Before we could leave the Cape completely, we had one more stop we wanted to make. The Basak family was just starting their own vacation in Brewster and we got to hang out for the afternoon with them. It was great to catch up with these wonderful folks, and it was our good luck to even see their daughter Maya, who arrived while we were there. They are amazing people and visits like these remind us that we need to see them far more often.
Our first stop in Maine was a bed and breakfast right outside of Old Orchard Beach, or the OOB as we now call it. The bed and breakfast was an absolute delight and its access to Portland was fantastic.
However, the OOB itself could have been skipped. We took a brief walk downtown our second night there and found it to require more explanations of smells and sights than we had anticipated. Let's just say, when given the opportunity to visit the OOB, we recommend looking elsewhere.
When we left the OOB and headed north, however, we saw some great sights. Our next destination was Acadia National Park and we took the scenic route that featured a number of different coastal delights and photo ops. The drive took a little longer than expected, but it was well worth it.
We love camping and we love visiting national parks, so we were all looking forward to our visit to Acadia. What made the beginning of this experience even better was that Callie and Reese took on the task of setting up the tent.
Apparently all of our camping in the summer of 2020 paid off, since now the girls can put up a tent on their own and actually want to do it. Unfortunately we only had two nights in Acadia, so we wanted to make sure we took full advantage of the long summer days. Once our camp was set up we set out to explore all that the park had to offer.
We already some recommendations from the Skoniecznys, and knew we needed to conquer a couple of different hikes. First up was one called the Beehive. This hike wasn't long, but it was certainly challenging in a couple of ways. First, the way up was steep. Second, at certain points it involved using metal rungs drilled into the rock to climb steep sections. Third, those steep sections were also right at major drop offs that you can't see in this picture. The girls handled it extremely well with Sarah in the lead. John brought up the rear, a bit stressed over what this would look like on the way down, not knowing that the hiking trail was a loop and the descent would be a lot easier.
As with so many hikes, the views from the top were well worth the climb. It was a beautiful day and you could literally see for miles. And since we weren't the only ones there that day we even got a good family picture.
A theme for this trip was also the heat. At every stage of the journey up to this point it was hot, and after our trip up the Beehive we had our eyes on the cool ocean waters.
It just so happens that the aptly named Sand Beach was located minutes away from the trailhead, and we made our way their for a quick and very refreshing dip in the ocean. The water was so clear that even Sarah couldn't resist. It was also so cold that she didn't stay in for long.
Acadia represents the tenth national park we have visited as a family, so we feel like are well versed in what to expect. This made Acadia a little intriguing, because it is the first park established through the purchase of private lands. This means the park itself is a bit disjointed. It has no major entrance and its lands are located in and around harbor towns.
This is all to say it took us a little while to find the main sign we could use as our classic photo backdrop. It also meant that there was some significant driving time from our campsite to the various hikes and other areas of the park.
One of the more well known destination points in the park is Cadillac Mountain. You can park near the top but have to make a reservation. It's far more enjoyable to find a trailhead and then hike to the top. Or at least we tried to convince the girls of that fact. The hike was nowhere near as steep as the Beehive, but with a seven mile round-trip it was definitely longer. And on this day, Callie was not amused and required more than a couple of coaxing sessions to get to the top. Despite some of the angst, however, it was yet another beautiful hike with some tremendous views.
We always get excited about the potential encounters with wildlife any time we visit a national park. This time things got squirrely at the camp site, and in a very unexpected way. John woke up early on our first morning because of some noises around our table. We had cleaned up everything well, so he wasn't expecting any food issues. Much to his surprise, he encountered a squirrel underneath the picnic table attempting to drag away one of our head lamps. After shooing the squirrel away he discovered that the squirrel had already successfully dragged the other headlamp into the woods but had gotten the strap caught on a branch and was unable to make a clean getaway.
The Acadian squirrels are not just about electronics however. They also have some more elevated tastes as well. When we returned to our campsite that afternoon we noticed that the squirrel had been working hard to get at our unopened bottle of wine. Luckily they didn't have a corkscrew and we held onto the bottle so we could tell a good story later.
On our last morning we took our breakfast of yogurt and granola to a more scenic destination than our campsite. The Bass Harbor lighthouse was a short drive from our campsite and we got a great view from the rocks. The girls didn't want to make even a short hike at this point, so while they waited by the car we walked down and enjoyed one more great morning along the coast.
We had a couple more stops before we left Maine, and the first was a mini-golf course that we had driven by a couple of times on our way to various hikes. It had a pirate theme and was definitely one of the more elaborate courses we have ever played.
By this time we had played a few rounds in New England and felt we knew what we were doing, but Sarah was on fire. She won the day with at least three holes in one.
If you know Sarah, you know that when she gets an idea in her head about something that needs to happen, you better go along with it. And boy did she want to visit a classic Maine lobster shack and eat a lobster roll. Our next destination was Boston, and John wanted to make sure we got there in time to watch the US Women's Soccer team play that evening. Sarah identified the shack she wanted to visit, and we got off the exit to head there. There are two key things to know about the next hour and a half. The first is that the shack provided exactly what Sarah wanted in terms of atmosphere and food. The second is that it was a much longer detour than anticipated or desired. However, the first key thing is the one that matters. The Five Island Lobster Co. is worth the trip. And when all was said and done, we were in our hotel room in time to watch the game. Time for phase 3 of the vacation.
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