Vacation in Maine: The Trip Begins

We got a short nights sleep on Thursday (maybe 5 hours) and the alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. Chris hurried around and got the van packed up in short order - suitcases, snacks, navigational aids, radar detector, pillows, blankets - and the 4 of us. We pulled out of the local gas station about 4:20 a.m. and were officially on the way! The girls promptly curled up and went back to sleep while I tried valiantly to stay awake and keep Chris company. As daylight began to break we could see that it was going to be a day of clouds and light rain. That held true for the whole trip - all 19 hours of it.

I kept a little notebook on hand and made notes about each day of our trip. My notes from this long, long day of driving are as follows:

Up at 3:30 a.m.

Pulled out of the driveway at 4:07 a.m.

Cloudy, rainy, gloomy

McDonald's breakfast at 7 a.m.

Applebee's lunch at 12:30 (famous people on tour bus?)

Catskill Mtns - lots of gorgeous views! Lily pads on pond

Then got lost, grouchy, confused - where ARE we??

New York lasted a loooooong time

More rain and gloom

Mass state line at 7:25 p.m.

Dinner at Wendy's 9:30 p.m.

Crossed into Maine 10:30 p.m.

Arrived @ Uncle George's condo 11:30 p.m.

We had decided to take the somewhat longer scenic route through New York, and it really is a beautiful drive. We didn't realize, however, exactly how much time it would add on to our trip. We did make a short stop at an antiques shop for about 15 minutes just to stretch our legs, and Chris pulled over a couple of times so I could take pictures.

By the time we pulled into the driveway we were stressed, exhausted and grouchy. We lugged all our stuff into the house, and then I was shocked to hear Chris say, "So who wants to go to the beach?!" He had clearly lost his mind. We were all dead tired and needed to go to bed. But he had somehow gotten a second wind all of a sudden, and the girls perked up and said "Yeah!" (Hey, they slept most of the day - they were fresh and ready to go!) Off we went in the pitch dark to find Scarborough Beach, the closest beach to Uncle George's house. As luck would have it there was a gate pulled across the parking lot (it's a state park, so they close it up after dark). Did that deter Mr. Chris? Oh no, we parked down the road at the White Cap and went creeping up the road like a bunch of thieves, using only a small flashlight to light the way. We climbed over the gate into the parking lot, walked quickly toward the drive down to the beach only to find that there was a second larger gate that stopped us cold. No climbing over that one! So we turned around, climbed back over the gate out of the parking lot and walked quickly back to the van. Did Mr. Chris give up? OH NO. We had to go find Ferry Beach in the dark (and he couldn't remember the way at first....). Once we found the entrance we were relieved to see that it was not closed off - no more climbing over fences - so we parked and took off across the sand. The people who were parked there already (2 cars, people doing WHO knows what!) must have thought we were lunatics. It was windy and chilly (and might I mention DARK?) so we only stayed 5 minutes or so, but Chris got his fix of the ocean smells that he loves so much. He told me "Now this is what heaven smells like!"

By the time we got back to the house it must have been close to 1 a.m. Bed never felt so good.