Maine

When our kids were little our parents would sometimes watch them while Steve and I had a getaway, and a few years ago our Week of Freedom was offered in August. Bleh. Where could we go that is wonderful then? Alaska? Banff? Maine, it was decided, and it was incredible. But that Summer of 6 and 9 was when I realized that we had turned a corner and our kids were fun to travel with (and still enjoyed being with us). When we got to Maine with all the wonderful hikes and rock scrambling we immediately said we needed to bring the kids back. 

Last time we flew into Boston and explored Gloucester and Rockport, MA on the way up. This time we drove the whole way, staying overnight along the way in order to stretch our legs and explore places like... 

• Downtown Portsmouth, NH - we got French pastries at La Maison Navarre
• Nubble light
• Kennebunkport - Sea Glass is a well-curated jewelry shop
• traffic detour through adorable Ogunquit, which we wouldn't have seen otherwise
• Portland Head lighthouse
• Boothbay Harbor and Ocean Point Walk - would love to spend more time here, stayed only long enough to enjoyed interesting hot dogs, waffles, and ice cream at Wannawaf, and our first lobster roll (warm and buttery "naked," not lobster salad) from Shannon's Unshelled
• Bath Iron Works - got a peek at ships being built from a dog park along the river 
• Rockland - wonderful main street - it was Sunday this time and many places were closed, but we did go see the lighthouse on the breakwater 
• Sea Dog Brewery, which overlooks the harbor in Camden - ate here on our previous trip  

Steve and I found sea glass, too. 

Last time Steve and I stayed at the wonderfully cheap Robbins Motel on Mount Desert Island and just walked to the nearby restaurants for several of our meals. MDI has an interesting mix of the Vineyard Vines vacationers in Bar Harbor right alongside the hikers fresh off the trails of Acadia National Park. For this trip we rented an adorable cottage where we'd have a kitchen and separate bedrooms. It had access to the shoreline as well, and the kids spent hours playing with rocks. Stacking, skipping, trying to break them, etc. It was about half an hour past the turn for Schoodic Peninsula, so that was the first place we ventured after a day playing Risk and reading books at the cottage. 

Schoodic Point is part of Acadia, a huge rocky shoreline to climb on with tidepools at low tide and crashing waves to watch. After that we headed to the smaller-scale Grindstone Point for more rock scrambling and "pinballing." It was foggy that day, but we could just make out the silhouette of the Beehive over on MDI (foreshadowing).

New day... time for Acadia! Beehive Trail goes straight up from Sand Beach parking area, and is clearly a crowd favorite as the parking lot is full by 8:30 in season. It took us under half an hour to get to the top and another hour to hike down the back way, past The Bowl. Beehive has some spots with iron rungs to help people grip the rocks, which can feel a little dicey, but our kids (now 9 and 12) were champs and this ranks up there as one of our favorite hikes anywhere.

At low tide you can walk out on the sandbar to Bar Island from Bar Harbor, but this time we didn't time it right and just sat on the green for a picnic lunch with a view of the boats. Then we got ice cream (blueberry, of course) and fudge and tshirts, as one does in Bar Harbor. My son picked a shirt with a drawing of Bass Harbor light, so we decided to check that out next. Southwest Harbor is a sweet little village, and this time we got flavored tea and lemonade from Sips and a lobster roll from Beal's. I'm not a big shopper, but I enjoy handmade things, so I like visiting Island Artisans in BH and Southwest Harbor Artisans.

Cobblestone bridge over Jordan Pond Stream

We went back to Acadia the next day because the forecast looked the best of those remaining. Not wanting to fight crowds, we took the shuttle from the visitor's center to Jordan Pond House. We wanted to see some of the carriage roads, so we hiked along Jordan Pond Stream (pretty trail) to this cobblestone bridge, then we wanted to do a hike with a view so we took Spring Trail, hiked up Penobscot Mountain, down Deer Brook, enjoyed the breeze off Jordan Pond, then finished with Jordan Pond Path along the lake, back to JP House. I would love to explore more of the central mountain area of Acadia. Last time Steve and I did the St. Saveur & Acadia Mountain loop with incredible views of Somes Sound. Acadia NP has so many great views because it has mountains right next to the ocean.

Looking back on the way up Penobscot

The next day was rainy, so we hiked up Pigeon Hill near our cottage, and hung out in Winter Harbor, including seeing Prospect Point light and eating at J.M. Gerrish Cafe, where one can get blueberry pancakes and a lobster roll. We also got a doormat made from lobster rope at the 5 & 10. Then it was time to pack up and head home, but we did stop along the way at Maine Beer Company and the LL Bean outlet and flagship stores in Freeport.

We're already talking about next time!