It was another early morning, but not as early as we had been getting up (5:45am) which meant we got a good start on the road.
Our original plan was to drive as far as St John’s, NB and then camp for the night. Dave had other ideas though once we got on the road. We took Route 1A up to the Maine/ New Brunswick border and enjoyed some of the sites along the way.
From the border we then headed to the main highway since Dave wanted to get to his parents that night instead of the following day. On the way we did take one detour to St Andrews By the Sea to enjoy our picnic lunch by the water and wander the main street. This is a really cute town and they have a great art shop where we picked up some pottery to take to my mother-in-law.
Then it was back to the main highway to reach our destination. This was our daughters first time meeting Dave’s parents and we arrived just after dinner.
To read about what we got up to on the other days of our trip check out the below links:
Early morning trend continued on day 7 with our daughter waking up at 4:45am. Since it was nice and early and the weather forecast for the morning was good it seemed like the perfect day to hike up Cadillac Mountain. We headed out of the campground around 6:15 once we had woken up enough, brushed our teeth and made some peanut butter sandwiches for the hike. We hiked the Cadillac Mountain South Ridge Trail leaving from Blackwoods campground. The trail is fairly flat and moderate from the campground to the main trail head and involves crossing the main island road. There are some boards you need to walk across in the swampy areas as well.
Once you hit the main trail head the climb begins. The South Ridge Trail is the easiest of the trails leading up Cadillac Mountain but the trail could be challenging at times, especially with a little one on my back. It is recommended to hike up the mountain to be at the top for either sunrise or sunset. After hiking this trail in the light, I would definitely not want to hike this in the dark. They were working on the trail in a number of spots when we were hiking up to help preserve and protect the surrounding landscape. There are some fantastic views along the way. At the right time of year there are also a great deal of blueberries lining the trail so you could have a nice snack. Our daughter napped in the carrier for a large portion of the upwards climb.
Once we reached the summit we enjoyed a bit of a snack and a break before hiking back down. Many people will hike one way and take the Island shuttle back down. Nearing the final stretch is where you can meet the biggest challenge. It is rocky and a bit of climbing is involved. You reach this portion after hiking down a bit where there is a pond. The views are definitely something else once you are up at the summit.
As we started the decent back down Tessa had a run in with a porcupine. She would not let us remove the quills while on the trail so she had to hike back to the campground with them in her mouth and nose. We were back at the campground by 11:00 am, so Dave headed into Bar Harbor to take Tessa to the vets while our daughter and I made and had some lunch and relaxed a little. The vet told Dave that they have dogs in there at least a couple times a week who have had a run in with the porcupine on Cadillac Mountain.
After lunch we headed out of the park to grab a shower and get cleaned up. There is a private operation offering paid showers just outside of the campground located on the main road. It is $2 for 4 minutes since there are no showers within the campground.
Once cleaned up we headed back into Bar Harbor to pick up a few items, check emails and then pick up Tessa from the vets. Since Tessa was in no state to walk (she had to be put under to have the quills removed), we took a drive down to Bass Harbor to see the lighthouse.
The drive was nice and it was a great way to spend part of the rainy afternoon. Once we reached the lighthouse the sun decided to come back out.
After a little drive around Bass Harbor we continued on to Southwest Harbor to grab some dinner before heading back to camp. We decided to order take-out from a little place on the main street. Once I had ordered dinner I headed next door to check out Hatched On MDI. This is a gorgeous children’s shop carrying clothing, toys, etc that are not your run of the mill. She carries lots of the brands that I like for our daughter which are more unique and the woman who owns the store was a great help in choosing some outfits to take home with us. Once my shopping was done dinner was ready and we were back on the road.
We decided we would take our dinner to a freshwater beach we had passed on the way down. Paige was enjoying watching a family play frisbee on the grass while we ate. Then we let our daughter wade in the water and play in the sand.
We had trouble getting her out of the water to head back to camp. Once back at camp it was time for our daughter to head to bed and then we got ourselves organized and partially packed for the trip the following day.
To see what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
Up with the sunrise to greet the day (approximately 5:00 am). Since quiet hours at Blackwoods campground are until 8:00 am. We headed out of the site by 6:00 am, with Peanut Butter sandwiches in hand, so we didn’t disturb too many campers with our daughter talking up a storm. She was really taking to the camping thing by this point.
