vacation

The Great Bah-Habah Getaway

July 1, 2021 by Gindi Leave a Comment

I promised I would write about our gorgeous Bar Harbor, Maine vacation. (Otherwise known as Bah Habah up north…)

And I also have about a zillion posts running around in my head.

The one about 5^th grade graduation.

The one about summer.

Another one about friends.

I think I used so many words during cancer I ran out for a while.

So this week I’m working on all those backlogged posts and today is VACATION!

This is mainly logistics because so many of you mentioned you’re interested in taking a vacation to Maine. I HIGHLY recommend it. Bray and I honeymooned in Bar Harbor but it had been 15 years since we’d been back. A lot has changed.

First up: When to go?

We honeymooned in May and that was way too early because everything was closed. This time we went the first full week in June. It’s still a wee bit early. If I had to redo it, I’d do late June. Before the insane 4^th of July and after crowds (July and August are peak months), but it seems everything is open by Father’s Day.

Second up: How to go?

We wanted to show the kids Boston, so we flew roundtrip in and out of Boston. It’s a 4 ½ hour drive from Boston to Bar Harbor. It’s worth doing, but if you have the travel budget or air miles, I’d recommend flying in to Boston on the way up but flying back out of Bangor or Portland. We rented an SUV and you absolutely need a rental to get around Maine.

Third up: Where to stay?

There are plenty of inns, hotels, and B&Bs in the area but we are all about staying in a house. Especially when we are somewhere for a week. We found a gorgeous rental on the water, and the closer I am to the water the better off I feel. This is the rental where we stayed:

I have mixed feelings about it. Location was perfect. Nestled at the back of a dirt road right on the water with private steps to the beach (they’re rocky there) and a firepit where we could roast s’mores. There was also really good living space – open living room with a kitchen that looked out on the living space and water. But there were definitely drawbacks. There was no AC and it was VERY hot our first few days (recordbreaking, in the 90s). The laundry was in a dank basement, so I had to schlep all our clothes from the second story to the basement to wash. The “heated” pool was not very heated so even with high temps and sunny skies, thankfully, the water was quite cold. We had some problems with the hot water. All in all, I’m glad we had a nice big home on the water, but this particular spot was probably overpriced for what we got.

Fourth up: What do you do?

If you start in Boston, I highly recommend eating in the North End. We had an incredible dinner from Giacomo’s (it’s tiny, go early, bring cash). I thought the pastries from Mike’s were over-hyped, but maybe do it anyway. We did a Duck Tour – it was meh. I loved the one in DC. We had a blast at the Boston Tea Party museum and reenactment. Walk Freedom Trail.

Once in Bar Harbor, you can’t go without spending time at Acadia National Park. (Pro tip – kids are free in 4th grade and because of the pandemic they were free for 5th grade too so we got two years of free National Park admissions!) We loved it. There was so much good there. Among the things you must do at Acadia are:

Us and Cadillac Mountain – 15 years later

Make a reservation for Cadillac Mountain Road – they’re easy enough to get but you can’t go up and hike Cadillac Mountain without getting one. After hiking around Cadillac Mountain on Monday, we got another reservation for Friday so we could do it again.
Go to Sand Beach – it is a sand beach. I know, I know, so what. But the beaches in Maine are rocky and this is really beautiful. Set into the clefts of the rocks. Water is freezing but kids got in anyway.
Definitely walk Jordan Pond – I loved this area. So beautiful. And after you walk around the pond, which is not at all strenuous, then you go to Jordan Pond House. They’ve been around since the late 1800s and are known for their popovers and jam. Parking is insane near Jordan Pond so plan on going earlier in the day whenever you decide to visit so you can find parking. We had to try two days in a row.
Drive Park Loop Road and pull off when you see something interesting. It’s long, almost 30 miles, but has all sorts of cool stops like Thunder Hole, Otter Cliffs and Cove, and carriage roads.

In addition to Acadia, we ended up with several great outings throughout the week. We had such fun on our two hour LuLu Lobster Boat Ride with a lobsterman who taught us a lot about lobster and lobster fishing.

