We’ve had a very active first couple of days in Acadia/Bar Harbor. We arrived at Somes Sound View campground late on Thursday because we stayed longer than planned at the Urban Air park. After setting up in the dark, we went straight to bed to get ready for an early wake up call. The campground is about 15 mins outside of Acadia National Park and has a dock right on Somes Sound and a heated pool. But oddly no dump station.

Friday morning we met our guides from Maine State Sea Kayak for a kid-friendly kayak tour along the shores of Mount Desert Island. We took tandem kayaks: one kid and one adult per kayak and saw Loons and other wildlife. Both kids were shockingly grumpy. Penelope was upset that only I could steer the kayak and she had a scrape on her elbow that was irritated by the splashes of salt water. Phineas had to pee and was tired and a little seasick. Overall it was an awesome experience – we all enjoyed it despite the grumpiness, but I think everyone is just getting tired of the fast pace of the trip. I keep intending to build in chill days but there’s so much to do and see that I get antsy just sitting around the campground.

Today (Saturday) is Jake’s birthday. He wanted to head into Acadia National Park for a hike then play some board games. It’s pretty much guaranteed that we play board games on any holiday that celebrates Jake. He winged it, as he tends to do, and we parked at a lot with a series of trailheads. After a couple of mins of looking at the map, he had a planned route. We had no snacks and it was nearing lunchtime but I decided to roll with it. What I couldn’t roll with, though, was heading out on a hike without getting a physical map. I insisted we stop into the info station and it turns out Jake’s planned route including climbing vertical iron ladders hammered into stone cliffs with sheer drop offs. Giant nope. Here the trail that was part of Jake’s original route.

We ended up doing the quite strenuous Emery Path which is effectively hundreds of granite steps up a mountain and then another similar trail down. It was hard climbing but the views were incredible and totally worth it. After some lunch back at camp we played Everdell, one of our favorite board games and tried not to fall out of our seats from exhaustion. We had planned to head into Bar Harbor for a nice birthday dinner, but we decided it would be more relaxing to let the kids swim in the pool then make an easy dinner at camp. Everyone will sleep well tonight!