We had decided to do some hiking through Acadia on Wednesday. Since we have been reliant on shuttles and buses, we had to be at the RV park office at 7:45 AM to get to the Gateway Center. Somehow, not only did everyone get up and get ready, Sheri made an awesome breakfast of pancakes and bacon on our little RV stove and microwave. We rode the bus to the visitor center and decided to start our day hiking the Ocean Trail on the East side of the island. The views were stunning and there were huge rocks to scale and climb along the cliffs. We hopped on the bus and rode over to the restaurant on Jordan Pond. They seated us outside with amazing views of the pond and mountains. We had a fabulous lunch, including their famous popovers and homemade strawberry jam.
After we'd fueled up and refilled our water bottles, we set out to hike up Pemetic Mountain. This was no small feat. It was an amazing hike with incredible views and a few tough rocks and ledges we had to climb. I was super impressed with the kids ability to tackle this. Jake and Megan are super climbers and definitely were more skilled and much quicker at moving over the terrain than I was! It was definitely worth it to make it to the top. Words truly cannot describe the view. Unfortunately, we still had to hike back down. Ha. When it was all said and done, we hiked over 7.5 miles yesterday. One of the most priceless moments for me came in the middle of our hike yesterday. With no lead in or prompting, Alex just simply said, "I don't think I'll ever forget this vacation."
We took the bus (after a bit of a long wait for a bus that wasn't full...hint: if you aren't a fan of huge crowds don't go to Acadia in July), and headed back to the RV park. We knew we would get in late to the park...after the shuttles stopped running....so we'd planned to take a few taxis back. This is where we were blown away by the kindness and generosity of the RV park owners. While we were working on our strategy to get back, my phone rang. It was the RV park owner. She noticed that we were not back yet and offered to come and pick us up, at no charge. We told her that we would be happy to take a cab because we knew it was after hours, but she insisted. What an amazing example of customer service that goes far above and beyond anything required!
We got back to the park and crashed. We ordered pizza for everyone, cleaned up, and packed it in for the night. I'm not sure I've felt exhaustion like that in a long time...it even made those 16 hour days in the OR seem like nothing.
Today, we head for New Jersey with plans to take a quick, one day tour in NYC tomorrow.