Mading family National Park Trip

Oh, Maine, you are loved by the Mading family. We spent our first two nights in Kennebunk, Maine. They have four beaches in town and we visited two – Mother’s Beach and Gooch’s Beach. They were both great, not crowded, and loaded with large sea shells! It is definitely colder up north but the kids don’t seem to mind, they still get soaking wet at the beach. While we were there, they had their annual “May Day” festival and parade (thank you Kathy!). The kids got to do some rock climbing, face painting, and watch the parade. We had a very memorable beach side lunch, soaking up the sun before the rain came. We hunkered down at a brewery that night for some fish and chips and other pub fare. We had been looking for a campground in or near Acadia National Park but learned that most do not open until mid or end of May. So on Sunday, we headed north toward Acadia NP and ended up at a little campground on Deer Isle, Maine. This little island is nothing but rolling timberland that eventually leads down to the ocean…WAY off the beaten path. The camp spot we found was nestled on the outskirts of the small lobster fishing community of Stonington, ME. You could even have fresh, live lobster delivered to your campsite! We spent Monday in Acadia National Park and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. I have to say that Acadia is my favorite thus far, it is stunning! There were very few people and we hit all the hot spots. We ended our day with a lobster dinner in Bar Harbor and ice cream. The next few days in Stonington were rainy and foggy, which sounds like is fairly typical for Maine this time of year. We did spend some time at their cute (and tiny) public library and took a ferry out to Isle au Haut (which is part of Acadia NP). There are 50-60 people that live on Isle au Haut year round and some of them were on board with their groceries and/or coming home from work. Apparently, Isle au Haut has only recently operated with electricity (within the last 20 years). We learned there are over 4,000 islands in Maine. Wild! We watched some of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies during some of these rainy days. Today, we packed up and made it to Franconia, NH. The landscape is so beautifiul and the little towns we travelled through were idyllic. Franconia is a ski town in the winter. There was a wild turkey near the parking lot waiting to greet us when we arrived. We plan to stay here 2 nights and then slowly make our way southwest through the Adirondacks and toward Niagara Falls.