We headed out for a drive on part of the park loop on our way to Sandy Beach to hike part of the Ocean Path. It was the hi-lited trail of the week so we figured it must be worth checking out. It was so nice and quiet on the drive and we were able to enjoy some great views while we watched the sun coming up more.
Sandy Beach has large washroom facilities and change rooms which made us wonder if this beach gets pretty packed on a hot summer’s day. It was quite cool when we headed out so we were dressed in our sweats and hoods were up. There is a very nice beach down a set of stairs here which dogs are not allowed on. It was so peaceful standing at the top watching and listening to the waves crashing into the pink granite cliffs.
The ocean path is a relatively flat gravel path that follows the road for a portion of it. There are some stairs on trails leading from this path to lookouts along the way. You could probably do this path with a stroller as long as it was one meant for “off-road”. We decided to hike as far as Thunder Hole which is a 2.8 mi hike return. We were the only ones on the trail going out to Thunder Hole so it was so nice and peaceful. We reached Thunder Hole shortly after low tide and it was putting on an impressive show. Our daughter was a little uncertain of it when we neared the hole, so I mostly stayed up top while Dave and Tessa spent some time right down there watching the waves and the spray.
After our short hike we ventured into Bar Harbor. Our first stop was breakfast at the Ivy Inn located on the main strip as you are heading south out of town. The service was incredible, and the food was amazing. I had oatmeal with fruit compote and burnt sugar (never thought I would rave about oatmeal, but this was so good, even my husband who only like the instant oatmeal packets thought this was really good) with a bowl of fruit (nice fresh fruits and berries), and Dave enjoyed the local egg breakfast with a side order of praline bacon. If you enjoy coffee with your morning breakfast then you must stop in here. They have the best coffee I have ever tasted. The breakfast was quite reasonable for the 2 of us and our daughter enjoyed a little of our breakfast while chatting up a storm with some of the other guests.
After enjoying our breakfast we then thought it would be a good morning to browse the shops and maybe pick up a few items to take back with us. It was still early so many of the shops were not yet open, but as we made our way towards the harbour more were opening up. We picked up a couple locally written books for our daughter at Sherman’s books that were recommended by the staff there. Tessa also got a new lobster stuffed chew toy to play with.
Once we were shopped out we drove out to the Oceanarium to check it out, but you have to do the 1.5 hr tour (can’t pick to do only some of the sites) so we weren’t sure our daughter could handle that since she hadn’t yet napped.
So it was back into Bar Harbor for some lunch before heading back to the campsite. We tried Stewman’s which is right on the harbour. The service was terrible, the food was not very good (I ordered 2 piece fish & chips – one piece of fish was cold and soggy and the other was ok) and much pricier than many of the other restaurants around. Dave said that his lobster was cooked properly and he enjoyed the lobster. I would definitely not return here. The high chair they brought us was coated in dried food and when I asked for a cloth to clean it, the server told me I could just use the paper napkins sitting on our table.
The rain started while we were eating our lunch, so we made a stop at the grocery store and Natural Foods to pick up some groceries before we headed back to camp.
Since it was raining and our daughter had finally fallen asleep we dropped the groceries and headed out to Thunder Hole as they had told us the best time to see it was 2 hrs before high tide. Since it was bucketing down and our daughter was napping, Dave parked the car and then headed down on his own to see it. It was very busy, but Dave said that we had actually seen it put on a better show when we had been there early in the morning.
We then decided to drive down to check out Northeast Harbor. This is a cute little town and where you can catch the mail boat over the Cranberry Island. We stopped and enjoyed the view at the harbour until our daughter woke up, at which point we stopped at the hardware store to pick up a tarp then back to camp.
The tarp was to create a floor in our dining tent for our daughter to play on while we prepared dinner. She thought it was great since she could check out our camping bin and get her sillies out.
To read about what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
Again we were up about 6:30, grabbed breakfast (included at the hotel) and headed out. There was a light rain in the morning. We continued on Hwy 1 to be able to enjoy the coast and little towns along the way.
Our first stop of the morning was at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. We walked out part of the way along the breakwater but after reaching about the halfway mark, we decided to turn around as it was harder going since the breakwater you walk out on is large stones piled together. I was nervous about taking a wrong step and falling with our daughter on my back which prevented me from being able to look around and enjoy the view. We stopped, took a couple photos and turned back where we spent a little bit of time on the sandy beach checking out the sea weed and shells as the tide was partially out when we were there.
