Acadia part 3

The other day when we drove to West Quoddy Lighthouse, we stopped to do a hike on the coast outside of Carver.  This hike had come highly recommended as an off the beaten trail path.  It turned out it was quite a hike in the woods over grandmother toes to the coast.  I was a bit bummed about that but it was a delight walking by twos.  On the way to the coast, I connected with Janae and we both loved sharing about our dream rooms and dream homes.  On the way out, I loved connecting with Stefan who loved sharing about his robot invention that comes complete with  a bank and can do all chores.  When we finally reached the coast, it was stunning.  Reminded me of a scene in the movie "A Room With A View".

Last night, we came into Bar Harbor and Mark and Janae had some alone time and Stefan and I had a date.  We enjoyed eating some home made blueberry pie at Poor Boy's on this  rainy Thursday night.  Stefan loves collecting Canadian money and was thrilled that he was able to add to his collection from a couple nice shop keepers.  Here we are on sand beach.

Acadia part 2

Here is a picture of one of the  beautiful bridges in the park.  This is the one we sang under.

A hiking detour on one of our rides took us to this beautiful overlook point.

The sunrise over Cadillac Mt. where the sun meets the east coast for the first time.

We were hunkered down below these bushes but a photo enthusiast thought we were blocking his view so he childishly came and plopped his equipment right in front of us.  Really!

We drove all the way to the West Quoddy Lighthouse which is the farthest eastern point in the U.S.

We loved eating the mussels we collected in Bar Harbor.  They were  yummy!

The best tidal pool we found was on the Scoodic Pennisula at sunset.  Absolutely beautiful! Janae and Stefan are down among the rocks.

Eating lobster and more lobster with our new friends, the Grierson family. Ruth Grierson gigs a lot on the island and has had two books published on Acadia.  She was so kind to share her musical talent with us and her great books!  Scott and his wife Rita have three great sons and are a blast and can cook-up a lobster, crab feast like nobody's business.

Enjoying immensely the popovers and lunch at Jordon Pond after a bike ride.  The sun is in Stefan's eyes but it didn't diminish his appetite.

Acadia

It's been a week since I've posted.  We don't have internet or cell phone coverage in our campground and life has been too full to sit down and blog.  Maine isn't named the vacation memory state without reason.  Acadia National Park is a very special place and we are making beautiful memories here.  We have been busy chasing sunrises, sunsets, tidal pools,lighthouses and  hiking observation peaks, eating lobsters, , studying wildlife, riding bikes on the carriage roads and meeting new friends.  After an initial few days of fog, the days have been crystal clear, sunny and in the  70's for five days.   Therefore, we hve played hard.  Didn't get much formal school done which I the teacher feels guilty about but then when does one get to experience a place like this.  '

Mt. Desert Island, as Acadia is affectionately called, is a beautiful description.  This place has a complete palatte for all the senses.  It has everything, the ocean, crashing waves on rocky cliffs, sand beach, great biking trails, lakes, ponds, beautiful gardens, harbors, boating,  great food and people.  However, in spite of all the beauty, I have to admit that we have had a few challenges.  Being together 24/7 for 5 weeks now has a lot of pluses but we are having to study hard for communication 101. Life came to a crashing halt the other day until we had a family council meeting and got a few things ironed out.  In addition, in the middle of the night a few night's ago, the carbon monizide detector went off so at 4 a.m., we were looking for a motel.  The next morning, Mark discovered that the alarm also alerts if the battery gets too low on the generator.  We spent the same amount of money on one half night in a hotel than we did on 10 nights camping.  Ah, got to chalk it up to experience.  We're still rookies on this rv thing.   However, we've made such fabulous memories.   Here are a few highlights and pictures of them.  A big favorite was  taking the Diver Ed cruise.  It was a glorious, sunny day as we rode out past Frenchman's bay past the Egg Rock Lighthouse.  We saw several seals sunning themselves and lots of birds.  It was fun to see the porcupine islands.  The highlight is when Ed donned his diving suit and let the children on the boat push him in.  He then proceeded to transfer from his camera onto a tv screen on the boat what he was seeing.  His wife narrated it and it was fascinating to see and learn first hand about life down under.  Besides being extremely educational, Ed was extremely hilarious.  He was assisted by mini Ed who kissed all the star fish and anemones and got in battles with lobsters.

Diver Ed

Frilly Anemone

Mini Ed kissing the anemone

Toad crab-spend their lives accessorizing

The big monster lobster ready to attack mini Ed

Help!

We also loved  biking the carriage roads. They are so well maintained  with beautiful stone bridges.  Much thanks to John D. Rockefeller.   A  special memory was singing Juilate Deo in 4 part harmony under one of the bridges.  Great acoustics!  Our favorite ride  was around Eagle Lake and Witch Hole Pond.  We had to get Stefan a different bike as his old bike wasn't able to cut the hills so after we made the switch, it was a much more pleasant experience for all.  The weather was glorious.  Sunny and the leaves beginning to turn. Ah, what a joy to feel the warm fall breeze and experience such beauty.

