There are few things I love in the world quite as much as getting to sit down and recap a vacation for my blog (except for actually being on the vacation!), so Iām VERY excited to be sitting here at my desk with a cup of coffee and a whole bunch of vacation photos to go through! Our New England 2024 trip was quite the experience!Ā
I recap all my trips because a lot of you reach out on instagram and ask me to do so; I love that these posts are helpful for you! Iāll try to share as many little details as possible.Ā
Butā¦if I’m being honest, I totally recap them for my own benefit, too. š I love having a āscrapbookā of sorts to be able to look at years down the road with all the details of past trips Iāve taken. Do we all remember the Creative Memories scrapbooking movement in the late 90s? My mom was a scrapbooking PRO and would create these epic albums for significant events. Well, I kind of think of these posts a bit like that, but a digital version. Years from now, if my children want to look back on their childhood vacations, they can visit So Much Life and read about them here.Ā Ā
Hereās How We Picked Peaks Island For Our Summer Vacation
So, over the summer I kind of had this momentā¦I was talking to Nate about it, and told him how frustrated I felt that life and trips just kept āhappeningā to me. I was looking back at the last 18 months, and I realized that every single trip Iāve taken has been because I was asked to go or an event was happening and I needed to be there. For the record, these trips have been amazing! Iām not complaining, and Iāve loved every one of them! I feel really lucky to have a big family with all sorts of milestone events to celebrate, memories to make together, and such.Ā
But I realized that we were basically cramming our calendar full of frantic weekend trips, and while they were fun, we weren’t making any progress on our travel bucket list destinations. And we hadnāt been on a trip longer than a long weekend since our UK trip in 2020 when Milo was an infant. And that life would keep āhappeningā to us unless we just decided to book a longer trip and just go.Ā
So I was talking to Nate and I was just like, “ok, we make enough money to do a big long trip, and you have enough vacation days and I have the entrepreneurial flexibility to take a long trip, but we never do it because all of these little trips keep filling our calendar!” Thus, the seed was planted for a longer trip to a dream destination of ours.
Maine has been calling me ever since Nate and I did a quick trip there in 2022. (A quick frantic weekend trip, to be honest. See? Itās just what we do, and Iām over it!) We spent a couple days in Boston and 2 days in Portland, Maine.Ā
While we were in Maine, I took the ferry to Peaks Island for a few hours. I donāt really know how to phrase this correctly or what it means, but I felt this soul connection to this little island off the coast of Portland. It was weird.Ā
I mean, I grew up doing summer vacations in the Pacific Northwest where my grandparents had built their retirement home on the coast of Washington overlooking the bay. And I adore that part of the country and would love to go back again and again…Ā
ā¦but there was just something about Peaks Island that I felt an instant connection to. And this is coming from someone born and raised in Texas, so it doesnāt make a lot of logical sense!
I mean, I’ve been to plenty of gorgeous, breezy, cool cities in my life, but never felt such a desire to go back as I did to this tiny island. Maybe itās a past life thing? But when I was biking around the island in 2022, I stopped and felt the ocean breeze and watched the cold waves crashing on the rocky coast and I just had this magnetized connection to it. And I knew I wanted to go back with my family.Ā
Fast forward to summer 2024, and we went to Peaks Island off the coast of Portland Maine for our summer vacation!Ā
DAY 1
We woke up early to catch our flight out of Austin! We had a layover in Baltimore, so it was a long travel day:Ā
– Drive to airport
– Park and shuttle to the terminal
– Fly to Baltimore
– 2 hour layover
– Fly to Portland
– Uber to ferry
– Ferry to island
– Taxi to airbnb
Add in carting the car seats around and loading them in/out of Ubers and taxis, and needless to say, we didn’t pick an “easy” vacation spot. But it was worth it once we got there!
The boys were 2 and 4 on this trip, which are very fun ages to travel with because EVERYTHING is an adventure! I forgot how much joy is packed into all the nooks and crannies of trips (airport shuttle rides! escalators!) and they reminded me of it constantly.Ā
BUT DO YOU KNOW HOW EXCITING THE AIPORT PARKING LOT SHUTTLE IS?!?!
