We are in West Point Fam Cam for a 4 night stay. Getting in was a little bit tricky with a 20 degree slope and lots of winding roads💀. We got in and the whole campground was wrapped around a small pond. The key place we were going to here was West Point military academy. At the visitor center, there was a movie about the work it takes to go to school there. They wake up at 5:00 am and go to bed at 10:00pm! They have a very structured schedule. There was also a museum about the history of West Point. The school is set in the mountains above the Hudson River, so there were some beautiful views. However, my dad told me to wait until we are out west to see what a real service academy looks like 😂. GO AIR FORCE!
The next day, we took a trip to another local pond but not just any pond. It was a pond with a giant inflatable obstacle course. They had a small one for Eli and a big one for me 💪. There was a set of cylinders in the water that you had run over and not fall down into the water. A climbing wall, a slide, and a place to jump off of. The place was fun and we stayed for a couple hours. After swimming, we went to the best ice cream place yet! It was called The Ice Cream Shoppe and were making fresh waffle cones on the spot. I got mint and cookie dough it was a ♾️/10 the warm waffle cones with the perfect amount of dough in the cookie dough go was perfect 👌.
Next adventure is to explore the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania!
Current log: 204 Miles- longest travel day so far!
We are staying in Newport for a 4 night stay. Right next to the rv park was a small pond. I caught 4 bass and a bluegill while fishing in the pond. The campground was cool. There was a playground but that’s just about it.
Our first adventure in Rhode Island was to actually go back to Massachusetts to the whale museum in the town of New Bedford. We did the National park before the museum and got another stamp for our book. At the museum, there were big models to show the sheer size of blue whales and humpback whales. There was also a bunch of pictures on the wall of people who whaled. My favorite part was the model of a whale heart that you got to climb inside because it’s that big.
Next up was touring the USS Nautilus, which was the first nuclear powered submarine. There was a whole museum on the ground about how they made the torpedoes and what they were used for, but then you also got to go inside the US Nautilus, which was my favorite part. You got to see how they got to live in a submarine. What was crazy is the regular soldiers only got like 2 feet of space between their head and the ground yet the commander got his entire own room to him self.
Our last adventure of this stop was to go to the town of Newport, RI. We did the famous cliff walk which was beautiful but very busy with lots of people. We trail is along a cliff and in front of these huge mansions. We could tour the mansions but mom and dad didn’t think we were up for that. We ended up in downtown Newport and got their famous Frozen Lemonade at Del’s.
We are in Sun Retreats Cape Cod for a 4 night stay. They have a fishing dock, a pool, and a jump pad. I was most exited for the fishing dock. Pulling into our site was a struggle, we were on a massive hill and it was too tight to fit, but somehow, we figured it out after 30 minutes of straight stress.
I went fishing almost every day, though I did not catch anything😭. I was using a bait caster and a spinning reel to target those hungry bass hunting near the lily pads.
I did a bike ride with my family to Woods Hole National Institute. There was an aquarium and a small town where we walked around. The aquarium was cool because the marine animals they had there could all be found in the ocean right next to it. There was also a seal named Bubba, he was a 4 year old harbor seal who they had in an outdoor exhibit all to himself. We got ice cream at the Woods Hole Market And General Store where they were out of all flavors except like, 3 my mom kept ordering different ice cream flavors and every time the vendor said “We are also out of that.”😂. I got a cookie dough milkshake which was a bad call, it just tasted like sugary milk that was a little bit chunky🤢. It was 1/10.
Our family took another bike ride to the cape cod national seashore. There was a bike path and a NPS ( National Park Service) visitor center. We ate lunch at the visitor center and inside we watched a short movie about great white sharks in cape cod. Then we took a bike ride to coast guard beach. We walked down and put our feet in the water. It was the coldest yet! Then we bike rode back.
The last day was a chill day where we played and went to the kids party where we got to make our own sodas and out of polar unflavored sparkling water and then add soda flavoring, mine was on point👌. We watched a movie and played pool the rest of the night. There was also an outdoor jump pad that was like a trampoline, we played on that more than anything else.
We are at 4th Cliff RV park for 4 nights. The view was the best so far. There was a sunset on the first night which was the best I’ve ever seen. We were overlooking the ocean and a river.
We checked out Plymouth rock which is the spot where the pilgrims landed when they came over from England. Supposedly they stepped foot on that very rock but there are some conspiracies about if it was actually the right spot. Over the years, the rock was moved for different reasons and each time it cracked or split, leaving the rock in its current form.
We ate at a place called the Bridgwaye Inn in the town of Humarock. The food was honestly not bad. I got the burger which was a 8/10. My parents tried to make me eat calamari but I refused, I was not about to eat an octopus. We did have some live entertainment at the restaurant where some local teenagers were jumping off the bridge into the river. My mom said to never do that.
