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Only a few photos from me today. Heidi took Kai to Little Red this morning, they got there the same time as Kai's friend Dax. It was Dax's first day. He took 2 weeks off at the end of school. It is Kai's 2nd day at Little Red.

Near my workplace they are building another splash pad. I'm guessing it won't be open this year.

I pick up Kai around 4:30ish for summer. Here he is with Audra. I asked Audra if we should try to meet them at the outdoor pool on July 4. She seemed to be excited for the chance. We'll see if we can make it happen.

Kai knows a lot of kids at his summer camp. In addition to Audra and Dax, his good friend Millie and Eleanor (twins from last year) are also there. He also seems to be friends with two kids named "Oliver," but they are not the Oliver from Green Room this past school year. Lots of Olivers.

Woodman's officially has everything. This cookie I bought in Quebec City I can also get at Woodman's. It has the picture of the Fairmont hotel on it.

For Kai's last day of being 7, he wore his 7-year old shirt today. Here we are playing Spot It! before bed.

Ominous clouds at night, it is raining now.

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Today is our first full day home and getting ready for our upcoming week.

Since Kai was only at Little Red Preschool for one day, we didn't fully get everything ready. Here is all the stuff that Kai picked up and kept in his backpack through his 1st grade year.

Kai took a mid-morning nap, but in the afternoon, Ardro rang the doorbell. They did waterplay for over two hours.

Our Crimson Spire Oak is looking nice, like a spire.

After waterplay and dinner, we had to finish up our trip by putting the pin in Augusta, Maine for visiting the Maine Statehouse (I don't think they call it a "Capitol").

Here is the ceremony for getting one of the badges. We always play pomp and circumstance.

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After 4,260 miles, we are home from our Canadian adventure in 2025 (for reference, to Disney World in 2022 we put in 2,940 miles and in 2023 Disney trip I think it was around 3,500 miles). I really appreciated taking time off while the daylight hours were long and we really had mostly pleasant weather from June 13 to June 28. 

At the Hampton Inn, they have these little coffees where you can make different outfits from the cup and the sleeve.

We were able to visit Dawn and Gammie for a short time on our loop back through Chicagoland.

selfie

playing games hiding behind the placemats

On the trip, we played a lot of the Jacquie Lawson games from the 2024 Advent/Christmas app. This was Kai's favorite. I like the games because there is a little bit of strategy.

Here is our small pile of mail. Heidi said none of the mail was for me.

Tomorrow will be warm. Our lawn isn't too long, hopefully we can get some water play in, and maybe wash the bugs off the car.

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Much of the day was spent driving along I-90 from Albany, NY to Niagara Falls, Canada.

Taking pictures of random things - I read an article about the Erie Canal and a summer long celebration of the 200th anniversary of the canal. We were along the canal almost the entire way.

dam and lock - had trouble seeing infrastructure from road

a small green sign indicating it is the canal

Along this trip, we read the book Matilda, and then watched the movie on Netflix. We liked the book better, but both were fun.

Taking the bridge from Buffalo, NY to Grand Island. Just a picture of a bridge.

We needed a bathroom break on the US side as we knew getting back to Canada would take some time. They had some nice brochures.

To our surprise, he got to become a Junior Ranger again - we got the badge just for showing up. Also him and Heidi got a stamp on their National Park Passport. It is considered a Natural Heritage Area.

Then going across the Rainbow Bridge. We were wondering how the walkers from the US get processed to go into Canada.

Here is our line. It makes sense to do this since we will be driving across Canada to Michigan.

My pictures haven't synced up yet, but this video did, so this might suffice. Maybe I will remember to post more photos later when they show up in iCloud.

American Falls

Heidi taking a picture

another picture

crazy selfie - we also took a nicer one

Horseshoe Falls and the Canadian equivalent to the Maid of the Mist

After about 2 hours there, we left for Michigan and the Port Huron entry point and then New Baltimore/Chesterton, a northern Detroit suburb.

Driving on the bridge to Michigan.

At the security gate, we're always amused by the questions. This time they asked if we were bringing in $10,000 in cash.

A lot of just strange people at our hotel tonight. When we got there around 11:30, there were three middle aged women just sitting on the floor next to the elevator. And then when I went back to the car to get more stuff about 15 minutes later, they were still there.

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We started our day by cleaning up and clearing out of our Airbnb. It was easier to do since we had use of the garage and could quickly load up.

In the morning, Kai saw these turkeys. He likes to take pictures then edit them to highlight the turkeys.

