A visit to Maine

Maine has been on my list of places I have always wanted to go.  I don't know why, but there is something about being 'so far north' and light houses, rocky shore lines, a cold ocean, and a never ending forest of densely populated trees and ferns that I just couldn't pass up!

It totally lived up to my expectations.  We went to Bar Harbor, which is a little island off the coast of northern Maine.  

While driving I constantly saw signs that said "Watch for MOOSE on freeway".  How could you not want to go to a place where that is a commonplace sign?!  I really was hoping to sight a moose on the freeway...until I really thought about it.  I don't think I would live to tell the tale of the Moose vs. the '99 Honda accord...

We stayed at this really cool hotel right on the water..

 The harbor was FILLED with boats.

 See the land behind the boats? More islands.  There are over 1000 islands off the coast.  Most of them are pretty tiny.   They have really interesting names like "Porcupine Island 1" and "Porcupine Island 2" and "Porcupine Island 3", and "Porcupine Island 4".... I could go on and on...but I bet that would be way too entertaining.

 And there were random buoys hung on random walls.  Cool huh? (well, my picture would have been if these random tourists weren't in it!)

 Hey!  There are actually 3 of us in this next picture...Heath is hiding in the back pack!

 And at low tide, the water in front of our hotel receded so much there was a HUGE sandbar {more like rocky bar} that you could walk out on all the way to another little island (miraculously, it wasn't named Porcupine Island, it was "Bar Island".  How original.).  It was so fun to go out and see the sea life.  We found this large (school?) of starfish.  I have never seen a starfish in its natural habitat.  I had no idea they were so big.  Or so colorful!

 Notice us in our beach gear?  That is how warm it was not.  Pleasant, yes, but not even for us to want to get in the water.  And it was August!  The kids and I wore sweaters and jeans in the evenings! (Of course, Bryan didn't disappoint and wore his normal get-up of basketball shorts and a t-shirt.)

On our first day we went whale watching.  We had a fabulous lunch at sea!

   It was pretty cool to see all the humpback whales.  We also saw a couple sea lions.  There are penguins too, but I didn't get to see any.  What I saw the most of were the thousands of buoys on our 29 mile trip out to sea.  (And I am not exaggerating.)  They were the markers for the lobster fishermen.  I guess I realized that lobster fishing was a big industry, but I didn't quite understand how large the whole scope of it is.  Its pretty dang large.

 

 Mount Desert Rock.  What you see is the entire island.  (can you say, CREEPY?!) It is 18 miles off the coast and researchers go here to do uh, research.  On stuff.  That is important.  But it is DANG COLD.  Can you imagine this place in January?  Brrrrr. They stay out here for 3 months at a time with about 6 other people in this little run down shanty.  I can't think of stuff that is so important you would want to hang out here and take notes in frikin arctic temperatures with 6 other nuts.  No thanks.

 And the tour guide talked so much about the, uh, stuff, that was important, that it might have put a couple of us to sleep...

 Here we are back on the sandbar...My brave daughter.  She just wandered into the water (it was not warm) and started picking up random starfish off the bottom.

 And my not-quite-as-daring son...(notice he is holding the smallest one we could find.)

 This is what the typical house mansion looked like along the coast.

 We decided to do some bike riding in Acadia National Park.  Gorgeous.  That is the best way to describe it.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  There are tons of 'carriage' paths you can explore the forest on.  We rode around a lake one day, and then next we did a trail called "Around the Mount'".  It was misleading.

It was NOT around the mount. It was UP the mount.  Complete with switchbacks.  Bryan and I had a little trail map and didn't realize the elevation changes.  We ended up biking 16 miles of strenuous, never-ending switchbacks with our fat little kids in tow.  (You don't realize how fat they are until you are pulling them up a mountain.)  It was such a challenge.  I was soaking wet by the time we got to the top, but the view was amazing.  You could so many little islands surrounding ours, and all the sail boats and fishing ships out at sea.  The best part was that we got to ride down-hill the entire ride home.

 Okay, tell me this doesn't look like the Mogollon Rim?!  This is part of Acadia National Park.

 Our big night out to get a lobster from this place that was covertly owned by our Hotel so they HAD to recommend it to all their guests...we were pretty ticked when we realized this.  But the food was good.
 "Help!" Said the little lobster as it was boiled alive for our eating enjoyment...
     (okay, that is mean.  But it was really yummy.)

 The pool was right on the ocean-side too.  The kids LOVED it.

 Blue lips? Nah.  Not Brookie!

 My tan line is a little scary in this picture.  Sorry.  I never wear swimsuits.  Just V-neck, G rated stuff...I think I should have worked on getting less of a farmer's tan this summer...

 I love it when Bryan carries Heath.  He is such a good little baby, but he weighs a ton!

 If I had a do-over:  I would have done this portion of our trip with-out kids.  Don't get me wrong, I loved having them around.  It was just limiting.  There were things like kayaking/canoeing on the ocean, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, ect that would have been sooo much fun.  Next time...

 I LOVED our trip up to Maine.  It was so fun to do a trip with just our little family.  I was pretty nervous at the start of the trip, with all the puking and pink eye stuff...but it turned out great!  So long Maine!  Someday I will come back and see you again!

Sunday Afternoons

Ever notice how the weather is the best on Sunday's?  It is definitely God's day.  Here are a few pictures of us hanging out on the front porch after church. (I know we have a 3rd kid...he was getting into trouble in the house..pictures to come!)

