4 Hots Peaceable Kingdom: Ocean at Autumn

This past weekend, we took our annual four day trip to Freeport, Maine to camp in the autumn splendor. It's my favorite time of year to camp for many reasons, but the best of all...and you New England campers know what I'm talking about here...NO BUGS! A few of the other bonuses are few people to compete for quiet with, beautiful scenery, migrating geese heard overhead, the campfire is much more necessary for warmth and the ghost stories by firelight can start earlier as the darkness falls sooner. We had a glorious time together with 4 days of uninterrupted family time. It is never lost on me that we have precious few years of this time together.

I called a few days before leaving to reserve a site. This time of year there is little competition for the sites, so I usually wait to be sure it's going to be decent weather before taking the plunge. Once the reservation is made at that late date, there aren't any refunds. We have a site that we've always stayed in, Site 6, it's kind of a tradition for us. I was happy when I called that it was available and made the reservation. The helpful woman in the office explained that no one would be there in the office this time of year on the weekend, but we should just settle in and if we need anything to call the number on the office sign. Yep, much more laid back this time of year! When we arrived, we found someone else already happily set up in Site 6 with no one around. I was not happy as this was the site I reserved for a reason, it was our tradition, and I was upset that these people would just move into a site that was ours. Then I read the sign on the office door and our site was listed as available. GRRRRRR...the woman in the office neglected to check to see if our site was indeed available and put it in on the list anyways. I called and though she apologized profusely, there wasn't much we could do but take a new site. The folks who set up there did it in good faith, they had no way of knowing it was indeed reserved and we weren't going to kick them out. So, reluctantly, we chose the site next to it, Site 8. The site is pictured above, and in the end worked out better for us then 6 did, with a nice area behind the camper for the table and fire pit. Sometimes, you have to get over yourself and being disappointed and just take what life gives you. This is a lesson that has been pressed into my being over and over the past year, since losing the barn we were so in love with.

Do you ever wonder how you could need SO much stuff for a few days away from home? It's unreal the amount of packing and all that goes into a few days camping, makes you realize what you could live without if you needed to, that's for sure.

These were our neighbors for the time we were at the campground, which is surrounding a working farm. We like to call these little chubbsters Oreo Cows, or Whoopie Pie Cows but their really Belted Galloways, a breed native to Scotland. Little Red especially loved a heifer with the number tag "707" on it's ear, fuzzy and cute. It's one of our favorite parts of the experience, the farm itself. Being country and farm folks, we feel right at home there.

We spent a lot of time just exploring the shoreline and tidepools left by the receding tide. Little Red is especially fascinated by all things nature, so he reveled in this unspoiled, unrushed time to just poke and explore. This is the best homeschooling I can offer them. They can read about a tide pool in a book, but how can they know the sensations of cold Atlantic water in the fall, seaweed swirling around their hands as they reach for a mussel or periwinkle to examine unless they are there, putting their hands in that actual water? How do they learn the ebb and flow if the tide unless seeing it come and go in it's natural way? Though I'm a firm believer in book learning too, there are many things you can't learn from a book, or from watching some ap on your Ipod. You have to get out in the world and explore, feel, smell and taste it.

We let periwinkles sit on our hands and dance their dances, leaving trails of water along our hands as they moved. It was a fun experience for us all, and we all named our pets periwinkles until we returned them to the sea. There were definitely clam beds surrounding us as well, which we could see evidenced in the broken shells that were in ever crevice of the rocks.

We explored tide pools for fish and seaweed, noting the different types that were growing in the different areas of the tidal region.

Another highlight of the trip was harvesting periwinkles to eat! I had read in a book years ago about a couple that have a place on Mt. Desert Island and they would harvest their food out of the ocean. One of their delicacies was periwinkle stew. So, I researched online to see how to cook them and we were all willing to give them a try. They were actually quite good! You just boil them for 3 minutes, and pull them out of the shells using toothpicks and plop them in your mouth. They would probably be good dipped in butter as well, but we are a family that enjoys fresh seafood sans butter, so it was good for us this way. And, we lacked the ingredients to make the stew, but I promised the boys we would do that someday as well.

Winks harvested and awaiting rinse before the hot boil.

After cooking, they are ready for the toothpick challenge.

Maestro enjoying the first wink, it was decided then that they were actually delicious! I LOVE this kid's willingness to try anything, my true adventurer.

There were many other wonderful parts of our trip that included a nice meal at Gritty's, a wonderful stroll around LL Bean and the new Bow Street Market, Wicked Whoopies, a movie night for us in the camper watching "Casper", the boys first taste of true freedom as we allowed them to bike ride all over the, all but deserted, campground (with a walkie-talkie in hand so we could keep tabs) without us accompanying them. We had wonderful memories made and none of us wanted to leave. And with views like this, who could blame us?