Month: August 2018

Schoodic Point Campground is a wonderful spot for all that is natural however it doesn’t have the amenities that many campgrounds do such as playgrounds or pools. You’re expected to experience nature at it’s most beautiful. And that’s what they did: forming exploration parties and playing with their stuffed animals in the woods.

It was necessary, however they burn some energy. We talked to a local that said there was a playground behind the town hall. The kids had a wonderful time there and it was only five minutes from the campground. I highly recommend it to families staying The National Park Service Campground.

We also found Sand Cove Beach right Main Street in Winter Harbor. It seems to be a swimming beach but it was a little cold the day we went. We spent time beachcoming and wading in the cool water. We found a trail on the way out that led to Camp Moore, an old decommissioned Boy Scout Camp.

 

We also went to Jordon Pond in Acadia National Park for some swimming a day or two after. Ryan has a knack for finding dead things at the beach. There were plenty of crab carcasses at Sand Cove Beach that were eaten by gulls but somehow Ryan had found a whole dead crab and befriended it. It did not come back to the camper with us as he requested. Later he found a dead fish at Jordon Pond and reveled in chasing his sisters with it.

Later in the trip we revisited the famous Sand Beach in Acadia and spent a few hours climbing the rocks and playing in the sand and surf. For some reason the kids fought us about going to Sand Beach but they had the time of their lives once we were there.

The kids were definitely more capable on this year’s visit than last. Daring to enter the cold water deeper and deeper occasionally getting knocked down by the waves.

 

Maine is such a beautiful place. Everybody wants to go again next year. I could see us planning a quick trip up and back next summer although there is so much of America we’ve yet to see.

Check out the video below which chronicles our adventure to an adventure rope park as well as our beach and playground adventures. Stay tuned as we’ll take you on a working lobster boat next post. Thanks for stopping by.

Back to Maine. What can I say? One of our favorite places on Earth. Mountains meeting Oceans and the spectacular landscape it creates. This year we stayed in Schoodic Woods Campground in Winter Harbor. The Schoodic Peninsula is regarded as the quiet part of Acadia but we found it to be beautiful and unique to it’s own self. It’s separated from the rest of Acadia by water (Mount Desert Narrows) and really seems different from the other parts  of Acadia National Park.

Schoodic Woods Campground is run by The National Park Service. It’s only a few years old and residents still call it the new campground. It’s a beautiful campground and it was our first time actually staying in a National Park. The beauty is what this campground is all about. It doesn’t have a pool. It doesn’t even have a playground. We all thought this to be a problem but the kids reveled! Their imaginations kept them busy for hours at the campground.

The campground does have Ranger Programs though. All three worked on their Ranger Books and became National Park Service Junior Rangers. The campground also has bath houses (showers outside the park in Winter Harbor) and none of the sites had sewer hook ups. I bought a Barker 32 gallon Tote-A-Long to help with my gray tank and we showered every night.

These pictures are of Schoodic Point. The kids had a ball jumping from rock to rock although it was a bit unnerving to Linda and myself as we feared them falling into a crevice or even into the Atlantic as they can get ahead of us so easily. Like little ninjas.

We also visited The Schoodic Institute and learned about local flora and fauna as well as some of the science of early communication. The kids practiced morse code and learned about radar and telecommunications.

We can truly say we love the Schoodic Peninsula. We stayed outside Bar Harbor last year and I can say I love them both but for different reasons. We did find a playground in Winter Harbor and a nice beach and we’ll show you them in the next post.

Check out the video below to see more of the campground and Schoodic Point. Watch to the end as we happened into an impromptu bongo session while at the point. These knuckleheads really got into it!  Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah’s been real into horses lately and had been looking forward to going to The Hatfield Farm for the last couple of days. This was the longest horse ride she has been on so far. Also the largest horse. All the kids went on a good ten to fifteen minute ride each.

After touring their barn we headed up to the corral for their rides. There was only one girl giving rides and their brochure recommends calling first. It worked out because they have a petting pen with goats and donkeys as well a a charmingly rustic playground near the corral to keep the kids busy as they were waiting for their turn.

There’s another playground near the front and we spent some more time here before heading to Halifax which was a 20 minute drive away. we spent a few hours here.

We had an early dinner in Halifax but sadly did not have time to get to The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic before the 5:00 closing time. I’ve added it to my next time list as well as Peggy’s Cove.

We took day off after Halifax for some campground time and went out to Hall’s Harbor the following day to experience The Bay of Fundy and eat some lobster.

Before heading out check the tide tables. You ideally want to go when the tide is low to see the boats resting on the bottom as we did. While eating we watched the tide coming in and starting to fill the Harbor. The tides are a six hour event and we weren’t able to stay to watch the tide come fully in but we got the general idea by looking at the high water marks on the pilings.

The tides really do fluctuate about thirty feet in the Bay of Fundy and sometimes more then forty feet depending on storm activity and the moon’s position in the sky. When they come in it’s pretty fast. We were exploring some tide pools and not even fifteen minutes after we went back up to the upper beach the tide pools had been filled in.

I’m still really surprised how much the kids love lobster (well Ryan just likes to play with them it seems). Ava particularly loves it and can eat a full pound and three quarter lobster on her own.

We’re off to Maine next in search of more lobster. All in all, I feel Nova Scotia was a great trip even with changing money and the usual learning curve but it is vast as I’ve said before and it took a long time to get really anywhere. There’s quite a few things that we didn’t get to on this trip and one day I’d like to get back and visit the Southeast corner of the province.

Above you can see the children building rock cairns, please check out the video below highlighting our trip to both Hatfield Farm and Hall’s Harbor. Thanks for stopping by.

We stopped by the visitor center in Kingston and the woman working behind the desk excitedly recommended The Oaklawn Farm Zoo. The Nova Scotian people couldn’t be more proud of their zoo. Admission is reasonable and they have a lot of animals. Some our favorites were the lions and the horses.

 

As you make your way through the zoo there are gates. Proceed through the gate and now you’re actually in with the llamas, alpacas and goats. Proceed through the next gate and you’re now back on the appropriate side of “the fence.” They also had a barn with farm animals and a reptile exhibit above the gift shop.

If you’re near Aylesford, I highly recommend a trip to the Oaklawn Farm Zoo. We spent about a half day here. You can see more of the zoo in the video below. Stay tuned as we spend more time with horses and experience some crazy tides next. Thanks for stopping by.