Road Trippin: Bath & Portland, Boston, Providence

We left the scenic mountains of Maine and drove to Bath, Maine which was about 2.5 hours away. We had wanted to stay in Portland, but wowsers was it expensive! Bath was a slightly shorter drive anyway and let us get in early enough where we could spend some time at the indoor pool. That evening we found a cute restaurant/pub and ordered... more lobster!

The next morning we left the hotel and made an unscheduled pit stop at the L.L. Bean factory store in Freeport. All that money we saved by staying in Bath just got redirected towards more clothes and gear...

We drove to Portland and walked around for a bit. We had lunch at a really cute restaurant situated on the water. Lobster please!

Actual pieces of the Berlin Wall

The restaurant we ate in

We continued on our trip to Boston. On the way we stopped at a playground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to let the girls play and get some energy out.

We drove another hour and arrived in Boston at our hotel, which was right on the water and in the middle of the Freedom Trail which worked out really nicely for us the next day. We took the girls right to the indoor pool and ordered food to be delivered since everyone was tired.

Fireworks every Thursday night!

The next morning we crossed the bridge and had J lead us on the Freedom Trail. We put her in charge of telling us where we needed to go so that kept her pretty entertained on our walk! We had an end goal of getting to the aquarium right when it opened. The girls loved looking at all of the sea creatures and it gave us enough of a break from being in the summer heat.

Afterward, we found our way to Quincy Market to look for some grub to bring back for lunch. At this point J was tired of walking so we switched M to the carrier and put J in the stroller. We went back to the hotel for some much needed rest/nap time and lunch.

Crossing the bridge looking at Bunker Hill Monument. Our hotel is on the left.

After a nice rest we continued on the Freedom Trail right outside our hotel to the USS Constitution. It is the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy and is very well maintained. We were able to look at the cannons, go down into the sailors' quarters (through very tight and narrow stairways), and get an idea of what life must have been like on the ship.

Lastly, we followed the trail to the Bunker Hill Monument. The monument was erected to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill which was one of the first major battles between the British and Patriots in the Revolutionary War. In order to get to the top one must climb 294 stairs, which we weren't going to do (Jon and I had both done it in the past), but then J said she really really wanted to climb to the top. Jon went up with her just in case she had to be carried, but she ended up sprinting up without stopping, totally putting to shame everyone that was taking rests.

We stopped for a well deserved ice cream on our way back to the hotel and then we played in the pool for a little bit. What an amazing day we had!

The next day we broke up our drive home into two separate parts. My cousin Mara and her husband live just outside of Providence so we visited them and went to their local farmers market to get some food and hang out.

We left around M's nap time and completed a big chunk of our driving at once. We stopped in Greenwich, CT at an amazing playground I had found out about online. Seriously, this playground was awesome.. I wish we had something like that close to us! From there it was only an hour to get home.

This week-long road trip was great and we all had such a good time. Where to next?!

Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Part III

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed to another hike that was touted as being good for families with amazing views - Bubble Rock. Bubble Rock is so named because of the 14 ton rock that sits precariously on a high ledge. It was deposited by a glacier about 15,000 years ago and looks like it could topple over at any moment (but is actually pretty set in place). This hike was about one mile roundtrip.

We had so much fun climbing up to Bubble Rock. Once up there it was a little dangerous in terms of the edge and little ones so we (mainly me and Julia!) kept our distance from the rock. The views were spectacular and I'm so glad we chose this hike!

After the hike we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain. Cadillac is the highest point on the east coast in the U.S. (1,530 feet) and is the first place to see the sunrise in the U.S. between September and March. You can hike up to the summit or you can drive. The views from the top are stunning and the mountain peak gives a panoramic view of the entire area. It was so cool to see Bar Harbor and the low tide hike we did the other day (now covered with water) from so high up. J was impressed!

We packed ourselves back into the car and headed down the mountain. Our time in the Bar Harbor area was done and we needed to move onto the rest of our trip. We could have used another day here... there were definitely things we didn't get to like the carriage roads or walking along Jordan Pond (even if we did see it from above). We'll just have to come back!

Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine, Part II

After breakfast the next morning at Jordan's, we headed to the Gorham Mountain Trail to do our first real hike of the trip. We got here early since we were already up and it can get really crowded throughout the day with limited parking. This hike was described as being great for families with young children, as well as offering the best views of any moderate hike in the park.

Before we even left the parking lot J fell and cut her knee on a rock. Not a good start! Of course we had no bandaids (note for next time!) so we improvised and used a tissue with our luggage tag attached to it. She wasn't too happy, but luckily we ran into someone who had an extra bandaid for us.

We loved this hike... J is very much into climbing rocks and it keeps her entertained the entire time. This hike provided that and it was fun for all! M loved riding in the hiking harness and J felt like a badass climbing. The hike was 1.8 miles roundtrip and 525 feet to the summit.

Instead of turning around and going back to the car we decided to go down the other way and end up a little down the Park Loop Road where we could then walk along the water and see things such as Sand Beach (which we saw from above) and Thunder Hole.  Thunder Hole gets its name from the supposedly loud booming sound it makes when the waves crash into it at just the right spot. 

After walking for quite a bit we started to lose J so we decided not to go down to Sand Beach and only visit Thunder Hole for a few minutes since we were already passing it (which was fine because it was crowded at that point and apparently most of the time there is no loud boom from the waves, more like sloshing). After hiking and walking a total of 3.2 miles, we were all done! We went back to the house for some lunch and much deserved rest time.

Later on we went into Bar Harbor and had some lobster dinner and much needed drinks for the adults!