Lobstah & Lighthouses - Our Family Vacation in Maine, pt. 1

One of the big attractions for moving to the East Coast in James' mind was the (relative) ease with which we'd be able to visit his family in Maine. He was born there, and still has grandparents and an uncle who live there. But due to our Air Force assignments keeping us in the western half of the world, we have not been able to visit them since we started dating 10 years ago! Travel priority #1 after arriving in South Carolina has been to make a trip up there. But unfortunately James' work schedule has not allowed him to take any vacation time until a couple weeks ago. You can be sure that once his leave was on the books for mid-May, we immediately booked our New England get-away!

We weren't sure how the traveling would go with our new family of four, but the kids did great! Kaden loved looking out the window on our road trip up to the Charlotte, and had a ball exploring the airport and watching the airplanes through the big glass windows. Audrey was a trooper on her first flight, and we avoided any major melt-downs even though the flight took place right around bed time. One huge bonus is that the winds were with us so we landed about 40 minutes early and managed to put the kids down at a reasonable hour in the hotel. That also meant that it was just light enough to get a great view of the coast  and a few tiny light houses through our airplane window as we landed. What a treat!

Our first view of the rocky coastline of Maine!

Our first full day in Maine was very full. We started off with a visit to the Portland Head Light. It was a gorgeous day and Kaden loved hiking around and looking at everything. Unfortunately, they were working on the actual light house when we visited which spoiled my pictures. I suppose that's the hazard of visiting in the off-peak travel season. They were sprucing it up for the summer tourists.

Curse you, scaffolding! This would have been a perfect shot.

James pointing out another lighthouse across the water. He couldn't get enough!

 Next, we drove up to Freeport and ate lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant called the Tuscan Brick Oven Bistro. You could tell this was the kind of place that would be packed during tourist season but we didn't have to wait for a table and it was relatively quiet. This was about the time we realized how perfect the timing of our trip was. Lots of traffic and waiting in lines everywhere would have been miserable with small kids!

After lunch, we walked around the L.L. Bean Flagship Store. In addition to their great outdoor gear, they had all kinds of interesting things for Kaden to look at. They have a koi pond by the stairs and a large fish tank that you can stand up underneath and look around in (photos later). They also have a large clock chime to watch and listen to in the entryway and fake mountain terrain to climb around on in the shoe department. I did a little shopping while James corralled our increasingly over-tired toddler. But before we'd even seen the full extent of the primary store, it became obvious that Kaden was at his breaking point. (He lay down on the floor and tried to take a nap in the kid's department). So we figured it was time to cut our losses and get back on the road.

Thankfully both kids slept well in the car that afternoon so James and I got to enjoy some peaceful sight-seeing on our drive up to Waterville, where his grandparents live. On the way we drove through the capital city of Augusta and saw where his parents lived and worked at the time he was born. I could not get enough of the beautiful, classic American architecture up there. The entire trip I felt like we'd fallen into a Norman Rockwell painting or something. Truly idyllic.

I also enjoyed reading all the signs and seeing all the restaurants that serve lobster in Maine that otherwise would not. Turns out, if you're hankering for a lobster on a budget you can get it at Arby's! (Blech!)

Late that afternoon we arrived at our destination. We quickly checked into our hotel and then drove over to the Wentzel's farm to spend a little time getting acquainted with Great Grandpa Phil, Great Grandma Mary, and Great Uncle John. They were kind enough to grill up some burgers for dinner and entertained our strung-out toddler by taking him out to look for frogs by the pond. It was a challenge keeping his little fingers off of all the interesting things in their house, but thankfully he took a liking to them quickly and felt comfortable around them by the end of the night. It was sweet seeing them all delight in little Audrey as well. It was clear after just that first brief visit that we were in for a fun week.