We saw the FIRST whale of the summer season when we went out on our Bar Harbor Whale Watching tour. It is long – we were on the water over five hours one afternoon in search for a whale. And if you get seasick, you probably will. (We had several folks throwing up on the catamaran.) We loved it though. Well three of the five of us loved it. Two of us tolerated it.

Diver Ed wasn’t open yet when we were there but we’ve heard rave reviews.

And the kids absolutely loved their day kayaking on Long Pond. It was gorgeous, rentals were reasonable through National Park Kayak Rentals, and there was even a spot to jump in and swim near where you launched at the south end. It’s WAY bigger than a pond.

Fifth up: RELAX. It’s gorgeous.

We really did unwind. It took a few days. Bray got sick the day before we left, just feeling generally crummy and wasn’t back to himself until Monday or Tuesday. Then to add insult to injury, the baby got an ear infection on Saturday so we spent Sunday morning in an urgent care getting checked out.

I was super grateful I had planned very little – each day was a design your own adventure. I listed our options and had only made reservations for the Duck Boat Tour in Boston, the Lobster Boat trip in Bar Harbor, and the Whale Watching. That let each of us do our own thing. For me, it was walking Jordan Pondan and having popovers. While for Bray, it was lobster at lunch and dinner (we made that happen for all but Monday’s lunch). For the kids, it was returning to Cadillac Mountain and Sand Beach, which we did on Friday. We definitely didn’t do everything, but we did a lot.

Watch sunsets on the water every night.

Laugh.

Build a fire. (You can do that in Maine in the summer.)

Avoid the freaky and painful browntail moth caterpillar. (That drops from trees. And sits on Adirondack chairs.)

Try something new.

Eat lobster. And ice cream. And don’t miss the Allagash white beer, on draft.

Play music outside.

Reset.

The Vacation That Was Planned

April 2, 2020 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Happy Thursday friends.

I kept meaning to blog about our Spring Break trip. But coronavirus…

I thought I’d write in two parts. Today, I thought I’d share about the vacation that we planned. Well, that I planned. Last July. When I couldn’t have fathomed what March 2020 would look like.

Then, in Part 2, I’ll write about the vacation that happened. Still very good. But different. Which is okay.

My sweet friend Sarah posted amazing pictures from Utah and Arizona last May from their nearly two week family vacation. I immediately reached out to her for her itinerary because I wanted to do what she did!

I stole from it liberally and it’s that itinerary I’m sharing with you in case you want to take your family to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.

We booked flights into Phoenix on the Saturday before Spring Break and out of Las Vegas the following Saturday.

From Saturday to Wednesday, we would stay in Flagstaff so we could hit Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Wednesday, we would relocate to Springdale, Utah to do those three days of activities. It was a fair amount of driving but I rented a minivan (much to my family’s ridicule), so they had space to spread out and play travel games and read books.

I absolutely loved our VRBO house. It was in a neighborhood but set back off the beaten path in all these tall trees. It had a pool table and ping pong table and a grill and a hot tub (whenever I look for a VRBO house, I require a grill and hot tube, it definitely narrows my options but my family loves it!).

We arrived about lunch time which gave us time to get to know the area, do our grocery shopping and settle in before the days ahead.

The remainder of the schedule looked like this:

Sunday – Sedona, ride the Sedona Trolley up to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, have lunch at Sedona Pizza and ice cream at Black Cow, and then take the Broken Arrow Pink Jeep tour (lots more on this fabulous tour tomorrow).

Monday – Hike Sedona or take the day and visit the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde (we ended up switch our Monday and Tuesday).

Tuesday – Spend the day in the Grand Canyon, hike the South Rim, take the south rim trail to El Tovar. I meant to make dinner reservations at El Tovar 60 days out like the recommend but forgot to and I’m glad we didn’t – it was nice to have no schedule this day. Also, I looked at the train ride into Grand Canyon, but after researching it, the landscape isn’t that great on the ride and it doesn’t actually take you around Grand Canyon only to Grand Canyon, so unless you just want your kids to experience a train I wouldn’t spend the money.

