Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Maine and Vermont

Our first plan was to drive the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton. We stayed a night in Ingonish to enjoy their beach and ocean. The swimming wasn't too great, since there was lots and lots of seaweed, but Shae and I got in the water so she could have her first official dip in the ocean! There is a cute tiny shop called The Groovy Goat Soap Co. in town, where you can buy homemade goat milk soap and visit the goats (and pigs and ducks) in the barn out back. Very cute!

The next day we did the drive around to the west side, stopping for a lovely little hike to a beautiful waterfall and also stopping at Pleasant Harbour to enjoy the sea.

That night we were lucky enough to get a campsite at right by the sea. The campground was essentially a parking lot, but the water and beach was just a flight of stairs down the small cliff.

The next day we stopped at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique, totally just to indulge me. It was pretty small, but I found it to be fun. There were fiddles you could play, step dance instruction videos and a little computer that taught you phrases in Gaelic.
We drove to Truro, to spend a night at a campground that Ed, Tricia and the kids stayed at on their way down. The big draw was a giant bouncing pillow, which was inflated and rubber, in the ground. Luke figured out how to bounce to get Shae and Tegan flying high, and soon there was a group of children swarming Luke to also get in on the high bouncing fun!
Luke and I were actually quite impressed with Truro. They have a really good bike shop (yay Bike Monkey Bike Shop!!), quite a lot of trails, and a really nice gorge with waterfalls.

We then made our way over to Bar Harbour Maine and Acadia National Park. When the Rockefellers owned it, they built carriage roads all through the park which are now closed to cars and wonderful for biking. There were piles and piles of people there for biking!
We stayed at a surprisingly nice campground (usually the commercial RV parks don't have much nature or privacy, but this one did a good job).  There were blueberry bushes everywhere, so we picked and ate blueberries to our heart's content.

Next was Vermont! Luke and I stopped in the Carrabasset Valley on the way. We were soooo impressed! Besides it being *stunning*, they have so so many trails and a full time trail crew always improving what's there and building more. It was super quiet while we were there, which makes me feel like this is a somewhat hidden gem....that we need to spend more time there!!!

As we continued west we saw a beautiful little old mill, and had to stop to take a picture:

We met back up with Ed et al. in East Burke Vermont later that night, after a beautiful drive through the mountains of New Hampshire. We stayed at the campsite closest to the Kingdom Trails and spent the next day riding our bikes. It was a hot but fun day, and Shae and I cooled off in the river (even though we had found one, large leech on a rock. Brave.)

The next day we stayed on for another day of bike riding, while Ed and his family started heading back west towards Toronto.

Next post: more wonderful amazing Vermont!