 I know this one of Bryan is slightly 'pass port'-ish, but it was the only way I ever get picures willingly...
He needed one for an application so I got one with a cute little smile!

 I love our matching dresses.  I get so excited to wear them!  I am pretty proud that I actually sewed something and it came out like it was supposed to!

 Why yes, she is picking her nose.  Its a nasty little habit of hers...

 But she is so much fun!

Boston

Day 3 Boston

 We loaded up the kids and the bikes and headed north to downtown Boston.  We managed to find parking for the bargain price of $22 in a parking garage underneath this cool park. The look on Bryan's face is the reaction to forking over the cash for parking.  Leave it to us to drive across the country to play in a city park! (The slides here were pretty sweet!  And steep!)

 We then toured around the Freedom Trail with the kids in tow on our bikes.  Downtown Boston is really a unique place.  I loved it.  Seeing the historical sites was awesome.  Being on a bike however, not so awesome.  There were SO MANY pedestrians.  And SO MUCH traffic.  We were kind of in this purgatory of not having a rightful place to be...  We couldn't ride in the street (we would have died), so we stuck to the sidewalks and got extreme comments from people.

"Wow, that is so cool!  That is the only way to take your kids!"

to

"What the #@$(%^ do you think you are doing?!  This is a SIDEWALK.  Get the $&8* outta my way!"

So ya, if you have a chance to 'ride' Paul Revere's Ride... don't.

Just walk.  

Even with all the traffic, it was worth the trip.

Don't be fooled.  The "Freedom Trail" is NOT really a trail...

I grew up in the sticks.  I know what a trail is supposed to be.

This is an all out urban walkway.  For dummies.  There is a big red line drawn down the sidewalk with arrows for you to follow to your next historical site.  Effective, yes.  But a trail? Not so much.

 The Old North Church, and City Hall and Cemetery.  Our Founding Fathers were pretty smart guys.  I learned so much about how Paul Revere's 'ride' was organized and all the planning it took to make everything work.  God was sure watching out for them.  We are a blessed nation for sure!

 Lunch is always an event with us.  Not so much the food, but the planning it takes.  We packed lunches everywhere we went and found a cool fountain to eat by.  Brooke ended up in her undies and soaking wet with PB&J in her hair by the time it was over.

 After lunch, we had to find dessert, which is another event in the Hays' household.  We love our treats!  We found this little Jewel on our way out...

 

And Holy Canolie! The line was out the door.  (After talking to the locals we learned it always is!)  They specialized in canolie's...but being the boring people that we are, I got a black and white cookie, Bryan got a fruit tart, and the kids shared a brownie.  Sort of.  I may have eaten most of the brownie too...

Cape Cod

Visiting Cape Cod has been on my bucket list my entire life.  When we moved to Pittsburgh, I really really hoped we could make it work and take a trip.  It was a rough start, but ended up being a fabulous trip with the family.

Day 1: The Drive.
      That word speaks volumes.  It was a drive!  We didn't get out until about 10 hours later than planned due to a scheduling mistake with Bryan's plane coming back from GA.  So we left at 4:30 pm for our 10 hour drive.  2 hours into it, Brooke puked...and puked...and puked.  Then I got a fever.  So we made it a whopping 4 hours and had to pull over at some random hotel for the night.

Day 2: Completing the Drive.  We all felt much better in the morning, but all 3 of my kids woke up with pink eye.  (we are CURSED when it comes to traveling!) We finally got to Plymouth and took our bikes out for a tour of part of the harbor and to see "Plymouth rock" <---It really is just a rock!

 This was Heath's first time sitting w/o his carseat.  His face says it all...

 The Mayflower

 Lame-O Plymouth Rock.  What a joke! Its a rock, with a big fence around it so nobody damages it.  And this might be cool, if it was 'the only' around the premises.  The WHOLE bay is rocky, and this rock isn't any bigger than the rest of them.  Its like someone needed an excuse to spend more government money so they stamped the date in rock and put up a sign so people could spend money on the 'Historical Site'...

 There was an amazing park right on the shore.  The kids were in heaven after a long long ride in the car!

 View from the park of the bay

 Best part of going to Cape Cod?  The Fish! And Lobster!  I ate the best Halibut I have ever tasted!

Day 3: Jamie gets everyone lost and on the wrong part of the "cape".
       Did I mention how big the actual "cape" cod is? I had always pictured this little tiny stretch of land that housed about 200 people.

Sooooo wrong I was!

Its huge.  There are multiple cities and freeways on it.  So when I found a 'bike trail' online that would take us too the beach, I wrongly assumed it was 'the one and only beach' here.  We were WAY down on the southern tip of the cap near the shore that faces "Martha's Vineyard".  It was a 10 mile bike path.  Beautiful, but not what we had pictured.  Here are the "marshy parts"

 And here is what the majority of the trail looked like...

It was too familiar for Bryan's liking.  He felt like we were still in PA.  (I admit, it was a little similar...) I was hoping for a bike path on the shore.  The path's saving grace was that it did end at a beach...

 Which wasn't really on the "Ocean"...it was on the Sound side.  You can see Martha's Vineyard across the way.  It turns out, our kids really like the beach when its not on the ocean! 

 They loved the sand and didn't have to be afraid of big waves!  It was an AWESOME way to spend our afternoon.

 Then we had the 10 mile ride back to the car...Where I decided we needed to try to drive to the 'end of the cape'...(Turns out it was almost 2 hours to the point from where we were)

We didn't quite make it all the way, but we found a 'real' beach and some really good sea food!