It was a fairly busy first week back from vacation. Not to mention the constant checking the Find My Phone app for Beth which proved to be fruitless, and the constant prying of the cats off of our ankles, on Monday the kids' youth group had Moe's Monday so Beth and the kids were doing that for lunch, then in the evening a group from church went to Fort Wayne to see the TinCaps game. It was a group from FCC Kids, so Bob got the tickets for everyone. FW was playing the Clinton (Iowa) LumberKings. FW was ahead 3-1 after the first inning, and that's where it slowed way down. Beth and the kids were all willing to stay for the entire game, so we did, but the game dragged on and on and eventually ended after 10:30 (almost 3 and a half hours long) with the TinCaps winning 4-2. It was a pretty boring game. But, there were friends there. Tuesday the softball team was brought back down to earth; we played the top team in the league and lost 11-4 unable to get much of anything going all game. This weekend, we went back to the vet to get the cats some of those flea treatment pills, since the drops do not seem to be working. Great advice they gave us: grind up the pills and put them in some tuna. Well that didn't work because those pills stink when they're ground up, and the tuna stunk when we put the powdered pills in it. And, the cats wouldn't touch it. So on to plan B with that.

Beth has almost certainly left her phone on the train yesterday. I can't get a signal on it and we've all turned the house and van upside down trying to find it. Crap.

Vacation began on Friday the 13th which may have been apropos, considering. To start off, we got to the train station in South Bend on Friday night (the train was scheduled to leave South Bend at midnight, but schedules mean nothing to Amtrak) and found that it was closed. Doors locked, lights off, windows covered. There was a sign on the door indicating that due to staffing issues, the station was closed until morning. That was odd, we thought. Not having ridden the train before, we didn’t know how to check baggage, or even how to get on board. There were a lot of people, 20 maybe, sitting around outside the station…apparently most of them had been waiting for a train that was now 3 hours late, and wasn’t going to arrive for at least another hour. Our train arrived around half an hour late, and it seemed as much of a surprise to the conductor as it was to us that the station was closed. The train stopped maybe 100 yards down the track for several minutes, until a conductor came walking all the way down the tracks to the station and told us all to move to so-and-so location before the train could approach. Maybe he was waiting for a safety check that wasn’t coming since there was nobody at the station. And since there had been nobody to check our suitcases, we just had to lug them all along with us and stow them onboard as we could. The conductor pointed out 5 seats together up front, so that’s where we sat. We spent the night trying to get some sleep, mostly unsuccessfully, but everyone all seemed to get at least a few hours here and there, despite the fact that the intra-car doors banged over and over again every time we went around a curve, and noisy people got on somewhere in Ohio. It was getting light by the time we got just past Cleveland, and by that time they announced that we were now 2.5 hours behind schedule. The rest of the day passed on the rails, we had café car food which was edible but simple and microwavable, and it was nice that I didn’t have to do all the driving. It was a little boring even so. Not much lake view on the Lake Shore Limited, though. Only for a while along Lake Erie somewhere. We made it to Boston late Saturday, maybe around 10 pm, and got all our luggage off the train with us, then had to make our way to Logan airport a few miles away, which isn’t an obvious path. We got on a bus to take us to the airport, then another to take us to the car rental place, a process that is made a lot harder by lugging all your stuff. We had to ask directions a couple times but eventually made it to the rental counter, where we found that the agency we’d rented from was now closed. I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do at that point, but an agent from the next desk over apparently knew where they left the keys and was able to get me the rental agreement (I imagine the agencies are all subsidiaries of a single company…I guess) and we got the car. I’d been worried that we had too much luggage for the trunk space of any car we would get, but we had a Ford Edge and there was just enough space for everything we were lugging. So we hit the road for Providence, where the overnight hotel was, around an hour away. When we got there at about half past midnight, we found out that they had overbooked and gave our reservation to someone else. And the hotel had nothing for us. The clerk was as helpful as he could be, but every call he made he was finding out the same thing, the hotel is booked solid and no rooms are available. One right after the other. Nothing in Providence. Nothing in Warwick. Nothing in any close by city. Nothing nowhere. I finally found a place in Worcester, about another hour away, using hotels.com since they gave us a $100 voucher for us losing the reservation we’d made 3 months