Monkey Lobster

Fall Photo Album

Fall seems to have come and gone. It's been warm, sunny and full of adventures.

Elsa has been playing soccer on a regional team this fall that has brought us all over New England. One of her games brought us to Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire, a large outdoor playground with hiking, biking, swimming and a maze of lakes and islands to explore. The campsites were wooded, well maintained and private. Many of them were right on the water with boat launches. Car camping is such a fun, easy, and inexpensive activity that makes all members of our family giddy. I plan to organize our camping gear so that we can pick up and go in a moments notice. We'll see where spring soccer takes us.

Just in case you can't figure out the costumes, they are Camptain America and Laura Ingalls.

not too far from home

We took a long weekend trip to the North Shore of Boston this past week. We were looking for some good sea kayaking and the Essex Bay caught out attention. We stayed in a hotel right outside of Gloucester, biked down to Good Harbor Beach, and expolored Gloucester a little bit too. 

But we really came to do this particular paddle.

We put in at the town dock in Essex and parked our car in the public lot right behind the fire station. We paddled up through the salt marshed and over to Choate Island which is only accesible by boat and has a trail from one site of the island to the other and the continued onto Crane Wildlife Refuge.

It is about an 8 hour trip or longer if we had stayed on the beach. We traveled in and out with the tide. The paddle would have been possible against the tide but much more challening, and although our kayaks were ideal, canoes would have made the trip as well. The salt marsh horse flys were pretty brutal but a long sleeved shirt and a hat covered in deet would made a big difference.

We returned to the town dock biten, sunburned, tired and stunned a the endless beauty we had just experience, and on the car ride back to the hotel we were scheming our return trip.

not too far from home

Enjoying the lazy pace of summer this year.

 

Grout Pond We will have to come back here to camp this summer. The dozen hike to or paddle to sites have fire pits and tables but feel like the winderness, and the sandy beach by the put-in is a nice place for little ones to swim.

Virginia

When your 4th grader can't stop talking about early American history, you pile into the car and head to Virginia for her spring break.

We started our trip in Chincoteague. An island on the coast, with miles of National Seashore, wild ponies, sandy beaches and roads and trails for biking. If you squint you can see some of the ponies in the background by the trees.

Then we continued on to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. Elsa was so excited to walk through the doors of the court house where Thomas Jefferson first practiced law, stroll the streets where Patrick Henry addressed the public, and lay her hands on the original bricks laid by the first settlers in Jamestown. Giddy she was, we were grateful to experience that level of excitement without having to hit the parks in Orlando. So seeing as we were driving right through D.C. on the way back home, we couldn't rob her of the full experience without letting her lay eyes on the Declaration of Independence. 

What made the trip most enjoyable for those of us not as excited about early American history as Elsa was, were the bike paths and scenic road that tied everything together. Traveling with a child with special needs can be tricky and in a lot of ways Cyrus is still really just a big toddler. Trying to get him to walk, follow the rules and not touch anything is a losing battle. He used to be a big back pack rider but at this point he has just grown out of it. So now the WeeHoo is our new best friend. He is so happy to be in it, I see our future trips and weekend adventures being planned around bike routes. Now if we can just get him to peddle forwards instead of backwards.

 

Camping in Maine

 

I had no idea Maine was so beautiful and I can't wait to go back. I've decided to archive our travels in as much detail as possible with a "Trips and Travel" category, so years from now we re-track our steps.

Our trip started in Portland where we walked around town and sat down for a cup of tea at Dobra Tea. The choices where overwhelming for a tea enthusiast like myself and I could not walk out without a few Pu-erh  nuggets to go.

After a rainy drink on the harbour we has a wonderful dinner at Local 188, full of tapas, cocktails, dinner choices, and a highchair.  It was a perfect place to go for drinks, snacks, desert and everything in between. We loved it so much we tried to go again on the drive back but couldn't get a reservation.

We camped at the Lamoine State Park Camp Ground site #16. It's a rustic car camping site, considered a "walk in", meaning that you park your car and walk about 30 feet to your tent site. It was lovely, wooded and private, and cost $14 per night. Some of the sites where right on the cove but I hear you have to book in Februrary to get a site for the summer.

We paddled right from the boat launch there and explored the coves and islands all day never getting more than an hours paddle away from our camp site and 20 minutes from shore in the event of a meltdown. We rented sea kayaks and got maps and advice from Acadia 1 just up the road and had the boats delivered to the boat launch.

We spent one day hoping on and off the Island Explorer Bus, a free shuttle in Acadia's National Park. It was comfy and convienient and will transport your bike as well. On the  drive out we drove through the campgrounds within the park (which were very nice) and learned that the shuttle bus goes to the campsites as well. I would be happy to stay at one of the campsites there and just spend the whole week discovering the park by bus or bike.

Since we'd come this far it only made sense to visit Scott and Hellen Nearing or at least their homestead. And the highlight of the trip for me............. meeting Eliot Coleman and walking around his farm, that he bought years ago from the Nearings. He and his wife Barbara Damrosch have been my gardening teachers and their knowledge and experience continues to assist me in my passion for growing food. It was so fun to see them going about their business and their gardens were as amazing as I had pictured them.

It was a wonderful, relaxing week and we were so glad to have my in-laws around to share it with.