Back from Bar Harbor

Or..."Bah Hahbah", as they say in these here parts, I reckon :-) Louise, Kai & I cruised up to Maine for a long weekend to meet some good friends of ours, Shannon & Kip. Shannon & Kip drove down from Halifax, Nova Scotia, about 8 hours away, carrying 2 bikes & 2 sea kayaks on top of their little Honda Civic hatchback - speaks pretty well for Civics, I must say! It was good to see them again (last time was at our wedding) and re-connect.

This entry won't be too long, as Louise & I are both tired (Kai's already sleeping, and without helping us unpack a lick, that lazy, good-for-nothing.... oh wait, those comments will have to wait ten or so years, hehe). We have some good pics & good videos to share, so check back hourly for any updates. We drove up Saturday morning, stopping at the outlet malls in Kittery, Maine and driving along the coast north of Portland. It was a beautiful day and Kai handled his first real road-trip like a champ. He even got in a good 30min snooze. We'd been told that once you turn your kid forward, they stop napping in the car, but not our power napper, no sir! When he wasn't napping, he frequently nibbled on Bunny's nose or played games w/ a non-seatbelted, backwards-facing Mommy (while a nervous Daddy made extra-sure not to get in a fender-bender).

The cottage we rented was pretty rustic - and seemingly built by hand w/ little attention paid to an interesting device known as a "level". Levels are used to ensure floors and walls & such are, well, LEVEL. When not used, doors tend to swing wildly and not close, and walking across the room feels like a cross-country hike. Still, it was a pretty charming little place and was right on the water. Shannon & Kip went for some paddles nearly every morning, as did Louise & I one afternoon. We also did some biking w/ Kai in the bike trailer, hiked along the coast, brought Kai to a nearly-Arctic beach (coldest water I've felt outside of a Peruvian mountain stream), scarfed down some lobsters, and overall simply relaxed and ate too much food. Again, we'll post some pics w/ more details over the next few days.

The drive back was also pretty uneventful. We stopped by Kennebunkport to stretch everyone's legs and ran across Kai's perfect beach - at low tide, it was easily 150yards from the sea wall to the water, nearly flat as could be, and probably a mile long. Kai spent over 30 minutes running into & out of the water, running to & from his shadow, and generally just having a good time (we had a good time just watching). It was easily the most gentle beach we've been to outside of a lake, with no waves to speak of and nice, smooth, flat sand. We measured it to be about 90 miles from our house, so we may come back, or try to find a similar beach a little closer.

Time to turn-in and get some rest. Amazing how draining a simple day of travel can be! Even tho I was on my butt for most of it, I'm pretty beat and ready to slumber pretty hard! Must be the mental strain of ensuring nothing is forgotten in the morning, looking after the family, and keeping everyone safe on the roads.