MDI and Acadia National Park with Oma and Opa

Sunrise the morning of August 3rd was pretty glorious.

We were all up soon and ready to go, excited for a day of exploring with Oma and Opa!

We piled into their car for a scenic drive around MDI (Mount Desert Island) using an app called GuideAlong. The app could see where we were located using GPS, and the guide narrator would tell us things about the area we were passing through. It was a pretty cool way to get a tour without taking a tour!

We made a quick stop at the Thuya Garden, created by Charles Savage, with the help of Beatrix Ferrand and John D. Rockefeller, Jr, which opened in 1962. Named for the white cedar trees that surround the area, it was a beautiful spot to visit.

The GuideAlong tour took us up around Somes Sound and into Somesville, the first settlement on Mount Desert Island in 1761. We stopped to look at the very pretty white footbridge, which is apparently a popular photo spot.

We also wanted to do some hikes, since the weather was pretty good (and unfortunately not looking so great for the next day). We took a trail called Flying Mountain and were rewarded with excellent views down Somes Sound (the featured photo at the top of this post is from the top).

We also did the Ship Harbor hike a little further down the coast, which was shaped like a figure eight.

The rocks were fun to climb around on here. Cecelia definitely enjoyed it.

The views were pretty lovely as well.

That night we had some tasty drinks at the Annex, dinner at Side Street Cafe, and then we all popped into Cottage Street Pub, where Cecelia got a Shirley Temple with homemade grenadine (fancy!)

The next day the weather turned rainy and cold…but we kept at it! We headed into the main part of Acadia National Park and did some of the Park Loop Road tour on the GuideAlong.

We stopped at Thunder Hole, but the booming noise of the sea crashing into the crevasse was not happening on this day.

We decided to hike the loop around Jordan Pond. It was drizzly and wet but it made for some cool photos!

It cleared up a bit as we went along.

We were all happy to have Oma and Opa here to experience MDI and Acadia with us!