Family Vacation to Acadia National Park, June and July 2009

Once again we returned to Acadia National Park in Maine. This is one of our favorite family vacation spots. Unlike in 2007, Heather and Bradford were also able to come. So, we had all six of us. I'm sure that Stanford would have loved to come too if he were still with us.

The three or four weeks leading up to the trip were a endless parade of rainy overcast days. The Friday we packed was the first sunny day in many days. The ten day forcast for the Bar Harbor area was not encouraging.

We stopped in Freeport, Maine, on the way up to do a little shopping at LL Bean. We were hoping to get some winter boots, but they don't start stocking that until late summer. Heather had given me a coupon for a new belt for Father's Day, so I was able to cash that in at LL Bean.

We pulled into Blackwoods campground in Acadia National Park at about 7 pm. That only gave us about an hour to set things up. With the weather being so rainy, setting up the tarp over the tents was of prime importance. We were able to get that set up and then the tents underneath. The next day I set up we setup another big tarp and put the table under that. It rained and drizzled a lot until Tuesday, June 30th. That day promised good weather and we took advantage of it by loading the bikes onto the vehicles and heading over to the carriage roads. That was a fun family time going around Eagle Lake and up to Witch Hole. We then loaded all the bikes back on the vehicles and the boys headed over to Cadillac Mountain. The boys road up the 3.2 miles to an elevation of 1530 feet. Cadillac Mountain is the tallest seacoast mountain north of Brazil. John was able to do the trip once again, but his time was 38 minutes 40 seconds, about 4 minutes slower than previous years.

We have always enjoyed going to the Asticou Gardens at the southern end of Mount Desert Island. We went there on Sunday, June 28th, in the misty rain. Joyce and the girls went there again on July 1st while John and the boys rented road bikes and rode 27 miles around the park loop road. Phil and Bradford road up Cadillac Mountain for a second time. John started up and got about one mile up the road before he couldn't go anymore. The road bike was simply geared to high. John rode to the car and then drove the car up the mountain to meet Phil at the top. Bradford came up quite a bit later than we expected. He was so exhausted from the previous day and riding the whole park loop road that he had to take several breaks riding up. While the boys did their bike riding, Joyce and the girls went to "Lilac Lilly", a yarn shop in Southwest Harbor. They also went on the seaside path along the coast of the Town of Bar Harbor.

We have always enjoyed a round of mini golf at Pirate's Cove. This year was no different. John and Brad tied for first. We had two free game tokens from previous years that we used. It turned out that we got two more free tokens when we checked out because we had several hole-in-ones and got lucky when they spun the wheel.

We drove around the park loop road on July 2nd. It was a damper day. We stopped at Sand Beach and Thunder Hole. We then made our way over to Jordan Pond for popovers.

We packed up as much stuff as we could Thursday, July 2nd. During the night it rained heavily and there were very LOUD thunder bolts. The next morning we finished packing up all the wet stuff and made our way into Bar Harbor for breakfast on Cottage Street. Wouldn't you know it? While we were enjoying blueberry pancakes, a Bar Harbor cop decided that my van was taking up too much room and gave me a double parking ticket. That was such a nice way to end the trip.

The drive home went well. We made it in good time and the weather was pretty dry. We had enough time when we got home to set everything up to dry out. John is a member of the Merrimack Community Concert Band. They always have a concert the evening of July 3rd. John got there in time and played Stanford's alto saxophone like he has the last couple of years.

This year was different than other years. Bradford, Phillip, and Heather all brought their digital cameras along. John took fewer pictures. All the pictures taken by everyone are combined in the links below. Bradford's pictures all have file names like 0041-001-6820.jpg. Phillip's pictures have names like DSCN0317.jpg. Heather's pictures have names like IMG_0692.JPG and are all numbered less than 1000. John's picture names are the same as Heather's, but they are in they 8200 range.

2009_06_26_-_Packing_for_the_trip
2009_06_27_-_Blackwoods_Campsite
2009_06_28_-_Asticou_Garden
2009_06_28_-_Blackwoods_Campsite
2009_06_29_-_Jordans_Restaurant
2009_06_29_-_Blackwoods_Campsite
2009_06_30_-_Biking_the_Carriage_Roads
2009_06_30_-_Cadillac_Mountain
2009_07_01_-_Asticou_Garden
2009_07_01_-_Lilac_Lilly-Southwest_Harbor
2009_07_01_-_Seaside_Path-Bar_Harbor
2009_07_01_-_Mini_golf_at_Pirates_Cove
2009_07_02_-_Sand_Beach
2009_07_02_-_Thunder_Hole
2009_07_02_-_Jordan_Pond_Popovers