Biking Eagle Lake

Camden,Me

ocean overlook point in Camden State Park

a

Drawing pictures and writing in journals about the view

View from Mt. Battie

Miss Jim B

At the summit of Ocean Overlook Point

Mark surprised us with a sunset cruise

We have stayed the last couple of days in the most beautiful, quaint, pictoresque, harbor town: Camden Maine.  We have enjoyed hiking up to the ocean overlook in Camden State Park which is reportedly one of the most scenic panoramic views on the Atlantic Coast.  It's magnificent looking down on the town and harbor.  The harbor is dotted with sailboats, the  church steepled skyline and the Penobscot Bay stretches out beyond with more islands than one can count.  We also enjoyed watching the sunset from Rockport  Harbor near here.  Notice the pink cast on the water.  We saw belted galloway cows for the first time.  Very unique and Janae and I especially liked walking through the town to look at the shops.  We didn't get very far though before we stopped at the consignment shops and found many wonderful treasures.  This town has many movie stars and such  so their castoffs are real treats.  The highlight was Mark surprised us all with a last minute sunset sail cruise out of the Camden Harbor.  It was cold when the sun went down but oh so worth it.  We head to Acadia in the morning and may not have internet service for awhile.

Last Day

Today was our last day in Boston and so we went to the last sights we hadn't seen yet.  We started off our day by going on the Swan Boat ride in the public gardens.  Since Janae and Stefan have gotten hooked on the recording of the Trumpet and the Swan (Thanks to our dear friend, Chris Venditti), they really wanted to pay  homage to the swan.  It was a beautiful morning accompanied by the sweet sounds of a steel string guitar street musician.  We enjoyed the quietness and beauty of the park and then strolled over to church services at Park Street Church.  As providence would have it, I started talking to the young man next to me and found out he is from Colorado Springs, goes to Village 7 Church and his mom teaches at ECA secondary.  They were a young couple that had just graduated from Grove City College and his lovely wife Emma is starting her PhD program in biostatistics at Harvard.  We also met another group of great young people from Ithaca that were in Boston going to school at Gordon College.  We loved this church and met so many people.  We were the last ones to leave today because we couldn't stop talking.

Randy(from Colorado Springs) and Emma Schwager

The Swan Boat

The Public Gardens

 After we left church, we visited the Old South Meeting House. This was built in 1729 as a Puritan meeting house.  The congregation included famous colonists such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and Phillis Wheatley, the first African American woman to publish a book.  Old South meeting house served as in Puritan tradition as both a meeting house and church. It was beautiful inside and the children loved doing a scavenger hunt to find historical facts and items. On December 16, 1773 more than 5,000 colonists crowded into the meeting house to participate in a fiery debate about the tax on tea.  When final attempts at compromise failed, Samuel Adams cried,"This meeting can do no more to save the country!"  This served as a secret signal to the Sons of Liberty, who were sitting in the back.  They raced to Griffin's Wharf, and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor (Boston Tea Party).  Notice the sounding board over the pulpit.

Old South Meeting House

 We then went over via the water ferry to visit Bunker Hill.  We all made the trek to the top for the beautiful view.  We sat in on a wonderful lecture by a park ranger. Fascinating.  Mark and I have learned so much!  We have immersed ourselves in Revolutionary War History and are ready to clear our brains out a bit.  We head to Maine in the morning.

Bunker Hill Monument

View from the top of the Monument

USS Cassin Young

We finished our marvelous day by going through the Quincy Market for supper.  This is a first rate food court that has all the best foods from Boston in one long hall.  The children had chowda and Mark and I had the best Chinese we've ever had and a swordfish kabob.

Lexington/Concord

We stayed close to our campsite and enjoyed biking around the historical sights in the area the last two days.  Perfect biking weather, sunny in the low 70's.  Yesterday we rode on this great bike trail from our campsite to Lexington.  We did a tour of the Hancock-Clarke House which is the house where Sam Adams and John Hancock were staying.  This was a minister's home who was related to John Hancock.  We were in the bedroom they were staying in and saw the door that Paul Revere knocked on to alert them.  The children liked learning about the chamber pots and that the term sleep tight comes from a method they used to pull the rope webbing under the bedding tight.  We visited Lexington Green and the tomb of the fallen patriots.  It takes on a whole new meaning seeing it and experiencing the predicament the colonists were facing.


Today, we went back to Minute Man National Park and rode the entire battle road as they had their once a year festival where all the houses were open for touring.  Many people were dressed in period costumes and performing their particular craft.  Our favorite was Captain William Smith's House who was the leader of the Lexington Militia and also the brother of Abigail Adams (wife of future President John Adams).  Abigail was there today and I enjoyed visiting with her and asking about her life.  Janae and Stefan loved dressing up in period clothes and reenacting activities of the time.  It was so fun riding from house to house.  It was such a beautiful day and the area is so nice.  The stone fences line the "road" and the scenery is quite lovely.  One farm we rode past had a whole field of pumpkins waiting to be picked and we loved smelling the sweet vegetation as we rode by.  Our last visit was to the Wayside Home in Concord.  This home had housed the Alcott family, Nathanial Hawthorne and then the Lothrop's (author of the children's
 book series Five Little Peppers and How They Grow).  It was very interesting learning about their lives and the challenges they faced.
We finished the day by returning to the visitor center where Janae and Stefan received another Jr. Ranger Badge.


Tomorrow we are going back to Boston one last time to finish up the Freedom Trail and to go to church again at Park Street.  Monday we will take a break from history and head to Maine to explore the beauty of Acadia National Park.  I am ready for a little peace and quiet.  We have had a wonderful stay here but our campground is right next to the airport.  Planes fly over constantly from 7 a.m. sharp-midnight.  Stefan loves sitting in the front watching them and thinks it's great but mama needs some more sleep.

Lexington Green (the rock is where the Patriots  stood there ground, the  pole is where the  Regulars  were)

The Wayside