16 Months: Vacation - Part 2

Well, we're back now, and have sifted through some of the photos and footage. Plenty of great pictures of August, his mother, and the whole famn damily. A sampling:

Hiking was the central activity of our trip. Here's me and August, loaded up for a hike at Dodge Point in the Damariscotta River region of Mid-coast Maine.


Watson came along too, and I think it was the best vacation he ever had. Here he is exploring a swamp at Dodge Point (great photo by Mary... most of the good photos on this blog are by Mary, I think. She calls this one "Black Creature of the Lagoon"):


Here he is again, letting his fur down at Fort William Henry, in Pemiquid:


Mary with her baby:


August & his Mom, atop Mount Battie, overlooking the town of Camden, to which we will probably soon relocate despite its being a good 3.5 to 4 hours from Boston:


Outside of Camden (past Belfast) we stumbled onto Moose Point State Park. Mary and I had fun exploring the views of Penobscot Bay...


...and August had fun exploring his belly button... a favorite obsession for a few weeks now:


Our ultimate destination was Bar Harbor, where we spent a few days hiking some of the trails and famous carriage roads of the Acadia National Park. It was here that August began his own career as a hiker, forgoing the comforts of the kid-pack in favor of the rugged trails of Acadia:


If you've been to Acadia, you know that the trails are anything but rugged. They're the most amazingly well-kept wilderness trails I've ever seen or heard of. However... as we were walking 'round Jordan Pond, as we were finding our way along the back of the pond, August tripped and fell on his face. There was a little bit of blood, and a lot of drama. I had to sacrifice my T-shirt to the task of sopping up the blood because we weren't well prepared... it was supposed to be a short 3-4 mile hike. The baby was upset for a while, but then got back into the spirit of things and insisted on going it on foot (reluctantly accepting my help for the more challenging parts):


This one shows off the lake a little better:


Shortly after that shot was taken, the baby melted down and we found ourselves trapped on the back side of the lake, walking on a weird, never-ending walkway of half logs, raised above the delicate ecology of the pond's shore. I found myself carrying the baby in my arms, unable to find a good place to stop and re-pack him. He was screaming mad—no doubt disturbing the peace of any other hikers around the lake. The dog had trouble maintaining his footing on the wet wooden logs and, rather awkwardly, fell off the raised walkway more than once... nearly taking Mary with him, since she was holding his leash. The last third of that walk was un-fun, and our poor baby, in addition to being well pissed off, now had a wound on his nose and lip which didn't look nearly as bad at the time as it soon would. Poor kid.

Next day we had beautiful ocean-side walks. But sometimes the family portrait just doesn't go as you hoped. Sometimes you get an angry, wounded, uncooperative baby and the wrong end of the dog:


Next day took a six mile walk along the carriage roads around Eagle Lake. August held his own (and the dog) for parts of that walk, especially the downhill runs:


On the way back we stayed one night in Camden, then stopped off again at Ferry Beach (a nostalgic spot for us) near Prouts Neck. Same beach where we took the pictures for the previous post. Here are Mary's two favorite pictures of the trip (and the final two). August & his dad:


And August himself, wounded but dashing. Looking awesome!