Camping in Maine - Day 1

It is amazing to me how difficult it was finding a week that worked for the whole family to go on our summer camping vacation. With Bess in college and working, Brian's job as time consuming as ever, several great church activities and a couple summer weddings, it was a logistical challenge. Here we were pushing the end of August and finally making our way to Bar Harbor, Maine. Brian and I have been to this area a few times in the past, the first time for our Honeymoon twenty-five years ago, but the children have never been. We love taking them to new places.

The drive up was uneventful in a good way...light traffic, no problems, happy children and dry weather. We stopped to fill up the van and ourselves at lunchtime and one more time just to let everyone stretch their legs. We made the trip in nine hours. After the days and days of driving last summer, this seemed like a short outing.

We are staying at the Bar Harbor KOA. Brian didn't have any trouble backing into our site and we were hooked up and ready in no time. It is a lovely campground right on the water. We walked down to the water and knew we were going to have a great time.

The kids quickly collected some shells and rocks. Poor Gracie wanted to go into the water so badly, but we did not want to deal with wet dog right away. Tomorrow will be soon enough.


Rachel's arms raised to the sky pretty much expressed how we are all feeling. It is wonderful and we are all so pleased to be here.

Bess looking lovely as always. We are so glad that she was able to work out her schedule to join us. We realize it will be harder and harder for her to get away from school or work to come on our family vacations.

Let the adventure begin!

Portland Head Lighthouse

It was only mid-afternoon when we left the "B" family. The weather was not that great, but I wanted very much to see the ocean before we left. Brian, always the wonderful husband that he is, readily agreed to stop someplace. We plugged in "Portland Head Lighthouse" into the GPS and headed out.

What a tremendous treat for me. The ocean was wild from the stormy weather. It was cold, snowing and windy, but my intrepid family ventured out in the elements. We had a grand time walking along the paths, exploring all the junk that had washed up onto the rocks and soaking up God's creation at it's finest (at least in my mind).

We were cautious about letting the children get too far out or close to the water as there were some very large waves coming in. I think Bess was the only one that got her feet wet and that was because her boots leaked.


Thankfully, we had brought along boots, hats and gloves. What a great group of children to tolerate and even enjoy their momma's need for crazy stops in all kind of weather.

I was one happy traveler.

This stop was the whipped cream on the dessert of a very full and fun weekend.

Visit with the "B" Family

We arrived at the "B" families late morning. It was so nice to meet baby Jae and to visit with Jon, Felicity, Randy, Fern and Angeline. Jae wasn't too keen on visitors yet, but he was so sweet and adorable, that we didn't hold it against him.

Angeline has changed so much since we saw her last. She was talkative, so sparkly and a delight to us all.


Jae, keeping a watchful eye from across the room. Felicity was on the phone and was very curious of what was going on, but did not want to join in. I can't say I blame him....new family, new home, new language, new food...absolutely everything different and very strange from what he had known. I'm sure all of us would be a bit insecure with the situation.

The rest of the gang had no trouble interacting and enjoying the company. Poor Fern had been sick during the night, so she was being very careful to not get too close to us. We were glad she was feeling better and could join us.

We brought gifts for Jae and the other children. He enjoyed the wrapping paper, just like all babies.

Even not feeling well, Fern is gorgeous and has one of the most lively personalities of any child I know.

We ordered out for pizza and then left the Beedes. Felicity's sister and her two boys arrived shortly before we left...talk about us all overwhelming the little guy.

It was wonderful to see them all, even if for a short visit. We will most definitely be planning another trip soon. Welcome to America, baby Jae!

A Hotel in Maine

After we left the museum on Friday afternoon, we headed up the coast to Maine. We decided to incorporate our visit with our SHS friends with a visit to the "B" family in Maine. They had just returned home from Korea with their newest family member and we were eagerly awaiting meeting him.

As anyone with a larger family knows, a lot of hotels will not allow so many in one room, so we booked a suite in a hotel in Portland. It was very nice with plenty of room for everyone to spread out. We do not often stay in hotels with most of our traveling being done with our camper. It was a treat for us all, perhaps with the exception of Brian who spends way too much time staying in hotels. Trying to make this a mini-vacation, we made sure there was a pool.

After a quick stop for a fast-food dinner, we got to the hotel, changed and headed to the pool. It was great. I spent most of my time in the hot tub, but did enjoy a swim with the kids. Rachel also thought the hot tub was the place to be. Poor Rachel is almost always cold and truly enjoyed the warmth of the hot tub.

Dan checking out the view. We were on the 5th floor. As you can tell by the sheets, we needed all available bed space, including the pull-out sofa.

We were right next to the airport, but it was extremely quiet. I guess being late Friday into Saturday and a stormy weekend, there was not a lot of air traffic. I know many flights up and down the east coast were canceled or detailed due the weather.

Museum Butterfly Garden

We did not do any of the extra shows or special exhibits at the museum, except the Butterfly Garden. Nothing seemed nicer to me on a cold February day than spending time in a warm, humid room full of lovely plants and butterflies.

The Boston Museum of Science

Our trip the Boston Museum of Science on February 26th!

