Day 22

I woke this morning with the birds to capture the sunrise at our lovely bayside campsite.  The clouds blocked most of the sun this morning, but it was nice to have a quiet sunrise to myself.  Well, and about 143 gnats.  And there was this eerie bubbling sound of activity I couldn't quite pinpoint.

Within about 15 minutes of starting to write the rain started so I ducked into the tent with my laptop to continue.  The kids woke up shortly thereafter and this became my view.

Today I had planned to cook some good old southern cheese grits for breakfast for everyone since Grammie didn't have any food at her cabin as she is leaving tomorrow.  The weather refused to cooperate though so by around 7:45 Grammie pulled up at our campsite with the same idea as me - grab food and cook at her cabin.  Within about 30 minutes we were sitting down to a delicious hot meal in a dry shelter.  The kids enjoyed having a private breakfast on the porch!

What a nice view with their breakfast!

And within about 30 minutes of breakfast, the sun was shining and there were beautiful blue skies all around us. Time to go!

Our first stop was an adorable little city full of charm - Lubec, ME.  Being only 20 minutes away, we were confused why we weren't sent here for food the day before.  We made a mental note to return here for food after our hike today.  

That's Canada - an easy swim of about 30 yards!

So on we went to Quoddy Head State Park.  This was the actual midway point of our trip as we would be making the big turn south tomorrow.  It was also a big stop as it is the eastern most point of land of the United States.  We explored a little while around the lighthouse and learned a lot about its history.

We found a beach trail nearby and of course headed that way!  Brayden's face lit up as we found a goldmine of flat, skipping rocks.  Not only that, there were rocks of all different colors, shapes, and sizes - a dream for Ryan, my rock collector!  It was very difficult for her not to just scoop up a whole bag full!  We settled on three.

Laney and took a walk down the beach a ways to see if we could see the lighthouse from down low.  I wasn't really up for climbing slippery rocks today so I got about half a lighthouse!

See everyone else way back at the beach?

On the way back we saw the infamous stacks of rocks the kids love so much, so Laney and I decided to do stacks for each person on our trip.  We found all kids of flat rocks that were begging to become a work of art so we got to work.  Within seconds Ryan an Brayden joined us so before long we had a little rock stack family!  Laney thinks they will still be here when she is 40 and brings her kids here.

We made the climb back up toward the car where Laney spotted another trail to High Point - with a name like that it must be good!  Grammie took the other two to a much needed bathroom stop and we headed onto the trail.  It was quite muddy but even my girly girl not only managed, but loved it.  I actually had to talk her into going around some of the mud!  And here is the view we got before we turned around.

There was distant thunder rumbling and I wasn't up for being caught on the trail in a downpour.  Before too long we found the others and we headed back with the thunder getting louder and louder.  We stopped at one more quick overlook and made bets whether we would make it back before the first raindrop.

Today must be optimistic day as everyone bet we would!  We made it with about 30 seconds to spare before drops dotted the windshield.

With our hiking plans for the day hijacked by a massive rain cloud, we decided to drive to civilization to locate a gps for me.  All this time I was mostly following the Cadenas crew or Grammie as my phone has been totally flaking out in navigation mode.  We found a Walmart about an hour away and decided it was better to be accomplishing something instead of just sitting in the car in the rain.  On our travels we found the Easternmost everything - gift shop, tavern, antique store - seems everyone is getting in on it!

Not only did I find a great gps unit on clearance, but I also found fire supplies and a replacement tent!  Since Four Mile Creek State Park way back at Niagra Falls I'd been having some very frustrating issues with our tent zipper.  It seems that putting the tent up and down more than 90 times the last 3 years has taken it's toll. I was hoping to limp along through the rest of the trip dealing with it, but it just seems to be getting worse. The last thing I wanted was to be begging the zipper to work in the middle of a downpour at 2am.  It won't be the best quality tent, but it will at least give me some peace of mind for the remainder of this trip.

We headed back through beautiful blue skies again (how does that happen here so fast?) in search of some food in our cute little town.  After a delicious dinner and ale, we headed outside for some pictures and toward the campsite to say goodbye to Grammie.  The kids absolutely love having her with us and this trip was such a treat with such a long visit!  They were also looking forward to sharing the contents of their very secret and coveted Grammie travel bags with each other once we got on the road the next day.

While I organized the car a little bit from our hasty morning exit in the rain, the kids organized their areas quickly to be able to have some time at the playground.

Of course once we got there, Ryan needed to visit the "bathroom" so we left the other two playing at the park.  I say "bathroom" as it is just an outhouse perched on top of a big hole in the ground - definitely not the favorite park for my bathroom snob.  She was ready to get out of there as quick as possible so she left me behind to run down the hill to play.  Once I reached the playground she was nowhere in sight.  After asking the other two several times if she'd come back - one really serious to make sure they weren't hiding her - I ran back up the hill to find her.  Every parent knows that panic of a lost child.  So many thoughts race through your head each second.

Once I got to the top of the hill I saw her coming up another hill and she instantly burst into tears.  Turns out she'd not made the turn toward the park but down the hill toward more campsites.  She recovered quickly and said she had turned around before she heard me because she started seeing campsites instead of the big field.  I asked her if she was still brave and she nodded her head so that was a relief.  We returned to the playground to worried faces of two kids and resumed playing.  It was Laney and Ryan restaurant time again.

Once the glow of evening set in, we headed back to the campsite for a campfire.  Brayden asks each day if we are going to have one and finally we have weather conditions and flame to do so!  As soon as the fire was going well we brought our the marshmallows and sticks for roasting as well as something new to try.  I'd seen success with Oreo smores online and everyone's eyes lit up when I showed them, so I knew it would be a hit.  Not to mention there is no way I would ever allow Oreos into our grocery cart on a normal day at home!

I do believe they were a big success!

With Grammie leaving I had all my kids back together with smiling cookie faces so I brought out our "Peppermints in the Parlor" book for another chapter.  About halfway through the rumble of thunder started again in the distance (really!?) and at the end we popped inside the tent for another chapter.  Just as we were settling in our bags the sprinkling started.  And I thought Florida summers were the only reliable daily rain locations!

We are getting to the good part of the book and the kids are really enjoying guessing the mystery.  Ryan inevitably sing-songs the Dun-dun-du-u-u-un at the end of each chapter to build up the suspense.  With lights out we came up with wild theories of who was the bad guy and who was the good guy, but before long we were all dozing to the sounds of the rain.

Quote of the Day: Grammie declaring, "I know skunk now!" after driving by at least the 6th skunk on the road.  She has gotten so good she can spot them on the road before the smell invades the car.  We have just enough time to plug our noses with giggles all around.

Day 22 - Easternmost Rain of the United States