We set off from Hampton Inn, Bar Harbor quite early as we wanted to visit as many lighthouses as possible and had given ourselves the day to travel to Rockland where our evening hotel was booked. We didn’t have a plan of where we would visit but decided to follow the coast line.

Deer Isle

Our first stop was Deer Isle (a little island which was accessible by a road bridge). By luck we found a little beach which was deserted so we pulled in and the kids put their swimming kit on and went for a paddle. The sea was crystal clear but very pebbly. There were lots of lobster pots in the water so I was a little worried about stepping on a lobster – although I am sure they are further out to sea. We made our lunch in the boot of the car (just bread, cheese and ham) before we headed to our next stop.

Pumpkin Island

Google maps showed that there was a lighthouse a couple of miles away so we went for a look. We couldn’t get to the lighthouse as it was on a little island but we had a great view from the shore. There was also a rocky outlet with lots of rock pools so Tom and Izzy went looking for sea creatures and Stu and I found a geo-cache. We headed off Deer Isle (after a quick stop under the road bridge for ice creams and another geo-cache)

^{Pumpkin Island Lighthouse}

Dice Head Lighthouse

Our next stop was Dice Head Lighthouse. This was a pretty lighthouse but was also someone’s house. We parked up and had a look as there was a public footpath we could take. The lighthouse was on a cliff and there was a trail which we followed to the cliff edge but unfortunately there were no views and you couldn’t really see the sea due to all the trees.

Fort Knox Historic State Park

We carried on our route to Rockland and saw a signpost for Fort Knox State Historic Park. We remembered seeing it on our way to Arcadia so thought it may be worth a stop off. We drove over a really impressive bridge and onto the site. It was possible to get a lift up to the a viewing platform at the top of the bridge so decided to go for it. There was a bit of a queue as due to Covid only one family was allowed up at a time but it was definitely worth it. The views were spectacular. One of the park rangers told Tom and Izzy that there was a fire happening about 20 miles away and wanted to know whether they could see it from the observation point – which we couldn’t. Unfortunately we didn’t really have time to explore the park.

^{Fort Knox Historic State Park}

Fort Point State Park

We wanted to do one more lighthouse before we went for tea so headed to Fort Point State Park. The lighthouse was lovely but we followed a track which lead us to the beach and it was probably my favourite beach of the weekend. The water was clear and the kids spent ages just paddling and playing skimming stones.

^{The beach at Fort Point State Park}

The sea was very still so we were getting beautifully reflections of the clouds in our photos. It was a shame we didn’t have a picnic as we could have quite happily stayed for longer but we had to go and find somewhere to eat. We headed to Camden which was the largest town near where our hotel was to look for a restaurant. Unfortunately they all had one hour waits so we put our names down on the waitlist at a couple. Luckily within about 40 minutes we were contacted by the ‘Sea Dog Brewing Company‘ so we took the table. The other restaurant never got back to us! Stu and I both had burgers whilst Tom had fish & chips and Izzy had roast turkey and mashed potatoes! We then retired to our hotel for the evening ready for an early start the next day.

Rockland Lighthouse

Today we had to make our way to Boston visiting lighthouses on route. Our first stop of the morning was Rockland Lighthouse. This lighthouse was at the end of a granite breakwater about 1km long. There was also a geo-cache for us to find. It was quite difficult walking along the breakwater because it was made up of blocks and if you looked down when you walked you could get quite dizzy.

Owls Head Lighthouse

Next we drove to Owls Head Lighthouse. We had to follow a short forest trail to reach it and then you could walk up the stairs to the lighthouse. It wasn’t the easiest lighthouse to get a good picture of. However, there was another trail which led to the beach so the kids got to have a paddle before we carried on our journey.

^{Owls Head Lighthouse}

Pemaquid Lighthouse

Our final lighthouse of the day was Pemaquid which was about 1 hour 15 minutes away. Izzy slept most of the car journey and was awoken when we arrived by Tom using the sound generator app on his phone to play a loud noise in her ear!

Pemaquid Lighthouse was beautiful but the best bit was the rocks underneath it which the kids played on for ages. There were also lots of rockpools with sea life in them.

We still had 3 hours to travel to get to Boston so we headed off. We needed somewhere to stop for tea and I had always wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse and noticed there was one in New Hampshire, near to our route. This had the added bonus of me being able to pick up a NH geo-cache as there was one in the carpark near the restaurant. We loved Texas Roadhouse (or Texas Roadkill as we fondly nicknamed it) The food was so good – we all had steak and I had loaded fries and beans with mine whilst Stu had chilli with his. Although, there was a really strange butter with the bread which we later learned was flavoured with cinnamon and honey.

We eventually arrived at our Hampton Inn in Boston and went straight to bed.

Boston

Our plan for Boston was to park near to Harvard University and have a walk around the campus. We arrived early but the parking was very expensive and after driving around for about 10 minutes we decided it actually didn’t look that exciting. Instead, we headed into the city to park at the aquarium and go for a walk. I did a quick google search and realised I could get us immediate tickets to the aquarium (due to covid they were timed) and we thought it would be a treat for the kids as last time we visited we didn’t do the aquarium.

The aquarium was brilliant. It was very quiet due to capacity limits so it was lovely being able to enjoy the exhibits without all the crowds of people. The penguins were very noisy and there was a giant tank which filled the middle of the room and went up about 3 floors. There was a massive turtle in it which we liked.

We then went for a wander around the waterside area and got as far as the Tea Party Boat. Everywhere was so quiet! We picked up a drink from Starbucks and some lunch from Paneer which we ate in the car. It was time to head back to New Jersey as we had a long drive ahead of us. We did a quick whistle stop driving tour around some of the Boston sights before heading on our way.