I went to Maine with my kids age 8 and 4 8/29--9/2/05 and had a great time. Flew to Manchester, rented a car and drove north. Left the airport about 10:30 and hit Freeport at lunchtime thinking we would try the "Lobster Cookery" but it was too crowded to even think about stopping! Grabbed fast food instead and continued on to Boothbay. I thought the Burnt Island Lighthouse tour would be great for kids. We arrived in time for the 2:00 tour and it was cancelled due to rainy weather earlier in the day. As the ticket lady said, "the government is not a good business person." Anyway, we took a sailing trip on a Friendship sloop instead and had a lovely trip around the bay. There were 10 interesting people aboard including another family with kids. We had enough time to visit the small aquarium for a hour and touch every sea creature available. Then back to Wiscassat to try a Red's lobster roll. The other posts are accurate--its a huge serving of lobster on bread with no additional ingredients whatsoever. Half of one would have been plenty! Then on up to Belfast. We stayed at the Sescape in a little studio cottage. 2 beds, small bath (no tub) and a great little kitchen but no microwave. The Seascape is across US1 from the water. If you want to be right on the bay I've heard good things about the Wonderview Cottages across the street. They have a light breakfast at the Seascape which was convenient.

Tuesday was pretty rainy so we spent the morning at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport about 5 miles away. This was a great little museum for kids! There was an educational building with lots of arts and crafts materials for kids. In the "Lobstah" exhibit we decided we had a "lobster mom" (female lobsters with eggs get thrown back), and "lobster short" (below legal size) and a "lobster dinner" (just right!) in our family. We spent 3 hours there. After lunch back at the cottage we went down to Lincolnville for the ferry to Isleboro. We could barely see 50 feet in the fog, but the Grindle Point Lighthouse was nice to visit. We had dinner in again because of the bad weather.

Wednesday we went over to Acadia especially for a carriage ride. We drove the loop road and really enjoyed thunder hole. We had lunch at Jordan Pond with those famous popovers with no wait at all. I guess the rainy weather worked to our advantage! The carriage ride took an hour and went over Day Mountain. The rain had stopped and it was peaceful and nice. We did totally miss the dramatic views, however. We went in to Bar Harbor for some shopping and blueberry ice cream and just enjoyed the nice afternoon weather and the park.

Thursday, finally the weather cleared and it was perfect! We took a lobster boat ride with Melissa of Belfast Bay Cruises. We were the ony ones on the boat besides the crew of Melissa and Ruthie. The kids enjoyed holding a lobster, starfish, crabs, and various other creatures. We drove down to Marshall Point in the afternoon and the kids spent several hours exploring the rocky beach. We also stopped at the prison gift shop in Thomasson. Then we went to see Owls Head lighthouse for another hour or so. We visited the Rockland breakwater light and drove through Camden to see the "oreo cows."

Friday we had to get back to Manchester for an afternoon flight, but took time to stop in Bath to see the Maritime Museum. My son especially liked the demonstration of launching a ship.

Despite some bad weather, we had a great time and are all ready to go back. Next time we'll try to get to Young's Lobster Pound in Belfast. I had been to the lobster pound in Lincolnville on another trip and wasn't impressed. I'd also like to spend more time in Acadia when the kids are bigger and enjoy hiking.

Glad you didn't let weather deter you from vacation fun. Thanks for your trip report. It's always interesting to see what people do when they visit places we've been (and hope to visit again).

We've had fabulous weather in Maine this summer. Too bad you hit the only week with some rain and fog. Glad you made the best of it - sounds like you had a blast.

Thanks for your report! Sounds like the kind of trips we did when the kids were young, and it brought back fond memories.

Ditto all of the above.
Thanks for the great report.