Maine with My Man (Our 10th Anniversary Extravaganza)

Steve and I decided we should celebrate our 10th Anniversary this year by doing something we've never done before...

Go on a vacation for more than two days with just the two of us! 

It turned out to be perfect timing since Grandma Tammy was itching to spend time with the grandchildren. So, we decided to take a road trip up to Maine and check out Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island. We stayed in Bar Harbor at a hotel right on the ocean. We literally had the ocean right next to us and across the street was the National Park. We were 15 minutes away from everything we wanted to see and do.

We felt really lucky that the fall colors were at their peak and the weather was so nice while we were there.  On our drive up it was rainy and foggy for the entire 12 hours and it was rainy on the day we drove home, but it was clear and beautiful while we were there.

Steve took some great pictures of sunsets, sunrises, and starry skies while we were away from the city lights.

Taken at Otter Cliffs.

The whole island has beautiful trees right up to the edge of rocky cliffs that drop off into the ocean.

One day we took a walk around Jordan Pond.

We were wondering what the difference was between a pond and a lake. This pond was a 3 1/2 mile walk around and the lakes we have near our house aren't that big.

Acadia National Park is full of moss. And on one side of the lake pond there was a wooden raised pathway so that you didn't smash the moss. It was fun to walk on.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse on the other end of the island. 

(Picture taken with Steve's phone)

While walking back from the lighthouse to our car Steve tried to impress me with his tripod balancing skills.

(He had to do something cool with the tripod since he forgot to bring the camera battery which was charging at our hotel. We were laughing about lugging our heavy tripod and camera down the cliffs and then taking pictures with an iPhone).

While listening to General Conference on our phone we sat on a rock and cooked up some Mountain House meals. It was so relaxing!

Sand Beach: the one place in Acadia National Park where you have sand instead of rock cliffs. Too bad it wasn't warm enough to hang out there.

At low tide you can walk out to Bar Island on the sand bar.  To the left is Bar Island and to the right was the main island.

Just a few hours earlier this was all under water. We found some shells to take home to the kids.

Cadillac Mountain (at 1,530 feet in elevation it is the highest point on the island).

And you have a great view in all directions: ocean, ponds, islands, rock cliffs, and forest.

It was a beautiful place to watch the sun set even if it was freezing!

After the sunlight was gone we walked back to our car where we could see Bar Harbor (the little cluster of lights), and the beautiful ocean dotted with islands. The biggest island on the left is Bar Island.

Another beautiful sunrise!

We had to be really still for a few seconds in order for this picture to turn out in low light. 

That's why we aren't smiling. We really were having fun. Promise.

I also think it's funny that it looks like I'm wearing a red moo-moo for the occasion. 

I'm actually wearing a red hoodie under my coat and I have a red blanket around my legs.

Steve had the Precipice Trail hike high on his list of to do's. It was only 1.5 miles long, but it was one of those hikes with bars and chains in the rocks to keep you from falling off the cliff. I told Steve I would do it if it wasn't too crazy. He assured me that it would be fine based on a picture he saw on the internet.

Well, have you ever heard the saying 'Don't believe everything you see on the internet'??

It turns out the hike was nothing like we expected...

At the very beginning of the trail I had to put my leg higher than my waist to get onto the bars. Little did I know that was only the beginning. Steve thought the hard part was over :)

Steve told me I should get into rock climbing. At least I would be doing this kind of stuff with ropes and harnesses!

1 1/2 miles seems really long when you're going straight up.

You can't see the bars, but they're going up the cliff like a ladder in this picture. The whole time we were climbing up I was thinking about how I was going to get down once we got to the top. By the time I had done two or three sets of these "ladders" I was ready to turn around since I had no clue what was ahead and how long it would take to get to the top. Steve agreed that we should turn around. Just then a friendly guy who was climbing up behind us told us it wasn't a good idea to go down the same way and that we should take the easy trail down the other side once we get to the top.

What??!?!

The easy--normal--safe trail. Of course.

All of a sudden Steve and I had a lot of motivation to get to the top and we booked it the rest of the way. Once we got on top there was an awesome view of the ocean that we probably would have enjoyed more had we not been so anxious to get back down the mountain. We spent maybe 5 minutes up there where we snapped a picture, downed the last of the one Gatorade bottle we packed, and took off down the other side.

At the top of Precipice Trail. Check!

The funniest part about this whole crazy thing was the handicapped parking spot at the trailhead.

Go figure.

When we got home from our trip Steve looked up the top thrill-seeker hikes in the country. According to Backpacker.com the Precipice hike was #1. And I think I'll be researching the hikes from now on :)

Don't worry. The kids had tons of fun too--

decorating the entire house with bats and pumpkins for Halloween   |   making cookies for breakfast   |   playing General Conference Bingo   |   picking out pumpkins for the porch   |   eating at Chik-fil-A   |   Cody getting his Wolf Badge at Cub Scouts   |   taking a million pictures with grandma's phone and posting them on Instagram   |   riding bikes   |   playing Crazy 8's   |   having dance parties   |   picking out Halloween costumes   |   watching Daniel the Tiger and Wild Kratts   |   painting nails   |   pizza night   |   Cafe Rio   |   playing Kinect Sports   |   braiding Kylee's hair every day   |   reading books