Visiting Tettagouche State Park with Grandma Kathy

Par for the course, we dragged Grandma Kathy around to all sorts of places while she was here: to the  rocky beach, Little Sand Bay on the South Shore, to the raspberry farm, out to eat, and up the North Shore to do some hiking at Tettagouche State Park.  You can read about the last time we went to Tettagouche State Park here.  We were very thankful not to have any potty accidents or diarrhea leaking out of a diaper down the Ergo backpack this time around.  The waterfalls were just as amazing, and the hiking trail, felt just as long as it did when The Banana was two, although this time Dr. Peds packed Mr. Trouble on Two Feet  on his back the whole entire trip.  The trail isn’t that long of a hike, really, but is seems to go up and down and up and down, and it just takes a lot of time to navigate with little people.  We were shocked when we finally got back to the van and saw the time!  It might not be far, but it sure took us a long time to complete!

Grandma Kathy was such a good sport, and we really enjoyed resting at the bottom of one of the smaller falls to relax and throw rocks in the water, chase toads and do some exploring.

This picture seems pretty indicative of their personalities:  The Banana is keeping Grandma company, and probably talking her ear off.  YaYa is exploring even with that broken clavicle.  Mr. Sneaky Pants is sticking out his tongue as much as he possibly can.

He accidentally lost his balance and sat down and wasn’t happy about that.  Luckily he has a kind big sister to comfort him in distressing times.

Although I didn’t anticipate it, Mr. SP navigated a river crossing to the other side, and then proceeded to scale a cliff before he heard his father calling across not to do that.  Boys.  

Trust me, on this hike there were many beautiful moments, and there was also substantial bickering, arguing, complaining, and fussing.  There was whining. There was wailing.  There was a special rock lost, the cause of dramatic stomping before it was found again.  There were bugs.  There were very, very tired grown ups when we got back to the car.  But it was still a good hike.

Perhaps the very best part was going down to the mouth of the Baptism River at dusk and watching the river flow into the surf stirred up by a steady east wind.  There is nothing I love better than a steady stream of wild waves, and these were so interesting, crashing about and pouring into the river past the cliffs.  It was mesmerizing.