When we bought our camper a few years ago we were specifically looking for a small camper. At the time, we didn’t have a truck and needed to find something that could be towed with our Subaru Ascent. Additionally, many state and national parks have size limitations for camp sites. Or if they do allow larger RVs, the available sites are the most undesirable – no privacy or shade, almost like a parking lot. Since we tend to camp almost exclusively in state parks, we didn’t want to limit ourselves. Our camper has worked well for long weekends and other relatively short trips, but the compact size has proven challenging for such an extended trip. Really only 2 people can comfortably be in the camper at the same time without bumping into each other. If the table is out, it’s a tight squeeze to get to the sink or toilet and you can’t open the pantry door to get food. The bathroom door has to be closed to get in or out of the bunk beds. This list goes on. On the long drives between campgrounds Jake and I frequently revisit our ongoing conversation about if and how we should upgrade our camper. We dream of a drivable class A or a spacious 5th wheel, but then we circle back to the reasons we went small in the first place.

Suffice to say, when we rolled up to our AirBnB in Burlington, VT we were all ready for a break from the camper. When I booked the house I thought it would be a nice respite, and we wanted to be in Burlington not at a campground 30 mins away. Little did I know how much we would need the break 2/3 of the way into this trip. It’s a very nice, freshly renovated 2 bedroom/1 bathroom duplex, but from the kids reaction you’d think it was Versailles.

For our first full day in Burlington we did nothing strenuous. We all took long, hot showers, did laundry (in the house, not at a laundromat!!), and relaxed. Penelope and I got pedicures and Jake and Phineas hit up a game store. We got creeemee’s, VT’s special soft serve ice cream. We found a crepe restaurant and the kids were thrilled to have Nutella crepes. We capped off the day by watching Avengers sitting on an actual couch.

Prior to this trip, we’ve typically camped at state parks in Virginia and the surrounding area. State parks are destinations unto themselves; they have hiking trails, often mountains and/or lakes, or some natural feature that warranted the creation of the state park. The campgrounds just add to the experience and allow visitors to stay a night or more in the park. When we camp in Virginia’s amazing wealth of state parks, we often never leave the park for the duration of our trip. And as other campers are in the same boat, the kids frequently make friends at the campground. It’s like a freshman year college dorm – a bunch of kids show up not knowing anyone else and within a day they are fast friends. It’s not unusual to see a roaming pack of kids biking around the campground and spending time at each others’ campfires.

On this trip we’ve stayed at quite a few private campgrounds and only one state park. Rather than seeking out specific state or national parks we’ve been focusing on destinations and then finding a convenient campground with showers and (ideally) hookups. State and national parks also tend to have fewer amenities like water and electric hookups, hot showers, etc., and knowing that we’d be on the road for 6 plus weeks I wanted to prioritize camping comfort. One unexpected aspect of staying in private campgrounds is that friends are hard to come by. Most of the campers use the campground as a home base and then leave to go explore the surrounding area. The campground can feel almost empty during the day. There also seem to be more retirees and couples camping and fewer kids. Both kids have been really missing the social aspect of camping so when an SUV with 2 kids around Penelope’s ago showed up a few days ago, Penelope stalked them. Within a few minutes she had them in the pool with her and proceed to spend the rest of the night playing nonstop.

Phineas and I spent the next day doing laundry and running errands while Jake stayed back at camp with Penelope so she could keep playing with her new friends. They had an EPIC day riding pool floats down the river behind the campsites, playing in the pool, playing card games and just being kids outside. Sadly Jake didn’t take any photos, but if/when the other mom texts me some I’ll add them to the blog. EDIT: adding some photos.

For our last full day in New Hampshire, we decided to head to Loon Mountain Resort, a ski resort that offers 4 season activities. In summer, they monetize their ski lift as a scenic gondola ride to the summit of loon peak. It was a really fun day. Phineas rode the 20 minute round trip gondola up and down the mountain several times while Jake and Penelope explored the glacial caves at the summit. Jake said the glacial caves were amazing but very strenuous to explore. He likened crawling through the caves to some form of extreme yoga. They also have a summer activity area at the base of the mountain with a zip line and climbing walls. After we were done exploring the summit, Jake and Penelope tried the zip line and Penelope made it to the very top of the climbing wall. When we got back to camp we spent a last evening hanging out around the campfire with our new friends, then started to pack up for our next stop, Burlington, VT.

