Day 16

The rain was gentle and steady all night long. With the exception of the occasional downpour from the trees when the wind picked up, I do believe the constant noise of the wind and rain helped us all sleep very sound. Our area of the campground had been deserted for the workweek so the kids were able to sleep in until well after 7. I took advantage of my last few hours of 3G at the campground and caught up on the blog.

We stayed tucked in the tent until the rain stopped around 8. The fog was so thick and the temperature had dropped overnight to the low 50s with the rain and it wasn't warming up at all!

I really dislike packing up in the mud and rain, especially without a shower facility so we waited until the last possible minute to pack up. While the kids went and brushed their teeth and changed I donned my poncho in defense of the mud and packed up the tent. Evey brought over the leftover pizza for breakfast and we were on the road by 9am!

We took it slow on the roads as it often seemed like we were driving in the clouds. We wouldn't be stopping at any overlooks today - there wasn't anything to see!

After about an hour we turned into the Blue Ridge Music Center to check out their museum. We all learned a lot about the history of the banjo as well as appalachian and bluegrass music. The kids loved hearing the mountain music from the 30s and 40s as well as the minstrel traveling shows.

They even got a chance to play a banjo and make up their own lyrics!
























We made a quick stop at the gift store and decided to have a snack lunch at the car. We all wanted to wait for the music that was starting shortly.  Emily and I grabbed the rocking chairs in the back and we were all treated to some great tunes!

We trekked into North Carolina today. There was a small welcome sign that I didn't even see until we were on top of it. The kids were laughing as there was an actual line in the road for the border.
 




It was still foggy when we made it to our campground so once we got set up the kids and I walked around to explore all the sites. Ryan practiced her photography along the way while the other two fought behind us.

I decided to make soup for dinner since it was still so chilly and the air was damp. We even had some hot chocolate for dessert! I made a fire to warm us up until bedtime and the girls worked in some of their create-a-story books.

When our pjs were on and teeth were brushed we read the last chapter in the Middle Moffat book. I'm not sure we've ever had a chance to read this much! Time for the next one!

Day 2

It's the little things that I forget that make me laugh so much and appreciate these trips!  We were set up on a bit of a slope and the kids assured me they didn't feel like they were sliding at all at bedtime.  Around 1am I looked over to check and all three looked like they had collided at the end of a water slide!  As I slid all of them back on their sleeping pads, Laney sleepily whined, "Well, I'm not playing with you guys any more!"  I suppose she might have already had enough of the other two!  With us on separate floors in the new house, I never get to hear their sleep talking anymore!

After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, we headed out for the day to explore.  Our first stop was to inspect the lake and "beach".  Not quite like our beach, but fun nonetheless.  The kids saw odd things floating in there so they opted for skipping rocks and playing on the playground.

This girl refuses to look at the camera!

So I had to see it to believe it.  Brayden came over and said he skipped a rock 10 times.  I thought he was grossly exaggerating of course.  The very next rock I was the official counter and he did in face skip it 10 times.  I had to explain what eating your words means after that.

Next stop was the High Falls trail to break in the kids new hydration packs.  All three had drained Grammie's each day last year, so she found me a groupon for theirs a few months ago.  They loved them!

The trail was an easy walk down a beautiful, well-worn path with the kids favorite obstacles - rocks and water!  Their brave, almost over confident, hops around the waterfall frequently just about gave me heart attacks so I suggested they stop and have snacks.

Now comes the annual superstitious bad-things-happening-in-threes.  Although I didn't realize it at the time.  On the way up to the third waterfall, it started raining.  And not just raining, pouring those big fat crocodile tear raindrops that splat when they hit your face. The kids made the executive decision to have more snack under a tree to see if it was one of those passing summer storms as there wasn't a dark cloud in the sky.  Their patience is at a minimum in a small space while getting dripped on though, so we decided to head back to the car once the rain let up a bit.  I do so love muddy wet clothes and shoes in my car!

