maine attraction

As you may have guessed by now -- if you are even checking on this blog -- we have been on vacation.

Among other things.

The week before we left on vacation was one long giant snafu... the week after we got back, pretty much the same thing plus a lot of mail to sort through... but luckily, the vacation itself was pretty nice. We went to Ellsworth, Maine so we could take the boys to Acadia National Park. The last time we went to Acadia was also our last vacation B.B. (Before Boys) and we looked happy and carefree like so:
 

And here we are, almost exactly fifteen years later:

As you might expect from any vacation in close proximity to a National Park with my boys in tow, we did a lot of hiking, primarily to the tops of mountains:

And also some whale watching (the boat found a pod of around 15 pilot whales; if you click on the picture to make it larger, you can make out a baby whale's fin between and slightly behind the two adults):

And a bit of dramamine-induced snoozing.

The house we stayed at was on a pond, so there was also a fair amount of kayaking and canoeing:

 

And "school reading" in the hammock, the only place in which Primo's phone could send and receive text messages (cell phone is in hand, "The Good Earth" is on his lap):

And of course swimming:

Until we came home from hiking one day, and saw this enormous snapping turtle sunning itself on the jumping rock:

  

And then there was no more swimming.


Actually, I just realized that my first statement about Acadia was not entirely accurate. We were not, technically speaking, entirely without boy on that trip. I have helpfully circled the boy that accompanied us in "baby boy blue" so you can find him:

And here he is, just over fifteen years later.

Thank heaven I am no longer required to tote his butt around, because we wouldn't have had a prayer of making it to the top of any of those mountains. Quite frankly, it was all I could do to get just my own butt to the top of those mountains.