The Daddy Diary: The Maine Event

A mugging on the jetty.

Mother Nature wreaked a little havoc with the beginning of week 4 in Maine. Bad weather delayed my flight out on Friday night and I didn't step foot into the cottage until 4 am. Three hours later the kids came storming into the bedroom to greet me. So much for sleep.

We celebrated my return to the cottage with one of our favorite bike rides to Camp Ellis. Nice, flat roads... pretty scenery... and yummy seafood at Huots. The girls romped up and down the stone jetty and then we went over to check out the crabbing action at the town dock. The return trip included a stop in Ocean Park for ice cream and shuffle board (not at the same time). This year the girls were introduced to Raspberry Lime Rickeys. Loved them!

On Sunday, Nana and Papa Shepard joined us for an overnight visit and we inaugurated our new charcoal grill. It's been a long time since I've used charcoal and the girls were fascinated with the process.

And then... it was time for the "Vacation from the Vacation"!

Last year I got it into my head to take the girls to Mount Washington in 2011. Not sure why. But we headed for the White Mountains early on Monday morning. The ride was pretty, via roads we had never traveled before.

We arrived around lunch time and as soon as we stepped out of the car the girls realized that we were not in Kansas anymore. It was cold, wet and windy as we ran for the restaurant.

For those who have never seen the Mount Washington Hotel, it is quite an impressive sight. There were ear-shattering shrieks as the 109 year old grand hotel came into view. It helped that the hotel kind of looks like a princess palace.

We wandered through the awesome lobby as our room was readied and then the girls got to "drive" the manually-operated elevator up to the 4th floor.

Our room happened to be located in one of the two towers of the hotel. And when you have rooms in a round-shaped tower, you end up with odd-shaped rooms. Our crescent-shaped room was wacky and amazing. The girls loved it. We even ended up with a view of the mountain.

Stella summed up the hotel as follows...

"Some old places are, you know, like rusty. But this old place is WOW!"

Off to play in every one of the three hotel pools. One inside and two outside. My little fish loved it.

Hot chocolate and olives on the back veranda and then time to dress for fancy dinner.

We all got into our fancy clothes and headed for dinner in the formal dining room. Lots of excitement and smiles from Stella and Marni. We ate, and we danced to the small band. As can be expected, Marni put on quite a show on the dance floor.

The next morning we were up early to catch the first steam train up to the top of Mount Washington on the Cog Railroad.

I had warned the ladies how cold and windy it would be up there, but they were just not prepared to experience 37 degree weather with 40 mile per hour winds.

We dragged the frozen kids up the last 25 feet to the official top of the mountain for a photo op and then we hightailed it for the cafeteria and hot chocolate.

After the train ride back down to the bottom of the mountain, we headed to the hotel for check-out and then headed over to Franconia Notch State Park... a place that I hadn't visited since childhood.

We rode the tram to the top of Cannon Mountain and did a quick hike. Then we took a 2 mile hike at The Flume Gorge. Spectacular.

On Thursday the New Jersey Hoffmans came for their visit. Lots of fun in the sun.

On Sunday Hurricane Irene paid us a visit.

By the time Irene got to Maine she was all tired out from ravaging the more southern and western states. By afternoon we were so bored with it all that we headed to the movies to catch Spy Kids 4.

On Monday the Hoffmans headed home and I enjoyed a bonus day with the kids thanks to a hurricane-delayed flight.

Meanwhile, the end of summer is slowly creeping up on us.