Peak's Island

Well, to be honest, we really did not enjoy our trip. Don't get me wrong, the kids loved it, but it was not a parent friendly place. I think we could have done alot of things differently that would have made it more enjoyable, so we may venture and do it one more time. Anyway, Jordan had preschool on Thursday so we did not leave till he got out at 11:45 (mistake #1). We actually did not leave till about 1:30. We drove to Casco Bay Lines in Portland without getting lost which was a releif. We got there and parked in the parking garage. It was about 92 degrees so we knew it would probably be miserable, but we went anyway (mistake #2). We had to wait about 30 mins. for the next ferry which was fine. The kids liked watching the different ferry's come in. The ferry we went on is actually a car ferry as well as a passenger ferry, so they loaded 4 vehicles on and then loaded the passengers. So, after a 20 min. ferry ride, we arrived at the island. First thing we realized is that there are no changing rooms, they did however have one bathroom for everyone. I had the kids put on their swimsuits under their clothing, so Doug and I were the only ones who needed to get changed. After getting changed, we set out to find the beach. We asked a couple of people and took a couple of wrong turns, but finally found some place to swim (notice I didn't say a beach to swim). There was a ramp that went down a VERY steep hill. The place we found to swim was not very parent friendly. There was very little sand and was mostly rocks. The rocks went ALL the way into the water. There weren't just a few rocks here and there, there wer piles and piles of rocks and boy did they hurt to walk on. I had remembered to grab all the kids swimming shoes when we left the house, but forgot them in the van when we went on the ferry. Thankfully, I had them all wear their crocs (including me), so we all wore them in. The water was shockingly cold, but the kids stayed in for a while. Anyway, we stayed about 2 hours and then packed up and headed back up the hill with 7 soaking wet towels full of sand in a bag (mistake #3). This bag literally weighed about 50 lbs. We were told later that we should have brought junk towels and threw them away after, this is a tip i will remember. Here is a slideshow of our trip. Although we didn't really enjoy it, I got alot of nice pictures as it was a nice area.

So, in hindsight, here are a couple of things we will do differently:

1. go earlier in the day so we don't feel rushed
2. go on a day that is around 80-85 degrees
3. bring junk towels so we don't have to carry around a 50 lb bag of wet, dirty ones.

Last, I want to say welcome to yet another new baby. Another lady in our church just gave birth to her second baby. Mike and Rachelle Christner welcomed a baby boy, Lucas Michael, into their family on Thursday night. I do not have a photo, but I was told her was a little over 9lbs. and 20+ in. long. If I get a picture, I will surely pass it along. Congratulations to the family!