We took bike rides almost every day and had some crazy views such as a beautiful view of the town. I went fishing in the brackish water. I thought I would catch something but nope. I didn’t catch anything except a crab who mistook my lure for a small fish. I hooked him on the edge of his shell, I kept trying to get him unhooked but he kept trying to pinch me 🤦♂️🤷♂️. It was right next to the ocean so it was where the river meets the sea.
We went to the local beach for a beach day! They had some big waves so I was working to body surf on them. Eli and I met some kids who had a medal detector. It looked like a lot of fun but they didn’t find anything. They did go in the ocean with me to ride some waves 🌊. They had boogie boards but I did not, so I body surfed the waves. We also looked for geodes by smashing small tan rocks but unfortunately they all looked the same inside plain tan.
We are in Hanscom Air Force base Famcamp for 4 nights. We didn’t do a lot at this stop due to the weather and also we were all pretty tired after our week at Old Orchard beach with our friends. The weather was crazy hot for 3 days and then pouring rain. We were right next to the runway and every few minutes a you’d hear a plane take off, the location was awesome
On Gran’s last day went to the North Bridge National park. This is famous for “the shot heard round the world.” It was where the revoluationary war started. We read about the midnight ride of Paul revere and how he was a messenger to let people know if the British were coming by land or by sea, he hung 2 lanterns if the British came by land and 1 lantern if they came by sea.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Gran but we will see her and other family next month when we are in Pennsylvania. We also checked out the Concord museum. The coolest part was this big screen with a timeline and a map that moved and showed how the first 24 hours were of the revolutionary war. There were many pieces of art dating back to the war and much earlier.
Next adventure, we are headed to Fourth Cliff Park!
Mom and Dad told us that we needed to get some sleep because there was a surprise at the next campground. Driving into the campground, we saw three kids who recognized us immediately. The surprise was that we were spending the week with our friends from Boston that we met camping last summer!!!! They also have a camper and were going to camp with us for the week and they were parked close by.
We spent a lot of the time riding our bikes, playing basketball, swimming in the pool and hot tub. The campground even had an arcade with a claw machine that you won a ducky at every time. Two different nights we did family wiffle ball games.
The other big highlight of this week was that Gran came to visit! She took a flight to Boston and then a train that took her all the way to Old Orchard Beach where Eli and Dad picked her up. We did lots of stuff with Gran such as our beach day, checking out the LL Bean Flagship store and eating lobster.
On the third day we had a beach day. We went swimming, the water was freezing cold which was refreshing at the start but once you got in you were freezing. We also got to play with sand toys and make a grave for a dead lobster we found 💀🪦.The highlight of the beach was the shaved ice 🍧, it was delightful to have on such a hot day . I got tigers blood with blue raspberry and the honest review is a 10/10 . The coconut (a part of the tiger’s blood) was the best part . Then we took a trolley back to the camper.
We traveled one day to the most photographed lighthouse in Maine that is part of Fort Williams. It was awesome to see this lighthouse up close and it was by far the best lighthouse yet. There was a lot of history behind it such as; a shipwreck where the ship drove straight into the rocks right next to the lit light house. Our guide said there are rumors that it might have been on purpose but that might be local legend. We also got to see these big cannons that there ammo was as heavy as a cow! They could launch almost 14 miles out from shore which at the time of world war 1-2 was impressive tech but now we have much more crazy tech then back then.
We got custom hats at the pier where they airbrush designs onto hats that you want I got a sea turtle with my name on the side on a teal hat 🧢 My friend Nick got a matching hat and Eli got his favorite, Bluey!
We are in Mount Desert Island, ME the home to Acadia NP and staying at Smugglers Den campground for an 11 night stay. It is the longest stay on the trip so far. There’s so many things to do in Acadia, so we had to capitalize including: a 10 mile bike ride, multiple hiking trails, fishing trips, lobster eating and catching, and daily pool visits.
On the first day in Acadia, we did a bike ride called the carriage trails . Everybody goes there for popovers at the Jordan Pond house. The popovers were served with ice cream in a dish it was a 9/10, the flavor combo tastes great. It was only the aftertaste that doesn’t make it a 10/10. The bike ride was 10.9 miles total. With hilly terrain and dirt roads, it was long and tiring but I’m so glad we did it. Eli was on the back of dad’s electric bike and I was on a mountain bike the whole way through. John D. Rockefeller made the roads to preserve the park once motor cars got introduced, on all the sides of the trails there are big granite boulders that people call “Rockefeller’s Teeth.“
We went to Bar Harbor, pronounced Ba Ha Bah to the locals. We went there and we had ice cream at Mount Desert Island which was 20/10. I got fresh mint in a waffle cone, instead of the green artificial mint you’ll find in most ice cream shops this one tasted like real mint. It wasn’t too overpowering but it was just enough to be perfectly balanced. It tasted like the shop in NH but I think this one was better. We also walked across sand bar. It is normal ocean at high tide but at low tide it becomes a sand bridge to get to another island with hiking trails and good views of the ocean , sadly we didn’t get to do ANYTHING on the island because we were there right when the tide was about to go back up again. Ba Ha Bah was fun!
