Vermont 2023 {Maine Day 3: Sand Beach, Treats, Road Trip Back to Jay}

28 September 2023 - Originally we planned to work our way back to Vermont right after we woke up on Thursday, but we headed back into the park for a few more hours to a) get the Jr. Ranger badges for the kids (the hours and location of the visitor's center made it tricky to get yesterday), and b) to play at Sand Beach one more time (it was a hit!). It was cloudier (actually smokier) today, but we still had a great time at the beach (plus a quick stop at Thunderhole at high tide to see that it was in fact not as cool as yesterday at low).

When we were here yesterday the water didn't reach
this part of the beach.

Isn't that reflection amazing?

This was behind the dunes that we sat in front of for a long
time yesterday. I didn't even know it was there till I took
a stroll today!

Sam was keeping track of how high the waves were getting as
the tide came in. Here he's standing next to his marker stick
at the highest point.

Before our trip, we had read a book about Maine and we learned that their official state soda is Moxie and their official state treat is a whoopie pie and we added them to our seafood must-eats for our time in that state. We stopped at a gas station on our way out of town and found the Moxie, which is sort of a bitter cola/root beer, but couldn't see any whoopie pies. So on we went, a little further down the road toward Vermont. We stopped at another gas station which was also a grocery store and just inside the door was a display of bakery-made whoopie pies. We got two flavors to try: the original chocolate and pumpkin chocolate chip. We tasted all the goodies as we drove along the freeway back to the condo.

We interrupt these pics of food for today's
word of the day, which aptly described
the ocean at the beach today.

When in Maine . . .

And side view of the pies so you can see
just how much frosting is inside.

As we drove along we noticed (and then
played leap frog a few times with) this truck
(license plate said: pumkin) with a giant pumpkin
in the bed.

Ha! So fun!

We made a little stop at Sunday River Ski Resort for a few minutes to check it out. (Not sure why we didn't take any pictures!) As we were leaving, we saw a sign for a covered bridge down the road, so we went to check that out, too. (And we did take pics!)

Here I am practicing my instagram poses that I learned
from watching all the tourists around us pretty much
everywhere.

We took a different route through Maine and New Hampshire on the return trip so we could see new things. We drove through Grafton Notch, and one of those new things was a little state park called Screw Auger Falls. We saw the sign and pulled into the parking lot and hustled down the little trail and snapped a couple pics and ran back to the car. (And now that I'm looking up more info about this place, I'm realizing we didn't even see the full waterfall! Ha!)

Cal did not want a pic. Ha. And these
are only the first part of the falls. The cooler
ones are behind me, and we didn't even see them.

Another new thing we saw was The Balsams, just over the border into New Hampshire, which Gregg knew about because a ski area expansion is being planned for this resort. Isn't it lovely? The leaves through Grafton Notch and this part of New Hampshire were stunning! (But that pesky smoke made the views not quite as spectacular as they could be.)