Saturday, August 27, 2011

ME - Acadia National Park

We had a fabulous time at Acadia National Park, attending the 2nd annual Dog & Trailer/Outbackers Acadia rally.  We stayed at Smuggler's Den Campground, which was right on Mt. Desert Island and their property is adjacent to some of the NP property - great spot and the only campground I've ever been at with live lobsters in the camp store (and cooking instructions and pots to borrow!)

I forgot to snap a shot of our site until when we were packing up.  We were in site #86, OK site but the sewer connection was a bit higher than the site, which made it not ideal.  We were close to the group so it was a good spot, but not my favorite.

We became members of the Cadillac Mountain Sunrise Club along with a few other brave D&T friends: the Egregg and DHDB families.  It was worth getting up at o'dark thirty, that's for sure!

Take a look... 

We had a lot of fun hiking and biking.  No pics from our ride on the carriage paths, but lots of hiking pics:
This is on the Beech Cliff trail.  Echo Lake in the background, and after the hike we spent a while at the beach you can kind of see in the background.

The Beech Cliff trail has several ladders, which Theo loved.

And Kevin too!

We made it to the top!

Theo making friends with a seagull at Thunder Hole.

Theo on the Ladder Trail up to Dorr Mountain.

Note the clean teeth, this is right before we headed into/through big patches of blueberries on either side of the trail - yum!

We made it to the summit of Dorr Mountain! 

So windy up there that the signpost was knocked over.

We parked the car somewhere down there...

Time to climb back down.

We also went on a great whale watching boat cruise.  We saw two species of whales, dolphins, porpoises (yes, they're different, but now I can't remember in what ways other than the dolphins were definitely more playful and even jumped out of the water.)  Not everyone on the cruise did so well in the seasickness department, including Theo.  He held up better than others, but after some complaints I got him some dramamine from the galley of the boat...and he spent the rest of the cruise like this:

yep, completely out.  He said he had a great snooze!

On our way back into Bar Harbor.  Some cool boats in the harbor, including that one with 4 masts in the distance in this pic.

We also had a great time hanging out with friends and T had a blast swimming in the pool at the campground, playing with friends, and doing kid stuff.  We took a fun tour of the Atlantic Brewing Company (and tasting...and buying...)  And we had a fantastic lobster dinner with the group...very tasty and I didn't have to get all freaked out cooking them myself!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

NY - Saugerties/Woodstock KOA

We had a fantastic "grown-ups only" weekend in the Catskills...main goal: The Warrior Dash with our friends Kimberly and Tom.  We stayed at the KOA in our camper and it proved to be fun and pretty convenient.  Kimberly and Tom didn't even complain about the bunk accomodations - I think we all fit pretty well!
We were on site #55 which was a pullthrough.  It had a decent amount of wooded space by the fire ring and was fairly private for a pullthrough. 

Chillin' by the fire after a great meal at The Dutch Ale House

Clean Warriors before the race - ready for action!

And wet, dirty Warriors after the race...it was a blast!

We got cleaned up and put on our freebie race t-shirts and enjoyed our reward beers :)

Monday, August 1, 2011

NH - Chocorua Camping Village

We were at site #79, which was a pull through.  Nice for arrival after dark in the rain (memo to self - traffic near Boston and going north on a Friday in the summer is prone to traffic!), but this site was not terribly private for eating at the picnic table or hanging by the fire.  This shot was taken from the campground road.  Still, if I knew we were arriving after dark again, I'd choose a pull through and take the chance for convenience...we really weren't at the site much anyway!

 Theo finally got to bring his friend Baden along!  The boys had a great time, and really got along amazingly well all weekend.  A+ for the first friend-along weekend!

We all did the ropes course at a place called Monkey Trunks up the road from the campground.  It was a fantasticly fun time, and lots of courage-building and problem-solving!  And no worries, we were all harnessed in and had  helmets on and went through the safety class first. 

 Theo and Kevin on the part that we all thought was the hardest!

And Theo on the part that we all though was going to be the hardest, but was actually easy!

And after all the climbing you get to zip line down!  Woo Hoo!  Here is Theo on the zip line:


And the boys had a great time splashing and swimming in the river/pond.  There was a pool too, but they both preferred the fresh water with the sand to play with and the minnows to chase.

Cushion Covers

Although I was a little bit better with the diamond pattern on the cushions in the Visa than I was with the floral in the Aliner, I still decided to cover it.  It was actually starting to show signs of fraying on one edge already, so I figured I better get it done sooner than later.

I went in search of some sort of plain tan or brown, which I found...but when I saw the red gingham-ish fabric that reminded me of the shirts the staff at Fort Wilderness wears, I knew I had to use it somewhere!