We have been exploring the white mountains of New Hampshire the last couple of days. We arrived at Along the River Campground and the kids immediately jumped in the pool. The campground is small, but peaceful and very family friendly. The RV sites have full hookups (yay!) but still feel woodsy and quiet.

We started out white mountains adventure by heading to the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. It’s an approximately 2 mile loop hike along a gorgeous river and waterfall. There is a wooden pathway and bridge structure along the river through the gorge that is breathtaking. The kids were able to climb on glacial boulders, walk through covered bridges and experience the spray of rushing water through the gorge. Penelope even braved a cave cut through solo that required hands and knees traveling. I waited at one end and Jake waited at the other. She was nervous but totally rocked it and emerged happy! Phineas took a pretty significant tumble near the end of the hike, but recovered quickly and we all had ice cream back at the visitor’s center. Penelope has discovered black raspberry ice cream and now looks for it at every ice cream stand she comes across.

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United States. It’s famed for its extreme weather. Multiple weather systems converge on the mountain and the weather can change dramatically in a matter of moments, making hiking unprepared dangerous. On our second day in NH, the weather forecast was calling for an unseasonably warm 90 degrees, so I knew that was our day to summit Mt Washington. In 1869 the Mount Washington Cog Railway was completed. It was the first rack and pinion railroad and it’s builder, Sylvester Marsh, invented many of the features that are used today on this and other cog railways (such as on Pike’s Peak and in the Alps).

It’s possible to drive up (or hike, if you are fit and daring), but we elected to ride the cog railway to experience the history. The trip up the summit takes about an hour, you have an hour to explore the summit, then another hour down. It was amazing. The views alone were incredible. The temp on the summit was 59 degrees and windy – 30 degrees less than the base. I wasn’t sure what to expect since we’ve been to the top of Pike’s Peak in CO and Mt Washington is less than half that elevation. But it was perfect: stunning without the difficulty breathing. There is a post office box at the peak, so we mailed a couple of postcards. Be on the lookout, Nimmy!

We’ve really enjoyed spending time in Bar Harbor, ME and Acadia National Park. If the winters weren’t so brutal, we’d consider living here! Acadia is huge and we were barely able to touch the surface of all it has to offer; it’s definitely a place we’d love to return to in the future with more energy and more time. One of the things we’re finding on this trip is that despite spending at least 4-5 nights in each location, the pace feels busy. The kids were both asking for “chill days” so we scaled back our list of must-dos and spent more time at camp and at the pool.

When I was a kid, somewhere between Phineas and Penelope’s ages, my family and I spent time in California. I remember visiting tide pools and experiencing the wonder of seeing the little sea creatures and plant life dance around in the pools left by the receding tide. Eager to share this with the kids, we timed a hike down the Wonderland Trail in Acadia to arrive at the ocean at low tide. The tide pools in Acadia were amazing. Penelope, especially, loved exploring the tide pools in search of snails and hermit crabs. We even found a pool a water that was warmed from the sun and the kids put their feet in. There were a couple of toddlers splashing around and the kids had fun playing little games with them. The pools were so peaceful and full of life, I could have spent hours just sitting and gazing. We only left when the mosquitos came out and we had to race the half mile or so back to our car to avoid being eaten alive.

On our last day in Bar Harbor, we spent the morning lounging in the pool. It was a beautiful, but hot, day and the kids needed some downtime more than they needed another hike. To cap off our time in Maine we booked a tour on a lobster boat from Bar Harbor Whales. It was a combo lobster fishing and seal watching adventure. The boat was an actual lobster fishing boat that had been converted for tours by adding bench seating. The guide was a trained zoologist who was full of interesting stories and facts about the wildlife found in Maine and the commercial lobster fishing industry. Phineas’ previous fear of boats and water thankfully seems to have abated. The captain hauled up and checked several lobster cages to show the process, and threw back the too-small lobsters he caught. Then we motored over to an island where dozens and dozens of seals were sunning themselves and swimming in the water. They looked like adorable little swimming teddy bears. Near the end of the tour, the guide passed around a couple of live lobsters and a starfish from the boat’s holding tank. We all enjoyed handling the sea animals, but Penelope got a little freaked out when the starfish’s teeny tiny legs started squirming around.

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!

