2 Nights Camping Fee: We feel like kids writing home from summer camp with this post about Lily Bay State Park: Dear Mom and Dad, You would not believe how amazing this place is. I know everyone said it would be great and it’s not like we didn’t believe them, but we just didn’t think it would be this cool! P.S. Can we come back next year? Sincerely, Us Many people told us that Lily Bay State Park is their…
In 2016, almost 14% of the US population went on at least one camping trip during the year. Half of these current campers were exposed to camping as adolescents and the average age of a first time camper is 10 years old. There are a lot of fun facts in the 2017 American Camper Report. The 14% recently came up in an economic impact study presentation, which then led some late night googling. If you’re ever bored, here are some…
In a mini-series of lessons learned posts, this is Lessons Learned #2 where we list some things we’ve learned while camping with a baby and crashing at four Maine State Parks, so far. It is mostly in millennial list format so you can scan it without having to read much, but it is not ranked in any order. Just like in Lessons Learned #1, our experiences and our opinions are certainly not the end-all be-all. We are not professionals, and…
It’s amazing how a sunny 55 degree day makes everyone feel like a million bucks. Strangers walking around smiling and saying hello to one another. You feel like Jim Carey in the Bruce Almighty scene when he realizes he’s “got the power.” Nothing could put us in a bad mood on a day like this after a long cold winter. The day before we hit the road was just as nice and we used every minute of that day to…
We had been waiting for the perfect weekend day this winter to visit Range Pond State Park. It seemed that anytime we had a free day to visit a park, it was either freezing rain or just flat-out freezing and we have no interest in exposing a 1-year-old to negative temps for long periods of time. Despite the cold weather, it’s been a wonderful winter so far but there haven’t been any state park visits for our family since Eloise’s birthday. On…
Do you remember learning how to ski or snowboard? Once you fell for the first time, you had a more enjoyable rest of the day. Just get it out of the way early and then you can relax. It often doesn’t hurt that bad and you seem to be anxious until you finally topple over. That is what it’s like camping and spending time outdoors with a baby. It’s not a big deal at all and often we see lots…
Reid State Park is one of the most visited state parks in Maine, besides Baxter. It was the first salty beach that the state ever owned. Without going into a history lesson we ourselves just learned about, let’s just say businessman and philanthropist Walter E. Reid was a stand-up dude who worked his butt off and then gave back to his community. On December 1, 2017 we made the 60-minute commute from our home in Portland to the park. It was…
There is Vaughan Woods Memorial State Park in South Berwick, and there is Vaughan Woods of Hallowell. Both historic sites, however, two different locations separated by 100 miles via car, not as the crow flies. The location in Hallowell has been on our ‘must visit’ list for a couple years. It’s been nicknamed “Hobbitland” because locals view it as a Shire. The main attraction appears to be an incredible stone walking bridge. This Vaughan Woods is actually closer to our…
Raise your hand if you knew Bradbury Mountain State Park had a campground. If you’re raising your hand, you knew more than us. If you didn’t, it’s tucked away in the woods across the street from the park entrance. Until we started researching state parks, we had no idea it existed. Talk about a perfect example of not knowing exactly what’s in your own backyard. Bradbury Mountain State Park is 20 minutes from our house in Portland and like most…
And we give Cobscook Bay State Park 10 Rubies! Wait, rewind, sorry for jumping to the end, but you will see that we fell in love with this park. So, from the beginning…the GPS says this park is 4 hours from our home in Portland, but in actuality, with a cranky car baby you need to tack on another 90 minutes or so to factor in stops. We even passed on watching the eclipse during the ride home because Eloise…