ago. I had the voucher, so we used it, but I’m never using hotels.com again. I found a room, and we hit the road again. Ironic that our train had stopped in Worcester several hours earlier. At the hotel, of course, they informed us that they didn’t have the room that hotels.com had said they had. But they did have a room with smaller beds, which we took. They even gave us a roll-away bed. And we all got to bed at about 3:00. The plan for the next day was to drive to Newport and tour a couple of the mansions, since we now had a much longer drive in the morning and the mansions close at 5:00, we had to get an earlier than planned start. But we did make it, and had plenty of time to tour Rosecliff and The Breakers. Rosecliff is much less impressive than I remember it being…the Breakers is much more so. We saw parts of the Breakers that I do not remember at all, to the point that I wondered if most of the house was shut off for maintenance or something when we were there last (in 1995, so maybe I just don’t remember it). The Billiards room especially was super cool. And we saw a lot of details I don’t remember at all from last time. We also had audio narration tours at both places so more details were pointed out. Afterwards we did some driving around the beaches and the town (we barely remember anything from there, it seems. Or so much has changed it just doesn’t seem familiar.) and ate dinner at the Red Parrot, but they didn’t have stuffies anymore. Got some good swordfish, though. Beth and I always thought maybe we would have liked living in Newport better if we had been there during the summer instead of the dead of winter, but overall I have to say I don’t think so. Newport is too crowded and touristy in the summer. I think we wouldn’t have liked it much if we’d lived there in the summer any more than we did in the winter. Anyway, the next day we headed out on the road again to Acadia National Park. It was a good 6 hour drive, through some pretty slow traffic for the last hour or so. We got to the cabin by late afternoon and didn’t do much for the rest of the day but go to dinner in Bar Harbor and do a bit of grocery shopping for our time there. The cabin itself was really nice, plenty of room for all of us (the proprietor gave us a mattress for Alex, since it was just a 2-bedroom place), full kitchen, immaculately clean, grounds well-kept, and only a mile or so from the park main entrance. To save some money we got boxes of cereal for breakfasts and got some supplies to grill burgers and such instead of eat out a couple nights. We did eat out the first night, at a restaurant in town where I got a lobster roll that was…uninspiring. But Beth’s haddock was amazing. I went for a run through the park in the morning, about 8 miles or so past the visitors center and along a couple of carriage road loops, and afterwards we all went out to the park to sightsee. We had heard such good things about the audio tour by CD so I got one of those for the car, and we’d planned to take the driving tour of the park loop road that first day. Well…that first day was pretty overcast and misty, and foggy enough that most of the spectacular views were just not there on the tour. And the narration was kind of curious as to when you were supposed to stop; it seemed like we were always waiting in the car after we arrived somewhere for the narration to end before getting out. We wound up punching out of the tour by a bit less than halfway into it; the kids were bored with all the driving (drive here, look around. Get back in the car. Drive there, look around. Get back in the car…) and the scenery just wasn’t there for the most part. We did have a nice short hike over some rocks to the water, and we did stay at Thunder Hole for a while (although it was just gurgling) and a couple other places down by the water where we could walk around, but after a while we were ready to just be done with it. We got lunch at a seafood place that was down by the water and came highly recommended, but the lobster was pretty chewy and disappointing. Natalie and I did a bit of geocaching in the evening (first part of an earthcache series)and got the first station, but by the time we got the correct coords for the second station (after wasting some time at the wrong place) and got there, it was getting dark and there was a half-mile hike through the woods to the actual site, so we left it for another day. Wednesday was a much nicer day, much clearer. We tried to repeat some of the driving tour with the CD but everyone seemed pretty much over it, so the driving tour didn't last long. Then we tried going straight to bubble rock, which was the second earthcache site that Nat and I couldn't get to the night before, but we were thwarted by traffic. A lot of the park seems to be a thousand cars trying to get into a parking lot with 12 spaces. We couldn't find anywhere to park, either at the site or at the overflow parking or anywhere down the road, so we left it and thought maybe we'll go see Cadillac Mountain instead. Well that was similar, but the narrow winding road up the mountain meant we couldn't turn around when we got to the point where traffic was crawling. It took probably close to an hour to get into the parking lot and find a place to park, but once we were parked the mountain was very nice. It's