Our next stop was Camden, Maine. This is such a cute town with an interesting attraction. The waterfalls that run into the harbour do so by running under some of the building on the main street. It is pretty neat to see.
We picked up lunch to go and took it with us to Camden State Park where we drove up Mount Battie to enjoy our lunch at the top. It gives you a great view of Camden and on a clear day you can see Mount desert Island. The cost was $4.50 per adult and we did not have to pay for our daughter. There is also a lookout tower you can climb to get an even better view.
As we continued on our drive we drove through Fort Knox, Maine where we saw this interesting bridge which has an observatory at the top. Maybe next time we do this trip we can stop to check out the observatory.
“Next stop Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine. We set up camp for the next three nights at Blackwoods campground which is down at the south east end of the island. The camp sites have little to no privacy, are stone and quite a bit of water was running through our site when we got there. You are not able to reserve a specific site, but rather they are assigned as you arrive. When we checked in there were still quite a number of empty sites left. The washrooms were not the cleanest and Dave kept noting to me that there was no soap in the washrooms. I think we just got too spoiled when we camped at Silver Lake State Park that it made this site look worse than it was.
We wanted to take it easy after getting the tent set up so just headed into Otter Creek (first stop near the campground) to the general store where we picked up a few grocery items and ordered a pizza. The pizza took over an hour to be made on a grocery store crust so we ended up missing the evening program at Blackwoods campground (the other nights we were there they only offered the late program). So we just headed back to our site and relaxed and had a fairly early evening.
To read about what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
We had another early morning (this was the trend on our trip!), up about 6:30 am and made ourselves pancakes so we could enjoy some of the maple syrup we had purchased the day before. After breakfast we packed up camp, before the rain returned.
We drove through Portsmouth, NH, but since it was raining pretty hard and our daughter was napping we decided to see it from the car rather than get out and walk around. Portsmouth has a great deal of old buildings lining the downtown core. We then drove out to the point past gorgeous old homes. The downtown core reminded us a great deal of Old Montreal.
After our drive around Portsmouth we crossed the bridge to Kittery, ME. We stopped at a couple of the outlets for some shopping (after seeing Freeport we would recommend skipping Kittery as the same shops are in Freeport where it is much nicer). The Trading Post was a recommended stop so we checked it out. To be honest, I would not recommend stopping there, it is name brand clothing which is at all of the outlets except it is not discounted there. They do not have anything different or quirky. They do have some camping gear and books on the second floor, however if you are looking for this sort of thing, check out one of the LL Bean outlets along the way or wait until you reach Freeport for LL Bean or the outlet.
We continued on Hwy 1 all the way to Freeport, meandering into some of the small towns along the way. We drove through Ogunquit while it was pouring rain and drove out to the beach. On a sunny day this would be a great beach to spend a day at and the town itself was really cute.
In Portland, ME we drove around trying to find a hotel room, but there were none to be had, so we continued on to Freeport which had not been our original destination for the night.
In Freeport we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which you pass just before entering the town of Freeport. The handy thing with this hotel is they have a laundry room (1 washer and 1 dryer) which allowed us to get some things dried out and cleaned. As well we were able to give our daughter a bath before bed so she had some semblance of a routine.
The rain was letting up as we checked into the hotel so we headed into Freeport to wander around. The streets and shops were pretty quiet by the time we got into town which was quite nice for us to enjoy some shopping and get some dinner. This is where Dave had his first Lobster Roll which he said was the best one of the trip and at the best price as well. We got it at what looked like an ice cream stand/convenience store (I don’t recall the name of the place).
We forgot to pull out our camera this day to take photos of some of the interesting sights we saw or the towns we visited, so all we have is memories.
You can check out my posts from our previous days on our trip here:
We woke up about 6:30 am to a nice day. Had breakfast, cleaned up and took it easy, then headed out from camp about 8:30 am. We took route 107 through Woodstock, VT to Quechee Gorge where we stopped at the visitor centre to gather some information on sights to see. We then took the trail from the visitor centre down to the gorge. It is a fairly steep hill down, but easily manageable as the distance is about 0.5 mi down. Once down we wandered out on the rocks to get a better view of the gorge and let Tessa play in the water.
At the bottom we headed up the trail past the entrance to the visitor centre to the dam to see the waterfall there and then on to the pond.
