I spent a week in Maine on my own with the kiddos this month while DH was using a precious week of his vacation time to take a bronzecasting class at the Wooden Boat School. We spent the week staying about an hour away from DH at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor at a family nature camp and were lucky enough to have very un-Maine-like weather. It wasn't until DH joined us at the end of the week that we saw any fog. We had glorious blue skies, and perfect temperatures. Although we were there for a nature camp, we were extremely happy that we saw hardly any of the Maine state bird (aka the mosquito) while we were there.
Given how many programs the National Park Service organizes in Acadia and the number of biking and hiking trails, we could have had a very busy week on our own without signing up for the camp. The advantage of the camp was that there were other families doing the activities with us, and kids for mine to play with during down time, making it a lot more relaxing for all of us. The location was also great - a short walk from downtown Bar Harbor, and on the Island Explorer bus line. Kudos to LLBean for sponsoring such a fantastic free bus service that covers so much of the island!
The kids loved pretty much everything we did. One evening we went over to a pond that had two beaver lodges in it to see if we catch a glimpse of any beavers. For a long time we thought we wouldn't see any. Our guide told us that the lodge closest to us was abandoned. Then we suddenly saw a line in the water - a beaver swimming around the lodge furthest away from us! We ended up seeing two beavers who were either fighting or playing together, and then we saw a third, smaller beaver. Then one of the larger beavers swam over and clearly went into the lodge closest to us! Although we have beavers living only half a mile or so away from our house, this was still the first time the kids had really had a chance to see any. I wish I had a better camera as you can barely see the beaver in this picture :-(
 |
| The beaver pond was prettier in the daytime when the water lilies were out but there were never any beavers around then. |
 |
| There were a lot of beavers in Acadia and they do love birch trees, but I'm pretty sure none of them could read! |
2 comments:
They are big animals...and can build those huge beaver dams in a short amount of time, but I also read they are very beneficial to river systems.
I hope to visit Maine, it looks incredibly beautiful.
~Jo
I hope to visit Maine one day....my SIL lives there.
It looks so beautiful and serene, reminds me of Wales.
Beavers are the best builders, and make short work of it :)
~Jo
Post a Comment