Family Vacation Part 3

We woke up Sunday to an absolutely beautiful day.  We had reservations to go on a whale and puffin watching trip so we got up early, ate breakfast and headed down to the harbor.  When we got there, though, we learned that they had cancelled the morning trip out.  We were able to get tickets for the afternoon trip- if it happened- so we did that and then headed for Acadia.

It was really neat to see Acadia in the sunshine after seeing it in the rain the day before.  It really is a beautiful park with some amazing views.

Looking out at the islands from Acadia.  Such a beautiful view.

We stopped at a little botanical garden in Acadia and walked around a little bit.  It was in this garden that we saw some of our most exciting wildlife in Acadia- and that included all of a few frogs, a couple of caterpillars and a ground squirrel.

Virginia and Paige hanging out in the garden.

Ribbit!

This ground squirrel hanging out along the edge of the path.  This little guy was quite calm even when we were all trying to get a good look at him.  He did eventually run back into the grass, though.

Beaver lodge in the middle of a lake in the park.

A sunny shot of Sandy Beach.  The water was much, much calmer this day.

Another view of Sandy Beach

Paige headed toward the water edge, working her way around the seaweed covered rocks.  I guess the rough seas washed in a lot of seaweed during high tide.

We did a lot of walking around on rocks along the shoreline.  It was great and we all enjoyed exploring the coastline.

Thunder Hole

When the waves hit inside Thunder Hole it sounds like a clap of thunder- pretty impressive.

We stopped at Otter Point, went out on the rocks and spent some time just sitting there enjoying the views.  We were getting close to the time when we would need to head back to town for the whale watching trip, so we knew we wouldn't have time to get through more of the park so we decided to just enjoy that area until we needed to head back.

The view of the mountains from Otter Point.

A seagull flying straight at us while we were sitting at Otter Point.

These two had fun finding natural chairs among the rocks.  They found seats for all four of us- here are Virginia and Paige enjoying their "chairs."

We got back to town and called about the whale watching trip and learned that they were going out, so we got our stuff together (including motion sickness medicine, thanks Mom!) and headed for the harbor.  We got checked in and went and chose our seats on the boat.  We chose to sit inside of the cabin on the middle level at a table by a window.  Before we left the harbor the captain came on the loud speaker and warned everyone.  They hadn't been out in 5 days because of the weather and the water was still going to be really choppy, but not bad enough for us to not go out.  He let people know that it was going to be a rough side and if you didn't think you could handle it you could get off and get a refund or reschedule your trip.  I don't think a single person got off the boat, but as it turns out a lot of people should have.  We were in a cabin with a number of Japanese tourists, most of whom either slept or were sick the whole 3 hour trip.  The four of us took some motion sickness medicine that my mom had given me and we were all fine, although I didn't feel so great on the way back in, but as long as I watched the horizon I was okay.  The girls didn't seem affected by the rough seas at all, which was great.  They loved the boat ride.  We were out on the ocean for 3 hours and did not see a single whale.  The captain said something about some big ocean sunfish and a puffin and a dolphin, but we didn't see any of those.  While we were way out all the four of us spotted were some seagulls and other birds.  On the way in, though, they took us by Egg Island where we saw a bunch of seals, a couple of bald eagles and lots and lots of seagulls.

While we were upset to not get to see any whales, the company has a policy that if we're back there anytime in the next 3 years we can go on another whale watching trip for free.  If we do that, I sure hope it's a smoother ride!

Looking at Acadia from the boat.

This is what we saw a lot of on the whale watching trip- open water.

These two were little troopers.  They got tired of sitting inside and wanted to go outside and look around.  Ben took them out in the back of the boat for awhile and then I took them up to the top level to help the naturalists look for whales.

Seals all hanging out on Egg Island.  They appear to be some incredibly lazy animals.

A bald eagle (right in the middle) on Egg Island.

Lighthouse on Egg Island

A baby seal bobbing in the surf just off of Egg Island.

Ben and I are convinced that Egg Island is their go-to if they don't see any whales out on the whale watching trips, so that they can make people happy by showing them at least some sea-life.  It was pretty neat to see the seals, though, so it worked on us.

Ben and I at dinner one night- picture courtesy of Virginia.

Paige and Virginia sitting on a big lobster's lap outside Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium in Bar Harbor.

After our whale watching trip we walked around town a bit more, had some ice cream, got some popcorn for the car ride, and then after going to the hotel for a bit went out to dinner.  After dinner I took Paige and Virginia to the hotel's heated pool for a little while since they'd been begging to go swimming our entire trip.  Then we went in, packed and got ready for bed since we knew we were getting up early the next morning to begin our trek home.

Monday on our way home we drove across Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire so that I could hit state #47- Vermont- and so that Ben could visit the site where his fraternity- Theta Chi- was founded at Norwich University.  The building no longer exists, but there is a nice monument to the founding of Theta Chi near where the Old South Barracks used to stand. 

Ben and the Theta Chi monument

We finished our driving Monday in Hartford, Connecticut.  We had dinner, the girls and I went to the pool for a bit, before we turned in for the night to get some rest before our journey home.  Tuesday after breakfast at the hotel we hit the road.  We got to sit in some NYC rush hour traffic in Connecticut, but other than that it was an uneventful trip home.

I would consider our first family vacation a success!  We all had a good time and got to see some beautiful sites.  I'd love to spend some more time in Acadia someday and explore the park some more.  It'd also be nice to see more of Vermont than just the very eastern edge of it where New Hampshire is almost always within site.  So I guess another trip to New England will be necessary at some point.  Now where should we go on our next family vacation...