Lighthouse Tour

Maine Lighthouse & National Park Tour

Five lighthouses and many magnificent coastal Mansions!

50-Mile route through islands and along Acadia's famous

ocean drive.

Bay King III - A 90 foot jet-powered catamaran

 runs from May 26th - October and you are

out on the boat for about two and a half hours.

It has two decks, but we didn't go up top.

Bear Island Lighthouse

Here's Gus loaded down like a pack horse, he was one of the few who didn't have a jacket on yet, but this was only the first lighthouse, it really got downright cold the further out in the ocean we went.

Winter Harbor Light

Winter Harbor Light in Color

Egg Rock Lighthouse

This island is off limits at certain times of the year, due

to nesting birds.

Another view of Bear Island

Great Duck Island Light

I'll post the rest of the tour including photos of the mansions and Acadia Park from the tour boat in another post.  I was quite pleased with how my photos came out.  They had pictures of the lighthouses on a screen inside the boat for the tourists that didn't want to stand outside in the cold wind and my pictures were almost as good as theirs.

More Bar Harbor Day

A pit stop for lunch at a deli on Main Street in Bar Harbor.

  All five grand kids in one photo.

Henry, Ava, Michael, Sydney and Griffin.
It's the first time I've had that many of them
in one place, at one time, with me present to enjoy them,
that is as good as it gets in my world.

Thanks! Amanda, for inviting Meghan, Bill

and the kids to visit, so we could

join you all in Maine for the 4th of July.

Meghan and Sydney.

Giant rocking horse in the store, that makes

everything out of wood.  If I had more time
I'd look up the names of the stores and post links.

All the kids had to have a ride, except for Michael.

Griffin bought a horse in this store with his souvenir

money from Grammie LaLa and Ava bought a back scratcher

here too.

Ice cream is a must at Bar Harbor and the lines

are long, but boy it was yummy!!!

Michael bought cool shades with his spending cash.

I love it when my boys dress alike.

Henry bought the bus you see on his lap and his

ice cream cone was almost as big as he was.

Shopping in our favorite store.

They had the coolest metal sculptures.

And we all love the pottery mushrooms.

The kids started playing in this fountain.

Notice how it ends in a doggie drink bowl at the bottom.

Isn't that cool.  Everybody brings their dogs to Bar Harbor,

don't ask me why....I think it's too crowded with people.

Yep!  All five kids ended up playing in the fountain.

I'm pretty sure it was slightly illegal, but no one

stopped them, so finally the parents had to step in

and drag them out.

Bar Harbor Beach

On Sunday we met the kids in Bar Harbor

on the beach.  Michael was the first one

to actually skip a stone.  I believe eventually

Derek and Bill skipped some too.

The girls were pathetic stone skippers.

Ava was into building sand castles

while some of the other kids tried to play

billy goats on the rocks.

While walking along the shore path, we

had to stop and take a family photo for the Hall family.

The shore path is pretty long, but the kids didn't complain

it's really pretty both looking out at the ocean and

looking inland at all the nice houses and landscaping.

Henry's hat was a little to big.

Michael was acting so very grown-up,

he is almost nine you know, his birthday is in August.

We also ate lunch out, had icecream and shopped, but

that will be in another post.

Farm at Kensington

A visit to Kensington's farm last week was a fun excursion

for my daughter, granddaughter & I.

I loved the photo opportunities and couldn't

resist taking pictures of the cute little pigs,

baby goats,

ducks,

and this cute little Munchkin.

Too Hot for Slides

What do you do at the park when it's too hot to slide?

Daniela took a few twirls on the mini merry-go-round.

She practiced her climbing skills.

She must always pet the mouse that sleeps in the bark of

the old hollow log.

She even paused for a picture for Mi Mi.

Isn't this sun glass bedazzled darling cute!

Daniela rode her bike around the bike path.

Well a little ways down it..... until she saw some
grade school cheerleaders that were practicing
their cheers and she had to stop to watch them.

She would hang out in the hollow log.

And climb across the monkey bars

and dangle at the end.

We had a great time at the park on Sunday.

Yes, that was me behind the camera, and I just

noticed I'm in the reflection on her sunglasses.

Did you notice it in any of the other pictures or

not until I mentioned it?

Reading Some Photography Books

  This month I'll be reading some photography books, getting ready for vacation.  Hubby and I plan on going on a lighthouse tour by boat and since my main area of photography is usually portraits of children, I thought this book would be a great one to read.  Kodak's Guide to Shooting Great Travel Pictures really covers it all: from cities, formal gardens, architecture, landmarks and monuments, houses of worship, parades, sports, people at work, landscapes, panoramas, mountains, tropical beaches, canyons, sunsets, weather, rivers and waterfalls, and on and on....... and it even has instructions for creating a photo travel journal.

I tried reading Understanding Exposure, but it was so far over my head that I didn't get much out of it at all.  I have about ten books on photography on my book shelves at the moment here area a couple of the titles:  Digital Photography for Dummies, Reader's Digest Complete Photography Manual, Exploring Color Photography, and A Short Course in Photography.  If there are any books that you would recommend that I read, please leave a comment.

He said "Have a nice Holiday Weekend"

Leaving work on Friday I heard these words, "Have a nice Holiday Weekend" and I got all choked up and didn't know what to say.  I'm a Mother's Helper for a National Guardsman's wife and he's recently been deployed.  If not for men & woman like him Memorial Day wouldn't be a holiday, yet so many of us celebrate for all the wrong reasons and forget to thank those who serve our country.  Lord I'm guilty of not being grateful enough, forgive me.  Help me in the future to speak up when I should and show my appreciation.

For their Sacrifice.  Please check out a friend's blog, she did an awesome post for Memorial Day.