Acadia: Day 1

Acadia: the first national park in the East.

This was one of my bucket list items for the trip.

The rocky Maine Coast.  The epic trails.  The climbing.  The tide pools.  Ah... to me... this was Maine.  I was so excited I could barely stand the sixty minute drive to the park.

Michael took off work two hours early so that we could spend more time exploring.  I could live here.

After a visit to the Visitor's Center, this was our introduction to Acadia.

Many of these photos are from Thunder Hole - above is the actual Thunder Hole, where the sea sounds like thunder as it smashes into the tunnel walls and air rushes to meet the waves.  Maeryn and Michael actually climbed up to the cliff overlooking this cave - much to the horror of onlookers.

Michael on the rocky coast

A panoramic view.

In my glory.

Maeryn and Michael, the family daredevils, climb to a higher point on the rocks.

Maeryn and Michael on the rocks as the sun begins to set.

"Seagull!  Seagull!  Go to that rock!  Seagull!  Go to that rock!  Do it!  Do it NOW!  Seagull!!!"

The seagull did not listen.

That's me way off in the distance - and Maeryn on the right.

I wanted to touch the water, so I trekked through the slimy kelp forest.

And I reached my goal.  Jonah and I especially enjoyed exploring the tide pools.

My turn to climb to higher places.

Jonah climbed in spite of his fear, and texted his friend, Ireland, from the highest rock.

After Thunder Hole, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to catch the remnants of the sunset. 

The top of Cadillac.

Sunset ends.  Jonah wearing Michael's hoodie in the foreground.  Michael carrying Maeryn piggy-back farther on.

Our cell phones couldn't adequately capture the beauty of our descent in Sally down the mountain.  Lots of noise due to the threatening darkness - but I think you get the idea.

Lovin' it: Bangor, ME

Air hockey with dad at the camp store game room.

We spent the day swimming and chilling at the campground today.

The pool is awesome - it goes up to 8 feet, so diving is possible, which we love.

We also had some time for dates.

Maeryn and I played air hockey and pool and ate some ice cream sandwiches while Jonah and Michael swam and played air hockey and Foosball. 

Later, we went out as a family.

 

Roller skating is fast becoming a favorite family activity.

I'm still in awe over how kind and helpful people here in Bangor are.  Everyone is open.  They're genuinely interested in you personally.  They don't have some other agenda.  They're just people.  Down to earth.  Hard working.  Fun loving.  People.  It's a nice change, and it's much easier to find friends.

Children Museum Exploration #3: Maine Discovery Museum

Thus far, Maine's Discovery Museum tops our list as the very best children's museum out there.  At very least, the best in New England.  I admit we haven't seen every last one, but we've seen our share. 

What we liked:

- Cheap parking ($2.00 for four hours)
-  Low traffic (Bangor, ME)
-  Friendly people (we're finding that Maine is chock full of these)
-  Clean facilities
-  So much information that you can spend an entire day in each section - and the museum is three stories of awesome
-  The restrooms are integrated into the building's design - e.g. - on the second story, the restrooms are the back of a big rig truck
-  live animals (turtles, fish, lizards, spiders, and more - all native to Maine)
-  integration of Maine history, geography, and industry alongside science and discovery
-  Paleontology dig area - huge sand pit with real dino fossils for kids to find
-  dress up stations (doctors, sailors, farmers...)
-  hang gliding simulation
-  human body crawl through
-  puppet theatre
-  a huge boat with shipping supplies, life jackets, navigation equipment, and more for kids to use and explore
-  a stop action animation studio



I could go on.  We liked it a LOT.  I had fun too - and that's not always the case at these types of locations.  I texted Michael about a hundred times telling him about the next cool thing as we moved through the building.

What we didn't like:

-  having to leave
- a couple of exhibits were broken, and didn't look like they would be repaired any time soon

The photos (of course)!:

This is Maeryn's "beaver face".  You could explore a beaver dam, go fishing with magnetic fish, and crawl up a tree and into the nest of a bird in this area of the museum.

Paper making - logging is one of Maine's largest industries.

Restaurant exploration - Jonah spent a long time at this area organizing and setting up restaurant service for himself and his sister.

Wish I would have taken more!