Trike and Tractor Pull

Tonight the girls celebrated their last day of summer vacation (preschool starts tomorrow) with a trike and tractor pull.

First, they shined up their trikes (Kate's is more of a scooter).

Then it was time to hitch everything up. Emily's vision included pulling Kate on her scooter, but Mom said no way (thinking Kate's feet would get tangled up too easy). The Cozy Coupe was the next logical choice, but Kate refused to ride in it and Mom was too big. Emily hooked up her tow rope to it anyway.For some reason Emily really wanted to pull Mom's chair too, so she hooked that up to an auxiliary line.The chair proved to be a bad idea--it kept banging into Kate and slowing them down.So after some negotiation, they cut it loose.Now they were really making some progress!It's great to see the girls work together on something, even if it's just silly stuff.Okay, before we get a bunch of comments about how dangerous it is to play with rope, here's the disclaimer: They were highly supervised, and the rope was put away as soon as this game was over.It's nice to see the kids use their imaginations and have fun together!

Fort Knox

Today Mom took the kids on an adventure so Mama could get a long bike ride in. We drove up to see the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Fort Knox.

The cable-stayed bridge in the foreground is the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge, built by Brenda's company a few years ago. The old (now abandoned) suspension bridge is right behind it, ready to be torn down.

Emily asked if Mom and Mama had worked on this bridge....it does look a lot like the Tacoma Narrows!The cable-stayed tower is really high, and way up at the top is an observatory. We got tickets to go up, but Mom wasn't sure if the kids would like it.They seemed pretty excited, so up we went........in the elevator, which takes about 1 minute (thank goodness it isn't just stairs!).It's a pretty spectacular view right when the elevator door opens...for a two-year-old, it can even be a little shocking.Once the girls got over their shock, they really enjoyed the observatory. We could see really far away!The cars on the bridge deck down below seemed really tiny. The old bridge is on the left, and will be demolished within a year or two.This is the only cable-stayed bridge with an observatory in North America--we highly recommend a visit to anyone who happens to be in the area!After taking in the view, we headed back down the stairs to the elevator, then down to the parking lot and the next part of our adventure.Fort Knox is a civil-war era fort that was built to protect the shipping route to Bangor. Chris remembers coming here on school trips when she was growing up.It's a very nice park, with the well-preserved granite fort built into the hill and lots of cool other stuff like cannons to play on.The fort overlooks the town of Bucksport, which is a historic mill town and has lots of old victorian-style homes.

One of the neatest things about Fort Knox is the tunnels. Mama had explained to us that there would be tunnels within the fort, so we should dress warmly and bring flashlights. She was right!The kids were thrilled with the tunnels--Mom, not so much. It was really dark (the flash on the camera makes it seem much brighter in the photos below), and it was kind of damp and slippery. The stairs were also a little uneven, since they were made out of granite. Mom could foresee bumps and bandaids before we even entered the tunnels, but the kids did great and nobody got hurt.Emily in particular loved the tunnels, and it was all Kate could do to keep up with her.Fort Knox seems like the kind of place that we could go back to again and again, and never get tired of.

Rainy Day Fun

Today the forecast was for heavy rain due to Tropical Storm Danny, so we decided to do some things that are fun in the rain. First we went shopping.

Kate needs new sneakers for school, so we headed up to the New Balance outlet store in Skowhegan. We were happily surprised to find that they were having a tent sale!

There were a lot of tents and a lot of shoes. It was kind of overwhelming.Luckily, Kate doesn't care what her shoes look like as long as they are primarily pink.We finally found her size and we were good to go!Go out to mexican food, that is. We hit our favorite place in Waterville, which was deserted except for us.The kids always love chips and salsa, but today they ate some chicken burritos too, which made their moms feel better about taking them here.After lunch we let the kids run around the restaurant while we finished our noontime beers. After all, the place was deserted.We might have let it get a little bit out of hand.

For some reason, this restaurant has a plastic horse with a real saddle. The kids are always drawn to it.

Today Emily decided to take it out for a ride!Later on when we got home it was still raining, so Mom decided to let the kids try some beadwork. The label on these foam beads says they are for ages 4 and up, but we figured it would be okay with close supervision.The girls were really excited to make their own necklaces.First they carefully laid out all the beads in the order they wanted.......then they strung them using the plastic needle provided. Kate couldn't figure out the needle so Mom did hers for her.They were very happy with their pretty necklaces!Finally, after dinner we decided to take a family walk down to the spot on the Sebasticook where the dam used to be.We thought the river might be running high from all the rain today, but it looked about normal so far. The structure on the right in the photo below is what's left of the old concrete dam. It crossed this river for over 100 years, and was removed last summer.Kate started out a little bit unsure of herself on the slippery ledge rock, but she got more confident the farther she went. Emily, of course, is like a mountain goat.Mama found lots of mussel shells to show the kids, including an Eastern Lampmussel and probably an Eastern Pearlshell.The girls really liked seeing the bridge that we drive over every day from a new angle.The family walk was a nice way to end this rainy day.