We just got back from an epic New England trip. Our family had driven to New York to visit friends 4 years ago, but this was our first big vacation that was purely to see a part of the country we'd never been to. We put in a lot of time in the car. A lot. Some of us were losing our minds by the end. Some of us declared never to take another road trip. But some of us already started planning the next one. Julia declared she was ready to "travel the world with our group".
We began by receiving the Moores at our house the night before the trip. After finishing up our packing, Jeannie and I sat down to do a little more planning. Now, Jeannie and I had been planning this trip since October, putting in many, many hours scouring articles and blogs and chatting with friends and making spreadsheets to figure out all the must do's and tips. Let me just say this trip was eye-opening in many ways.
Things I learned about planning a big sight-seeing trip with a group of 12:
1) There will be many questions. Every day. Mostly the same few questions asked by many different people. In retrospect, I should have printed a schedule for everyone to refer to, since Jeannie and I were the only ones that were really into our spreadsheet of ideas. Next time!
2) There will be many things that you don't know you don't know. Every day, many times a day, we ran into unexpected happenings, like restaurants that folks say are great to try but basically inaccessible in July crowds. Or the purchasing of subway tickets that you were sure would be no problem (we figured out the subway in Guangzhou, for heaven's sake) being super confusing. Or stores that close exceptionally early or restaurants that are being renovated or are only takeout when you need sitdown service. Or no internet service when you are relying on gps instructions to get you somewhere or find you an alternate to your messed up plans. Etc. Etc. We came to be quite unsurprised by the unexpected.
3) Everything takes longer than you think. We just ran out of time or were rushed to do many things. I don't think it was just our group size...it's just not simple navigating an unfamiliar place, so by the time you get where you're going, your schedule might say it's about time to move on to the next thing. And driving anywhere took way longer than planned. So many slowdowns.
4) Crowds can mess up a lot of plans. I so wish the kids had a fall break so we could travel in less crowded times. Many times on this trip we had a to give up our original plan due to too many people, nowhere to park, etc.
5) Big sight-seeing vacations are not for relaxing. I brought 3 books and the closest I got to reading was opening one and giving up on finding the spot where I had left off. Didn't take a single nap- and boy do I love vacation naps, didn't spend much of any time trying to look nice- just whatever tshirt and jacket did the job, and didn't take nearly the time I thought I would just "being"-- sitting and talking and resting. Instead I just was preoccupied with the doing. Knowing we may never be back there, there is so much to try to pack in, and each day there were many details of feeding everyone and preparing everything we might need for the day and making sure our "plans" were set, that I felt in a constant state of making mental checklists.
6) There will be many shoulda, woulda, coulda feelings when it's over. After all that planning, all the missed plans due to the above mentioned issues, and all the things we know now, I would have done many things differently, so there's a little sadness that it could have been better.
But enough about what didn't go as planned...here's what did happen and all the things we did get to do and see!
On Friday we had an all day drive to Pennsylvania that began with Joshua at the wheel and a tense front seat passenger. Not mentioning any names. ;) We spent so much time in the car this trip. There was traffic, traffic, and more traffic. There were tolls in abundance (especially on the way home...New Jersey Turnpike- ouch!). The kids thought it was fun when Matt was able to roll through and hand the money without stopping. This trip will be the gift that keeps on giving when we get some of the "bill by mail" tolls in the upcoming weeks. So many tolls!! There was driving on the wrong side of the road. There were missed turns and difficult to find rest stops. There were cousin switching and many shenanigans, such as Gray's game of name that tune where he makes music by bellowing and beating on his cheeks (sounds like whale-speak), and Allie's game she calls "inappropriate guess", which is pictionary with bodily functions.
For a time, we had the Moores' walkie talkie and we all had a call sign and took turns asking and answering trivia questions. My favorite was when someone from the Moore car (I think "Old Beardy"- Hunter) asked what is round, black, and could kill 100,000 people if it fell from a tree (or something like that) and "Pinky Pie" (Allie) answered, "Coronavirus of course." Everyone had a turn on the walkie and were strongly encouraged to use proper radio lingo. We also began to call the Moores the "Moyers" on this trip because at first, Allie was pronouncing it that way, though she's never had trouble saying it before???