After the hike it was time to explore the area. We drove through Quechee Village and stopped at the Simon Pearce Glass Blowing studio to see the artists at work. They had some beautiful glass blown items as well as pottery at the studio for sale. Unfortunately we did not have room in the vehicle on this trip to be able to pick up a piece. There is a nice little waterfall off the rear of the studio as well.
After our short stop we continued on our way to Sugarbush Farm (http://www.sugarbushfarm.com/)which I had seen mentioned in a number of different posts on the internet as a place to see. At the information centre they also recommended this so we figured me better check it out. The drive is very nice and scenic out to the farm. You will pass by some high end resorts and gorgeous old mansions. The staff there are very nice and friendly and there is an old lab that wanders the property named Max. They were very open to letting us tie our dog up in the shade near the cars and Tessa and Max laid near each other just checking each other out while we went to try some cheese and maple syrup. After trying a number of cheeses we decided on the 8 yr old cheddar and the sage cheddar. our daughter liked all of the cheeses she was offered to try. We enjoyed the maple syrup tasting as well and picked up a couple different grades to take home with us. After tasting and shopping we went out to the petting zoo area which is near the entrance. They had a calf tied up and various small animals in their pens which you could see. Our daughter wanted to pet all of the animals.
We decided to continue on the backroads back into Woodstock where we wandered the main street, checking out some of the shops and we stopped for lunch at one of the local cafe’s.
Once we were shopped out we headed back to camp so our daughter could take a nap before we decided to hit up the beach. It is a small sandy beach with a nice park area around it. The water was the perfect temperature with a nice sandy bottom. There were many families there with their kids. Our daughter was having so much fun swimming in her lifejacket and watching some of the older kids play in the water.
That evening we cooked dinner at the camp and once our daughter went to bed we played some more sequence.
It rained overnight, but thanks to the lean-to our tent was nice and dry.
To see what else we got up to on this trip check out the links below:
We were woken early on our 2nd day of our trip by grouse in the forest nearby. We enjoyed our first camp breakfast before packing up to get back out on the road.
We decided to take the High Peaks scenic byway this day and enjoyed the scenic drive and saw tons of hiking trails being well used. (We will definitely have to return to tackle some of these trails at a future date).
We drove the main strip of Lake George, and noted it was a very busy spot. The main strip was quite tacky from what we saw and the traffic was insane. We did however decide to drive up Prospect Mountain. One thing to note is that dogs are not allowed on the trail to the summit so I would recommend you don’t take your pet with you. They did not mention this at the gate, but signs were posted everywhere at the parking lot that dogs were not permitted. Since this was the case, Dave stayed back at the car with our dog Tessa while I made the trek up to the top with our daughter.
The trail to the summit is a paved path but quite steep which finishes in stairs. This path would be too steep for a stroller. The alternative is to walk the roadway or you can take a shuttle from the summit parking lot. The views from up top were very nice and there is a nice little picnic area as well.
After our stop here we then got back on the road. We ran into some decent sized hail, winds and heavy rains at the New York-Vermont border as we passed through the Washington Correctional Facilities which forced us to pull over. When we thought the hail had passed and the rain appeared to be getting lighter we headed back out on the road to be hit with hail again, not 5 minutes down the road. We pulled over again and waited it out.
Playing around while riding out the storm
Killington, VT has some spectacular views and much larger hills/mountains.
As we continued to drive along we noted a number of washed out areas including collapsed/washed out homes and bridges. We later found out that this was damaged done by Hurricane Irene which hit the area in August 2011.
We checked into our campsite at Silver Lake State Park mid-afternoon. We greeted at the gate by one of the park wardens. He was very friendly, welcoming and helpful. This was the best campground we have ever camped at. We decided to book a camp site with a lean to. We were amazed at how clean the campground was including the washrooms. This is a fairly small campground with a number of lean to sites located on Silver Lake which is a small lake with a sandy beach within the park. The lean-tos are very well maintained and were very clean as well. Even if you were camping on a site without the lean to’s this would be a nice spot to camp as some of the sites are grassy and those that are not have the fine gravel on them so no large rocks or stones to stick in your back at night.
It was definitely cooler by the time we got to the campground so we changed into pants and long sleeve shirts before doing anything else.
Once the site was set up we headed into Bethel to the general store to get some groceries. They have an on site butcher for fresh meat as well. We took the winding road into town which took about 10 minutes and it was a nice drive as well.
Our daughter had a blast playing in the bin lids in the dining tent while we cooked dinner.
