Anyways, after our big road trip last year, my parents decided they wanted to do something like that. Not a trip that was as long, of course, but something that would take them to a national park. They wanted Cara and I to do the planning, and they'd go along for the ride. We had no problem agreeing to that, so we set our sights on Acadia National Park - a place neither Cara and I nor my parents had ever been to. Along with mom and dad, my sister and brother made an envoy of six.
The first stop on our way was in Boston. We had ourselves an Airbnb in the Chelsea neighborhood and spent Saturday hiking the Freedom Trail (with a slight detour to the Harpoon brewery). I'll end up throwing most of those photos on Facebook eventually. By Sunday, we were on our way to Mount Desert Island - a roughly five-hour drive from Boston.
Along the way, Cara found a cool place to stop in Portland. It was the Portland Headlight in Fort Williams Park.
We took a hike along the cliffs, which gave us a nice view on a relatively hot afternoon.
It was a good breaking point about halfway through our travels to Maine.
As for Maine, we arrived at our Airbnb in the mid-afternoon and met our host. We're staying in Otter Creek, a small town on the island. After settling into our house, we wanted to do a small hike before sunset. Cara found the Ocean Path hike inside Acadia itself.
So, we hopped in the car and drove into the park for this hike. The path, as the name implies, takes you along the ocean. It's not a terribly long or difficult trail, which was good for us as we had just spent the last 5-plus hours in a vehicle not to mention we walked roughly 10 miles in Boston the day before.
All that said, it was a beautiful evening in the 70s with few clouds in the sky. We didn't hike the entire trail because we kept jutting off the trail to various lookouts along the rocks.
The cool thing about this trail was that despite there being quite a few lookout opportunities every 100 feet or so, each one offered a different view. Each lookout started with a different mini-hike to get there that was unlike the previous one.
Binoculars were a good call and before long we found ourselves a bald eagle sitting on an island not too far from the shoreline. I was never able to get a photo of it, but it was quite the patriotic start to this 4th of July holiday vacation.
Like I said, the Ocean Path was not a very long trail, and we didn't even hike all of it. But in the hour or so that we spent navigating along the shoreline, it made for very calm and relaxing start to our trip to Acadia National Park.
Sometimes just sitting down on the rocks, listening to the waves crash, and taking in the scenery is all you need in the evening.
Today is the famous Cadillac Mountain Trail. We're starting the at the South Cadillac Ridge Trailhead, which is conveniently located near our house, and hiking the nearly 6-mile trail to the North Cadillac Ridge Trailhead. I'm sure there will be some great photos to come from that!
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