Acadia...

We had such a wonderful, restful, active, enjoyable family vacation to Acadia National Park.  We arrived and departed on subsequent Sundays so we had 2 traveling days and 6 whole days of recreation!  And we certainly had both recreation at the beach, in the woods, exploring towns and museums and a re-creation of ourselves, our relationship connections and our family.  Running a 6 month intensive on site residential youth program can be draining (understatement) and this vacation fed us for sure.  We tented (on gravel and next to our car but still) which was great and when we were evicted from our camp grounds because of Hurricane Earl we enjoyed two nights in a motel with beds, a free hot shower and fans.  I mean, who knew it was going to 90+ degrees in Maine at the end of August/beginning of September!  I think we ran out of shorts on day four.  But  the dirty laundry, the other people in the campground who used their car's headlights as flashlights (what the?), the lack of creamer for our coffee, the bloody nose while horsing around in the town square and the cheap motel didn't matter compared with the only sandy ocean-front beach on Mt Desert island,

fishing and cooking dinner at the pristine quiet Bubble Pond,

hiking through a mystical forest of dwarfed fir, spruce, and lichen braving the harsh northern coastal weather,

climbing through a talus field with our kids (who now know what talus is) to get to the perfect fishing spot,

watching hurricane churned waves crash on a granite rock coast,

walking across a sand bar connecting one island to another only at low tide,

inspecting tidal pools while watching seagulls crack mussels open on rocks,

geeking (yes, geeking, kids included) at the Wild Gardens of Acadia where trees, ferns, and other flora native to the area are labeled and arranged by  environment type (yes, we are aware of how nerdy that is),

and more...

peace