After dinner our daughter was put down to sleep in the tent which we had set up in the lean-to. She played for about 30 minutes or so in the tent before zonking out. She was having a blast in the tent scooting around, checking out the pockets, our sleeping bags, and pushing her face into the sides of the tent seeing how it moved. It was hard for us not to laugh when we would see the imprint of her face pushing out the tent. Once she was out Dave and I decided to play some Sequence. The campground was pretty quiet by 8:30pm.
To see what else we saw on this trip check out the below links:
Technically this will be about the first night and the following days adventures since we headed out after dinner and a bath the first night.
Loaded in the car and ready to go
As soon as we had loaded up the car the skies opened up and the heavy rain started. We didn’t want to delay getting on the road too long as we didn’t want to mess with our daughters bedtime too, too much. We waited a few minutes then decided to head out anyways since it did not look like the rain was going to let up. We drove through the rain on and off until about the Hwy 35 exit. We decided just to head along the 401 for the quickest and most direct route for the first portion of our trip.
We crossed over into the USA at Ogdensburg, NY. This is a very small bridge crossing and no large trucks or trailers are permitted on the bridge. It is a metal grate bridge so with the slow posted driving speed it can be a rather noisy trip over. We were the only ones on the bridge when we crossed. The border guard was very friendly and probably got a good chuckle out of us driving over the bridge. He said it was pretty obvious we had not crossed over at this spot before. There is a $2 toll fee after you pass through the crossing.
We stayed at the Quality Inn Gran-View on State Hwy 37. This was the one recommended on Trip Advisor. It was a clean hotel and there was a continental breakfast offered in the morning. One of the up sides was that they do allow dogs. The downside was that they do not have baby cribs, cots or playpens for your little one to sleep in, so we had to share the bed. Our daughter was so excited when we woke her at the hotel. She had to climb all over the bed, us and the pillows when we were trying to sleep. It ended up being a rather late night before she finally wore herself out.
We were off the next morning fairly early on our way to Lake Placid. We drove through the outskirts of Saranac Lake on the way, but Dave was very focused on getting to our destination for the night that there was not much stopping along the way. We stopped in a little town along the way to pick up a few grocers and pick up some lunch. We ended up stopping on the side of the road in front of a cute little cemetery to have our picnic lunch and allow our daughter to stretch her legs a little. Where possible we did stray a little from the more direct route and took some winding and more scenic roads instead as we approached the Lake Placid area. There were some beautiful mountain views along the way.
We arrived at the campground in the early afternoon. We stayed at ADK Adirondack Loj. We had decided to rent a canvas cabin to ease our daughter into the whole concept of tent camping. The check in was nice and quick. They were however warning lots about bears. The canvas cabin was not what we expected, but was rather a canvas tent on a platform with 3 sets of single bunk beds. Since bunk beds weren’t going to work with a 9 month old, we decided we would set up our tent within the tent (we have a small canoe tripping tent so it fit very easily inside). There is no privacy between the canvas cabins and you are not permitted to set up another tent on the site. While the campground was nice enough, next time we would most likely stay somewhere else as this was quite a ways out of the town of Lake Placid. The great part of staying here is the proximity to a wide range of hiking trails on site.
Lake Placid Ski jumps from a distance
Once the tent was set up we headed to the little shop on site to get some information about the various hikes on site and for recommendations. The ladies in the store suggested we hike out to Rocky Falls since it was a nice destination. This was roughly an 8.5km hike from our campsite. The trail was moderate- rocky trail near the beginning with some ups and downs, but overall there were no real challenges for us. We only passed 1 person on the trails so it was nice and quiet and we could hear the birds and enjoy the woods.
Once we reached the falls Dave went in for a swim with the dog while our daughter had fun splashing at the waters edge and enjoying the view.
We did find the blackflies to be quite thick on the trail, so I would recommend some bug spray or bug patches while hiking this trail.
Once we returned to camp we headed into the town of Lake Placid to do some wandering and have dinner. We settled on 3 Bears for dinner. The service was excellent, great views and the food was good as well. Lake Placid is a really cute little town with some neat shops as well as your standard stores, lots of places to eat and spectacular views. We would love to return to this area again to do some more exploring.
Our daughter was too excited again to sleep this night so we were up fairly late while she checked out every square inch of the tent and climbed on us.
To see what else we saw on this trip check out the links below:
