moxie...and I'm not talking about the soda

Wednesday was road trip day (I say that like every other day isn't road trip day in the summer.  Last weekend I drove to Schoodic- an hour and 15 min- two days in a row and then an hour to Belfast the third day).  Emilie and I packed up our kids and headed to a beautiful part of Maine known for its wilderness and everything white water.  We went to visit Matt and Ange at camp in "The Forks" which is named so because it is where the Kennebec and Penobscot River meet and then fork apart.  The Forks is like a college town, pulsing with young raft guides, except that it surrounded by more pine trees than you can shake a stick at and the topic of the day is the class of rapids that you paddled. 

The trip is almost 2.5 hours for us which makes for a looooong drive with four kids but organized moms, novel snacks and fairly content children made is tolerable.  We met Ange and her bigger kids at 10:30 to hike into Moxie Falls, the tallest waterfall (90 ft) in the state.  The hike itself is more a woods walk and no one fell on any tree roots and skinned their knees and no piggy backs were given. (As if.)

We just drove 2.5 hours. WHEN are we going to see this waterfall??



You can hear the falls long before you get to water and the first sight you see is the river gathering steam. Here is a shot hundreds of feet before the fall itself:

In Maine (and maybe other places?) we have a nasty tasting soda called Moxie.  (This is a strong matter of preference but I think it tastes like Robitussin DM.)  This waterfall redeems the name.

Moxie Falls:

The drop is enough to make you fist the back of your child's shirt into a ball and hang on tight.

Me, Ange and Emilie (I love my girls)

Then we drove up the road to Matt's family's camp and spent the day lounging, chatting, eating, playing and swimming.  I had a near drowning experience two years ago in Lake Moxie at this very camp (an embarrassing event wherein I refused to put my feet down on the questionable bottom while trying to keep a two-year-old Maya afloat and began to take on water.  When I was ashore Matt kindly said to me: "Do you realize you almost drowned in water where you could TOUCH?") so I wasn't too keen to get in the water.  I hid behind the fact that it was windy and chilly and, since these are my people, no one called me on it.

The kids had a blast on an inflatable trampoline way out in the water that required the use of a life jacket and provided ease for the parents on shore. 

The view looking up from my camp chair:



Honestly, I didn't feel like documenting much. I just wanted to chill and be there. I'm not great at doing that so I've been practicing.  It was a really fun day and so great to visit friends when they are in their own personal heaven. 

And no one cried on the way home (I think) except that Skyler was mad at us when we tried to record a music video of us singing a Brandi Carlile song.  We are SO those parents whose kids are going to be rolling their eyes at us when we are doing the things they should be doing.  Skyler was yelling, "Turn it down! I can't hear my movie!" and Emilie was saying, "Just a minute, honey.  Suzanne and I are almost done with this take."