12 Year Old Trip

 Jinna is the latest - and last - one to participate in the family tradition of the 12-Year-Old trip!  She chose to go to Washington, D.C., so we tagged along on a trip Pete had scheduled for a conference.  While he was busy in seminars, she and I went out to see all the sights!  We were staying in a hotel near Crystal City and went through an underground walkway to get to the metro station.  She, of course, loved the Metro!

Special bonus was having dinner with Ali and Jason and then going to visit their apartment.

Fun trip with my girl!

Southern Maine

 Our journey southward from Bar Harbor was beautiful.  We were able stop and visit the McNultys for an hour or so and Jinna enjoyed playing some games with Paul.  :)  Then we continued on to Connecticut for our last night of the trip.

Hiking Around Long Pond

 On our last day in the Acadia region we hiked around Long Pond.  Most of the group opted to take a path around the lake, but Pete and I hightailed it straight up -- and were rewarded with some great views from the top!

Maine-ly Fun

Some of our adventures....

Early morning ascent of Beehive:

Dinner at a Lobster Pound:

Exploring around Bass Harbor:

Danger in Acadia National Park

  We enjoyed going in and out of Acadia during our stay, but the day we chose to do the official Park Loop was evidently the same day that everyone else on the East Coast also did.  We sat on the road in stopped traffic for a couple of hours in total.  So by the time we reached Thunder Hole, the kids were dying to get out of the car to do something active.

It turns out we let them do something a little TOO active.  We did not know ahead of time how dangerous this particular area was, so we let the boys jump in from some high rocks while we ate our picnic lunch.  Maybe we should have figured something was strange when none of the other thousands of people there were doing what we were.  A lot of people were visiting Thunder Hole but they all stayed behind the roped area and just watched us.  Maybe they were yelling at us, who knows.  It was so loud (named Thunder for a reason) that we couldn't hear anything.

So the kids had fun, no one died, and I didn't have nightmares about it until later.

Visit to Bar Harbor area

After the wedding the Frank clan headed north to Bar Harbor for several days.  Most of the family stayed in a couple of houses on Long Pond, and our family stayed in a few rooms in Southwest Harbor.

Our first big hike (once we could find a place to park!) was up Beech Mountain.  Such great views!

 

A Maine Wedding

 Ali and Jason got married on a lovely farm in Maine, and we enjoyed spending both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding day there.  Everything was beautiful!