New York: Fort Stanwix

Another National Park, another Junior Ranger Program.

Working hard, learning history and having fun at the Fort:

Smuggler's Notch, Vermont

We ski at Smugg's every February, so strange to see it green, not white!

Where's the snow?



There's a playground?!

Vermont: Week 3, Ben & Jerry's

No trip to Vermont would be complete without a visit to the Ben & Jerry's factory store: so good!

Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Waiting for Lulu Lobster Boat (can you spot BB?!) to take us on a lobster hunt:


Waiting on the Village Green for the free 'LL Bean Island bus' to take us back to our campground, BB thought the fountain was cool!

Cadillac Mountain: Acadia NP

Breathtaking views from atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia, BB was highly impressed.





and the sunset:

'French Connection': Acadia National Park

As part of their homeschool curriculum, the children are completing a Junior Ranger program at many of the National Parks, upon which, our route is loosely based. These programs are sometimes pretty challenging, with many requirements, especially at the larger National Parks, of which Acadia is one.

Here, we are attending a Ranger program called the 'French Connection', Jake was especially interested to learn that had the wars gone differently, we could've been in 'New France', rather than 'New England'.

The Ranger had brought along a few items that contributed to her talk, including a wooden clog that BB tried on.

Maine: week 2

BB enjoying the pool with all the kids at Hadley's Point campground, near Bar Harbor.

Rhode Island: week 1

BB and Caitlin enjoying a s'more at Holiday Acres Campground in RI.



BB, Caitlin, Jake, Becca and Nate by an enormous anchor: Mystic Seaport, CT.

Camp Tohikanee

More photos of BB's gnome friend at Camp Tohikanee: more of Kathy's pics.

I will be uploading a lot more pics of BB (we've nicknamed Caitlin's gnome: BB, short for Blue Bell, he's become a family favorite: "Where's BB?" "Did someone remember to bring BB?" "We should get a photo of BB here!" etc, etc!) soon. We've taken quite a few in lots of wonderful places - he's going to be extremely well traveled!

He's off and roaming.....

The day before we left, we had pictures of Caitlin and Lara with their gnomes in front of the camper, just so everyone can see where they started. Lara's will also be traveling with her, they'll reconnect next August!


I'm not sure if this will work but here is a link to the pics that Kathy took: Kathy's pics.

The gnome went to a camp with Lara and Sophie and other girl scouts, here are Lisa's pics (again, hoping the link works!).

The Roaming Gnome

Caitlin's friend, Lara, gave her a gnome to take along on our trip across the USA. The gnome will be photographed in many different locations along the way and Lara's Girl Scout troop will follow its travels.

This will be a great way for Caitlin to stay connected with her friends from school and the girls can check on a map where we are.

Should be fun!