I won’t share a million photos from each leg of our travel day (bus, plane, car, and ferry) but I will share this one. Nate was trying to get the luggage and car seats checked, which is a struggle for one person because they’re all so big and heavy, and he’s still recovering from ankle surgery.Ā
But we both decided that’s the more practical job compared to chasing these two boys around the airport, and since I’m a bit more mobile than Nate right now I typically ran around with the boys while Nate handled luggage. They begged me to let them run down the “up” escalator, and then both sprinted in different directions. Then Milo made up a “fun, fun game!” where each of us can’t go up the escalator until the person in front is to the very top. Quite the challenge when other airport guests kept using that escalator! Milo got a bit frustrated but eventually we all got up, found Nate, and got in the security line.Ā
The day was full of a hundred little moments like this! Figuring out who’s getting the luggage, who’s watching the boys, dealing with bathroom emergencies and accidents and snack requests and all the things that come with family travels. You know. š I won’t share every little detail because then these blog posts would be A) 80,000 words long and B) quite boring to read, but that’s just a little snippet in case I’m looking back at this feeling really sentimental someday and I need to read a little dose of reality. Yes, it’s a sweet stage of life but it is REALLY exhausting!
We got a Juiceland smoothie at the airport. We ordered a kids size Honey Beary and they gave Dayton a large! He looks so tiny here.
And we were off! Two flights in one day was a big ask, but both boys did really well.Ā
At our layover, Nate hung out with the stroller and backpacks while I chased the boys around the airport.Ā
Oh how I wish every airport had an enclosed kids play space!! My boys just need to RUN and they have so much energy, and I was constantly apologizing to all the people they were sprinting in between! Most people were understanding, but there are always a few who give glares and tell me to contain my children (an impossible task.)Ā
I would gladly pay money to take them to a playscape in an airport if it was an option! Instead, they ran up and down as many little airport ramps as I could find.Ā
The second flight was much more “wiggly” but we made it! We got the luggage, called an uber to take us to the ferry station, loaded up the car seats, and we were off!
(Note that Milo is still watching his iPad because at this point in the day we’re just trying to survive, ha.)
Yay, we’re here!! We missed the first ferry we were hoping to catch, so waited an hour for the next one.Ā
While Nate and the boys hung out at the ferry dock, I went…
…and picked up our dinner order at Flatbread Company, a fantastic pizza mini chain in New England with a location one block away from the ferry.Ā
And I also walked to Portland Beer Hub, a Portland craft beer bar and store that Nate scoped out!
It was a great little spot to get a few cans to bring back to our airbnb!
The guy at the store made a custom 4-pack for me with a few Maine favorite. Nate also asked me to pick up these ^ two, which are two of the most popular beers in Maine that we can’t get in Texas: Allagash White, and Maine Beer Co Lunch IPA.Ā
The boys were so happy to be there! You remember those first few moments of vacation from childhood, when you reach the brisk air and hear the gulls and the water and you FINALLY get to run around after sitting on an airplane all day?Ā
The best.Ā
The best selfie we got. We were pretty tired, haha.Ā
We boarded the ferry, yay! Nate sat with all of our luggage, car seats, and strollers on the bottom deck while I chased the boys around.Ā
When I tell you we exploredĀ every nook and cranny of that ferry, I’m not exaggerating!Ā
And Nate, bless, was just so sturdy and strong traveling all day. He had just had his 9th surgery on his leg, and had only been out of his ortho boot for a week before this trip!
Flatbread Company pizza on the ferry! It was SO good, and we couldn’t wait to eat until we got home! (I did save my salad for later, though. My favorite meal in the world these days is a delicious, indulgent, protein-packed salad and I’m not kidding!)Ā
But the pizza was pretty good, too. šĀ
I absolutely love the ferry ride. It’s about 15 minutes from Portland Maine to Peaks Island, and the ferry leaves about every hour.Ā
They don’t take reservations, so you just buy a ticket and stand in line. That’s easy if you’re a pedestrian, but a little more challenging if you’re trying to drive on in a car. (More on that later!)
It’s $14/person and children 5 and under are free, and that’s a round trip fare. So you just give them your paper ticket when you’re boarding in Maine, and then when it’s time to board from Peaks you simply walk on the ferry.Ā
There are no Ubers on Peaks Island, but there is a private taxi company!
