And still more

After we left Acadia, we took the coastal highway down Maine toward NH.  We were able to go through many neat little towns along the way and the scenery was beautiful!  At one point we were going past Rockport, ME and the Big Man spoke up and said he wished we had stopped there.  When we asked him why (as that seemed very random to us) he told us that is where Andre lived.  When we were at Acadia we bought the book Andre because we had seen the movie a few years back.  It is about a harbor seal that this man raises.  It is a very sweet movie (if you have never seen it we would recommend it) and the Big man had read the book while we were driving.  I did not remember the town it took place in but he did and told us. We turned around and went down to the harbor where there is a statue of Andre.  It ended up being a very fun little stop!

Here is the harbor where Andre would play and put on shows for people.



Here is statue

Most of the little towns we drove through looked something like this one

We stopped in Freeport, ME which is the home of LL Bean

Then we camped for three nights in NH at Bear Brook State Park.  The park was only about an hour and a half out of Boston and it was a three hour drive to Newprt, RI.  We spent the first day in Newport, which is on an island.  We went to one of the top ten beaches in New Englund, Easton Beach and it was incredible!  It was a huge beach, with sugar sand, and the water was pretty warm.  We had a blast there!

The Big Man in the middle of one of the many good sized waves that rolled into the beach.  Out of all of us, I think he may have enjoyed swimming in the ocean the most.

A very nice man let Todd and the Big Man borrow his boogie board for a little while.  Here he caught a pretty good wave and rode it in.

The younger four playing in the sand

Todd and the Big Man waiting for this wave to hit them

The Little Man loved running from the water as it would wash up

The Middle Man had a love hate relationship with the ocean.  He so wanted to be out in those waves with his brother but yet was afraid to go out there.  He had fun though.  :)

KR love, love, loves water!  She wanted to be in it all the time even in Maine where it was very cold!

Poor KK, she does not love water and the waves crawling up the beach terrified her.  Much of the time she stood at a distance with this look on her face if we all went to the water. 

True to form, this guy attacked the ocean like he did learning to tie shoes, pulling teeth, riding bike, or playing sports.  He went at playing in the waves with 100% of his energy and loved every minute!  They all had a good time picking up shells too :)

After KR and I played in the water a while, KK deliverd a drink to her sister.

Then she warmed up to the idea of the water and had fun too!

From the beach you can take off on a walk called the Newport Cliff Walk.  If you are ever there it is well worth your time!  You walk along an easy trail along cliffs and go past huge mansions.

This is just a sampling of some of the amazing places

The second half of the trail you have to climb on rocks and accross yards, there is not a nice paved trail so we had to stop because we had a stroller.  That was okay though as our kids were getting tired and the sun was setting.  It was a great day in Rhode Island though!