The kids got home from the trip to Chicago just in time for a kid boat party. We met in Northeast Harbor, Maine, part of Acadia National Park with 4 other kid boats! We even got to share a float with our new friends from Anjulia Sue.

kid group at milk and honey The whole gang at our new favorite fried chicken patio party, Milk and Honey.

blueberry feast with Rev playing in the woods by the marina with their pal Rev from Twig

Shakespeare in the park Northeast Harbor had lots of fun things to do, including Shakespeare in the Park – A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

kids watching the show The kids loved it!

new kid friends on the floating dock being waved off by Anjulia Sue

Most of our new friends were heading south, but we still wanted to explore further north before fall arrived, so we headed ‘Down East’.

me, chilly sail north wearing my puffy coat in August

Lorelei with Binoculars at Mistake Land Ho!

picking blueberries on mistake We landed on beautiful Mistake Island for a week completely to ourselves. After kayaking to shore we found a gorgous lighthouse, on an island PACKED with blueberries, and raspberries!

posing on mistake

hiking to the lighthouse

girls kayaking at mistake

seal nature journal A week to ourselves in this beautiful harbor has inspired lots of journaling, berry-picking, and baking.

blueberry nature journal

blueberry bagels The blueberries are overflowing! Blueberries on everything!

skipping through the woods Our last hike on Mistake

Lark on the giant ball in Jonesport We were out of supplies so we stopped at Jonesport to stock up. We were too deep for the harbor, so we tied up on the outside of the breakwater on a giant mooring ball intended for big tugs and barges. Jonesport was a very friendly place. A local even lent us his truck, so we could stock up on groceries!

hauling the dink up the beach at Roque We found another private island. This is Roque Island. It has the most amazingly beautiful white sand beach!

beach at Roque

playing in the sand on Roque

Audrey and Jacob on Roque

group on Roque

Lobster boat The one thing we see a lot of, are lobster boats. They are like squirels up here!

Going to see Machias Seal Island had been on my ‘must do’ list since we arrived in Maine. It was rumored to have the largest population of sea birds in this area, including PUFFINS! It is also an interesting place in that it is the only disputed territory between the US and Canada.

binoculars Machias

Puffins on Machias SO MANY PUFFINS!

Audrey at Machias

puffin flying

nature journaling machias All the birds inspired some spontaneous nature-journaling.

Audrey with Swedish rye bread After leaving Machias, we had a nice sail up into the Bay of Fundy. Audrey commemorated the occasion by baking us a Swedish Rye bread.

After our puffin pit stop, we decided to cross into Canada and brave the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy has the largest tides in the world! The crazy tides around here can cause really interesting and sometimes scary water phenomena, like boils, whirlpools and extremely strong currents!

rainbow at anchor Our first anchorage in Canada. We couldn’t go ashore because we weren’t allowed to clear in until we arived in St. Andrews.

fishing weir a fishing weir in the anchorage

We ended up with a beautiful spot to moor in the harbor outside of St. Andrews by the Sea, in New Brunswick.

sunset in NB

St. Andrews Market Wharf

boat in dry dock The tides are enormous here in the Bay of Fundy. This boat is in dry dock…at low tide at least.

writing postcards We decided to write some postcards.

mailing postcards

blockhouse Exploring the Block House on St. Andrews, built during the war of 1812.

St Andrews farmers market St. Andrews had a really fun Farmers’ Market.

kilted singer St. Andrews farmers market

blueberry products at the farmer's market full of more blueberries!

St. Andrews farmer's market

blueberry banana bread photo All of the blueberries in our lives have inspired Audrey to start a blueberry cookbook. This is her blueberry banana bread.

While we were this far north we decided to rent a car and explore the other Maritime provinces.

Anne the musical The trip was centered around Anne of Green Gables, a family favorite. We were all really excited to see the places we had read so much about. For more photos of the trip check out Audrey’s blog!

We had heard about some great whale activity east about a day’s sail or an hour’s by jet boat ride from St. Andrews.

Whales in the bay of fundi We definitely found them.

Fast Whale boat Lo and J This was a fun trip. Not only did we see SO MANY WHALES, but for those used to always taking the slow boat, this was an exciting ride.

two whale tails

Jacob and me in our survival suits Going that fast was chilly… we had to bundle up.

It is starting to get pretty cold up here, so it was time to hop south. Northeast Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park made such a good impression on us, that we decided to hop back to there on the way down.

flowers in Northeast Harbor back in Maine

shopping in bar harbor shopping in Bar Harbor

Lo in an out school class Lorelei taking an Outschool bookclub in the marina yard

Lo climbing bee hive trail We love the hiking in Acadia! They have a bunch of trails with rungs and ladders drilled into cliffs. The first one we did last month was exciting, but this one was beyond! I was truly terrified a couple of times, but the thought of having to go back down was scarier than going on, and the sense of accomplishment at the end made it all worth it.

ledge of bee hive Parts of the trail had us walking on a narrow ledge high in the air.

view from the top gorgeous views from the top