Meyer Family Vacation 2014 (Parts I and II)

Josh and I absolutely love exploring God's creation, meeting new people and exposing our children to lots of new things around our country and abroad.  One of our dreams has always been to take a trip to Maine and decided this was the summer to do it! We were gone for 11 days and took hundreds of pictures, so I will have to segment our trip out in manageable pieces for each post!

Part I: The Road Trip

Before I go onto Maine, I'd like to share a little about the road trip.  The Meyer Family proudly logged 62 hours in the car and 2,900 miles on this trip!  We planned it so that each of us got to add several states to our lists of those visited.  Our totals are as follows:

Josh = 48 states (only missing Nevada and Oregon!)

Kamie = 47 states

Jake and Sarah = 40 states

Jack = 38 states

George = 27 states

Joe = 19 states (not bad for a 9 month old!)

We drove through upstate New York and spent the night in Albany.  The next day we traveled through Vermont and New Hampshire onto Maine.  We LOVED Vermont and all of its rugged beauty.  On the way home, we went down to Rhode Island (via Massachusetts and Connecticut), then through New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  It was a long, long trip and we were all glad to be out of the car.  One of the best things that occupied our time was playing the Melissa and Doug License Plate Game. (Thanks, Grammy!)  We also listened to some stories on CD, played the Tell Tale Game, watched movies, napped and ate Dunkin' Donuts.  :-)

 

 As you can imagine, there is a lot of goofiness that takes place with a big family on a long road trip.  Here are some of those photos: 

 

Seven people in one hotel room required some shared sleeping space!  But the kids didn't seem to mind at all! 

 We also stopped for lots of bathroom breaks, a chance to stretch legs and see the beauty of the area.  (Here we are in Vermont.)

 

This was at a rest stop as we were leaving Maine.

 

 

We stopped in Rhode Island on the way home not only to say that we've been to the smallest state, but also to see my cousin Lincoln and his family!  I have not seen him since before we both joined the military and had never had a chance to meet his wife and kids, so it was a perfect chance to catch up.  Our kids all played well together - especially the boys, who enjoyed being NERF warriors with their third cousin!  :-) We all had a great time.

 

We entered the southern tip of Maine around lunchtime and decided it was as good a time as any to stop at a seafood place and eat some lobster!  We ordered lobster stew, a lobster roll and a lobster dinner - and the little boys were so excited to try it!  Each of the four older kids boldly tried lobster - an experience not to be missed when you are in Maine.  But we all decided that once is enough.  :-)

Part II:  Shore Acres

"Maine! The very name inspires a deeper breath and longing!" 

- Wallace Nutting in Maine Beautiful, 1924

(We picked up this old book about Maine in a local antique shop and I will use a few of the beautifully and accurately written quotes as we share of our Maine adventures!) 

 We have Josh to thank for searching out the place we would call "home" during our week in Maine.  He found the perfect place for us.  It is an old home built in 1795 on the north side of Frenchman's Bay near Lamoine State Park.  It was close enough to the town for grocery shopping and about 30 minutes away from the Bar Harbor/Acadia National  Park area which sees millions of tourists each year.  It was tucked away on a fairly quiet street, a short walk from the beach and on a beautiful piece of property.  

 

We spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful yard.  The boys had so much fun in the sand box and on the swing.  We found that insects love Maine just as much as people do.  We were hounded by mosquitoes for much of the trip and saw lots of interesting insects like this large beetle.  But it still didn't take away from Maine's beauty.

 The walk to the beach was a nice one with a quaint row of mailboxes and a charming seaside cottage, along with lots of wildflowers and wild raspberries growing on the side of the road.

When inside, we all found something to do:  read, nap, complete two large puzzles, play games and do leaf rubbings with some of the beautiful big leaves we came across!

The owners of the property were simply delightful and made us feel right at home.  The boys became fast friends with Mr. and Mrs. Hemingway, often running over to their home for a visit.  Mr. Hemingway's hobby is to restore Model T Fords, so he took the boys and I for a ride one evening.  What an experience!  The boys were just overjoyed to be in such an old car!  On our last night, the Hemingways joined us for S'Mores and a nice evening around the fire pit.  We couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Stay tuned for pictures from the other parts of our trip!