Here's a recap of what we did/saw while we were there:
State College, PA
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in State College on both our first and last days on the road. We thought it would be a good stopping point about halfway across PA. The hotel was very nice, the continental breakfast was excellent, but it was a whole lot farther off of 80 than it looked on the itty bitty map when we booked it. Oh well. Live and learn.
Lexington/Concord, Massachusetts
On the way there, we stopped for a day in Lexington, MA. We stayed at the Element hotel, which is a Starwood offshoot. I think it's supposed to be their 'green' line of properties. From the outside it was pretty unremarkable, but inside it was pretty freaking cool. Our room was like a studio apartment. It had a full kitchen, including a range, microwave, dishwasher, and full-sized fridge, along with regular pots and pans and cooking utensils. They had a nice pool, special parking spots reserved for hybrids, and even a charging station out front for electric cars!
While we were there we visited Minute Man National Park and rode our bikes on the Battle Road that stretches between Lexington and Concord.
http://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm
It's the path that the British soldiers marched on the day of the first battle of the revolutionary war. There are a bunch of old houses along the path, with signs about their significance. Brendan and Nate loved it. They 'took' a hill where the british soldiers fired on the militiamen, and were absolutely convinced that they were going to find a bullet. We saw the site where Paul Revere was captured. Turns out the other two guys with him that night - including the one who actually made it to concord after Revere was captured by the British got historically screwed because nobody's ever heard of them. We were running short on time so we didn't make it to the Concord Museum, where the original revere lantern is apparently housed.
On the way to the park, we stopped at Len Libby's Chocolates, home of Lenny, the world's only life-size chocolate moose!
Acadia National Park, ME
I don't even know where to start. This place was just absolutely magical.
We camped at the Acadia National Park, Blackwoods Campground. It was pretty rustic. The bathrooms were clean, but there were no showers in the campground. There are some private pay showers outside the park, but we didn't try them. We brought a solar shower and it was unpleasant, but got the job done. The campground itself was reasonably nice. The terrain there is very rocky, so you essentially have to sleep on gravel, so I was very very grateful that we brought an air mattress. It was quiet, the plots were nice-sized, and there were very few bugs. The weather was really perfect. It was fairly cool - it only got above 80 one day, and most of the time we were there it was in the low 70s, but that was actually great for us because we were hiking, biking, and generally getting all hot and sweaty, so it was nice to not do that in 95 degrees with 90% humidity.
Hiking: We hiked some of the shorter trails. They were very challenging, but the kids kept up quite well, actually. We almost got ourselves in quite a bit of trouble one afternoon though. It gets dark there early, and even before it gets dark, the fog and mist roll in, making it difficult to see very clearly. We set out one afternoon on what we thought was going to be a very short trail. Well, it was pretty short, but it was straight up! We climbed something like 300 feet, following nothing but blue spray-paint dots on the ground every ten feet or so for most of the trail. About two hours later, we were only halfway done and it was starting to get dark. We were quite literally only feet away from cliffs that went straight down into the ocean and knew that if it actually got dark we would be in pretty serious trouble. We didn't realize how long it would take so we didn't have anything at all with us. I was seriously trying to figure out how we'd manage to spend the night out in the open and get back to the car at first light with no water, food, bug spray, or even sweatshirts. We picked up the pace, carried Nate for a bit, and managed to make it back just in the nick of time. We really wanted to hike Cadillac Mountain (http://www.acadiamagic.com/cadillac-summit-01.html), but we checked with the Rangers and they told us that the prior week a family similar to ours hiked it in five hours, and we knew Natey's little legs just couldn't handle that. Oh well. Next time.
Biking: The park has a whole system of unpaved carriage roads that are closed to car traffic but that you can walk or ride bikes on. We bike a lot on the weekends, so we thought it would be great. Oh my god we were so wrong. We were not even remotely in good enough shape for biking in this place. It's all mountains. You're either going straight up, or straight down. We tried a couple of the trails and I honestly thought I was going to die. We finally sheepishly asked for a recommendation from the Rangers for 'trails that are good for kids.' On their recommendation, we biked around Jordan Pond, around Eagle Lake, and around Witch Hole Pond. Even some of those had a couple of nasty little hills, though.
Tide Pooling: Two hours prior to low tide is the best time. We went to a couple of different places. It was great. The kids were in heaven. And by the kids, I mean me. We saw lots of snails, periwinkles, and some really grouchy crabs. I was a little disappointed because I had visions of starfish and urchins, but I got over it.