Wednesday – the long day! Clean and check out of the VRBO house, and pack lunches for the float trip. Drive the over 2 hours from Flagstaff to Page to go on the Lake Powell Wilderness River Adventure. This lets you see the dam, Lake Powell, and Glen Canyon. There are amazing slot canyons in Page too but I couldn’t make both things work because in the spring the float trip doesn’t depart until 10 am and you return at 3 pm.

This was sadly where our trip ended, but the remainder of the trip promised to be amazing. We would drive Wednesday night to Springdale and stay at the Desert Pearl Inn at the base of Zion National Park.

Thursday – We booked the Peek A Boo Slot Canyon Tour in Kenab through the Kanab Tour Company. You go four wheeling through gorgeous slot canyons over the afternoon.

Friday – Sticking with the highly recommended Kanab Tour Company, we booked a guided all day tour of Zion National Park.

Then on Saturday, we’d catch a noontime flight out of Las Vegas. A word of caution, rental cars are a lot more expensive if you drop them in a different location than you pick them up. Even with a corporate discount, the price was steep.

Because Spring Break is their peak season, I booked everything way in advance to ensure we got the lodging and tours we wanted for the days we wanted. There was tons of time built in for leisurely mornings (Wednesday and Saturday were our only early days) and there was lots of time for grilling out dinner and relaxing in the hot tub or playing a rousing game of ping pong.

We really did love our trip, but more on what happened in the next installment!

Vincent Vacation, Characters from the Road

June 18, 2015 by Gindi 2 Comments

The eldest is seriously outgoing. We forget this in our day to day life, but take this child on a road trip and he will meet the entire state. He has a career in politics. Or ministry. And once he’s begun the questioning of the unsuspecting person we encounter, all three launch in.

Meet Miss Loretta: Loretta was in the Marriott Timber Lodge hot tub in Lake Tahoe our last night on vacation. She was there celebrating her 87th birthday with her two daughters in their 60s. They’re from Reno and have a condo near the airport. She has family in Katy, Texas. She now knows our Pre-K 4 teacher also has a home in Katy, Texas.

I had to keep pulling the kids back to the hot tub bench so they didn’t end up in Miss Loretta’s lap.

Meet Little Rosie: Rosie is also 5. Her birthday was in January. She and her mother, originally from England, were visiting Houston and had the great fortune of riding in the row in front of my little man on the flight up to Reno. They were returning home. Rosie is also looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall.

Meet Miss Beth: Beth was stuck in Reno with us during a flight delay. She is from Iowa and was in Reno for vacation visiting her grandson, also five, and granddaughter, ten. She doesn’t get to see them very often. She let the kids playing gambling games on her tablet (lordy). The eldest inquired in Denver if we could call Miss Beth to see if she found her plane. I told him I didn’t have her number, and he got incredibly concerned because how would we go visit her in Iowa without her contact information.

Meet Pilot Gabe: Captain William generously gave up his pilot’s seat as we boarded the plane so all three kids could enter the cockpit. Pilot Gabe is very knowledgeable about all of the gadgets and gears on the airplane which was fortunate given the intense questioning he underwent at the hands of the eldest. Alas, we don’t know where Pilot Gabe is from because mommy had to pull the interrogator out of the cockpit so everyone could board.

There were other’s stories we glimpsed on our journey.

On our last night by Yosemite, we had dinner in Mariposa (the closest town to our house). Afterwards, we went to an amazing ice cream shop for treats. The shop is run by sisters. One sister, who looks remarkably like our next door neighbor, kindly dipped out everyone’s ice cream order, while the other sister worked out logistics for her daughter with her ex. She fixed him a milkshake to go and he had their daughter for the night. She asked if she could have their daughter Friday night for a family graduation. He agreed but said the girl had to spend the night with him Friday night because they were leaving town on Saturday. The mother sighed when she remarked the graduation didn’t start til 8 pm. She hugged her girl goodbye and stood sadly at the front window as her girl and past man drove away.

