Kylie May's 3200 mile from home day 188

Back home in the U.S of A.  The funny thing is, when you are from Southern California and you spend a day in Bar Harbor, Maine you don't feel very much like you are back in the United States.  The lobster traps, big boats, harbors, coastline pine trees, and East Coast license plates made it feel like we were still somewhere foreign.  The exchange of U.S. currency and buzz in my pocket (reminding me I had cell service) were the only two real reminders that we were back on home soil.  

Bar Harbor is a great town.  Everyone in our group decided that we definitely want to come back and visit this little gem again someday.  That is the beauty and ugly of a cruise ship.  you visit a group of places, but you only stay 8 hours.   Kylie, after figuring out the proper way to say Bah-ha-baa, got to jump on a big bus and take a tour of the beautiful Acadia National Park (thanks Jill and Mike. This truly was worth seeing).  It is one of the smallest of the whole National Park system, but the 5th most visited of all National Parks (sorry dad I don't know what the top 4 are). Kylie keeps doing so great on all these tours (and everyone on each of these tours keeps reminding us).  She really has been the hit of the tour.  We stopped for a few photo ops this afternoon (I promise I'll post pictures when we get back to NY) and everyone on the tour keeps stopping by and offering encouraging, "oh look how cute", "looks like we found this years Christmas card", and "I can't believe how adorable she is". It is fun to be toting her around in such a good mood all the time.  She basically sleeps during the bus rides, wakes up happy, smiles at everyone who talks to her, seems interested in taking pictures, plays with toys (or my hair), gets her diaper changed, eats, then the cycle repeats.  It couldn't be better.

After rushing back to the boat (we just didn't have enough time to see this great town), Kylie went down for a 2 hour power nap.  We had reservations at a nice steakhouse on board, but they weren't till 9pm.  Luckily, Leah (our travel agent) offered to babysit the little monkey while we were at dinner.  We did have some reservations about leaving Kylie for the first time with a non family member, but we felt completely comfortable and the little miss seemed happy.  There was only one little crying spell, in which Leah brought kylie down for some nursing, and then she was back on the squeaky toy war path.  Eventually, Kylie joined us for dessert (Leah had to get back to real life of coordinating a trip for 200+ people), and she was happy to be at the big table again.  

It was another awesome dinner with the crew (Tim, Cathy, Randy, and Tricia are all so much fun to be on vacation with).  Kylie says she can't wait till next year when she gets to hang out with all of them again on a big boat.  They have all been so helpful with watching Kylie during dinner and tours.  She has enjoyed all her time with them.

Tomorrow is Boston, which means the trip is coming to an end rapidly. I guess we will get some good rest tonight and then just soak up as much of the city as we can tomorrow.  

more to come soon,

Craig