The next thing on the day's plan was to hike around a couple trails in our park, but in looking over toward that direction I noticed a dark, ominous cloud right over our mountain. And it didn't look like it was moving any time soon.  I made the executive decision to head to wifi and the library.

Late last year we'd bought me another laptop and I'd made the rookie mistake of not testing the camera with said new laptop.  Fancy new Windows 8 did not recognize the camera no matter what I did.  I though I might try downloading the drivers and software to see if that helped.  Dave also set up email addresses this year for the kids so they would be able to communicate with their friends and family, so they were anxious to check them and reply.

So after kids' emails had been checked and smoothies finished, I was still there trying to solve my problem.  Dave swooped in and tried to help, but nothing seemed to work.  Often I get so focused on fixing the exact problem I'm working on that I don't step back and think around the problem.  Luckily Dave suggested just going to buy a card reader and forgetting about the problem.  So would hopefully solve thing #2. By this point we had moved to the local library and I knew I was going to have to tear the kids away from the pile of books they were reading. (By the way Grammie, they found new magazines!)  With the promise of a quick stop at Best Buy and the pool after dinner, they reluctantly put everything away.

Earlier this year we'd noticed our archaic little flip video camera had been stubborn to recharge so Dave mentioned grabbing a GoPro while we could to be able to use on the trip.  After I grabbed the card reader I must've gotten a salesperson on day 1 as he had some horrible jokes and basically read me the boxes to help me compare.  We walked out with what we needed however and headed back for dinner.

On the way to our campsite, we decided to do one of the short hikes we'd wanted to do in the morning.  It was a very easy one along a boardwalk to a rock overlooking the valley and hills in the distance.  The kids enjoyed reading the displays and especially loved hopping down off the boardwalk to the rocks.  Queue heart attacks.

We took some pictures of the view and everyone at the "Balk Rock" sign.  I'd let our budding photographer Ryan take a few pictures of us, so I thought to review them before we left to make sure we all had heads.  "NO SD CARD" was what I read on the camera display.  Ugh.  This must be bad thing #3. I'd taken the card out to show the sales guy at Best Buy. It is my opinion that a camera should not act like it is taking pictures when it isn't actually saving them!  Not that I would've been less frustrated had a found out with the first picture.  The kids really wanted a pictures at that exact spot, so we walked back to the car to get the card and back to our photo spot.  And back to the car.    

We ate and hopped in the car to head to the pool and the real #3 was shining in my face.  Check engine light.  After the long frustrating da my first thought was, alright, time to pack up and go home.  Then I remembered all the planning and effort that had gone into this trip, not to mention the coordination with people to meet up with us.  And definitely the fact that it was only day 2.  I'm tougher than this!

So we headed to the pool.  The kids froze and played a new frisbee football game they'd invented and I waited patiently for the sunset.  I'd deal with #3 tomorrow.  The kids couldn't really wait for the sunset with giant goosebumps so I captured the best I could and we headed back to our site.

While eating a quick snack, we walked up to the official highest point building to climb the 65 steps up to the observation tower at the top to take in the view.  I was hoping for a sunset as the kids refused to wait for it by the pool.

In the one minute it took for us to climb those steps howeber, the fog rolled in something fierce and all we could see was white.  We all stood there completely confused!  By the time we came out of the building we couldn't even see our campsite 100 yards away.  Guess that means it's time for bed!

But not before checking on the roly poly resort!  It's a complete resort including an island, bridges, walnut homes, climbing rope, mountain climbing - the words!

Quote of the day: Me to Brayden after our 2 trips to Bald Rock - "Should we walk back to Bald Rock again and back to the car again?" Brayden replies, "Ugh!  Mo-oooom!"  What?  Am I too annoying for you now?

