This year we took a trip to New England for our family vacation. We started out on Friday evening and pushed on all the way to Connecticut, we got in around 1 AM. Our original plan was to tour Boston. However, there was a big counter protest planning a march on Boston Commons at exactly the same time. We re-routed to Concord and learned about the beginnings of the American Revolution at the Minuteman National Park. We learned the real story of Paul Revere's Midnight ride and the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
After that, we proceeded to Walden Pond. This is a really popular swimming hole, but probably most famous as the simple home of Henry David Thoreau.
 |
| Look how well everyone is getting along. Please note that this is day 1 of the trip. |
 |
| Clark is having his own transcendental moment. |
 |
| Dad is studying the ants. If that doesn't mean anything to you, do a google search for Thoreau and ants. |
 |
| A nice trail all around the pond. |
The next leg of our Journey brought us all the way to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park. We spent the largest share of our trip exploring the nature and culture in this area
 |
| Checking out a natural spring. |
 |
| Enjoying our time in the woods. |
 |
| We wandered out onto this rocky coast and were amazed to have the whole shore to ourselves. |
 |
| Scouting with binoculars and a monocular. |
 |
| We climbed all over the rocks. |
 |
| Vacation means a lot of good food. It doesn't get much better than this. |
 |
| We took a hike through the woods. It was quite a trail. We covered 5 miles and climbed two mountain summits, sometimes scaling the side of a death-defying cliff. |
 |
| We had to do a lot of scrambling over rocks and into cracks. There were several exposed sections with just a little ledge over a 200 foot shear vertical drop. |
 |
| The views were amazing. |
 |
| Some parts of the trail are impassable without the use of these iron rungs, built right into the face of the cliff. |
 |
| Nearly at the top. |
 |
| Yes, that is the top. |
 |
| Back to the bottom. That was the mountain we climbed in the background. Some of the cliffs are visible from this view. (Look directly over Spencer's head) |
 |
| This was the day of the Great American Eclipse. We took it in from the hotel pool. |
 |
| We had perfect weather to watch with our sunoculars. The eclipse was about 60% in Maine. With the glasses and the weird shape of the sun, it looked oddly like a jack-o-lantern eye. |
 |
| Bar Harbor specialty- blueberry soda. |
 |
| We bought a blueberry pie (and maple ice cream) and had a super fun treat down on the cobblestone beach. |
 |
| We got up early, early to watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. Because it is so far East and so high, this is the first place in America to see the sunrise each morning. |
 |
| The sun is warming up. |
 |
| Here it comes... |
 |
| We took a tour on a lobster boat and got to see the seals and water birds and lighthouses out on the water. |
 |
| And of course, we learned a lot about lobsters. |
 |
| We crossed over a sandbar to explore Bar Island. We found an old lobster trap that washed up. |
 |
| Jen really does the windblown look well, doesn't she? |
 |
| Another great meal. Our kids are all usually pretty picky, but they tried a lot of new culinary experiences on the trip. |
Next we left Bar Harbor and meandered down the coast of Maine.
 |
| The Rockland Breakwater extends nearly a mile out to sea. You can walk out on top of the rocks. I'll tell you, give this family a big pile of rocks and we are having a great time. |
 |
| The weather was supposed to rain, but we lucked out with a beautiful day. In fact, it was really ideal weather all week. |
 |
| At the end of the breakwater, they have a lighthouse. |
 |
| On the other side of the harbor is Owl's Head Lighthouse. |
 |
| A real pretty spot to enjoy the coast of Maine. Just listening to the waves crash against the rocks was an experience. |
Along the way we stopped at the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, ME. What a lovely place!
 |
| Laurel is checking out the acoustics of this "sound rock". |
 |
| A lot of what you do is sit around and take in the scenery. |
 |
| The place was so peaceful that some spontaneous meditation occurred. |
 |
| We built a little house in the fairy village. Laurel was delighted to see a spider shaped fairy move in right away. |
Next stop was Portland, ME
 |
| In Portland we took a guided tour of Casco Bay by sea kayak. The water was calm and it was a fun excursion. |
We left Maine and made a few stops along the way.
 |
| We found a cooky Swiss themed mini-golf course in Connecticut. |
 |
| We also stopped for pizza. Frank Pepe's has a reputation for the best pizza in America. It was pretty good, and we all ate with voracious appetites. |
So, we next made it to New York City. This was the first time anyone in our family had visited.
 |
| We started with a trip on the Staten Island Ferry. |
 |
| Iconic views, such as The Statue of Liberty. |
 |
| We took the Subway to Times Square. |
 |
| There is a really cool attraction called Gulliver's Gate. With mini models of NYC and major cities all over the world. |
 |
| They had really intricate models and fun details for kids or adults. |
 |
| Another big meal at Junior's- a New York classic. |
 |
| Times Square |
 |
| Central Park |
 |
| We made it to the American Natural History Museum. We saw shows and wandered around the amazing collection for hours. |
 |
| We watched Night at the Museum during our car ride and had fun finding some of the "characters" from the show. |
