Fort Knox & Fort Point Light

Last Sunday, June 9th, I had the weekend off and seeing as how I was ordered day shift on Father's Day and I don't have the big kids that day anyhow, I wanted to do something with the family.  Initially I wanted to go to Mooyah and Fun Spot in New Hampshire but with the weather slated to be gorgeous I called an audible.

We hit the road by 9am and had a really nice drive to Belfast.  We stopped so Kate could get a coffee at Bell the Cat, she also grabbed me quite a delicious molasses cookie.  We made it to Fort Knox not too long after that.  It had been a couple years since our last visit.

It was such a gorgeous day with clear skies, a nice breeze and temps in the low 70's.  Inside the lower levels of the Fort it was significantly cooler.  We made sure to bring flashlights for all, Wesley really loved the fact that he had a real reason to use a flashlight.

The kids really enjoyed exploring the dark chambers, the canons, and all the levels of the Fort.  We saw everything that we needed to see in about an hour and a half so we made our way out.  I got some really good pictures.  Addison even took a very nice one of Wesley and I looking down the barrel of a canon.

We went over to Bucksport for lunch, picking up McDonald's for the little's and then going to Crosby's Drive In for Canaan, Kate, and I.  Crosby's has been on Route 46 in Bucksport since 1938!  I just learned about them for the first time that I can remember a few months ago.

 It's a walk up place with picnic tables outside.  We all got burgers with Canaan and Katie getting the homemade onion rings and I got the hand cut shoe string fries.  Both were great, but the fries were amazing!

Our next stop was at Fort Point State Park and Fort Point Lighthouse in Stockton Springs.  The kids enjoyed walking the grounds which was also the location of Fort Pownall during the French and Indian War.

Our last two stops of the day were in Searsport checking out a couple flea markets.  I didn't have any luck finding something that I wanted but Addison, Kate, & Wesley did.  Wesley also wanted me to take his picture in this chair.

We had a wicked fun day and had picture perfect weather for it too.  I look forward to more fun day trips this summer.

Until next time!

Grafton Notch & Height of Land

Making the most of our limited weekend days off Kate, Wesley, & I headed out Saturday the 1st of June for a day trip drive up through Grafton Notch and back down through Height of Land.  The route we took from home lead us through Monmouth and Leeds up to Rumford.  Once in Rumford we took route 2 until turning off on route 26 in Newry.

We stopped at the Puzzle Mountain Bakery to grab a couple sweet treats.  It's a roadside self service bakery stand that uses the honor system for payment.  Kate got a strawberry rhubarb pie that she said was delicious and I got a couple of there maple cream cookies. I've gotten them before and they are amazing! two maple cookies with this outstanding maple cream in the middle. They are only $1.50 which is a steal.

We had experiences some periods of rain, nothing major, on the drive and by the time we entered Grafton Notch State Park it had ended.  We decided to stop at Screw Auger Falls because there was only a couple vehicles there.

I'm glad we did because water was flowing well and Wesley really thought the waterfalls were really cool.  I like that you can walk down on the rocks with the water flowing right by you.  I managed to grab a few cool photos.

Continuing north we eventually crossed over into New Hampshire.  We stopped at the Errol General Store which opened 135 years ago.  Kate and I order sandwiches from the deli and they were tremendous.

You take a slip and check off what you want writing you name at the bottom of it.  They slice all the meats and cheeses in house.  I got turkey, provolone, mayo, tomatoes, pickles, and salt & pepper.  Kate got ham & cheese with all the veggies and this hot pepper jam mix that she thought was fantastic!

We went across the street to the school and ate out sandwiches on a bench while Wesley played.  He had been asking for chocolate & vanilla twist ice cream basically since we left the house so after we finished our lunch we drove down to LL Cotes and I was able to get him a kiddie cone with Gifford's hard serve chocolate & vanilla.  I also got Canaan a glass bottle of LL Cote soda.  The flavor was Yup, think 7up.

We've never gotten Wesley hard serve ice cream on a cone before and he's not fond of change so I wasn't sure how he'd react to it. This seemed to satisfy him and he excitedly powered down the ice cream like it was nothing.

We continued north now on Route 16 to head back into Maine.  On the way we drove through Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge.  We came around a bend and there on the shoulder of the road was good sized moose!  We were very excited because in all our trips we'd only seen a moose once before and we drive in the mountains and north country a lot.

I slowed right down but it went into the woods and we got to see it trot through the trees parallel to the road. It was super cool!

We crossed into Maine and a few miles in we came over a pass ahead of us in our lane was yet another moose!  This time we were able to see it really well as it crossed the road and we got a nice broadside look at it.  I tried to get some good pictures but they came out the way they came out.  Pretty cool seeing two moose in the same day not to far apart.

We made a pit stop in Rangeley were they had an even better playground for Wesley.  I had wanted to grab a drink and at first we weren't going to stop, but then Wesley asked for just 10 minutes on the playground.  Half hour later we were back in the van.

We took route 17 south to Height of Land, we hadn't been here in about four years.  It's a wonderful scenic overlook for information signs telling you about the area.  The Appalachian trail runs along here as well and they a really nice marker for it.

In Byron we stopped at Coos Canyon but the bugs were horrific so we quickly left.  We went back into Rumford and took the same route back home.  Kate's mom message that she was having chicken divan for supper and if we wanted to come over.  Of course we did!

It was a great day trip covering just over 230 miles total.  We got a few great sweet treats, some killer sandwiches, saw two waterfalls, two moose, and a wicked nice scenic overlook.  I'm hoping to be able to get in several day trips this summer, unlike last summer when we weren't able to because of my work.