the tallest mountain around, so the views of the shore and park are pretty spectacular. I also found by chance the information for the third station of the earthcache series, which was handy. We walked around the peak for a good while, then there were some hikes around the mountain that the kids wanted to go on; one was a hike down to Bubble Rock which was where we had been trying to get to that morning. It was against my better judgement, but all 3 kids wanted to try the hike and it didn't seem that long, just a mile and a half or so, so everyone thought it'd be easy and fun! Beth didn't want to hike down the mountain so she took the car the head to Bubble Rock and would meet us there. The trail was indeed spectacular, but rugged and steep. I don't know how far we got, but after a while Natalie's foot started hurting, although she wanted to go on. Then it started hurting worse, and her hiking boots were hurting, plus her big toenail broke, and it was hurting badly enough that she tried taking her boots off and going on barefoot, which lasted not even one full step. At that point we turned around and started back up. But there was only spotty service on the mountain so I couldn't reach Beth either through a call or a text that we were not going to make it. A little while after turning around, the panic started, and after a few minutes it turned into a full blown panic attack. We spent several minutes working on calming her down (a couple of passers-by gave us a bottle of water and a Kind bar) About 20 minutes after we turned around I got a text from Beth asking how it was going so I texted back quickly hoping that the messages would get through. About 15 minutes after that we all made it to the summit where the snack/souvenir shop was, so we got drinks and snacks and found a place to sit. Around 20 minutes later another text came through that Beth was on the way, and she got there around 15 minutes after that. We headed home after that, and rested at the cabin for a while. The only other thing we did for the rest of the day was go to a beach at Echo Lake, which seems to be a hidden gem in the park. It was a fairly longish drive to get to the beach but it was really nice and the lake was a pleasant place to swim. We grilled dinner in again in the evening, then Beth took Alex and Missy to Bar Harbor to do some shopping, while I stayed behind at the cabin with Natalie since she was still a bit panicky about going where there were so many people. Thursday (my birthday) we had made reservations for a whale-watching cruise out of Bar Harbor. We got up early and bundled up (although not as much as we should have), and we were pretty lucks to go since they had cancelled the cruise for the past 3 days due to fog and/or choppy seas. Our day was clear and relatively smooth, although they did advise repeatedly that the small chop that there was made things pretty rough out on the open sea. We all had Dramamine so we thought we'd be fine, and we were. The first hour or two of the cruise we headed out towards a small island where there is a lighthouse and research station, where they have been working to reintroduce puffins to the area (I'd thought puffins were all over up there, but I guess not. We did see some puffins although they are much smaller that I'd thought; I thought they were the size of penguins but it turns out they are more like robins. Little birds. So they were hard to see, but I got a couple good photos using a zoom lens. After a while we headed farther out to sea, where it got colder. We never did see any whales, but there were a lot of dolphins or porpoises out there, not really leaping out of the water but jumping up a bit. Also a big sunfish, although that was not a picturesque. After another couple hours out to sea we headed back, fast, and it got much much colder up on the weather deck as we did so. The wind cut right through anything we had on, which was not nearly enough clothing. Alex had a sweatshirt with no shirt underneath it which was reeeeally not enough. But it was nice back in town when we finally got there. We got lunch in town and did a bit more shopping (there was an alpaca wool store in town, and the girls went crazy for it). We got lunch in town, then after a rest at the cabin we went out for a hike I'd wanted to do. One of the stone bridges in the park frames a waterfall through the arch, it's a pretty iconic Acadia scene, and I wanted to go see it. Well I wasn't sure exactly how to get there so I got us to the roadside parking lot where we got onto the trails, but then I guessed a bit how to get to the site I wanted to see. I guessed correctly, but the trail we all hiked was sort of the hard way through the forest primeval. It was fairly steep and very rocky once we left the carriage trail, and we hiked that was for probably a good hour. By the time we got to the bridge Beth was exhausted and grumpy and angry. The waterfall didn't have much water going over it at that time, but it was very cool and scenic once we got there. And also we found that there was a much easier and faster way to hike to and from the spot we had parked, which never left the carriage trails so it would have been a lot easier for Beth to do the hike if I'd known. But that's kind of the way hiking goes sometimes...there's a better way to get where you're