littlesoul: vaca

Thursday, en route to St. Jay, made the stop to our favorite Montreal patisserie! Thank God for Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes, Brave, travel books and most of all, Harry Potter on audio. All in all a pretty great road trip!

Happy Birthday to Grandpa! So good to see and visit with Amanda and Vanessa's families (thanks all!). Sophie adores Anya and Sabers-cat. At the end of Friday Sophie sighed and said "This was a satisfying day." We couldn't agree more.

So good to visit with Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma, sorry to have missed you Tom and Chen! We love the walk around your mountain!

Made it to the LL Bean mecca Freeport, Maine. Good food, good company, big boot!

Sophie peeks over the edge of her "boat loft". We made it to Mount Desert Island!!! One of the first gifts from our Creator was a perfect spider's web. It never fails to amaze.

Sunday, started off at Acadia NP ranger station. Learned the rules about cairns and boogied out of there - too crowded!

Sunday am hiked from Sand Beach to Otter Cliffs. Made the requisite stop at Thunder Hole. It wasn't thundering, but the hike and views overwhelmed us with their beauty. Once we got past Thunder Hole we had the trail to ourselves and it took our breath away. Sophie walked and walked for hours.

Finished up at Sand Beach. Sophie chased the waves with a host of other girls, smiling and screaming nonstop. Soaked in the sun and sounds.

Went out for dinner and then back to Otter Point for tide pooling. So excited to see a star fish. Little did we know that later in the week there would be more star fish than we knew what to do with!

Finished up with dessert, another wee walk and blueberries at Jordan Pond House.

At the end of the day Sophs exclaimed "Isn't Acadia wonderful?!"

Our little abode was so much more than we had hoped for. So grateful.

Every morning spent analyzing the tide out the bedroom window.

Day 2, back to Jordan Pond were Sophie skipped along for hours. Rock hopping, climbing, walking, amd a few spills on the two board bridges; beaver homes, scores of frogs still working out their tails, itty bitty hikers up in the mountains, mushroom eating squirrels (?).

She couldn't be stopped. What joy. What a joy.

Waiting for tea, Jordan Pond House style. Reservations two days in advance, or else!

Then on to Echo Lake. In another state, she's not fond of fish. She spotted the fish in this lake, buried her head and motored around in pursuit - here fishy, fishy!!

Hit Little Notch Bakery then back on to Wonderland Trail for end of the day hike. A magical path, the colors, smells, sounds, and space. Still don't know what birds we heard, but they literally sounded unreal. Can't find the right words to describe, but thankful for the pics that bring it all back.

Day 3: Hiked Roosevelt family's carriage trails, the only ones that don't allow bikes. Sophie trooped on for four hours! We felt it, and it felt good. :o) More road tripping through some of the smaller towns then on to Ship Harbor Trail. So many beautiful places.

Thank you, caretakers of Friends Path. What a gift.

Joy.

We played a mean plastic sword fight.

If we posted all the photos of Sophie striking a pose, pointing at things it would be ridikulus. Sophie, darling, this is me, getting even.

Day 4: Boat ride, seals, harbor porpoises, auchs, Long Island, small town deli. Small town. And more giggling seagulls than we know what to do with. Sophie is pretty sure we met Buddy's relatives from last year's vaca in the UP. History of lobstering in a nutshell: you are either born into it or married into it. And don't even think about a divorce or they will cut all your floats.

We love seals. Sweet little pups.

Dad Bennick, I'm pretty sure you'd want to play cribbage with this guy. Almost as cool as you are. ;)

He was quite the story teller.

Back to Bar Harbor to do the tourist thing and eat ice cream. We had ice cream at four different shops and no complaints. Dreamy creamy. Back to our little cottage for a stone skipping competition awarded by Sophie's whistles.

Day 5: Um, tag along didn't happen. Biked to Witch Hole Pond, down and around Eagle Lake and back into Bar Harbor. It was so pretty there were tears. A hard thing to do, biking with tears. Tried to enjoy Bar Harbor, but it was so busy we escaped to Cadillac Mountain for a hike that turned out to be great, but a little bit more than we bargained for! Back home to eat lobster shack take away and set up Sophie Sea Shell Shoppe and skip stones. Finished Beyond the Paw Paw Trees, recommended for 7 year old girls everywhere!

Day 6 MDI: After a rockstar breakfast at 2 Cats, on to hike the low tide causeway to Bar Island. STAR FISH. Crowded. Escape to Sand Beach one more time - God bless the ocean, the rolling fog blankets, sparkling sunshine and waves. Finished out at some fancypants restaurant and then on to the annual Maine Crafts Guild - blew us away. Have never seen workmanship like that, and they clearly made livings off from it.

Full tide at our little cottage.

On to Quebec City: history, architecture, shoppes, shoppes, shoppes, food from everywhere, languages from everywhere. Dreamland. Next time do relaxing vacation part last. :)