Leaving Maine....

After our second night in Bar Harbor, we headed south along the coast toward New York City. We found a little park in Camden, ME where we could eat lunch. The park sat on the city harbor, which made for another scenic panorama (I'm really getting into taking these panoramic shots, so hopefully you like them).

Camden, ME harbor.  Click HERE for high resolution.

After our lunch trip, we continued on to Kennebunkport, ME to visit an Air Force site that Katie's dad comes to often in conjunction with his work. As we passed Kennebunkport pulled over on the side of the road to gawk at the city's most famous resident (or at least there home): George H. W. Bush. Notice the Texan flag flying next to the American flag. The house sits out on a peninsula with a series of other houses/building along the rest of the peninsula, culminating with the Secret Service house.

As we continued on south, we had to make one more stop and try some local clam chowder at Shea's Riverside Restaurant. They claim to have the best clam chowder in the area, which was backed up by Steve's personal recommendation. I have to say, it was pretty good.

Bar Harbor, ME

(Craig, again)

The furthest extent of our vacation took us to Bar Harbor, ME. The city name, using the local accent, is pronounced as "Bah Ha-bah". Every time I heard a local say the name of the city I was reminded of that scene from Jaws when Chief Brody jokingly practices his "islander" accent:

Ellen Brody: You see the kids?
Brody: They must be in the back yard.
Ellen Brody: In Amity, you say "yahd".
Brody: They're in the "yahd", not too "fah" from the "cah".

Bar Harbor is just outside the gates of Acadia National Park, which itself is entirely contained on an island, just off the coast of the mainland. It is a touristy city, but nice. During the evening we took a walk down into the town and down to the actual harbor. Lucas got to stand in the water while myself, McKenzie and Steve skipped stones.

Everywhere you look (including in the pictures, if you look carefully enough) the water is covered in multi-colored markers indicating crab and lobster traps. As such, the main menu item of every restaurant in town is crab or lobster. Not wanting to be left out, we made sure and stop at a local lobster pound a pick up a couple of the monsters. Lucas just liked the ketchup.

We spent most of the day driving around Acadia National Park. There is a single "sand" beach in the park that is popular for swimming for both tourists and locals. We didn't swim, but Lucas enjoyed chasing and being chased by the waves. The beach isn't actually made of sand, but rather various minerals and very finely crushed shells. The cove keeps away the Atlantic Ocean waves that would normally pull the sand back out to sea.

The best part of the park (in my opinion) was the drive to the top of Mount Cadillac. Sitting in the center of the park, it provides a great panorama view of the island. It also has the distinction of being the highest point in the U.S. along the eastern shore. This means that it is literally the first point in the US to see the light of the sun. Pretty neat.

Looking Down on the town of Bar Harbor, ME.  Click HERE for high resolution.

Complete panorama from Mount Cadillac.  Click HERE for high resolution.

On to Maine...Cape Neddick Lighthouse

(Craig stepping in again to help get caught up on the blog)

Katie's Mom had two things that she has wanted to do ever since we moved back East: 1) visit the New England states, particularly Maine, and 2) go to New York City. Despite the fact that we're still going to be here a couple more years, we decided to do both of them in one trip (crazy!). We drove all the way from Central PA to Bar Harbor, ME (with a night at a sketchy Super 8 Hotel in Waterbury, CT) which is a little over 700 miles. As we crossed into Maine we stopped at a lighthouse near Cape Neddick Harbor for lunch. Looking out at the open ocean coupled with the rocky shore and the lighthouse was a sight to behold (see the below panorama). In fact, it may have been the most picturesque place we saw the entire trip.

Lucas was so happy to get out of the car, and the ocean just made it that much better. He loved every minute of it. Fortunately the tide was out, so Lucas could splash in the tide pools and chase crustaceans with Grandma Les.

Click HERE for higher resolution image.

Busy Bees

We have been really busy this past month, which is why it has been awhile since our last blog. My parents came into town this past month for a couple of weeks. We spent the previous weeks preparing for there arrival. Attempting to finish some projects up and de-clutter the house. There was a lot to get down, but we were successful and ready for their arrival minutes before they pulled up! Now we have to get caught up with all the things we've done and the pictures we've taken the past few weeks.....

Stay tuned.

mmmmmm

The last couple of weeks, whenever Lucas eats something he thinks is yummy (which is pretty much anything he eats), he will look at me and say, "mmmm... mommie that is good". It is pretty adorable and I have pretty much let him eat just about anything so I can hear him say it. Lucky for us, Lucas is not big into sweets, which is pretty surprising since that is what I am known for. Making and eating sweets is essentially my hobby! We have taken him to the dairy a couple of times for ice-cream, he will eat a couple of bites and then he is done. Guess we can't complain about that.

Whipple Dam

We went to Whipple Dam for the first time this season. It was a little cool, with a slight breeze, but not bad! My highlight was for the most part being able to sit by friends and chat, rather than running after Lucas the whole time. He didn't wander as much, and seemed to enjoy playing with his friends. I strapped his swim float thing on him, though he never got far enough into the water to use it. I think he was a little discouraged after he tried to swim like one of his friends tummy first and ended up floundering with a mouth full of water. After that he stayed on the outskirts of the water. All in all, it was a good day! Long, but fun!!!

Strawberries!

On Friday we went to a ward members house and picked strawberries. Craig more than hinted that he wanted Strawberry Rhubarb pie and they also had rhubarb that we could pick. Lucas picking strawberries consisted of him taking my bowl and dumping the strawberries into his bucket and then eating them. He was covered in strawberry juice by the time we left! Lucas wandered around there yard and at one point one of his little friends let us know that Lucas was in the pasture with the horses. That is my little wandered, so curious, and has no probably investigating his surroundings, even if it requires wiggling through a wire fence. The highlight was that she let Lucas ride a horse! Lucas loved it, he wanted another turn! He also helped lead the horse by holding onto the rope. It was a fun morning! I am so grateful that we are surrounded by so many wonderful people!