going but you won't find it until you get there. Dinner was out at a place where we'd eaten lunch the day before, for calzones, which were amazing. Friday was our last day at the park, I got up early to finish the earthcache series and found that the park is nearly empty between 6 and 8 am. If we'd known that we would have seen a lot more of it, I think. Anyway we definitely should have been getting earlier starts than we did while we were there. So I got to the last 2 stages of the series, one of which involved a spectacular and rugged hike part way up another mountain, one where I was nearly alone on the trail. It was near thunder hole which I saw was also nearly empty at that time. Anyway I got the last 2 stages and headed to the park HQ as instructed to finish and sign the log. The dispatcher on duty, though, had no idea what I was talking about and couldn't find the log and stamp. She had to go ask the ranger. Once he got there, though, he didn't know where the other dispatcher had put them, so they looked for a while and eventually apologized and said they couldn't find it. So as an alternative, I suggested that I get a selfie with the ranger and he give me a thumbs up in it, which he thought was a great idea so we went outside to take the photo. as we were finishing up, the dispatcher came out with a baggie of stuff, and asked "is this it?" and it was! So I got the selfie AND signed the log and got the stamp! I headed back to the cabin after that, where the others were up and getting breakfast and packing. By around 10 or so, we headed out. On the way we stopped by a rest area to meet up with Marlene, my step-aunt. We had lunch with her and her husband and caught up a bit, mostly about Mom. They live in Florida now and had just happened to be in Maine visiting family for a few weeks when we were there. After lunch we drove to the Boston area, where we were staying overnight. The plan had been to leave Acadia Friday and stay overnight in Boston so we didn't have to get up at zero dark 30 and drive 5 hours to Boston through morning traffic trying to catch a train on time on Saturday. We got the the hotel without too much problem, and got moving towards the train station the next morning in plenty of time...way too much time, as it turned out. I left Beth and the kids at the station and headed to the airport to return the rental car, then made my way back to the station via public transit. I was fretting a bit that I was running short on time as I made my way through returning the car, but before I made it back to the station I got a text from Beth letting me know that the tracks from Boston to Albany were closed for maintenance so the train had been cancelled. And they were going to put us on a bus to get us to Albany instead of a train. A BUS. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. We were on a bus for about 3 hours or so, and made it to Albany without too much difficulty. The train didn't leave for another couple hours after that, though. So we waited around in Albany. Once we got going it was better on the train for the return trip...there was less noise from the banging doors and such, at least. We were in Toledo or so by the time it started getting light, and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful until a system-wide signal reset (whatever that is) happened when we were just a couple miles outside the South Bend station, and we waited in a sketchy part of the city for an hour or so waiting for things to get going again. But we got there, and the van was still sitting there in the parking lot when we arrived. The the big schlep home. That's a long post...one vacation done.

It has been a busy week getting ready for vacation. Tonight (late) we depart on the Amtrak train from South Bend to Boston. I'm looking forward to not having to drive all that way, and it's always seemed like it would be fun to take a long train trip. However, we'll find out in a few days whether it really is. Not sure how the kids will like it. Nor us. But, it wouldn't be much different for them in a car all that way either. So, we're up for the experience. We had a spaghetti dinner at Lincoln School on Monday, as a fundraiser for Drake (one of the students, who had a lot of medical issues in the last year). It's the first time I've ever been in the new building. Beth is going back to work there this year, so she's pretty excited and nervous. Tuesday the softball team had an amazing game: we were short-handed, just barely enough in fact to have a game. We had 8 people show up, but that's legal, though you take an auto out with the 9th battling slot each time. Even so, we jumped all over them early and won the game 9-3. We played with only 2 in the outfield and they did an amazing job. We were even playing a team that worked us a few weeks back! So we have a little winning streak going. There was a surprise even at the Bells' house for youth group...the new house we helped them move into a few weeks back. The surprise event turned out to be a pool/pizza party, although I gather not everyone used the pool because it wasn't as clean as it might be yet. They're still working on that. Anyway. The kids (except Nat, at counseling) all had a fun time. The last couple days has mostly been about getting things ready to go on vaca. Acadia, here we come...

