Believe it or not, Yellowstone in the winter wasn't our only National Park vacation this year. A few days ago we kicked off a 16 day cross country road trip to Acadia and back. We've got Mom and Dan and Dan and Dana in tow and we're meeting up with a tons of friends along the way. I'll be blogging our progress on the trip in a few segments so today I've got part 1 of our trip for you - basically our route out to Acadia.
This trip is not for the faint of heart. We've got 2000+ miles, 50 hours of driving (just pure get where we're going driving...excluding all the stuff we'll do along they way), 10 states, 7 park stamps and countless stops along the way. I'm hoping to capture it all here in these blog posts. We left on a Thursday evening, just after work and our first stop took us only a few hours away, to the lake house at Koontz. It was the perfect stop over for us. We arrived around 8pm, took the boat out for quick spin, and tucked into bed before 10. We got of the most congested (we hope) hours behind us so we could start bright and early Friday morning and put some major miles under our tires. It was the perfect start to the trip. We did a family boat cruise and even got a surprise Thursday evening fireworks show while we were on the lake. Gotta love Koontz for that!
Friday we put some major miles under our tires to meet up with the rest of the group in Somerset, PA. We did 460 uneventful miles (our favorite kind) and met up with the group late afternoon at our first campground Woodland Campground. The campground was just taken over by new owners and while we were a little worried about it when we pulled in (lots of really shabby permanent sites), it turned out to be great. I don't think we'd want to camp there for a full week, but we ended up with a pretty private site and there was a great little pool we all plopped in for an hour or two. We had the place to ourselves and Carols - the new owner, couldn't have been nicer. There was a lake across the street (more like a wetland area) and it had a 1 mile hiking path that Ryan and I both used the next morning before we packed up for the next stop. All in all, I'd give that campground a 4 and probably not recommend it to others, but it worked out great for us and we had a great experience. It just needs some cleaning up!
Vermont was beautiful! We'll be back at some point for sure. We didn't have nearly enough time to look around and we know we need to get that Marsh Billings stamp at some point :)
Friday morning we headed over to the Flight 93 National Monument. It was a really really well done monument. Very somber as you'd expect but it was really well done. We talked to the kids a good bit about what happened and what we'd see when we got there and I think a lot of it went over Hazel's head but Abby is old enough and mature enough to understand the gravity of what we were seeing. The recorded messages the passengers left for their loved ones were (as expected) the hardest part. It brought me to tears and moved me to remember back to those first few days of college and how the whole thing felt. If you're going to visit, plan to spend 2-3 hours there to do it right. It was well worth the few hours we spent there.
After leaving Flight 93 we made our way a few hours east to Gettysburg where we were set to spend two nights. We only had a few hour drive so doing Flight 93 in the morning and then the drive was totally reasonable. In Gettysburg we stayed at campground called Gettysburg Campground. Another private campground with a pool (that the kids used both days), mini golf and lots of amenities. We don't usually choose the private campgrounds when we're just going for a long weekend, but they are nice for these long trips and usually have something fun the kids can do. I'd give it solid 7 if I was rating them and would recommend it to others.
That evening (Thursday) we had our first "tour" planned - a ghost tour of Gettysburg. I was struggling to figure out how to make a battlefield (that really looked like a big section of grass) from 150 years ago seem interesting and relatable to two kids. I did some reading and it seemed like the ghost tours wouldn't be too scary for the kiddos so we booked it. The tour we did was called Dead or Alive and the idea was that we were each assigned a real life person from the war and we had to find out if we survived the battle or not. It sounded perfect, but in reality it was not related at all the to stories we heard (a real miss if you ask me). The kids liked the ghost tour though, which was the point. And, I think we actually saw a real life ghost! See the picture above of the ghost with a hat on walking in the distance. The girls caught in on the camera in an area where there were reports of a two lovers and a friend walking under a special tree in the area. The kids are convinced and so am I! We learned about Jenny Wade - the only civilian to die in the battle and a little boy named Jeremy and while the ghost tour was a little hokey - it was a nice way to end our evening in Gettysburg.
The next day (Saturday) we spent our second day/night in Gettysburg exploring around and seeing a few more things before we hit the road again. We started our day with a horse tour - another way I could make a battlefield fun for kids. We saddled up for the 8am tour (a great choice since it to got be nearly 90 later in the day). We did a tour hour guided tour with an official Gettysburg tour guide. The guides are so interesting to me! Their knowledge seems to be endless and their ability to tell a story and make it relevant to the group was amazing. He told us that he spent 16 YEARS studying for the test to become an official guide. It's wild to me! he told us that he'd been spending the last few years studying flags and fabric related to Gettysburg. I wondered what topic would capture my own interest to spend 16 years studying and learning and I love to learn!