Day 20

I slept in this morning as Amy and I were up pretty late talking by the fire.  Bonus - our neighbor also decided to noisily pack up and leave at 3am!  Instantly I was fully awake listening as I thought maybe there was a big storm coming and they were trying to beat it. I drifted off back to sleep listening to every rustle and rumble wondering if it was the wind of an approaching storm or distant thunder.

It always seems the birds are especially noisy on mornings I'm hoping to sleep in, so I tried Brayden's tactic of covering my head with my sleeping bag and it worked!  I slept until 7am - wow!

Our plan was to get going pretty early this morning, so I got everyone's clothes together and started to feel the sprinkles.  I grabbed bowls, spoons, peaches, bananas, milk and cereal and broke one of the cardinal camping rules - no eating in the tent.  There weren't bears here, but there were raccoons and squirrels so the girls took an oath to be especially careful.  We had about 45 minutes before we were supposed to meet Grammie at the bus stop so I thought we'd be cutting it pretty close.  The girls dug into their cereal as it's a supremely coveted treat reserved for camping and then only once or twice during a long trip like this.  Just as we were finishing the sprinkling stopped so we packed up for the day and got to the bus stop just in time for the bus.

We'd decided to hit some of the must-see stops around the northern side of the island - Sand Beach and Otter Cliffs.  The fog was sticking around with the weather so visibility was shallow, but for some of the pictures it looked nice.

At Sand Beach there were tons of tide pools in the rocks we took a little time to explore.  Brayden and Ryan enjoyed mining for rocks and shells in the sand.  The water was beyond cold and I honestly could not believe there were children swimming.  In bathing suits.  And they weren't blue.  I would've required at least 3 wet suits just be go into knee deep water there!

At Otter Cliffs we took our time to explore the cliffs and walk around the paths.  We sat down and enjoyed a snack at the perfect picnic spot on the cliff.  There were climbers all around us on the rocks below.

Next up we headed back up to a visitor's center to check out the day's program.  We were about an hour early, so the kids worked on their last junior ranger activity then enjoyed finding the Cadenas girls to play tag.

"A Small World" was another great program about all the little things we miss when visiting a park like Acadia full of huge mountains and tall trees.  They learned lots of interesting facts about the insects around them then went out a nature hike to complete a sound map and scavenger hunt.  Fun fun!

We then hopped on the bus again to head into town for lunch.  We decided on a brewery (lucky day for me) where I surprised Grammie by immediately ordering 6 beers.  I had to explain to her I was only here once and I was going to have to sample the local beer of Maine, so this would be the perfect time. And they were only 4oz each.  I love that they wrote me a list of the beers as I usually forget what I ordered within seconds of ordering it!  It immediately began to pour outside so we were happy to be warm and dry with our food (and beer).

One the rain slowed, we power-walked to the bus stop to head to our campground to pick up Grammie's car.  The rain looked as if it were going to be steady for at least an hour so we thought the best spot for us would be to hang out in Grammie's cottage and play games.  But first we stopped by the main visitor's center to swear in some new junior rangers!











After games and a snack (yep, they are still hungry!) we headed to Cadillac Mountain just before sunset.  Going up the view just kept getting better and better and the kids kept getting louder and louder.  They weren't excited about the sunset so much as annoyed by eachother.  They are admittedly in close quarters in Grammie's car but the amount and volume of fighting and arguing had definitely reached a new level.

At the top of the mountain we were in a fog envelope.  The eco-store was open, so we popped in for a minute to visit before we headed down.  The kids love going into these stores as they have money burning a hole in their pockets.  They pick up things like magnets and pencils thinking they want to buy them, then change their minds over and over.  Laney decided on a pair of earrings and we left to find a better sunset-viewing spot.  We didn't have much luck as the fog moved in so we ended up heading back to the campsite.

Laney left with Grammie and we hopped into the tent for bed.  The kids were snoring within seconds as I debated new parenting tactics.

Quote of the Day:  Uttered by multiple kids and multiple times - "Sto-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-p it!"

Day 20 - Fun, fights, and fog