Tales From the Minivan

Everyone slept much better last night!  So much better that we all slept in!  Normally this would be welcomed but the drive to Sesame Place was about 2 hours so I wanted to get going early.  We ended up getting on the road by 9am and arrived in Langhorne, PA right around 11am.  Luckily the park had just opened at 10am and didn’t close until 8pm.  We still had the rest of the day ahead of us.  We paid for parking $15 then got our tickets at the door.  I meant to search out discounts or buy my tickets online, but got sidetracked and ended up buying them at the gate….for the 5 of us (Finn was free) it was over $230!  OUCH!  The good news is that this gives us another day there, the bad news is that we won’t be able to take advantage of it, as I’m not sure we want to take the 2 hour drive down to Langhorne again.

We got through security and started in the water park side of the park as it was desperately hot, I don’t know the exact temperature, but I would say it was definitely in the 30’s!  This family of Maritimers is not used to that!

The boys splashed around in their new Nammu Swim Hats.  They are a UV Sun hat, and work really well, they stayed on the boys heads all day.  I was finding that whenever the boys would be out swimming they would never wear a hat then their little scalps were getting burned.  They never complained about the Nammu’s and wore then from 11am to 6pm!

Finn was loving splashing around at Ernie’s Water Works, and Liam was working with the other kids on this water works contraption.

Ernie’s Wave pool was another hit, even Mackenzie swam here.  She enjoyed the Ernie fast facts.

Big Birds Lazy river was worth the wait, but a tip for anyone going here on a busy day, don’t get into the first line you see, go a little further around the river and you’ll see a second line which is MUCH, MUCH smaller.  Finn loved riding in the tube with me, although all he wanted to do was nurse and kept grabbing at my bathing suit! He had seen a little girl nursing in the line, and starting signing for milk then.  The other mom and I were joking around about it.  It was nice to see another nursing mom, she’s the only one I saw in the park all day, and believe me there was no lack of babies.  I have never seen so many strollers crammed into a theme park.  Other than Finn, I only saw one baby being worn and it was a beautiful little newborn in a ring sling by her very proud dad.  We did bring our umbrella stroller, but Finn never sat in it at all.  We used it for our camera bag and backpack, it did come in handy that way.

Once we got off Big Bird’s Lazy River, Andrew took Mackenzie Liam and Ciaran on the Rubber Ducky Raft Ride aka- The Sky Splash as we weren’t sure if Finn was allowed to ride it.  I sat down and gave him a little drink as discreetly as I could in a swimsuit.  I saw a woman kind of staring me down, and thought that they were disapproving stares.  Turns out she was a LLL leader, and she came over and talked to me for a few minutes and gave some encouraging words, she was very nice.  Finn slept for a few minutes while we waited for the rest of the crew on the Raft ride.  I got some great shots of them coming down.

Hunger was setting in and Captain Ernie’s next to the Lazy River was calling us.  The food wasn’t bad, but as usual themepark fare, pricey!  $8 for a kids meal!  It did come in a cute little Elmo Head Souvenir  thingy.  It think they’ll make great little party favors for an Elmo themed birthday, perhaps Finn’s 2^nd?

After having a bite to eat, we headed over to Elmo’s World.  This area of Sesame Place has most of the rides.  We managed to ride a few, but the lines were very long and didn’t get on all of the ones we wanted to.  There was also this huge rope climbing structure, Mackenzie and Ciaran weaved their way through it way above our heads.  I took Finn down to a little area for toddlers and he had so much fun playing with the large foam blocks.

Next it was time to get a drink for the boys, I had decided to purchase one of those large souvenir bottles for $5.00 earlier in the day, this way you could get refills for $1.50 instead of the $3.00 they were charging.  When I went to buy it, the Sesame Place employee did not hear me correctly and thought I wanted a refill,  and gave me the bottle for the price of a refill instead of the full cost!  Just a tip if you ever get there some day, all of the indoor eating places have fountain pop and free refills.  I didn’t find this out until later.  We started the day out drinking water as I froze our reusable containers, but they soon melted and there was barely a water fountain to be found in the park.

After getting the boys a drink, we noticed that people were lining up along the main Sesame Street for the Parade!  We decided to saty and watch, and Andrew devised a plan that as soon as it was over we would try and hit a roller coaster called the Vapour Trail!  The Parade was cute, the boys tried and tried to get high fives from the characters, Liam succeeded once getting Grover.  Ciaran was a little upset when it ended without him getting a high five too.