I did a famous hike with Dad called the Beehive. Eli couldn’t do the hike so mom stayed behind with him. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day so we didn’t get a great view. ItI was a hike up the mountain ⛰️ with iron rungs and bridges to get across. We did it on a rainy day so it was a little slippery but it wasn’t as hard as I anticipated but not as easy as any other trail we did in Acadia. Another hike that we did was called Beech mountain. It was a beautifully clear day and very hot 🥵. But we pushed through to the top where there was a fire tower with a beautiful view. Sadly, we were not able to go to the top of the tower. The hike down was so much easier than the way up, and unlike the beehive there was actually payoff with a view at the top.
Some other things we did was walks with the Acadia Park Rangers to learn about wetlands and we saw a baby porcupine in a tree! I did a morning fishing program for kids in the park where I caught a bunch of little fish and saw the biggest snapping turtles. Eli and I completed our Junior Ranger books for Acadia, got our National park passport stamped, and saw the famous Thunder Hole. We also checked out a place called the Carroll homestead, an old home from before Acadia was a national park.
My favorite thing we did was when we went out on a boat and caught lobster! While on the boat we also got to see lots of seals and puffins!!! We learned that puffins have their signature orange beaks until they have a baby, then their beaks turn gray. A lot like my mom’s hair after Eli 🤪. After we caught our lobsters and learned the process of banding their claws, measuring them and making sure they did not have eggs; we went back to the dock and learn the process of how they cooked the lobster 🦞. We then got to break off the legs and the tail to get the meat out. This was my first time having lobster but honestly my review is 6/10 I prefer steak 😭😂. The flavor was way different than any meat I have ever tried. I’m glad I tried it but I don’ t think that it’s for me!
We are in Lubec ME for a 4 night stay, on the way here we had our first hiccup on the road😬. We blew a tire which was not very fun and we spent 30 minutes fixing it. Luckily, we had a spare tire under the camper. We were in the best spot for a tire emergency. We were just pulling into a rest spot because Eli had to pee, and just when we were pulling over, it blew, we were really lucky. Thankfully the rest of the ride was smooth.
Lubec is a small town known for there fish cause in the late 1800s they had a smoke shop and a canning sop so they mass produced herring and sardines. There was a cool museum but it was sadly not open the only days we were there 😭. The other things Lubec is known for is there crazy tide changes up to 30 feet in the Bay of Fundy.
At the campground, we had a waterfront view of the ocean but the campground is not where we spent all of our time in Lubec, we went to the famous candy-cane lighthouse, we did hiking trails following the coast. On one of the trails led to beach area where we could see seals, we named one Jeff. We also took a bike ride to downtown Lubec! We got food at the fishermen’s wharf on a pier. Somehow they were out of fish and only had enough for my fish tacos. The food was great other than the fact that they were out of fish. Overall rating 5/10, the only good part was my fish tacos. Then we rode to a different pier and took a boat out to go whale watching, and yes, we did see a rare species of whale called a finback, we saw seals and porpoises, the water had many species of jellyfish and barnacles 🪼. After the whales we rode down to love at first light ice cream and gift shop, I got moose tracks which was delicious 🤤. Finally we rode home and rode bikes for the rest of the day. Our next adventure at Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in ME for 11 nights!
We are at Great Pond, ME for 4 nights. It is naval recreation center for military families. On the second morning, I got to go on a pontoon boat to go fishing with 3 other people. I caught a smallmouth bass that was the biggest catch of the day. 🐠 We also went on kayaks and played at the beach. We also had Independence Day this week so happy Independence Day.
It was a beautiful camp site and just on the other side of the road was a small beach area.
No cell phone service and our internet didn’t work because of the tree cover!
We are at an alpaca farm, the alpacas are so cute they have three babies and multiple adults. We are staying one night, we don’t have power and water, that is called boondocking. We will be doing a little boondocking this year but not much. As soon as we arrived we got to feed alpacas. Next we got to go in there pen. Red is the owners name and he was so friendly and told us all about the alpacas. They were scared of us at first but got used to us by the morning. The alpacas were really sweet and they were fluffy and my mom got some alpaca wool and yarn from the store and she was going to crochet a blanket of alpaca wool. The next stop is Great Pond in Maine for 4 nights.
