Monday in Acadia

After a good night's sleep we all woke up to a beautiful new day! I loved waking up in the woods, smelling the trees and hearing the nearby ocean waves.

Another thing I loved was the beautiful scenery. This is one of the little walkways next to our camp. So peaceful and beautiful.

Once everyone was awake we got to work making a pancake breakfast. The boys were very excited to help. While Chad got the camp stove working, I started the pancake mix and the boys got out the plates and utensils. Chad was our master chef and he cooked up some mean pancakes! The boys gobbled the pancakes up so fast that we had to supplement their appetites with some cereal. It is amazing what camping does to a young boys appetite!

After breakfast everyone was given a job. A couple of the boys were in charge of filling up and emptying out the kitchen sink (or so it's called!), another one was in charge of washing the dishes, while a couple of others had drying duty. Ahh, the joys of having lots of kids!! The boys did a great job and were a wonderful help.

After breakfast was cleaned up and straightened our campsite and then set off to explore. Those of you who know Chad will not be surprised that everything at our campsite had a place and was neatly organized. I love my husband!

Just outside of the campground was the ocean's edge, so our first stop of the day was checking out the tide pools.

As you may notice, it was a bit overcast, but we didn't mind. We did have to remind the boys to walk carefully because there was a lot of seaweed on the rocks, especially as you got closer to the water.

We spent a while down by the water. Chad took the three older boys down through the slippery rocks to the waters edge to see what neat things they could find. They found mussels, a crab, sea lettuce, rockweed, barnacles and periwinkle shells.

While they were exploring, Devon, Austin and I hung out on the dry rocks.

While we were sitting down enjoying the view, Devon began making faces at me. He likes to make funny faces and then have me take a picture of him. So, of course, I took his picture.

I love what transpired next. Devon sat down next to Austin and began teaching him how to make silly faces! It was such a fun moment. Devon often teaches Austin new things and I don't usually have the camera handy, so I'm glad I was able to capture this moment!

As Devon and Austin were practicing their silly faces, Trevor came over and wanted to join in. He had some pretty good faces to share as well.

While we waited for Chad, Tanner and Kaden to return I enjoyed watching Trevor, Devon and Austin interact. At one point Trevor and Devon sat on a rock together and had a little conversation. I wish I could have been a little fly on the rock, so I could have heard what they were saying. They were having a good time and I enjoyed watching them. This was one of several times on our trip that I was filled with such love and gratitude for my wonderful family. Sometimes the Lord blesses us with little glimpses of what heaven is going to be like - there's no other feeling like it!

What a wonderful way to spend the morning!

After the tide pools we visited the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. This was one of the sites I wanted to visit. I have always wanted to visit a lighthouse. This lighthouse dates back to the 19th century and it is a little different than the traditional lighthouses I have seen in pictures. What makes it different is that it is built into the side of the cliff.

The entrance to the main house sits at the level of the parking lot. You have to take a path down the hill to get a good view of the lighthouse. The only problem is there isn't very much space to walk around. There is a little landing, a small patch of grass and a bell.

Even though it was a little different than I expected I still enjoyed visiting the lighthouse. I love the idea of lighthouses, warning us of danger. The light shining through the darkness. It reminds me of the Savior, He is the light of the world and He is always watching out for us.

After visiting the lighthouse we piled back in the car and headed for the other side of the park. One of the interesting things about Acadia National Park is that it is split into parts. Many of the other parks we have visited encompass all the area inside specific boundaries. As you drive around Acadia you can go in and out of the park while driving down the road a couple miles. This is because the area was once owned by wealthy land owners. Several of them wanted to preserve the land so they bought up as much land as they could and donated it to the United States. Other private owners did not feel the same way, so the park today skirts around those private pieces of property.

The park has a beautiful loop drive that takes you around the biggest portion of the park. It is a beautiful drive. It starts off along the coast and then it turns inland to take you past beautiful lakes, mountains, and trees.

One of the many towns you can drive through while visiting Acadia is Bar Harbor. It is the biggest town on Mt. Desert Island and it caters to many visitors. It is located on the Atlantic coast, so not only does it see Acadia visitors, but it also hosts visitors from cruise ships. Chad and I loved the quaintness of this little town. We found the people to be very friendly and kind.

As we drove through Bar Harbor we noticed that there were many ice cream shops. We love ice cream, so we made it our mission to find the best ice cream place in Bar Harbor. Throughout the week we tried them all. On this day we tried our first one, CJ's Big Dipper. It was soooo yummy!

The day was a little hot so an ice cream treat was perfect (except it melts fast). We got our treats and went across the street to enjoy them. The only problem was they were melting faster than we could eat them. One thing Maine is known for is blueberries, so when I saw that they had blueberry ice cream I had to try some. I topped it off with Butterfinger (a personal favorite)! Oh, wow! It was delicious. I loved the blueberry (a new favorite!!).

There are two campgrounds in Acadia, Seawall and Blackwoods. The one we set up camp in (Seawall) was far away from the biggest part of Acadia. It took us half an hour to drive from our campsite to the main section of Acadia. We knew this before we arrived, but the other campground didn't have any availability because of Labor Day weekend. We were told, however, that many people were checking out Monday morning, so we decided to check out the other campground. We drove around and found the perfect campsite. It had a big clearing, was set back from the road and it had rocks (the boys requirement). We went over to the Ranger station right away and reserved the spot for the rest of the week.

We quickly set off to get our stuff from the other campground and race back to set up our new camp before dark. Our plan was simple, quickly take stuff down and stuff it in the car (no matter who or what it covered up)! We did just that. The boys had sleeping bags and backpacks all over them and I got to hold the tent on my lap. It was pretty comical. Everyone did great, no one complained. When we got to our new campsite everyone worked quickly and we were able to get everything set up before dark!

While the boys finished setting up, I started preparing our foil dinner. I cut up the vegetables and combined it with the meat and it was ready for the fire. There was a ton of food inside the foil, but Chad assured me that they would eat it all. He wasn't lying, they devoured everything!

By the time we finished dinner it was getting late, but we weren't about to go to bed. Not yet, we had to have a camping favorite - S'MORES!!! We love them. We each loaded our marshmallows on the roaster and held it out over the fire. We all cook ours differently. Chad's is very patient and his always come out perfectly golden brown, while Tanner likes to set his marshmallow on fire. Kaden and Trevor like a little bit of both. I like mine to be golden brown. Devon just wants to get it cooked so he can eat his s'more and Austin wants to skip the marshmallow and go straight for the graham cracker! Whichever way we cook them, they always taste great. It is a fun way to end the day.