Luckily the disappointment of the lack of a high five was short-lived as we raced up the ramp of the Vapour Trail.  One little problem we forgot about was Finn sleeping on my back in the Ergo!  Ooops!  Mackenzie is not a ride person so she was happy to stay back with Finn, so we managed to transfer him over to her back without waking him!  I rode with Liam, who at the last minute tried to get off, I convinced him he’d be fine and off we went.  Ciaran on the other hand loved it and was grinning the entire ride!

On our way out of the park  one of the security officers offered to take our pic too!  What a great park, a lot of fun for any age!

Friday afternoon, we loaded up the van and headed for the United States. Most of you know that we’re fairly close to the state of Maine, a little over an hour to the border, then less than 3 to Bangor, Me.  Andrew, Mackenzie and I listened to some great tunes on the drive down whilst the boys slept.  Normally were listening to Podcasts or Talk Radio so this was a nice change!  We sang and laughed and had an enjoyable drive even though the majority of the very dark Route 9 had torrential downpours.  It took a little longer due to the weather conditions but we arrived in Bangor just after dark.  I was a little worried as we didn’t have reservations booked which in the past has worked out to our advantage, not this time!

It seems that every hotel/motel room in the city of Bangor was booked!  Oops!  We headed to the closest hotel’s parking lot  and stole a wireless connection and finally found a room at the Best Western in Bar Harbor.  We were at the point of desperation and the price didn’t matter with 3 sleeping boys in the back of the minivan, we wanted to find something soon.  So I booked it over the phone I wanted to actually speak to someone before driving the 45 miles to get there.We transferred everyone into the room, and managed to get the boys back to sleep in a few minutes.

Saturday morning we woke to overcast skies, and when I checked the weather network it was saying a high of 66F.  Oops again!  I only packed clothing for warm weather!  Well someone needs to fire that meteorologist!  It was hot, humid and sunny all day!   Here’s a few highlights from our stop into the seaside town of Bar Harbor.  We had some breakfast at a little pub, and one of the customers offered to take a pic of all of us.  He was quite smitten with Finn and his constant waves and gummy grins.  His and Ciaran’s fiery red hair was a constant hit amongst the tourists in Maine.  I guess it must not be as common as it is at home:

Breakfast at a little pub in Bar Harbor, we had this great front window booth:

After breakfast we stopped to check out a few of the unique shops, I got a new Red Sox hat.  I was told it was “the one to have” for ladies this summer.  It’s a stone colour like a lot of my shorts and the ‘B” on it is chocolate brown.  I already have way too many Red Sox hats (yes 7 now), but can’t stop buying them!  Every time I see a unique one I want it!

After browsing the shops we stopped for a well deserved icecream at CJ’s Big Dipper on Main St.  I was surprised to hear that there wasn’t a Ben & Jerry’s, after Cow’s, Ben & Jerry’s definitely comes seconf in my books.  CJ’s was great and on the way there we spotted another icecream shop and of course the kids wanted me t get their photo in from of the giant Lobster indulging in the cool treat as well.

We forgot the Drip Stiks!  I can’t wait until the case I ordered comes in!  I orfdered it at the end of June, but it seems that FedEx has lost it!  The company apologized and sent me another one.  They said if the other one does arrive to consider myself lucky and to keep it!  Once it gets here I plan on keeping a few in my van.  It definitely would have prevented the icecream crisis that ensued quickly after ordering Ciaran’s Dinosaur Crunch.  Here is is quite happy with it.

Then the heat and humidity set in and without a Drip Stik, the dinosaur crunch quickly started dripping beyond even my tongue could control and Ciaran got mad and wouldn’t take it back, so off he went to the side of the sidewalk and pouted.  Liam knew his limits without a Drip Stik, he got his in a dish!  LOL

Next we were off to Acadia National Park. I’ve been to Bar Harbor many times in the past but never to Mt Desert Island’s highlight of ANP!  It was breathtakingly beautiful and I’d love to spend more time there in the future.

We spent the afternoon first with a drive to the summit of Mt Cadillac, it’s a  road where you can drive to the top.  We walked around the summit, and stopped for a drink and the kids played in the gift shop for a few minutes.