Some of you know my story. My parents divorced, in an ugly and public way, at the end of my seventh grade year. I didn’t see my dad for three years. Witnessing these hard stories up close still rips me to pieces. I have friends and family who have gone through this heartache, and I know from first hand experience the challenges single parents face. I stopped right there and began to pray. For the business to thrive. For each of the people involved in the breaking to heal and to know God’s love. For them to feel peace and comfort and strength and restoration.

Driving off, I looked at Bray and said, please, no matter what happens, let’s not let that happen to us.

I know you can’t predict what happens. Really I do. I’m sure my preacher’s kid mother never dreamed her marriage would end after 17 years while married to a preacher herself. But I have to tell you, I want to do everything in my power to work through whatever faces us so I don’t end up at a front window watching my kids drive away.

And if you’re going solo right now, I can tell you God does crazy stuff. He makes provision in the hard times. (We had Thanksgiving dinner show up one year on our doorstep and another year money for new school clothes show up in the mail…) He heals. He restores relationships.

That’s it from the road. Thanks for bearing with my walk down memory lane. This blog does a lot of things, but one of the things it does as serves as my memory for big family events. I love having you on the ride with me.

Vincent Vacation, The Grandeur and The Fear

June 16, 2015 by Gindi 2 Comments

Our introduction to Yosemite National Park was an early June afternoon at the northern Tioga Pass which only opens in late May because of snow.

As soon as we passed through the park entrance gates, snow began to fall. The kids have never seen snow since it’s not snowed in Houston since they were two months old. We pulled over so they could catch a few flakes on their tongue. The next day in the Valley it was 100 degrees.

Such is the grandeur and unpredictability of Yosemite.

El Capitan greeted us at first view when we drove in Sunday morning:

We ate on the Merced beach across from El Capitan’s trail with the rain beginning to fall:

We drove past the tiered Yosemite Falls on one side and Bridalveil Falls on the other:

At the top of Tunnel View we could see most of the Valley spread before us – from Half Dome to the falls to El Capitan with glimpses of Cathedral Rock and Three Brothers:

The wildness is breathtaking. Spectacular. Extraordinary. It’s also a little bit terrifying. The hairpin turns around mountain ranges with no rail or views beyond the next curve. The warnings of roaming bears and coyotes.

Truth be told, I’ve been scared by a lot lately. News reports are chilling. Headlines from Nigeria to our backyard have set me on edge.

I was acutely aware of my growing fear in the wilderness. I stood guard over the family picnicking by the Merced in case of a wandering bear (despite my husband’s chuckling that no person in recorded history has been killed by a bear in Yosemite). I gripped the door handle and pressed my foot on the invisible passenger brakes as he slowly inched up the mountain’s edge. I packed extra food and drinks in case of weather or misdirection.

Yet everything was beyond my control.

So much in my life is. Funny, those are the things I worry about.

I shared what I began to see about my fear out there in the wild with a dear friend, and she wisely remarked, It sounds like you are afraid of the big. But it’s in the bigness of God that we also find safety.

Sigh.

Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
As we have heard, so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God:
God makes her secure forever. Psalm 48

This wasn’t the vacation post I’d set out to write about the grandeur of Yosemite. There are plenty of words to fill a page to share the beauty of each nook and cranny. Not just the mountains and the waterfalls, but the flowers and the rocks and the dappled light through the trees.

I would have done them all injustice, but I could have easily written that post.

But I wondered if maybe there’s not someone else struggling with fear over the big. Fear which could easily take over even though it’s everything beyond our control.

I found tremendous peace in remembering the bigness of my God is the antidote to the bigness of my fear. {==> Click to Tweet}

You see, the God of all this grandeur, isn’t about fear; this extraordinary God is about extraordinary love. And as big and unpredictable as life, and my fears, are, He is bigger:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I Tim. 1:7

God is love… There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. I John 4:7

He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day…
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways. Psalm 91

I know it’s scary when we can’t see around the corner, but He can, and He’s there.

Vincent Vacation, The Logistics

June 15, 2015 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Hello again friends! Since this was such a radically different trip from our Disney experience, I learned a lot and both Bray and I enjoyed this week away (and we were nervous when we left). So I thought I’d share some of what we did, beyond just the funnies, and what worked for our family which is still learning the travel ropes.

