Guess Who Taught Himself to Surf?

“No, Dad!  I want to do it myself”

He started on a boogie board and moved his way up to a surfboard this summer.  This weekend he mastered the surfboard all by himself! My four-year-old is a surfer.

Wildman has some catching up to do…

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Lighthouses

As you probably already know, the Maine coast is dotted with lighthouses.  J and I were lucky enough to explore four of them during our long weekend trip.  Each one was totally unique.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Curtis Island Lighthouse

Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse

We hopped, skipped, jumped and hiked our way 7/8 of a mile out on the breakwater to this lighthouse.  Unfortunately, it had closed early that day due to under-staffing.  As a result, we could not go inside but we were able to walk all the way around it and take pictures.

Owl’s Head Lighthouse

Marshall Point Lighthouse

This lighthouse was the easternmost turning point for Tom Hanks’ character, Forrest Gump, when he ran across the United States…

Treetop Trek

My mom took the boys on Saturday afternoon for a day of swimming, the movies and dinner.  J and I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to check out the new Treetop Trek zip line and adventure challenge at the zoo.  Several weeks ago I bought a two half-off groupons for the challenge and they were burning a hole in my pocket.

We thought we would go and it would end up being 4 or 5 zip lines in the trees.  Cool but no big deal.  Oh, how wrong we were!

It took us four hours to complete over 50 challenges on two courses.  By challenges I mean a crazy series of suspended obstacles.  We did everything from riding a hanging skateboard between two platforms to zip lining across a lake to…

… swinging out on a rope swing tarzan-style onto a cargo net!  It was way more physically demanding that we thought and so much more amazing!!!

I loved how the trek took us all throughout the zoo.  We were literally walking above the animals and zoo visitors.  It was amazing.  People kept looking up wondering what the heck we were doing.

We also liked how free we were to do our own safety harnesses.  We had a mini training course with a guide at the very beginning where we demonstrated that we knew what we were doing.  Then they just let us go!  We did not have a guide with us while we were up in the trees.  There were guides on the ground at certain points along the way to help us retrieve fallen gloves or make suggestions on how to approach challenges.  But for the most part we were on our own.  It was great!

The next morning I was surprisingly sore from our adventure.  I guess I used muscles that I don’t normally use because I’m never that sore after body sculpting classes or yoga!

I cannot wait to go back and try it again!  Maybe when the weather cools down though…  Mid-July is just too darn hot!!!