Our morning began with blueberry pancakes! Daddy really loves us! Rachel did not enjoy the 'hot blueberries' in her pancakes.
We started the day's adventures at the Hull's Cove Visitor Center where the kids became Acadia NP Jr. Rangers! A very kind ranger had them answer some questions & take the Jr. Ranger pledge.
Next we headed around the Park Loop Road to see many more of the sites around the park. We stopped at the Nature Center & Sieur DeMohts natural spring. We waded in the waves at Sand Beach--55 degree Atlantic Ocean Water! We saw Thunder Hole, Otter Bay, an actual horse drawn carriage on a carriage road, Seal Cove, & Bubble Rock.
Our next stop was the Mount Desert Island Biological Labratory or MDIBL. We'd heard about this from Bocko & also this is where our parade neighbors spend summers--he does research here. The free public tour included a 10 minute video about what they do at MDIBL and an introduction from a very wise professor from the University of South Carolina--he used a few terms we were unfamiliar with, but overall he gave us a great introduction about their purpose. MDIBL is a place for medical researchers to research-duh! Over 30 PhDs are on site working on various projects with many high school & undergrads helping out. Some of the things that have come out of here are new glaucoma drugs & kidney research(near & dear to our hearts!). Because many marine mammals have similar organs/processes to humans, but slower metabolic rates the studies can give researchers a great insight to how drugs & toxins and more will affect humans. The highlight was the touch tank! The girl started off cautious, but soon dove in with both hands picking up starfish, clams, sea cucumbers & even a lobster! Daddy held up a lot of critters too. The boy looked on, only holding a clam and touching a seacucumber & starfish. Mama took pictures. We spent almost 2 hours here. Great place doing great research.
We trekked into Ellsworth to shop at the L.L. Bean Outlet! This was a mama requested adventure & we just bought stuff for the kids...how typical!
Made dinner at the campsite. Daddy & the kids fished & played at the playground while Mama packed up the campsite. Daddy says to tell everyone he caught a mackeral t h i s big. We made a HUGE fire & had our last s'mores in Maine.
tomorrow is a travel day through NH, MA, RI & ending in Mystic, CT.
blessings,
the simmonds family
ps more pictures soon...we're catching up on posts.
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