1. The airplane – so our flight into Reno was almost four hours, but coming back we couldn’t get a direct flight so we had two flights that ran over two hours each. The kids did remarkably well. We packed each of them their small school backpack. The small pouch contained snacks (applesauce pouches, candy cane, granola bar, goldfish), and the big pouch contained a travel color book (with handy pouch for washable markers), a couple of small books, an activity pad, and their small blanket in case they got cold. It was perfect.

I carried a backpack with my things as well as a kindergarten notebook, a travel magnetic game, and my iPad which had fun games and held a charge well. This later piece was particularly helpful because we had a four plus hour drive to the house. Which takes us to transport.

2. The van – Yes, yes I did rent a mini van. I can’t bring myself to own one but it ROCKED. You can check booster seats for free, so we opted for a little hassle because it was free versus paying to rent boosters. Plus, the kids each had their own chair they couldn’t hit each other the whole ride.

We stopped a half hour in and had a big late lunch and let them run around. The van gave us space to pack extras (that’s an ice chest for our park picnics!). Had I known it was going to come with a DVD player, I would have also packed DVDs (note to mommas: rent a minivan and pack DVDs). I did pack my car charger which did us little good since we had NO cell service anywhere. Including accommodations. Speaking of…

3. Lodging – Instead of staying inside the Yosemite National Park, which I had originally booked, we stayed in a three bedroom house I found on VRBO through my darling friend who vacations with a bigger family than mine.

The pluses: the SPACE, a wide open front and back yard with space for the kids to run; the front and back porch where Bray and I could drink our morning coffee and watch the kids play; the hot tub which we got in every single day when we returned from the park; the washer/dryer which let me do laundry so we didn’t have to pack a million extra clothes; and the inside space to spread out. They had a closet full of old board games and we played fierce games of Battleship (boys versus girls)! Not to mention it was over $400 cheaper than the lodge I’d booked in the park, and we cooked our own breakfast and dinners (saving lots more money).

The minuses: there is no convenient place to stay outside the park so we drove an hour in and an hour out every day and the road is a winding one high in the mountains; the one bathroom was a little tricky when my kids almost always need to use the toilet at the same time.

4. The schedule – I printed out the wonderful guide that Yosemite publishes every month or two showing the activities and areas of interest throughout the park. They highlight the programs that are family friendly, and I outlined the key ones I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss.

We did NONE of the programs I tagged to do. Please let me know how Ranger Ned’s Big Adventure performance goes if you make it. Or the evening theatre performance of John Muir’s adventures. I saw nary a one.

Nonetheless, we had a great time. Sunday we went straight to Yosemite Valley, the heart of the park, and hiked the Yosemite Falls, the lower portion is a very manageable and pretty hike. We always packed drinks but only a few snacks because I may have been a little paranoid about bears.

Monday we drove to Mariposa Grove and Wawona because the Grove closes in July for some time, and it’s where the giant sequoias live. The trails there are kid-friendly, and we visited the Grizzly Giant, the largest tree in North America.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were in and around the Valley: Tuesday focusing on our Valley Floor tour, buy in advance at Yosemite Lodge (highly recommend doing early in your adventure to orient yourself), and eating at the famous Ahwahnee Hotel which is super cool but has terrible food; and Wednesday heading over to see the climbers begin their ascent and picnicking at the Merced River across from the El Capitan Trail.

We spent our last 24-ish hours in Lake Tahoe which I don’t have time to detail here. I will share that we were SO close to Tahoe on our hairpin Hwy 4 8800 foot elevation drive through the forest when they CLOSED the road, and we had to turn back around and add another three hours to our already four hour trip. AGGGHHH! The kids endured though, Bray pressed on through that terrible drive, and we ended our trip at the Marriott Timber Lodge in South Tahoe complete with walk to the lake beach (through an iffy area of town), swimming pools and hot tubs, and scoops of ice cream!

Shorter posts for the rest of the week, I promise!