From New Hampshire, we drove the rest of the way into Maine. We were surprised by how many “watch out for Moose” signs we saw. Unfortunately, as hard as we looked, we never spotted one.
Just inside of Maine, we stopped at a welcome center with extremely helpful attendants. They found more ideas that looked interesting than we could do in a month! Once we got on Mount Desert Island, we stopped to pick up a National Park pass and Junior Ranger books for the children to work on.
While we drove, Allan mentioned that the campground we were staying at had made a mistake and called to see if we minded having a cabin for one night. We did not tell anyone and they enjoyed the surprise.
We were very glad to stop and know we did not have to move very far for a few days!
We were at Pine Haven long enough that we all enjoyed relaxing. The kids played in the water and I took some pictures. It was great to be out of the car and exploring!
If you click on a picture, you can see the pictures as a slide show.
From New York, we traveled through Vermont and into New Hampshire. Â Allan had planned a shorter drive, because he found a great place for us to stay.
Pine Haven Campground in NH was very quiet! Â We were at the end of the lane, with only one other tent, so we had a lot of space to play. Â We grilled sausage, corn and other veggies we picked up from the farmers’ markets on our trip. Â Then we enjoyed s’mores and lots of roasted marshmallows.
No one really wanted to leave the next morning.  Allan started washing clothes while we got breakfast started and then cleaned up the area.  The kids enjoyed playing on the see saws and then got Allan to play a few rounds of Octaball before we piled into the car around 9:30 for the last leg of our trip to Maine.
If you click on a picture, you can see it as a slide show.
On Saturday we drove through Pennsylvania and New York. It was a long drive, but we enjoyed  getting treats at the small farmer’s markets at the rest stops and along the road.
Andrea was really excited to see that peaches were in season, so we stopped at a few places hoping to buy some. Â Unfortunately, we did not find ripe ones that would travel well until we reached Vermont. We did find some maple cotton candy that was a lot of fun to eat.
We stopped for gas in Portland Harbor, NY. We discovered the first lighthouse in the United States to operate using natural gas used hollow logs as pipes to get the gas where it needed to be. We enjoyed a very quick picnic nearby because the bees were fond of our lunch!
We stayed at a  KOA in Herkimer, New York.  It was extremely crowded! Our two tents sat side by side with a trailer on one side and a group of people and a few tents on the other.  The nice thing about the campground was there was a river that the kids could play in.  We could have rented tubes and tubed down the river, which is what most people seemed to enjoy.
Since we had a long travel day, we went out for dinner. Â Allan had picked a place that looked good, but was closed early. Â So we drove around town looking for another place. Â We discovered Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner. Â It was fun place to eat and everyone was very friendly.
We went to bed soon after getting back from dinner and were up and ready to start traveling again before most people at the camp ground were getting up for the day.
We started for Maine as soon as Allan got home from work on Friday.  We had the car packed and ready to go early. Everyone spent most of the afternoon running and playing.
We drove three hours to Ohio. Â It was a good way to start our long drive! Â Megan took off some of the pillowcases, declared she was cold and played dress up for most of the trip.
Our first campsite was very nice. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool and we were the only tents in the tent area. We also discovered “fairy lights” and had fun trying to figure out what they were and where they originated. Mark discovered a forest of them at the end of the tenting area and we enjoyed playing in them for awhile.
The other day, I was asked if I would take some pictures of a friend’s children. We met at the park and while our children played together, I took pictures of Lydia, Luke and Leeanna. Â It was a lot of fun!
Adrian designed this fort with a little help from Megan. They spent a lot of time in the woods building it.  Even though it was short, Adrian and Megan enjoyed playing in it until the rains ruined it.
