Secret Life of Kendra: The regulars are out! The regulars are out!!

New England is just beautiful! I wonder if the people here really appreciate it...hmm....

We drove to Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor (pronounced Baa Haabaa by the locals) in Maine yesterday. It was fairly busy with tourists considering that it is the end of their tourist season. Over 1/2 of the hotels/b&b's/inns are already closed for the season. It definitely is an area that heavily relies on the tourism industry. The day we were there, the Caribbean Princess cruise boat was docked out in the harbor. So, the streets and sidewalks in downtown Bar Harbor were packed with tourists. And, many of them were quite rude, according to my children, and they would know :) But, I digress.

Marilyn at the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP. It was cold up there. Cadillac Mountain is the highest point along all of the American eastern shore line.

The boys having "fun" at the restaurant. Can you tell Noah is feeling better? Yep, my dilemma: when he is sick, he is more subdued; but when he is healthy, well, you know Noah... Looks like Joel is taking lessons from him. Yikes!

Marilyn actually found this very, very small sand dollar at Sand Beach in Acadia.

Joel found snails, mussels, and this crab claw. He wanted to take it home. NO!! I said. Could you not just imagine the smell in 2 weeks!!!

Yea, I'm not even going to explain this pic. I think my blog will get a PG rating now. However, I have to say, this is such a beautiful pond. We have hiked here now 3 times... Go figure.

Backstory on this pic: Brian and I went to Acadia on our honeymoon and on our 10 yr anniversary. We have gone on this same hike each time. 15 years ago, we took a picture of these 2 unusual trees, wrapped around each other, growing oddly. 5 years ago, those same trees are still there, only much larger. Well, of course, we had to go visit "our trees". It appears the base of the left one (by Brian) is choked out by the center "wrapping" and does not have any trunk left above it. We think that both tree bases are now feeding the one top.

Today, we traveled into Massachusetts and the Boston area. We spent most of our day at the Minuteman National Historic Park. Everyone remembers Paul Revere. But did you know that Mr. Revere was only 1 of 40+ riders that night. He and William Dawes started out from Boston, taking different paths, and as they traveled toward Lexington and Concord, other horsemen followed suit. And, their cry was NOT "The British are coming"; it was "The Regulars are out". Just a history lesson for all of you. :)