We got to see so many cool sights out the windows along the way. We passed through every state in New England except Vermont and went over many cool bridges. I'd never been through NYC and the George Washington Bridge was a sight to behold, even in the gloomy rain, and such a crazy mess of traffic. Our path on the gps looked like a spaghetti noodles through that spot.
When Joshua wasn't driving, he did a lot of stringing his lacrosse sticks and we stopped at a lacrosse store on the way home so he could get a new lacrosse head and string that one too. He didn't do any driving after our initial trip up, much to my relief. He does a great job but it was difficult being in a totally new place and our car was not exactly a calm, happy place when he was at the wheel. Allie did lots of crafting in the car, which helped a lot, and Julia enjoyed taking pictures with her camera. Gray may have slept the most of anyone and has some car sickness, so dislikes the car more than anyone. Actually when Joshua began driving, with our car loaded down inside and out, there was a lot of swaying back and forth and all the kids thought they were going to be sick within the first half hour. Thankfully that subsided for most of the rest of the way and no one threw up...well, no one in our car threw up. (Poor Moores!)
Maybe the favorite car activity of the trip was finding license plates. We ended up with all but North Dakota and Hawaii and even found a couple of Canadian provinces. Guess some folks had a much longer drive than we did! There were whispers of excitement when we found plates that we didn't think the Moores saw in the Acadia parking lot, and shouts of victory when we found two of the really tough ones right in a row when we happened to turn around somewhere. We also entertained ourselves by listening to two books on cd. The first was set in Maine (Navigating Early) and was an adventure story of two boys on a quest for a long lost brother and a bear. The second (The Last Bear, or what Allie called "Raya and the Last Bear" after the recent Disney movie) was about a girl at an arctic post with her scientist dad who discovers a lost polar bear. It really helped keep the kid bickering to a minimum when it played during the last stretch of driving home, when we were all a bit at the end of our ropes with being in the car. We spent almost half of our 10 days in the car, which really isn't my fav anyway. Maybe we will be able to fly if we go far again.
Loaded down!!
Cousin switch..these two had lots of fun playing pretend games in the back. Allie was thrilled to have her carseat be moved to the back row for the first time.
We made it to Pennsylvania, near Scranton, where I had imagined we might get a sighting of something from The Office, which the boys were excited about, and we planned to let them swim in the pool as entertainment that evening. Neither of those things happened, but my dad and Jeannie and I walked over to Walmart and picked up a chicken and salad, which made a great little room dinner at the hotel. The kids played cards and we went to bed, up early the next morning for another long drive.
Our first big stop in Maine was near Portland at Fort Williams Park. We got our first taste of the beautiful rocky coastline and the kids were thrilled to be out of the car and playing on the beach. (All except Joshua, who stayed behind so as not to dirty his tennis shoes.)
Allie cannot get enough of digging in the sand like a little dog.
We next planned to eat on the Portland pier, but got our first taste of the crazy tourist crowds and impossible parking, so we had to can that plan and ending up stopping at a roadside lobster roll place, where we racked up a $130 bill (just my family of 6!) and got many of our first taste of lobster. I liked mine a lot but vowed that would be my last, due to the price. Gray got a ginormous amount of food, gobbled it down and wanted dessert, but later declared he didn't really like lobster.
At long last, we made it to our Airbnb in Brooksville. Julia even got a little fireworks show over the water as she rode up in Mimi and GrandGene's car. We settled into this very old and quirky house for the night and had a slower morning the next day. The rooms were kind of small here but there were many of them and the kids had a lot of fun, some making forts, some playing baseball in the yard with Gray's big stick he found on a hike and some small green apples, some getting into trouble with the owner by exploring places they weren't to go like the cellar. Julia fell in love with a little pug statue with a missing tail, which she named Wrinkles and carried around like a baby. At some point, everyone played a little Rook, but the kids and GrandGene did the most. One night there was a rook tournament that Sawyer and Joshua were thrilled to win. On rides down rolling hills in the area, they loved putting down the windows and closing their eyes to pretend to be on a roller coaster.
