New England Trip, Part One

Our good friends Joe and Kelly, and their kids Levi and Caleb, moved to Bangor, Maine last fall because Joe was accepted to the occupational therapy graduate school program. When they moved, I promised I'd find a way to visit them, so we scrounged together our airline miles and chose a week in April when Kelly would be on spring break (she works for the school district). I can't believe how fast the time went until we were on our way to New England!


SUNDAY, APRIL 15th:


Our flight to Boston was scheduled to leave D/FW at 9:50, but due to rain (and American Airlines’ crew shortage, I’m pretty sure), it was delayed until 11:45. Of course, that didn’t happen until we were at the airport and just waiting… and waiting… Finally, we took off; Noah was excited but began to get nervous as we climbed up into the air. He looked at me with wide eyes and said, “We’re getting really high!” After some reassurance, he was just fine. He was the perfect little airline passenger—played quietly, colored, watched a movie, etc. No restlessness or noisiness. He didn’t even have to get up except that I made him come to the bathroom with me. When we landed, he was so excited, thinking he’d see his friends Caleb and Levi immediately. In fact, he told the man sitting behind him that he was seeing “Cay-web and Wee-vi” in Maine. Unfortunately, Noah had to wait another four hours or so because the drive back to Bangor took a while. (Thanks, Joe, for picking us up!) We arrived and caught up a bit with Joe and Kelly before crashing in bed.


MONDAY, APRIL 16th:


On Monday we woke up early, packed lunches and headed to Acadia National Park. It’s on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine and is HUGE—not enough time to see it all, I’m afraid. 

Still, we had gorgeous weather (high 70s) and were able to drive the Park Loop Road and walk down to the Sand Beach (would be amazing in summer but was still beautiful) and take a hiking trail, the Ocean Path. 

Sand Beach

Noah and Levi running from the waves

Our family on Sand Beach

Kelly and her boys, plus Noah the photobomber

Checking the map before hiking the Ocean Path

Caleb, Noah and Levi

Rocky shores and beautiful views

Down by Thunder Hole

Thunder Hole, where water roars in and crashes back out

Our goal was to continue on to the Gorham Mountain hiking trail, but we started it with the kids and realized it would be too difficult to traverse with a 2-year-old, 3-year-old and 5-year-old. Unfortunately, it was the quickest way back to the car, so Chris offered to continue the trail while Kelly and I and the boys waited at the trail head. We entertained ourselves with games of tag and hide-and-seek while Chris booked it along the trail, which turned out to be quite steep, rocky, and much too difficult for our demographic. We were glad we made the call early on! 

Before leaving Acadia, we drove up Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the U.S. Atlantic Coast. 

The view from the top of Cadillac Mountain

We drove on back to Bangor where Joe, after being in classes all day, grilled us fajita meat and cooked up some taco meat for a delicious dinner. We got the boys in bed early and enjoyed talking and watching the Rangers beat the Red Sox (on TV) 18-3.


To Be Continued...

Maine and Boston