wedding week recap: seeing maine with the fam

Seeing how I'm not originally from Maine, most of the people from "my side" had to travel for the wedding.  This naturally allowed people to turn our wedding into a mini-vacation which was nice since nearly all of them had never been to Maine before.  This is one of the things that I think made the wedding so great - essentially being on vacation with all my closest friends for a week during such a special time in my life.

Having this many people visiting at once; however, did not allow me to explore with them much.  I was able to find some time to take my family to Acadia National Park though.  I have been several times but I don't think I could ever tire of it.  It's the most beautiful place and ranks as the 2nd most visited national park in the country.  Another random fact for you is that Cadillac Mountain is the first spot in the US to see the sunrise.  I've been wanting Sean to take me to see the sunrise but we haven't made it yet.  Do you know what time the sun comes up around here???  Just to give you an idea, I looked it up.  This morning it rose at 4:13 am or maybe it's 5:13 based on the note about daylight savings.  Anyway, I've actually woke up at 4:00 before to catch a flight and the sun was already coming up.  So I said all that to say - we'd need to just stay the night up there if we are going to see the sunrise.  Or we could wait to see it when it rises closer to the 7 o'clock hour - oh wait - that's in January - I'm not going to go up there then - it's COLD then!

I digress...

We started by heading to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the breathtaking views.  See why I can't tire of it?  I could just sit up there on a secluded rock staring out for hours.  We didn't this time as we were trying to pack in as much as possible.

my sister's family on Cadillac Mountain

my nephews and me

all the "grandkids"

Then I drove them through the park to see the ocean.  This was the first time all my nieces and nephews had seen the ocean.  They've been to the Gulf of Mexico but never the actual ocean (they're all landlocked).  My littlest niece wasn't so fond of it.  Have you ever put your toe in the Atlantic Ocean as far north as Maine?  It's not the warmest.  I'm not exactly sure how people swim in it and not get hypothermia.

my brother's family at the ocean

I wish I had gotten to spend more time with everyone but I really enjoyed hearing all the memories they had made and that they had found so much joy in the state that I have grown to love.  The stories ranged from trips to the Lobster Festival to biking through Acadia to driving up the scenic Route 1 to driving up to the Canadian border to driving to Boston for a Red Sox game and of course everyone hit Acadia and Bar Harbor.  Actually, my aunt and uncle were staying in Bar Harbor and loved it so much they kept delaying their arrival to where the wedding was.  I was starting to wonder if they would break away long enough to actually make it to the wedding!  I hope everyone comes back for a visit so we can make more memories, but together this time, but just not everyone at the same time.

**********************************************
All pictures by me except the one I'm in and I'm guessing Mom took it.  My Mom really was there.  Not sure how I don't have her in a picture but I'm sitting here in an airport waiting for my flight and can't get to the rest of the pictures to find one.  You'll just have to trust me that she was there!

Don't forget the new reaction buttons below.

Only a few days left to try for the lobster dinner - scroll down to the "a one year giveaway" post (or find it in the archives list).  I've enjoyed reading all the memories already left.  Don't worry, those people that left a memory of my wedding don't get special treatment or extra chances.