cooprider family vacation

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we went on a mini-vacation to southern Maine. It was a our first official family get-away since we have been married. Sure we have gone on little day trips, but this was the real deal--camping, beach, festival and of course food! 

Let me commence with the mini vacation summary. Hold on tight, this is a long post, especially for me. 

We began our trip by travelling to Pownal Maine where our campsite was located. It was a beautiful little state park, with lots of walking trails and pretty walk-in campsites. Our campsite was on the edge of the camping area, far from other people. 

  

We had a fabulous day once we arrived. We had lunch, Lucy took a nap in the tent and then we walked around the trails for an hour or two. Our only reason to return was Lucy loaded her diaper, making her an unbearable companion on daddy's back.

Before starting dinner we went into Freeport to pick up a few things, namely a citronella candle and walk around. We had heard LL Bean was founded in Freeport and wanted to take a little stroll. Little did we know that Freeport should be name LL Bean World. When I put LL Bean into the GPS for Freeport, 15 different stores came up. We found the closest one, and walked around at least 3-4 of the different stores. Each one represents a different product type. We started in the hunting store, but spent most of our time in the clothing store. Did you know there is story time, and knot tying wall in the kids' section. Awesome, right? Despite wanting to buy everything in sight, we bought only a swimming hat for Lucy. It will be featured in later pictures.

When we got back daddy made a fire and we prepared grilled veggies and brauts for dinner. Despite looking enthralled by the fire pit when it wasn't lit, she was quite subdued when it was going. Thank goodness. I don't know what we would have done if she was running at the fire the entire night.

After dinner we rinsed Lucy off with a washcloth (she was coated in bug spray and sunscreen) and put her to bed. She protested at first, but then lulled off to sleep pretty quickly. Too bad that was not how the night proceeded.

In preparation for our camping trip, earlier in the week we slept in the tent with Lucy. She did fantastic, but that may have had to do with the fact that it didn't get much below 70 degrees at night. On Thursday, the day temperature was fantastic, but it was a little bit chilly at night. Because of this Lucy, who was tossing a turning (like she normally does anyways) was cold and constantly tried to sleep on top of me and Jimmy. There were moments where she was sleeping perpendicular to both Jimmy and me, her head on my stomach, her feet kicking Jimmy. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep.

 

The next day we headed to the "beach" in Freeport. When Jimmy looked up beaches in the area, some reviews mentioned that there really weren't nice beaches within and hour, but we thought we would try out some anyways. The reviews were right. We went to Winslow park, which besides having a really nice wooden boat for kids to climb on, did not have a typical pretty beach. Besides that, it was low tide and what we observed and experienced was mostly mud and rocks. Lucy decided she would see how it tasted. 

After the beach we headed to Yarmouth for the Clam Festival. We parked a little outside of town, and were shuttled in by bus to the downtown area. This festival was the highlight of the trip for Jimmy. First we started with some face painting, which we decided would be easiest on Lucy's arm. Turns out she was so interested in the painting that we had no need to hold her. 

 

Then we walked up and down the streets of Yarmouth where they had a HUGE craft fair --probably over 500 vendors. The first time around we looked, and tasted all sorts of local goods, from jalepeno jellies to lobster cream dips. I eyed  some wallets and Lucy waved "Hi!" to almost every person we saw. We then headed back to get some seafood. We tried both fried and steamed clams. Jimmy was in heaven. After lunch we went up to the ECO fair where they had granola and charizo and alpakas and chickens. Soon after the ECO fair, we caught a wagon ride with two large draft-sized horses. Lucy was entranced the entire ride. 

After we made on final sweep on the craft fair, I finally consented to buying a new wallet (which had gone up in price by the way), and then we headed back to catch the bus to our car.

We then drove all the way to Salem NH, where we had a hotel room. We ate out that night, and afterwords didn't do anything noteworthy--let Lucy fall asleep in her Pack-n-Play and watched The Day After Tomorrow. It was pretty funny listening to her fall asleep. She literally talked to herself for over an hour before to fell asleep on her back, without a single blanket covering her.

The next morning we woke up and headed to Portmouth NH for breakfast at the Friendly Toast. Jimmy researched food places based on some of the foodie shows he watches. This one was known for a large omelette filled with meat. Naturally that is what Jimmy ordered, I got a greek inspired egg scramble, with feta, loads of spinach and olives. Everything was delicious and quite too much to eat. We left, wobbling out the door.

Our next stop was Salibury beach. The last time we went to Salibury beach Lucy was 2ish month old. For the most part she laid under an umbrella and squinted. This time Lucy, sporting her new swimming hat, played with the sand like a champ. She was a little frightened by the waves at first, but starting loving them once she noticed how mild the temperature was.

 After our beach excursion we headed up the coast to Rye NH where the Seacost Science Center is located. The drive was beautiful with the exception of the Hampton Beach area. There were far too many people and cars. It was slightly nerve wracking. Once we made it to the science center both Jimmy and realized we probably could have gone to beach at the center because it was part of a small park with a small sandy beach nearby. It would have been a lot less crowded. We noted it for our next trip.

We ate lunch on a picnic bench and then headed into the science center. Along with cute exhibits there was a  touch tanks and some fish tanks. Lucy loved the touch tank simply because it was a lot like a big cool bath. She put her foot in at least twice, and probably scared a lot of star fish. So we headed to the fish tanks and she enjoyed pointing at the fish, most of which seemed bigger than her. And then we had to go because gave us the universal sign of being done, she loaded her diaper once again.

So we went outside, changed her diaper, ate some pudding, and then got in the car. And sad that our trip was over, we drove back to Nelson NH. It was a perfect trip.

Well, well, well, look at me all descriptive and such. I hope this didn't bore you too much. This certainly was  a meaningful and fun trip for our little family. We now know what kind of things we would like to do next time, and how to have fun as a family. Here's to the next family vacation--which may not happen for another year or so...