After lunch, we headed to nearby "Deer Isle" and drove down to Stonington where there was a beach called "Sand Beach" that was really a bunch of little rocks. The kids loved finding rocks and skipping rocks this day and throughout the rest of the Maine trip. It was beautiful on this island and we took some time just to play. There were rock skipping contests in which Joshua threw his halfway to England and mine landed at my feet. Fun times!
The water was freezing, but there was a large rock some distance off that Gray was determined to get to.
And he did. Eventually Sawyer joined him there and then Maddox and Julia wanted a turn. The tide was lower at that point and it wasn't easy to get on. Having watched Gray pull Sawyer up, Julia imagined Maddox (who is quite slim and 9) could boost her up. The adults on the shore were covered laughs as we watched little Maddie try to figure out how to help her up- where/what to grab. Hilarious. He made a valiant effort but was unsuccessful, so she got him up there and then, much to our dismay began pulling herself up by his legs. I don't know how she didn't pull him off, but somehow she made it up there, and then stayed for quite awhile after all that work!
We headed into Stonington and got ice cream afterwards.
Then went to another part of the island for a magical hike through what looked like the hobbits' Shire to get to a huge sandbar we could walk across at low tide to a an island. It was a great hike, unlike anywhere I'd been, and the views at the end were beautiful!
The kids loved hiking together and making up their own games...something about a species called the Wild Gray, which had its own rather loud noise.
View from the island looking across the sand bar to the forest where we came through.
Joshua refused a selfie, so we made a game of getting ones with him.
We went to bed a little early this night, for the next morning we had to leave at 6:15 to head to Acadia for our big park day! Our first stop was our parking reservation at the top of Cadillac Mountain. It was chilly and overcast, but still a gorgeous site.
The kids loved making "I'm falling off the mountain" pics.
Then we went on a very popular hike to Otter Point, while the crowds were still relatively low. there were many incredible places to stop and take in the view.
See why we call this the Moores' awkward family photo? :)
We stopped off at Thunder Hole, which was really cool and really did sound just like loud claps of thunder when the waves came through.
We made it to Otter Cliff, then had some confusion about where Otter Point was, partly because the Otter Point pic I had pulled up on my phone to use as a reference point was in Oregan. Oops.
Then we had a 2 mile hike back to the car. It was a lot for Allie's little legs and we were all pretty tired by that point and so thankful to sit down on Sand Beach (which was actually sandy this time) and eat our lunches. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip.
It had become super crowded by that point, so we opted to go up to Bar Harbor, get a treat, and head to the quieter side of the island. The one way roads make maneuvering around the island more challenging than we expected and Bar Harbor was so crazy crowded that there was nowhere we could park at all. So we skipped the treat and went around to Southwest Harbor, where we found parking right at a short trail to a rocky beach. We did more rock throwing and exploring. Allie had a bit of a meltdown at this point (though I think it was the only one she had the whole trip...she really was a trouper) when she got splashed- or maybe hit with a rock...conflicting info, but recovered quickly and enjoyed getting in the freezing water.
We ended up in downtown Southwest Harbor for dinner and found a lovely restaurant that was just opening. The hostess was baffled at our party of 12 and we were pleasantly surprised to be escorted outside and next door to our own private dining room. Probably a good thing since my kids had totally forgotten how to behave in a restaurant! Food was delicious and we had some laughs over Jeannie ordering the one and only lobster puff that they had that evening. The waitress had to stop mid-order and run claim it for her in the kitchen!
more Joshua selfies that evening:)
The next day, we opted to skip the Mount Desert Island crowds and go to the mainland part of Acadia. We began at a small museum/welcome center and did a hike from there to a beautiful spot where we could climb the rocks, find our own mini "Thunder Holes", watch the waves and take pictures.
