Exploring New England

Hello Everyone! We have been greatly enjoying our summer here in Vermont. We are slowly doing more activities in the community and church, but mostly we are at home playing in the garden or going for walks. The last couple weeks we have had the chance to explore other states. We were in Maine this last weekend and visited Santa's Village in New Hampshire the weekend before.

Reina's grandparents Peter and Claudia wanted to take Reina to the small amusement park Santa's Village. It is only a couple of hours away so we all took a day trip. It was a cute place and Reina was excited to go on rides. I enjoyed seeing the reindeer.

This weekend's trip was a little further away, about 5 and a half hours. Rich's parents invited us to go with them to Rockland Maine for the Maine Lobster Festival. Unfortunately, Rich was not able to go with us. Reina traveled decently well but I can no longer rely on her to sleep most car rides, so anyone would get fussy being in a car too long. We stayed at the Megunticook Campground by the Sea in Rich's parent new camper. 

We arrived Thursday and settled in. Reina and I took a swim in the pool because as soon as she saw it, she kept going toward it. We were in a spot right where all the services were so Reina would just run of to the playground too every chance she had. We had to keep a close eye on her. It was a nice little community of campers and there were kids for Reina to play with, and lots of space to roam around, but definitely different from any sort of camping I've done before. We took a few walks down to the ocean overlook, passing all the little campsites of people from all over. The camp had an outdoor projection screen and the first night they showed Frozen, which amazingly we had never seen so we of course stayed up late. She was overtired and very upset that we weren't going back home to sleep.

The next day we went to the lobster festival, and were shuttled in on a school bus, so Reina was thoroughly excited about that. Once there we walked around the little craft fair area, avoided all the amusement rides, and stared longingly at all the food vendors had to offer. Festivals are not for people with no money.  Luckily there was a children's play area, so she was entertained awhile. We had separated from Rich's parents so we met back up and they bought us a lobster dinner!

Delicious and terrifying

Who knew Reina would be freaked out by it. She tasted it but said it was gross, so she ate a few fried shrimp, scallops, and clams that her grandpa had bought. After that, we walked around a bit more and then left. Back at camp, we took a walk and ate a light dinner. Reina found her own little nook, so she liked the camper much better.

I mentioned I had never seen a lighthouse, so we made plans to do just that the next day. We went to Owls Head Lighthouse, then walked down to the beach in the state park. Both Reina and I waded in the atlantic ocean for the first time. We enjoyed all the salty sea air, being in the salt water,watching the boats, climbing all over the rocks and searching for sea shells.

It was such a nice afternoon, we left no time to visit other places. We stopped at a restaurant where we had more lobster and some really good clam chowder. The owner gave Reina some free ice cream, and Reina wasn't afraid of this lobster. Later Reina and I made a visit to St. Brendan the Navigator Church for vigil mass.

We drove back home on Sunday. We were very thankful to Grandma Claudia and Grandpa Peter for bringing us along. We made some nice memories. Here is a link to more photos from our trip to Maine.