Here’s a few more photos from the Summit:

The view overlooking the town of Bar Harbor

Next we decided to do a little hike to Bubble Rock. I wish we had remembered to bring our handheld GPS with us, as there this a huge Geo-cache Treasure hunt throughout the park.  As well none of us were really wearing the proper footwear for this.  With six people, you have to learn to pack lightly and bringing more than one pair of shoes for everyone just takes up too much room!  We really need a van with more cargo space, or at least one with roof racks so we can put one of those cargo thingies on the top!  I fell in love with the Honda Odyssey the other day and can’t get it out of my mind.  It’s so nice to not have a vehicle payment anymore, but the little extras of a newer vehicle are starting to stand out.

So our hike to Bubble Rock wasn’t too bad, it was all uphill, and Ciaran was non-stop!  I wore Finn in the Ergo, and he cooperated nicely.  It took about 15-20 minutes to reach the top and when we got there we couldn’t believe the sight! It’s this huge Boulder also know as a glacial erratic.  If you look closely at the granite in the mountain and the granite in Bubble Rock it’s two completely different types.  This boulder had been brought here during glacial melts from more than 40 miles away!  I got really nervous as Ciaran wanted to run, and this thing really was at the edge of this cliff, there’s absolutely no fencing! Here’s a few pics:

The Park Ranger teaching us about Leave no Trace

The boys coming back down

Ciaran only made it a few more steps, then needed to be carried, why didn’t I bring the other carrier?

Here’s a shot of Bubble Rock from further away in the park.  Until I saw this I couldn’t believe we hiked up that far!

It was a really fun day, and we will definitely be back!

Living in Saint John, NB definitely has it’s fair share of positives and negatives, but by far the worst has to be the FOG!  Saint John is the 3rd Foggiest City in Canada  with 98.29 foggy days per year. Second place goes to Halifax, NS with 99.53, and first place goes to St. John’s, NL with a whopping 118.96 days per year!!

I am 35 years old, and for the majority of my 35 years I have lived in Saint John, NB.  In those 35 years, I can honestly count on both hands the number of times that our Canada Day Fireworks have actually gone off on Canada Day.  “Why didn’t they go off?”, you ask.  They were fogged out, and this year was no different!  It was looking optimistic in the afternoon, then that late afternoon breeze brought the fog back in from the Bay of Fundy.  Living close to the harbour, also has it’s advantages and disadvantages too. One disadvantage being the Saint John Harbour’s foghorn, it could easily wake the dead!

Canada Day started off nicely, I got the whole crew dressed in denim and red shirts and we sauntered our way uptown.  Saint John does not have a “downtown”, only and uptown.  I never really understood this, but this is the way it’s always been.  Maybe I’ll have to look into the history of this some day!

  Finn rode on my back for the entire afternoon in my Ergo Carrier.  I can not say enough positive things about this carrier.  It really is amazingly comfortable even carrying a 25lb toddler for hours!  My favorite part is the extra padding in the waist band and the shoulder straps.  My only wish is that they’d come out with some more colourful designs or fabrics.  So ErgoBaby Inc. if you’re listening, you need to “pimp your carriers” as CPO’s Moderator of our Baby Wearing Board would say!

After walking around uptown and looking through all of the JUNK at the Giant Uptown Flea Market, we spotted a sign near the foot of King Street that said “Free Trolley Rides- 1pm, 2:30pm & 4pm”.  I instantly looked at my watch and got excited it was 2:25pm and then realized we must have just missed it as no one was waiting. I asked a gentleman sitting there and he confirmed it.  He did mention though that the driver was ahead of schedule and would most likely be back around 3:30pm instead of 4pm.  So we walked over to Market Square’s Boardwalk area to kill some time.

I’ve wanted to take one of these Trolley rides for a while now and actually mentioned wanting to take the kids on a tour in our latest episode of Momtalk Podcast called Your Perfect Staycation.  Here’s a little history on Saint John’s Trolley’s- one of the tour agencies in the city bought them a few years ago.  They are the San Francisco style ones made to look like street cars, incidentally Saint John, NB was actually the first city in Canada to have a Street Car. Well as you can see by the photo to the right we arrived back just in time to get the last free tour!  Ciaran fell asleep 3/4 of the way through, but I think the kids really enjoyed it and learned a few cool facts about Saint John, I know I did!

Our Canada Day Fireworks were postponed 3 nights in a row, then finally on the 4th of July, us Saint Johner’s got to witness a great show!

Earlier in the evening I hauled out my camera’s manual and looked up what setting would be the best for fireworks. I have to admit as much as I love my digital SLR, the amount of different settings are overwhelming, I really need to take a course!  We parked the minivan down by the waterfront and flipped the rear bench seat over so the kids could sit there and watch. This is one of the cool features I like in our van! Here’s a few shots from the evening: