds and mattresses. Fancy!

We hiked to Triple Vault Falls. The hike was long and Phoebe and Oliver got tired. Oliver got carried a lot, although I got him to hike some while chasing me with a stick and shouting, "You'll never defeat me now!" (Pretending to be a Jedi or someone from Star Wars)

We made sure to have s'mores every night.

Oliver wore some pretty weird outfits. Potty training was going ok before we went camping. He was excited about peeing on trees, but then resisted going on any real toilet and definitely didn't want to go poop. He held it for days, then he would poop a dozen times in one day - destroying every pair of undies and pants we packed for him. So he wore Phoebe's clothes. We visited a laundromat.

After three days in New Brunswick, we drove back to Maine (that would be border control above). 

Oh Canada!

Phoebe enjoying a snack at Cobskook in Maine.

We hiked along the trails around the bay.

This is how Oliver hikes most of the time.

The tides are really cool to watch, but they got even better in Canada.

We packed up and drove across the border into Canada. We crossed into the Atlantic time zone and the kids were mind-blown that we lost an hour to our day. I think we still packed in plenty.

We drove up to Fundy National Park, 3 or 4 hours northeast along the coast. All the signs in New Brunswick, Canada, were in English and French. And we were constantly converting kilometers to miles and vice versa.

When we got to Fundy, we found the park playground. The kids loved the zip lines there and we went every day.

Everyone got in on the fun.

Our first hike was a short trail to a waterfall: Dickson Falls. 

Everything was lush and green. 

Beautiful!

On every hike, Bruce always pointed out the cool lichen on the trees. Mushrooms, mold, etc is all awesome to him.

Downeast Maine up north

When Scott finished his board exams and my parents headed home, we packed up the car and drove north. Our first night we stayed in "Downeast" coastal Maine on Cobskook Bay. 

The campground allowed campers to dig a peck of clams, so we tried our hand at it. We waded out into the muddy bay and made a poor attempt at clam-digging, but got so muddy we gave up. Phoebe got so stuck we had to lift her out of her boots and then pull her boots out one by one. 

The campground was lovely and I think we could have spent more time there, but we headed for the border to Canada instead.

Cape Cod in April

 Marathon Monday was just the start to a great week. Scott can only reserve vacations as week-long blocks (rather than a day here or there) and since the kids were off school for the week too, we drove down to Cape Cod and made a mini vacation out of it. We stayed at Nickerson State Park in a yurt because I wasn't too keen about sleeping on the ground right after a marathon. The yurt had bunk beds, a table, and even electricity, so it was pretty plush by our standards.

Cape Cod was amazing in April. No one was there! I have tons of pictures of us digging holes in the sand because that's what we spent most of our vacation doing. I got the kids garden tools for Easter and they're pretty awesome as beach toys too.

 Almost every night we went to Crosby Landing Beach, the closest one to the campground, and dug holes and walked around while watching the sun set across the bay.

 During the day we did a few short hikes and found lots of horseshoe crab shells. We brought the kids' bikes and scooters and did lots of that around the campground and surrounding paved trails. There was a great little playground at the campground too and the kids played there every day.

 We checked out lighthouses and other beaches...

 ...like Coast Guard Beach on the Cape Cod National Seashore. Another sweet perk to visiting Cape Cod in April is that you don't have to pay a zillion dollars to park at the beaches. Free parking!

 We went to the southern tip of Chatham where the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is located. There are lots of cool sand bars that go far out into the ocean and it's a place where many seals come. Phoebe was more interested in the weather balloon launch though; twice a day, a balloon is launched that carries instruments to take measurements and help predict the weather. We had to visit Monomoy again and time our visit so that we would be present for the launch. We were the only spectators of this very unceremonious event. Still, it was cool.

The kids got in the water a few times throughout our trip even though it was in the 50s and 60s. When it hit 70 on Friday though, they spent hours in the water. That would be Oliver in nothing but a diaper climbing on the rocks.

And that is Phoebe making her "sand angel." Cape Cod was a nice relaxing trip - mostly. We did have a few moments - like when I got lost while looking for a public bathroom in Eastham or when Oliver threw his daily fit. One night, Scott took Phoebe to the bathroom to brush teeth and such. It was late and Oliver hadn't napped and was really tired. I tried to put his pajamas on him, but he kicked and screamed and wanted Scott to put his pajamas on him. He was yelling, "No dad! Noooo dad!" over and over. A few minutes into this fit, our campsite neighbors came over to the yurt and said, "Is he all right in there?" (I'm sure because it sounded like Oliver was being beaten by the way he was yelling!) I said he was fine and that he just wanted his dad. They said, "Are you sure?" YES, I barked back; I was in a foul mood from the tantrum. Another classic vacation moment.