After the horse tour we went back to the campground and showered/ate some lunch/the kids swam (that's Papa!) and we got ourselves ready to go back out and explore downtown Gettysburg and go to the visitors center to get our send National Park stamp of the trip. We split from Dan and Dana for a few hours and explored alone with Mom and Dad. We went to the visitors center, skipped the Cyclorama (probably a miss looking back) and stopped at the Gettysburg Childrens Museum where we learned the stories of 5 kids who lived there during the war. The museum was really well done for kids. Maybe a little too young for Abby, but it was perfect for Hazel. We couldn't resist the Appalachian Brewery for a drink or two before heading back to the campground for the night. We did a few stops along the Gettysburg loop but didn't do the full 2-3 hour drive. In some ways I wish we'd have done it with the audio station playing so we could learn more about the battle but with so little time and the two kids in tow, this wasn't the trip to do it. We'll be back again!
Sunday we were up bright and early and hit the road again to our next stop - Hyde Park, New York. There are three NP stickers spots in that one little town - Elenore Roosevelt's Home (one of many), Theodore Roosevelt's Home (again, one of may) + the first presidential library and a Vanderbilt Mansion (yet again...! One of many). We didn't have time to see them all, so we picked the Vanderbilt and did the full tour. It was very cool - and I'm glad we did it.
We learned a little bit of the history of the Vanderbilt's and the park ranger for the tour shared a lot about what it would have been like to work there or to visit there as a guest. She did a great job of painting the picture of day to day life so much so that you could imagine yourself there.
It's impossible to capture to opulence or how grand all the rooms were in pictures but I snagged a few so we'd remember the rooms we saw.
We learned that the wife (I can't remember her name) loved all things French and that the French kings and queens didn't share the same bedrooms, so she and her husband each had their own rooms with full baths attached. This photo above was of the wife's room. The railing around the bed and the hidden door into the master bed (you can't see it in this photo) cracked me up.
The room above was the "master" bedroom and while you can't actually see the bed here, you can see the seam in the secret door that led to the wife's bedroom and the wallpaper in this room was actually hand painted tapestry.
After the Vanderbilt's we rushed to get to Eleanor's home before it closed but we didn't make it in time to grab a stamp there. I got these photos of the outside though! And then, with only 15 minutes left before the visitors center at Franklin's house closed we rushed into the lobby and grabbed all three stamps with minutes to spare. I'm a little bummed we didn't get to spend more time at the other two spots - I don't feel like we actually got to learn about them or really see them but that is the trouble with moving every single day. You spend a good part of the day driving and it never feels like you have enough time to see everything you wanted to. We've learned and accepted the fact that you just have to pick one thing you do well and leave the rest for next time. We can always come back!
Day 5 took us another 250 miles down the road to Hartford, Vermont where we landed at the best campsite of the trip (so far) and maybe one of the nicest spots we've stayed in a long long time. We stayed at the Quechee KOA. We don't usually seek out a KOA, preferring the state parks over private parks but this KOA had a great set up. Both Mom and Dad's site and ours featured a full patio/deck area with a normal size grill, a table and chairs with an umbrella and Mom's site even had a bar rail built around a tree that went through the deck. Dan and Dana's site featured the fire pit where we roasted marshmallows and chatted into the evening. I'd give that KOA a solid 9!
Our route took us up to this town because it houses Vermont's only National Historic Park - Marsh Billings Rockefeller Park. But, we skipped that stop all together and decided to do a quick hike to the Quechee Gorge. I'd seen pictures of it from Brittany and Anthony last year and I had a feeling it would a good one for the group. The hike was only 1.5 miles and it took you down to this beautiful rocky gorge area where we could take our shoes off and wade in the water. The kids always love a water hike where they can splash around.
I LOVE a good group photo and this was the first we took on this trip and look at this beautiful scenery. I am so glad Mom pulled everyone together and asked a lady to take this for us. It turned out so nice!
Isn't this deck space so nice!?! If I was ever going to build a campground, I'd try to figure out a way to incorporate something like this.
Day 6 was our final push to Bar Harbor - 350 miles. We rolled up camp bright and early and were on the road before 7:45 but we timed it perfectly so that we could stop at Red's Eats to grab lunch. Auntie Terri told us about this little food stop a few weeks ago when she and Tony came out to Acadia and boy did she deliver. They boast the best lobster roll in New England for the last two years. This place has been in business for over 80 years and we met a nice man in line who told us that he drives here every single year just to eat at this restaurant. They live 2.5 hours away and he and his wife drive here just to grab lunch and then head back home. With that kind of commitment, you can almost bet your life that it'll be good and while I'm pretty sure Ryan and I won't be driving back here every year for just the lobster roll (it's too far!) I am pretty certain that we've really set ourselves up for disappointment going forward with our future lobster rolls.
We arrived just 10 minutes after they opened and stood in line for about 45 minutes before we made it to the front to order. It has a cult following and people come from all around just to eat at this little food stand. Thier rolls include two full claws of crab meat and the entire tail. The butter was to DIE for and they had plenty of options for the kiddos including GF buns (amazing!) and GF whoopie pies (good, not great).
So, I'm here to tell you, if you're headed up from the Portland area you'll drive right through Wiscasset, ME and you should plan to stop here. It will not disappoint!
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