Whale Watching: We went on the sunset whale-watching tour, offered by the Bar Harbor Whale Watching Co. (http://www.barharborwhales.com/default.php). It was absolutely indescribable. They drove about an hour out into the Gulf of Maine. On the way there we saw porpoises, a seal, and a bunch of different sea birds. As we got close to where the whales were feeding, way off in the distance you could sort of see puffs of water coming up from their blowholes and knew we were heading in the right direction. All of a sudden, on the left side of our boat, so close it seemed like you might be able to touch them, were a pair of whales swimming together. They were in perfect unison, like synchronized swimmers. They'd dive down together, flipping their tails up in the air at the same time, and come back up five minutes later on the other side of our boat. All together, they were able to identify five different humpbacks from their tail markings that day (Spoon, Notchy, Nuke, Gemini, and Flyer), and there were at least six more that they couldn't identify (the undersides of the whales' tails are like fingerprints. they're all unique. we couldn't get good enough looks at some of their tails to figure out who they were). They were completely surrounding our boat on three sides. Everywhere you looked there were tails slapping, dorsal fins poking out, blowholes spouting, and flippers flopping. It was beyond amazing. It was cold, though. They tell you to dress warm and they're not kidding. It's only around 50 degrees out there, and the boat is going really fast. Poor natey's nose froze. Luckily we had just bought the boys really cute (and waterproof!) fleece-lined jackets in a gift shop. They came in quite handy.
Hiking: We hiked some of the shorter trails. They were very challenging, but the kids kept up quite well, actually. We almost got ourselves in quite a bit of trouble one afternoon though. It gets dark there early, and even before it gets dark, the fog and mist roll in, making it difficult to see very clearly. We set out one afternoon on what we thought was going to be a very short trail. Well, it was pretty short, but it was straight up! We climbed something like 300 feet, following nothing but blue spray-paint dots on the ground every ten feet or so for most of the trail. About two hours later, we were only halfway done and it was starting to get dark. We were quite literally only feet away from cliffs that went straight down into the ocean and knew that if it actually got dark we would be in pretty serious trouble. We didn't realize how long it would take so we didn't have anything at all with us. I was seriously trying to figure out how we'd manage to spend the night out in the open and get back to the car at first light with no water, food, bug spray, or even sweatshirts. We picked up the pace, carried Nate for a bit, and managed to make it back just in the nick of time. We really wanted to hike Cadillac Mountain (http://www.acadiamagic.com/cadillac-summit-01.html), but we checked with the Rangers and they told us that the prior week a family similar to ours hiked it in five hours, and we knew Natey's little legs just couldn't handle that. Oh well. Next time.
Biking: The park has a whole system of unpaved carriage roads that are closed to car traffic but that you can walk or ride bikes on. We bike a lot on the weekends, so we thought it would be great. Oh my god we were so wrong. We were not even remotely in good enough shape for biking in this place. It's all mountains. You're either going straight up, or straight down. We tried a couple of the trails and I honestly thought I was going to die. We finally sheepishly asked for a recommendation from the Rangers for 'trails that are good for kids.' On their recommendation, we biked around Jordan Pond, around Eagle Lake, and around Witch Hole Pond. Even some of those had a couple of nasty little hills, though.
Tide Pooling: Two hours prior to low tide is the best time. We went to a couple of different places. It was great. The kids were in heaven. And by the kids, I mean me. We saw lots of snails, periwinkles, and some really grouchy crabs. I was a little disappointed because I had visions of starfish and urchins, but I got over it.
Whale Watching: We went on the sunset whale-watching tour, offered by the Bar Harbor Whale Watching Co. (http://www.barharborwhales.com/default.php). It was absolutely indescribable. They drove about an hour out into the Gulf of Maine. On the way there we saw porpoises, a seal, and a bunch of different sea birds. As we got close to where the whales were feeding, way off in the distance you could sort of see puffs of water coming up from their blowholes and knew we were heading in the right direction. All of a sudden, on the left side of our boat, so close it seemed like you might be able to touch them, were a pair of whales swimming together. They were in perfect unison, like synchronized swimmers. They'd dive down together, flipping their tails up in the air at the same time, and come back up five minutes later on the other side of our boat. All together, they were able to identify five different humpbacks from their tail markings that day (Spoon, Notchy, Nuke, Gemini, and Flyer), and there were at least six more that they couldn't identify (the undersides of the whales' tails are like fingerprints. they're all unique. we couldn't get good enough looks at some of their tails to figure out who they were). They were completely surrounding our boat on three sides. Everywhere you looked there were tails slapping, dorsal fins poking out, blowholes spouting, and flippers flopping. It was beyond amazing. It was cold, though. They tell you to dress warm and they're not kidding. It's only around 50 degrees out there, and the boat is going really fast. Poor natey's nose froze. Luckily we had just bought the boys really cute (and waterproof!) fleece-lined jackets in a gift shop. They came in quite handy.
My little Gorton's fishermen:
Shopping: We spent part of a day in downtown Bar Harbor. It's a quaint sort of little seaside tourist town. It reminded me a lot of Put in Bay, but more families and less drunken carousing. Lots of cute little shops, some nice restaurants, a lovely little park in the center of town, and an ice cream shop on every corner! Lots of nice B&Bs for people who aren't interested in camping :). I can't even remember all of the places we ate there, but they were all good.
