Bulletins from the Front: Monday and Tuesday

Our first family camping trip. Two cars, two kayaks, two parents, and six kids walk into Acadia. Will they all make it out alive?

We packed all of our stuff into the Mary Poppin's Carpet-Bag like cars, strapped everything down and began the drive to Maine. It's about 6 hours with no stops and I think it took us about 12. Dad and I took the truck, everyone else jumbled into the van.

Being the unofficial family photographer has its perks and some downsides. I never have to worry about being photographed but if I don't take a few shameless 'selfies' no evidence of my existence would exist. Spoiler: I ended up taking over 600 pictures.

Toby managed to get doped up on catnip just before we left.

We made it to Maine! The dark clouds threatened rain but we pressed on.

Just around the bend was the first sight of an open horizon since travelling through VT and NH.

We stopped at the Kittery Trading Post for provisions where I found this little piece of Maine humor at the bottom of a bookshelf.

Barnabas practiced his mountain goat skills before attempting to climb Acadia's mountains.

Finally, we got there, just as it was getting dark and a bit wet. We set up the tents in the last bit of fading light and tracked a lot of dirt (and mud) into the tents in the process.

Tuesday ended up being mostly a provisions trip back into Ellsworth. I finally got hiking shoes (my procrastonary habits also extend to shoe shopping, apparently).

We stopped for a group family photo on one of the Carriage road bridges before continuing around the Loop Road, a mostly one way road which meanders around the park.