Our airbnb was only 1/2 a mile from the dock, but with all of our luggage it would have been too hard to walk, so we called the taxi company the day before to reserve a ride.Ā
^This moment!! Our sweet taxi driver couldn’t find the airbnb in the dark. He pulled over and said, “oh wait, I actually have a map!” and pulled out this ancient 3-ring binder with laminated pages. So cute.Ā
Meanwhile Nate and I are both looking at our google maps on our phones and can see clearly where the house is in relation to where we were. But we just let our driver have this little moment, and he got us there eventually.Ā
Phew! Quick bath for the boys, jammies on, and they both passed out in bed. There were two bedrooms upstairs, but Dayton always asks to sleep with Milo so we let them share a bed on this trip.Ā
Nate scrounged through the cabinets to find two beer glasses, gave them a wash, and then we split the Maine Beer Co Lunch IPA while we ate the rest of the pizza and salad and…
…watched the olympics!Ā
Phew. That was our travel day.Ā
Day 2
Good morning from Peaks Island!
For our first full day on the island, we just took it easy and got settled. We got some coffee, walked around, rented our bikes for the week, and did a grocery run.Ā
Marching off! The roads on the island are like this (kind of gravelly) except for a few fully paved main roads around the perimeter.Ā
Good morning! Please note that we are holding coffee we made at home as we walk to a coffee shop. That’s the state we were in after our previous travel day, ha.Ā
Baba’s Cafe is adorable, and the homemade pastries and treats are delicious.Ā
A riveting game of chess while we waited for our coffees.Ā
It was an absolutely perfect, gorgeous morning!
After coffee, we walked over to Brad’s Bike Shop, the little bike rental shop on the island. There are bikes for all the visitors who stop by Peaks Island for an hour or two, but we asked Brad if we could rent bikes for the full week.Ā
It took a long time for him to find a bike that was tiny enough for Dayton! Brad eventually had to go down to the basement and get this little Thomas the Tank Engine bike, which Dayton could ride! He took the training wheels off after we saw that it would fit, and the boys were off!Ā
Milo mentioned many times on this trip how much he wished he had his bike from back home. The rental bikes were fine, but they were heavier and clunkier than what the boys were used to. If I could figure out a way to travel with their awesome little bikes, I would!Ā
I did a grocery run, but first went to scope out the public beach on the island!Ā
Most of the beaches on the island are private, but “Sandy Beach” is open to the public.Ā
And on the way back home I stopped by Island Lobster Co.! A beer by the water while I waited for my lobster roll!
A million simple little moments like this ^ on the trip. We didn’t plan a lot and just kind of lived life together for a week.Ā
In the afternoon we went to Sandy Beach! The tide had gone out quite a bit so there was a lot of sand for the boys to play in.Ā
They dug an epic channel from this rock all the down to the ocean and dumped buckets of water down it. Fun times!
Running from the water! The water was 63 degrees, which felt extra chilly since we were there close to evening time.Ā
But I glanced over and Nate and Milo, and I saw that this kid was wading waist-deep! He never ceases to surprise me…
My favorite travel person. šĀ
After dinner we biked down to this awesome brick oven pizza place on the island called Il Leone.
It’s a BYOB spot nestled under a canopy of trees and twinkle lights. There’s an ordering station, a food truck where they prepare the pizza, and a Neapolitan pizza oven where they flash cook these perfect little pizza pies. Ā
This pizza was SO good! I could have eaten it every day!
I mean, there’s only like 5 restaurants on the entire island, so it’s pretty great that this one is SO good. A lot of people take the ferry across just to eat here!
I asked the boys if they wanted to take a picture and Dayton said no, so Milo picked up this little blue shell and said, “let’s pretend this is Dayton.” Ha! The amount of silly and wonderful things that these boys say and do!
Milo spent his time at dinner taking selfies and playing hide and seek with me.
Home, baths, these cute lobster jammies that Nate bought them, and a calm and peaceful bedtime…
…KIDDIING! We didn’t get a single one of those on this trip. šĀ
And then (you know the drill!) Nate and I went downstairs to open some Maine craft beer and watch the olympics. (And take turns dealing with a certain toddler who was going through a sleep regression.
That was PART 1 of our New England 2024 trip!Ā
I can’t wait to see Part 2. I am already looking into this for a family trip. Thanks for sharing.