Summer Vacation 2008

We headed for Maine with a stop in New York and a stay in Massachusetts for our trip this year. Rather a different vacation for us, as we generally go to one destination and stay the entire time. This was going to be a driving trip. The kids were extremely good, especially since we took a smaller car to save on gas (we usually take the F150 -- roomier).

Sylvan Beach, New York

The first stop was at Oneida Lake in New York. We had driven for about eight hours and to rest at the lake was nice. The water was a bit cold. Kelley and the kids got in the water - at least walked in waist deep. I sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun and took pictures. A women sitting nearby asked if we would all like our picture taken and took this picture. She was very nice. No one has ever asked that before..can't say I have either. Maybe I will start doing that since we don't have many vacation pictures where we are all together. I'm sure other families have the same problem.

Massachusetts

Got up the next morning, and it was raining. Kelley said, "I hope this doesn't follow us to the East Coast." We had a five hour drive to Plymouth Massachusetts. Plymouth was very nice, quaint and very New Englandish. I really liked the area and Madison said she wouldn't mind if we moved there (if she could bring her friends too!).

We toured the Mayflower II. It's a full-scale reproduction of the Mayflower. Pretty cool, but very hot on board. Can't imagine how the costumed guides representing the passengers and crew can stand it.



National Monument to the Forefathers. The names of the 102 passengers who crossed over on the Mayflower are engraved into this 81-foot statue. It is one of the largest statues in the U.S.

We visited many other attractions in the area as well.



Cape Cod was a nice place to visit. Wouldn't want to live there.


We stayed at a hotel right on the beach with a balcony and it had an indoor and outdoor swimming pool.



The ocean was very cold. We knew the ocean water in the New England states would be much cooler so the pools made up for it.



Maine

After a few days in Massachusetts we left for Maine, specifically Mount Desert Island. It was raining when we left that morning. Did the rain finally make it here? We drove six hours to Maine and stayed at Bass Harbor Cottages, in the Boat House. It was a nice change from the hotel rooms. We had two bedrooms, living room, kitchen with dining table, two full baths (thank goodness!!) and a balcony overlooking the tide pools and lobster fishermen.


After we got to Maine the news stated there was a huge storm in Massachusetts with a tornado in Cape Cod. There was also a tornado in New Hampshire. Maine got rain and fog from these storms. So, yes, the storms finally reached us. We had a brilliant light storm the first night we were there. I have never seen so much lightning as I did there.

Bass Harbor Head Light House.


Unfortunately, this was the only light house we got to see. Everyday we were there, the fog was so bad from the weather, that you could barely see out to sea. The whale watch, lighthouse and coastline cruises in Bar Harbor were cancelled each day as no one would be able to see anything.

Bar Harbor was fun. We enjoyed our time there.

But Acadia National Park was absolutely beautiful what we could see of it. Several trips up Cadillac Mountain were to no avail as fog covered everything and you could barely see 30 feet in front of you. But I hear the views are incredible from up there. Maybe another year...



The temperature probably was high 70's, maybe 80 degrees at the most during the day. We didn't have air conditioning in the boat house and never needed it. It got very cool at night. In Acadia National Park we observed the strangest thing. The ocean water was very cold and at one of the beaches in the park people were swimming in it like it was a heated pool. Then they would lay out on the beach like the sun was shining down (which it wasn't), while cold fog swirled all about them. We just couldn't get over that, and we still talk about it.





It rained the whole day the last day we were there. We have been blessed with wonderful weather in prior vacations, so we were only due. Despite the weather we truly had a great time. And we will return some day...maybe in the fall season next time.