Daddy found folks from Beaufort near where he grew up to chat with and take their picture. Somewhere in Acadia, we also found some NC State people and Joshua got quite a few "Go Hawks" for the Seahawks hat he was wearing. We saw Clemson people as well. I guess when you are with tons of people, you're bound to find some commonalities!
The warnings about slippery rocks and fatal waters didn't help me sleep too well the night before...and moments like these were a bit scary too!
The trail had several places we could go off and look around on the coast. Gray liked finding this happy rock there.
On our way back to the car, we spotted what I thought was a couple walking their dog in a field. Turns out they were observing a porcupine! He didn't get a bit flustered at our crowd checking him out.
I loved watching the group affection as they hiked back to the car. Then they made a game of trying to suddenly surround whoever wasn't yet in the group, which was pretty funny.
Our last scenic stop was Schoodic Point. It was the end of the day and just beautiful. This was definitely one of my favorite days partly because of the lack of crowds. We spent awhile here and then attempted to go to a souvenir shop that had closed and ended up getting ice cream, fries, and hot dogs for dinner.
There was a spot here where the water splashed against the rocks and 40 feet up in the air. So cool! Once I had turned my back to it and was talking to someone across the rocks when we got an exceptionally big splash that got me a bit wet and quite startled me! Thankfully I didn't slip and fall in. :)
We could see Cadillac Mountain across the way once it cleared up a bit.
We attempted a group selfie (or grelfie, as Gray says), by setting the self timer on my camera, but then someone volunteered to take it for us.
Joshua found this little pool on the edge where waves would come up and fill it. This was such an interesting place to explore.
Cotton candy ice cream for dinner?!
The next morning it was time to head to Boston...and it was Allie's birthday!! She was so excited and woke early. We let her open gifts and eat pop tarts, then we packed up and headed south.
We stopped at the big LL Bean flagship store.
Then went down to Kennebunkport where we parked, walked into town aways to do a little souvenir shopping, and got on a boat for the Rugosa Lobster tour we had booked. It was an overcast day and the water was a little choppy, but thankfully the fog had cleared and we were able to go way out to check traps and see the Walker compounds as we learned all about lobster life and heard stories about the Bushes. We were really tired this day, but it was a fun excursion.
Allie was thrilled to get to pick out "Moosey" from a shop, along with a few other gifts that we had thought we would get before her actual birthday but shopping plans didn't go so well in Maine.
They let the kids put bands on the lobsters and help throw them back in the ocean, as they are just tourism boats and can't keep them.
We went back into town after that, to finish up souvenir buying since this was our last stop in Maine. We had planned to eat dinner here, but crowds....
So we stopped in New Hampshire at a diner where Allie could get her desired birthday dinner of mac and cheese. She didn't get a birthday cake this year, like I had envisioned we could pick up at a bakery on one of our stops, but she was happy with her choice of dessert- a root beer float. This was definitely the most unusual kid birthday we've celebrated thus far.
We arrived at our airbnb in Maine late that night. It was super neat and modern with spacious rooms, but not a lot of them. Very different from the place we left. It took some time to get unpacked and find everyone beds. My family was all in the basement. Joshua took an air mattress behind a screen that led to steps and an outside door. It was like his own little room. Allie happily took the crib, which she fit perfectly. Julia ended up getting her own queen bed, which made her very happy, because Gray opted for a palette on the floor. Aside from Julia's heavy sniffing of her blanket, which she has always done when tired, it was a comfortable place to sleep and worked out well for the group. We went to sleep with thoughts of what adventures Boston might hold....
We walked home and went to bed. The next day was almost 12 hours of driving to get to our hotel in Maryland and then we made it back to Hillsborough on Sunday afternoon. What a trip we had! It was sad that it was over, but I think the long drive at the end help me adjust to the idea of going back home and after all the car bickering, I was sure happy to finally be there. Thanks to Mimi and GrandGene for treating us to food, hotels, and activities and for hanging in there on the long hikes! Thanks to everyone for being patient through the bumps in our plans. Very grateful to have had this experience!
