7 Quick Takes about Campground Bathrooms, Timber Tina, and When You Start Becoming Your Mother

It's 7 Quick Takes! How was your week?

—1—

Well, this Quick Takes is late again because we were camping at Acadia National Park! We pulled into the campsite much later than we planned to on the first evening and my 12-year-old noticed that the sites on either side of us were empty.

"Yes!" she said. "No people on either side of us!"

"Well, not tonight, but maybe there will be tomorrow," I reminded her.

She thought about that and sighed, "Ohhh... I feel sorry for them."

As it turned out, people did come on the following nights, but it was actually our neighbors who woke up the entire campground at 5AM firing up their giant monster truck to go fishing or whatever. So we weren't nearly as bad as she'd predicted.

—2—

The campground was very nice, and by that I mean amazing. The bathroom on one side of us was slightly older (but still very clean), but there was a brand-new bathroom on the other side of us that we preferred to use for obvious reasons:

We were definitely the trashiest things in this bathroom.

It was the nicest bathroom I've ever used personally.

The industrial sink outside the bathroom was nicer than my dishwashing setup at home by a factor of a million.

The campground was pricier than the barebones KOA ones we've stayed at before, but it cost less than staying at a hotel and it had a nice new playground in the center and a heated pool. So it might be really hard to go back to the ones with pit toilets now that we know what we're missing.

—3—

Pictures do not do justice to the views in Acadia. The scale of this landscape was the most breathtaking part about it, and that just can't be replicated in a photo. 

Zoom in and you'll see teeny tiny people on the rocks, and that will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. You kind of had to be there.

The 20-year-old nearly had multiple heart attacks watching the younger kids jump from rock to rock like billy goats, and I remember the feeling. When the kids were younger and top-heavier and had less ability to judge what is a reasonable risk and what isn't, watching them constantly trying to kill themselves or crack their heads open was my least favorite part of parenting. Now that they're older, I can mostly trust their judgment and just look away.

We drove up Cadillac Mountain for the spectacular views of the entire park, then hiked up Acadia Mountain which had a slightly less-spectacular view but an amazing return hike over and through the rocks.

On the way down, we found a rock shaped like an Among Us character:

And one that looked like a face:

—4—

We also went to see Timber Tina's Lumberjack Show, which was as fun as it sounds. Tina was an excellent host (her Midwestern accent that reminded me of home) and we got to see log-rolling, chainsawing, speed climbing, and axe throwing competitions. 

—5—

Even though this trip was a lot of fun, it was also haphazardly thrown together at the last minute. That's just kind of how we roll on vacation in general, but even the kids were like "Mom? Dad? I think we should have planned this better..."

We were buying tickets for stuff on our phones on the way to the event because we didn't have time to plan in out in advance. We forgot a bunch of stuff and barely communicated about the itinerary beforehand. We didn't even leave for our trip until 5 hours after we wanted to because we were just so behind.

The thing is, if we waited until we had time to plan it out we wouldn't have gone at all, and we really wanted to fit in a family vacation before the 18-year-old goes to college next week. And as we told the kids, we did the best we could with what we had at the time, and even though it wasn't perfect it was still good.

—6—

One reason that we were so frazzled was because I'd taken a last-minute flight home to Minnesota just a few days prior. So I wasn't there to help plan or prep for the Acadia trip, and Phillip was too busy trying to do his job and mine to think about vacation planning. 

The reason for the unscheduled trip was a memorial service for my uncle, who passed away a few weeks ago. Funerals are weird because it's a sad reason to get together, but you also get to see everyone including family members you haven't seen for a long time and that part makes you really grateful. I'm glad I went.

—7—

The older she gets, the more I hear myself coming out of my 12-year-old daughter's mouth.

She was helping her younger brothers (ages 8 and 10) get themselves lunch; one of them needed to slice an apple or something and he said, "I don't know how to do that."

Instantly she responded "Then it's a perfect day for you to learn!" In the same sweet but also exasperated voice that I would have used in that situation.

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