The Acadia National Park is really split into two parts. The Bar Harbor part (Mount Desert Island) and the part where we are at, the quieter part with Schoodic Peninsula (it is pronounced like "school"). This part is quiet, and we would stay here more next time (but the other part has the visitor center and Cadillac Mountain, so you have to go there).

His is the point. You can see the lobster traps and boats coming in and out of the cove.

A little sad leaving the park, but we would find other things to get us excited.

I'm not sure how many people are trying to see all 50 capitals, but if there is an easy one to get that is in a corner of the country, the 5-minute drive to Augusta, Maine was something we had to do. We can now put a pin in our wall highlighting that we saw it.

Wisconsin is still the only state that doesn't have metal detectors in the capital. I hope it stays that way.

Here is my trip to see the interior dome of the capital. It is a bit dull...

intentional creepy face

Next up, Heidi said that L.L. Bean (Leon Leonwood Bean's store - that's his name!) was in Maine, and that we were also going to drive past that.

Welcome to Freeport, Maine!

Here is the size 410 boot out front.

They are redoing LL Bean to make it a destination. It will be done in 2026. There is a large tent for their clothing, a main building for more of their outdoorsy stuff.

Here is inside their main tent - everything here could be purchased online (I asked the guy).

the campus

the main fancy retail building

The rest of the trip we had to get going through the north side of Boston. Traffic wasn't too bad, but it was probably better to travel on interstate that 2-lane roads through New Hampshire and Maine all the way to Albany.

On the way through Massachusetts I did see the sign for Walden Pond and then this fun attraction in Springfield for the Dr. Suess museum.

Niagara Falls tomorrow (after a 4ish hour drive).

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Today is our Acadia Day. Acadia National Park is split in two parts, the Bar Harbor part and the part where we are staying. We took on the more touristy Bar Harbor spot today.

First off, the "Life is Good" mug fit well with the person who is always wearing their shirt.

The goal of the day is to make it to the visitor center to see what is at the park and get to the entry to Cadillac Mountain for our noon timed entry ($6).

After a 50-minute drive from our Airbnb in we made it to the park. Like a lot of the parks lately, it is tough to find parking. You basically circle around and around until someone leaves.

Here is the pavilion that leads the way to the Visitor Center. 

After 52-steps, you get to the actual visitor center. It is the only one in the park. Normally a center has a short film to learn more about the park. This park doesn't have that, but they do have the all important stamp.

On they way up Cadillac Mountain at noon, we spoke with this bicyclists. He said the bike ride was quite easy (for him).

Once you get to the top, there was plenty of parking. The timed entry helps with that. It is also probably much less busy during the middle part of the day. There were plenty of short hikes and a lot of signs. I liked being up here seeing this map of all the islands and then seeing them in person.

Another picture of the islands. Bar Harbor is on this side, where we stayed was on the complete other side of this cove.

you can see the Bar Harbor below. There was a cruise ship docked there

Here is our selfie at the top.

Here is my new tree of the trip. I believe this is a black spruce. See the black cone?

At the top, there were two National Park Service workers. They were engaging with interested tourists to help them learn more about the park. I'm wondering if they do this since the visitor center is small for the number of tourists they get.

They gave Kai a Junior Ranger book to get started on. Since he is still 7, it was easier for him to earn his badge.

And the only other picture that synced up is our photo in front of the Acadia National Park sign. To be honest, the park was founded in 1916, I would have thought they could have had a better sign. 

After we got this picture, there is a nice loop around the coast. Here is Sand Beach, but a lot of the other areas are very rocky and quite quiet and enjoyable.

Our last stop was at Jordan Pond House. This place is apparently legendary for it Pop Overs. We had watched a few videos, so we thought a trip would be incomplete unless we went here. They have a great spot on the lawn with umbrellas. After a 15-minute wait, we would be seated.

Of course most everyone wants to sit near the water, so we asked the waiter about how many steps he gets in a day. He casually said he's already at 23,000 steps today, which led to a discussion with a colleague who said he was at 29,000 steps. He was quite proud that no one beats him in steps.

One thing we did while there was to record a soundscape. Listen for the dishes crashing at the end.

On the way back, we drove through the crowds at Bar Harbor. Very busy, a lot of lobster restaurants and lobster-themed everything. It also had a nice grocery store.

At night I took a quick picture looking up at the stars. Our Airbnb is in a very dark spot.

you'll need to click on the picture to see it better