We had a wonderful visit at the museum. We arrived at 10am and left at 4:30pm. It was a full day, but so much fun.

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SHS Gals Meet at BMOS

We love acronyms in the family...military and all. Support4HomeSchool (SHS) is an online yahoo group that I have been a member of for 8+ years. It is a wonderful group that supports and encourages those of us that are homeschooling.

Cynthia, one of the group owners and her family were planning a trip to the east coast and wanted to know if some of us could meet and that was the start of a plan to get together at the Boston Museum of Science (BMOS).

So, on February 26th, Brian took the day off and we kept Rachel, Hannah and Dan out of school and made the trip to Boston. The weather was iffy at best, but decided to make the trip. The roads were marginal in places, but Brian did a great job. We made it to Boston without incident.

It was a great day of meeting old friends for the first time. We spent several hours exploring the museum, hooking back up with each other, chatting and trying to get in as much visiting as possible. It was all too short and I would really enjoy meeting these ladies again.

Here is most of the group, Laura from CT, Jeannine from NH, Jodi from NH, Lisa from ME (Lisa and I have met many times before and it was great to see her.), Me from NY, Rene from MA and Cynthia from MT.

Cynthia and her family (Minus Amanda, who had to head back home.) with our crew.

Lisa, her youngest son "J" and me.


We met up with Christy later on and took this picture. Me, Cynthia, Laura, Lisa and Christy.

I know I lot of people would never dream of meeting "strangers", but these ladies are so dear to me and have been a tremendous source of support and encouragement over the years through all the ups and downs of life.

Camping - VA & DC - Day 5 - 8/30 - National Zoo

The National Zoo was our first destination point in DC. Brian braved the traffic, no easy feat with our 12-pack van, and drove to the zoo.

It had been 26 years since I had been to this zoo and Brian never had, so this was basically a new experience for all of us. The children were so excited to be going to see so many animals and some we hadn't seen before.

It was a lovely day, a bit hot, but sunny and nice. They had these great misting stations around the zoo where you could walk under a very fine mist. You didn't get real wet (well the children sure did), but it cooled you off wonderfully.

These guys didn't look like they were too hot.

Ones of Gabe's favorite moments was seeing the Pandas. He was so thrilled and especially excited that one of them was awake and eating. We made sure to get a picture of him and the Panda.


We hit just about every exhibit at the zoo and that is a lot. We spent six hours there, walking and walking and walking some more. The children did a great job, but you can tell by this picture and some of the others, that Dan was tuckered out.

We ate at one of the places in the zoo, but for future visits, we would bring our own...very expensive as we anticipated. It was a nice break and we were able to see the last few exhibits after being refueled and a bit refreshed.


One of the last animals on our list was the Hippos. Gabe wanted to see one "live and in person" and the excitement for him was worth the whole day for us. He is at such a wonderful age where things are still so exciting for him and he is making a lot of life connections between things he has read and learned about then experiences in real life. Our Filipino children are just getting to this point as they gain more knowledge of the world around them.

I loved these jelly fish. Even when watching them for myself, I find it hard to believe they are a real living creature. They are so delicate and seemingly made of well...jelly...just lovely.


Look at the size of these fish!

The crew taking a rest in the shade of the bamboo.

Here's the handsome couple. Still smiling after a long day. I enjoy traveling and seeing new places, especially when we are all together. We saw a lot of this particular bush behind us. They were beautiful and I have no idea what they are...maybe some type of spirea, although I've not seen any like in our northern clime. Any southern gardeners out there have a clue?


After a very long, hot day, we made our way back to the campground. We stopped and picked up take-out on the way back...too tired to cook. We shed our walking shoes, put our feet up, ate our food and went to bed. What a great day!

Camping - VA & DC - Day 3 & 4 - 8/28 & 8/29

The 3rd day of our trip found us driving around the Charlottesville area. We didn't make any plans ahead of time and we needed more time to see all the things available in the area. It is a beautiful area to explore.

We saw this statue in downtown Charlottesville of Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea. I had not realized that Charlottesville was where all the planning and organizing for the expedition began.

We drove up to Monticello but did not go in. It was a very rainy day and we were running out of time. We are hoping to return to the area again with a better plan.

This trip found us staying at KOA campgrounds. We did not know what to expect as we had never stayed at one before. We were very pleased with the Charlottesville KOA. It is one of the many privately owned KOA campgrounds. It was clean, the sites were big and the staff were excellent. There was also a nice pool, but we the weather was not agreeable for swimming. We would use them again with no hesitation.

The next day we loaded up and headed for Washington, DC. The drive was easy and did not take too long. We stopped along the way to have lunch. One of the many reasons we love traveling with the camper is having bathroom and kitchen facilities ready wherever we stop.

The Capitol KOA was also a great campground. It was clean, had a great playground and pool and a nicely supplied store. Part of the campground is wooded and part open. There are also a few cabins you can rent.

After we set the camper up and relaxed for a bit, I took the children up to the pool. This was a great feature of both KOA campgrounds that we have not enjoyed at other campgrounds we have used. The children loved being able to walk up to the pool and have an hour or so of water fun.