This week I finally got around to having a plumber come in and fix the toilet downstairs. Been flushing slowly, if at all, for some time now. It just took augering it out, so something was stuck in there, who knows what.....Since July 4 fell on a Wednesday this year, I had a midweek break (and no softball game), which we took advantage of with another beach day. Beth and I had been telling each other that we just wanted to go back to the beach ever since we went to Holland last week, so we decided to take advantage of the holiday and hit the beach again. It was another perfect day for it. This time we found some close parking in South Haven so we stayed there. The lake, once again, was perfect; it was a hot and sunny day; it wasn’t even too crowded (until later in the day). We all had the sunscreen on, we all stayed under the canopy when we weren’t in the lake, but we still all got burned to some extent. Me on my arms and shoulders and chest and back. We were at the beach pretty much all day, until around dinnertime, then we went to Kalamazoo for supper (Main St. Pub) and on to visit with Beth and Marve at her house, where they and Ric & Nickie and the kids had been hanging out all day (she has a pool). Our kids were back in the pool for a while there, too. We headed home after a while and then I went back to work the next morning, which wasn’t easy.....Friday evening Beth and the kids and I spent getting the house ready for a wedding shower for Stephen Prater and his fiancée Sarah, since Mary Jane has no room to host one at her place. We hosted his graduation party a few years back, too. It wasn’t as well attended as I thought it would be, so I hope they at least got cards in the mail or something.....Today, we didn’t do much but I am itching like crazy from the sunburn (peeling already). I took Alex driving for a while out in the country. He needs to learn how to keep the car in the center of the lane, how to stop at a stop sign instead of way in front of it, and to check for oncoming traffic before pulling out from a stop. But otherwise he did fine, and he’ll do fine once he gets used to it all.

Alex has been away all week ay CIY, but he’s back now. He missed a nice win by the softball team…we were up against the lead team in our division, incidentally the only team we had beaten all year. They had only lost once…to us. Now, they’ve lost twice…to us. We are their kryptonite, it seems. Anyway, Alex was away all week (and we never got an anxious call!) at the conference at Hope College in Holland, and he loved it. He said he had just an amazing week. The downside for him was that the Super Smash Bros. tournament at the library in town was Saturday, the day he was scheduled to get back, but he was going to miss it…again. But, we reached an arrangement with him that on Friday, the rest of us would go up to Michigan to spend the day at the beach, pick him up in the evening after the conference was over, and head back Friday night so he could participate in the tournament on Saturday. So that’s what we did…I took most of the day off on Friday and we headed up to the lake. We couldn’t find a place to park near the beach in South Haven so we headed to Holland instead, and it was a perfect beach day. The lake was cool enough to be refreshing and take a few minutes to get used to but no more than that, then it was awesome. And the water was so clear. And the beach wasn’t too awful crowded. And it was sunny and hot. The conference was done by 9-ish so we headed to the campus after dinner (we saw the huuuuge crowds of teen kids) and collected Alex, who talked and talked about what a great time he had. Beth and I are so glad. We were home late, and Beth and I were up early to do another day’s worth of garage sale. It was worth extending to sale another day because we made around $30 more, Alex made around $20 (some DS games went), and the girls made another few bucks each. Alex made it to the Smash Bros tournament, and afterwards said “we didn’t do very well, but we had fun” which is all we could hope for. Last night was the fireworks show in town…seems early…Beth and Nat didn’t want to go so I took Alex and Missy to the fairgrounds to watch the show. The fireworks display was kinda meh, if you ask me.