Penelope: we went to a fun trampoline park. There was so much stuff there, there was this giant thing on the ceiling where people fly around. I did it more than 10 times. It was like I was flying around. There was a ninga course and it was pretty hard. We also played some games at the arcade and won a lot of stuff. It was really fun. And the claw machines I won 5 stuffies. I won 2 for myself and 2 for my brother phineas. And I won an extra 5th stuffie for a little kid. And there was this course in the sky where you could walk around on it. It was really high up right next to the ceiling. And remember how I told you about the giant flying thing in the sky, I was up there and it was this giant strap thing you were strapped into. You would run up and your feet would be dangling above the whole place while you went really fast.

Since we’ve been in Maine I’ve been eager to eat a whole lobster at a legit lobster shack by the water. I’ve definitely been eating lots of lobster items at restaurants (lobster pasta, rolls, eggs Benedict), but I hadn’t done the whole steamed lobster thing ever in my life. Until today!

We are in transit from Camden to Bar Harbor. Along the way we decided to stop at Young’s Lobster Pound. It’s basically a giant lobster filled warehouse where you order at the counter and they steam up your lobster. They have very few other items on the menu. They seem to do most of their business in carry out of live or steamed lobsters, but they have picnic tables by the water if you want to eat there.

After experiencing this I think I prefer lobster rolls or lobster in things. The lobster was good and very fresh (obviously) but it was a lot of work to pick the meat out, and honestly I like the added flavors of other ingredients. But a big check mark for the bucket list!

Camping is a lot of work. It’s amazing; I’ve loved camping since the first time Jake took me to Shenandoah National park 20 years ago. But since day one I’ve been working to figure out how to make it both more comfortable and easier. The first time we went camping we had almost no gear. We sat on the ground and ate steaks with our hands. I was new to the whole thing but I knew that maybe some camp chairs and a knife and fork would improve the experience. Since that first trip we’ve upgraded from sleeping bags to air mattress to pop-up camper to finally our 24 foot travel trailer. But with each upgrade comes more things to pack and unpack, more things to set up and take down.

12 days and 4 campgrounds into our trip I think we’re starting to get the turnover down to a science. Prior to this trip we’d never chained camping trips together; after a trip we headed straight home. Living in a camper for an extended period introduces the need to clean and reset more while traveling instead of waiting until we get home.

Today was our last day in Camden after 5 days. Jake and the kids spent a lazy morning by the campfire relaxing while I got some work done. Then Phineas and I walked into town to have lunch and check out the shops. Penelope and Jake joined us after an emergency propane run. Highlight of the day was hanging out by Camden harbor watching the ducks. The tide started coming in quickly and Jake had to rescue the kids. Early evening we headed back to camp and immediately started taking down the stove, outdoor sink, etc to make the morning leaving easier. It was a good day; we didn’t do much but we all needed some downtown and a mental reset. Next stop: Acadia!

Camden is a gem for outdoor activities. We’re staying in Camden Hills state park, just a couple miles from Camden harbor and located right at the Mount Battie Trailhead. After our first cold, rainy day the weather transformed into perfect, sunny 65-70 degree days and crisp nights.

Yesterday we boarded the Schooner Surprise for an afternoon sail around Camden Bay. The sailing company did an amazing job involving the kids and pointing out lighthouses and wildlife. Phineas has developed a fear of being on the water. He wanted to skip the sail, but we talked about how facing your fears helps make them smaller. Phineas decided to give it a try and despite feeling nervous really summoned and ended up enjoying himself.

Today we embarked on a strenuous 4+ mile round trip hike up to the summit of Mount Battie. The trail was steep and included several sections of rock scrambles. It took us a couple hours to summit but we were rewarded with fantastic views of Camden harbor. There is a little stone castle at the summit that you can climb for even better views.

For our last night in Provincetown, we decided to venture about 20 minutes outside of PTown to the little town of Wellfleet for dinner. I spent the afternoon at a laundromat (one of the less glamorous aspects of life on the road) so I has tons of time to research restaurants. I made reservations at the highly rated Wicked Oyster. It was one of the most delicious dinners I’ve eaten in a long time. We started with a plate of Wellfleet Oysters, regarded as one of the best New England varieties. It was neat to enjoy them in their namesake town. For my main course I had an incredible gnocchi in a tarragon cream sauce with lobster. We ate on their outdoor patio with twinkling lights. The whole experience was sublime.