Swimming (sort of): They have some really lovely beaches. Many are nothing more than a tiny cove with smooth, ocean-tumbled rocks, at least one is large, with soft sand, and a couple are something in-between. Most of the shells we found were scallops or oysters, with some really neat curly-probably-snail shells thrown in for good measure. The one uniform feature is the water. It's COLD. Really cold. No more than 50 degrees or so. I went wading up to my knees and had to get out fifteen minutes later because I could no longer feel my legs. But the kids? They don't care! We took a picnic to Sand Beach, fully clothed. The kids were going to just put their toes in the water. An hour later, they looked like this, and we had to make them come out because Nate's lips were turning blue. There are also apparently a couple of swimming beaches at the inland lakes that are a little warmer, but we never made it there.
General sightseeing: You have to drive slowly in this place. Every time you come around a corner there is some sort of breathtaking view of something. I really can't do it justice.
Shopping: We spent part of a day in downtown Bar Harbor. It's a quaint sort of little seaside tourist town. It reminded me a lot of Put in Bay, but more families and less drunken carousing. Lots of cute little shops, some nice restaurants, a lovely little park in the center of town, and an ice cream shop on every corner! Lots of nice B&Bs for people who aren't interested in camping :). I can't even remember all of the places we ate there, but they were all good.
Swimming (sort of): They have some really lovely beaches. Many are nothing more than a tiny cove with smooth, ocean-tumbled rocks, at least one is large, with soft sand, and a couple are something in-between. Most of the shells we found were scallops or oysters, with some really neat curly-probably-snail shells thrown in for good measure. The one uniform feature is the water. It's COLD. Really cold. No more than 50 degrees or so. I went wading up to my knees and had to get out fifteen minutes later because I could no longer feel my legs. But the kids? They don't care! We took a picnic to Sand Beach, fully clothed. The kids were going to just put their toes in the water. An hour later, they looked like this, and we had to make them come out because Nate's lips were turning blue. There are also apparently a couple of swimming beaches at the inland lakes that are a little warmer, but we never made it there.
General sightseeing: You have to drive slowly in this place. Every time you come around a corner there is some sort of breathtaking view of something. I really can't do it justice.
(I kept waiting for a sparkly vampire to appear)
We went to Thunder Hole, which was disappointing. It's a rock formation that funnels high-tide and storm waves into a huge old-faithful type of upward water jet, accompanied by a loud boom. The sea was too calm when we were there, so we just saw some splashing.
Cadillac mountain is amazing. We drove up (see the earlier explanation about the five-hour hike!!) twice. At certain times of the year, the top of that mountain is the first place in the continental US to see the sunrise. We woke up one morning at 4am and drove up there. Unfortunately there was a really heavy fog. We sat there in the freezing, damp mist for an hour or so before Mike turned to me and said 'how are we supposed to know when the sun comes up?' We finally just gave up and went back down to camp for a huge breakfast.
The next day we went back up during the day and took a bunch of photos.
Providence, RI
On the way home, we stayed at the Westin Providence. We spent the next day sightseeing around there. We wandered out of our hotel and happened to find a street arts festival going on that was very family-oriented. There were vendors, facepainters, a paper airplane making contest, a little booth where the kids could make funny hats, and a truck giving out free ice cream and popsicles. The kids got to play gigantic yahtzee at a booth sponsored by southwest airlines, and won some airline miles (they were more impressed with the dice the size of their head, lol!), hang out by the Fuze and lemonade sampling booths, and stalk a couple of costumed mascots.
After we left there, sort of on a whim we decided to stop by a park where mike heard there was a really cool old carousel. Sure enough, in Roger Williams Park, honoring the founder of providence, we found it. The carousel didn't open until noon, so while we were waiting to buy our tickets, we checked out the beautiful gardens, drove by the zoo (didn't have time to go inside, unfortunately), and rented paddleboats shaped like swans!
It was all very spontaneous and fun. I'm glad we stopped there. It really helped break up the (long, looooooooooooong) drive home.
The next day we went back up during the day and took a bunch of photos.
Providence, RI
On the way home, we stayed at the Westin Providence. We spent the next day sightseeing around there. We wandered out of our hotel and happened to find a street arts festival going on that was very family-oriented. There were vendors, facepainters, a paper airplane making contest, a little booth where the kids could make funny hats, and a truck giving out free ice cream and popsicles. The kids got to play gigantic yahtzee at a booth sponsored by southwest airlines, and won some airline miles (they were more impressed with the dice the size of their head, lol!), hang out by the Fuze and lemonade sampling booths, and stalk a couple of costumed mascots.
After we left there, sort of on a whim we decided to stop by a park where mike heard there was a really cool old carousel. Sure enough, in Roger Williams Park, honoring the founder of providence, we found it. The carousel didn't open until noon, so while we were waiting to buy our tickets, we checked out the beautiful gardens, drove by the zoo (didn't have time to go inside, unfortunately), and rented paddleboats shaped like swans!
It was all very spontaneous and fun. I'm glad we stopped there. It really helped break up the (long, looooooooooooong) drive home.
No comments:
Post a Comment