We spent a few days at Cobscook State Park in Maine. One day, we crossed into Canada to explore Campobello Island, where FDR spent his summers. We went on the walking tour and saw where FDR’s childhood summer home used to be (It was torn down), and his 34 room “cottage” that he spent his summers at as an adult. Then, we went hiking. The trail was extremely wet, and most of the trail was slogging through mud. Still, the trail ran along the cliffs above the ocean, and the views were spectacular. Unfortunately, part of the trail was inland, and it was a buggy nightmare. When we got back to the car, we spent a little time at the rocky beach before starting to drive back.

Another day we explored Qouddy Head State Park. After seeing the light house, we set off on a trail that was even muddier than the one at Campobello. Once, my shoe got stuck in the mud and came off! After we finished hiking the muddy trail, we chilled and climbed at the beach. While Ma and Pa relaxed in the sun, I was climbing the cliffs behind the beach, and Little Kid went on a quest to get water from the highest point he could, completely ignoring the ocean and the little pool at the base of the stream. Instead, he climbed up the slippery rocks next to the stream as high as he could go, and filled up his milk jug there. Then, he would start crying “will you help me get down?”and I would come up and carry him down.

We spent a week in Acadia National park, Maine. Almost every day we hiked one of the many trails in the park. One day we did a huge loop through our side of the park, starting with a two mile hike to the sandy beach. We had an awesome picnic on the beach, and I dipped in the freezing ocean before Ma and I went to hike the beehive trail. Our hike on the beehive trail involved climbing up iron rungs and walking on ledges. The Lonely Planet book described it as “clinging to iron rings bolted to the cliff face.” I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the trail was very crazy. Ma thought she was going to die! The boys met us on the other side, and we all hiked down to a pond called the Bowl. The water was a lot warmer than the ocean, but we were told there were leeches so I didn’t swim.

While we were in Acadia, we celebrated Little Kid’s fourth birthday. There were awesome presents, a lot of chocolate milk in the giant birthday cup, and cupcakes. Little Kid ate four cupcakes! Sugar buzz!

We spent a day exploring the Bubble Mountain area. First, we hiked up to Balance Rock, a huge rock balanced on the edge of a cliff. It really looked like it was going to fall! Then, we hiked down a crazy rocky trail to Jordan Pond. We hiked the pretty trail around the lake before hiking back to the car.

Since there was a trail from the campground up Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain on the island, we decided to climb the 1500 foot mountain. The eight mile hike was awesome, especially after we got above the tree line. We ate lunch on a huge section of open rock before we headed to the summit. The summit was very crowded because there was a road up, but the views were amazing.

On our last day, we explored the tide pools at Wonderland, which really was a wonderland. I found a kind of seaweed that came in long strips without the fruit things. I named it sea leather, and soon I was making belts, bracelets, and anklets from it. Ma also spotted a dolphin, which we watched for awhile, and I found some cool shells.

After a picnic lunch, we went to the swimming pond, Echo Lake. I had an awesome time swimming and fighting water wars with other kids while Little Kid dug holes with some boys. Even Ma jumped in and swam!

We spent a few days in Portland, Maine, to see Ma’s cousin, Cheryl. Our first night we had some very delicious whoopie pies. Yummy! Did you know that whoopie pies were named because Amish farmers would yell “whoopie!” when they found them in their lunch pails?

One day, we had an awesome lunch downtown before heading to the beach. The beach was really fun. It was low tide, so I went wandering around the mud flats. I also tried to swim a bit, but the tide was so low it was more like crawling on the bottom.

The next day, we went sailing with Cheryl on her boat. It was so much fun! I helped tighten the jib, and I even took the helm for awhile. It kind of felt natural steering the boat. I also spent a lot of time at the front of the boat. I really liked being in the strong wind, even though I got pretty cold. It also felt really good trailing my feet in the water. Now, I am trying to convince Ma and Pa that our next adventure should be living on a sailboat.

On our last night, we went to the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport. We spent a long time wandering around the store, but we didn’t buy anything.

We spent about five days in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. While we were there, Ma made us go to Robert Frost’s house in the pouring rain. We did the poetry trail, walking through the woods in the rain, with ticks and mosquitos, reading Robert Frost’s poems. Ma loved it, but Pa, Little Kid and I were wishing we hadn’t taken the road less traveled.

We spent one day hanging out at the swimming pond in the campground. On a bridge, there was a platform to jump off of, and I jumped into the fifty-two degree water at least ten times. It was really refreshing, in an ice cold way. Little Kid didn’t swim, but he waded in up to his waist.

It would have been crazy to camp right near the highest mountain on the east coast and not go to it, so one day we went to Mt. Washington. Little Kid walked one and a half miles of our six mile hike. We had a picnic lunch at Hermit Lake, a bunch of shelters for hikers and skiers, before continuing down the trail. We had only gone .7 miles past Hermit Lake on a very steep trail before we were stopped by snow. The views were incredible!

We spent a week in Vermont, right on Lake Champlain. It was awesome! Every time we went down to the lake, I practiced skipping rocks, and by the time we left my record skip was six or seven. But one day I got tired of skipping rocks, and I decided to go swimming in the fifty-three degree water. I actually did a complete dunk, and I swam a few feet. Then I ran back to shore, freezing, but after a few minutes I was back in the water. When I came out of the water, Little Kid was getting frisbee throwing lessons from some college boys.

When I was playing outside one day, I saw a bird go into a stump near the RV.  Later, I looked in the hole and saw a two or three tiny baby birds that didn’t even have feathers yet!  It was so cool!

While we were in Vermont, we went to see a granite quarry to learn about how they mine the granite. First, they choose a large section they want to pull out and drill holes on the bottom and sides. They separate the sides with wedges, and then they fill the bottom holes with dynamite. It literally lifts the whole section of rock! We didn’t get to see any dynamite being exploded, but we did get to see some granite being lifted out. We went to the outdoor granite bowling alley, where they have to have rubber bowling balls because the granite is so hard that bowling balls just crack. I won! We also toured the factory, where they make tombstones. On our way back to the campground, we drove by the capital building in Montpelier which is made from the quarry’s granite.

One day, we went into Burlington. We spent the morning walking around the pedestrian mall, which was really fun. I got a flint so I could try to make a fire without matches. Also, we went to Bernie Sanders’ office, which Ma and Pa were really excited about.

One thing we did in Vermont was see the castles. Castles in Vermont? Well, they were two feet tall, and made of pebbles… but they still were cool! Ma had found a fun geocaching thing, so we went to every castle counting planters and red roofs. Then, I did some math to find the rest of the gps coordinates, and we headed down a trail towards the cache. When it looked like we were near the cache, Ma and I ran off into the woods, digging and lifting logs. We must have walked over the cache almost ten times before Pa, who was going a little slower, said, “um, it is right here.” Little Kid got a weird cow thing, and I got a pretty little bag from the cache. On the way back, we stopped to see a house surrounded by a forest with 400 brightly colored birdhouses. The person who lived there built the birdhouses for swallows, who eat mosquitos, and he kept adding more until he could sit outside without being bit by mosquitoes.