independence day

So excited the long weekend is finally here but bummed it's raining outside.  The first storm of the season, Arthur, is coming up the coast today and causing lots of rain and wind.

Determined to enjoy our day we set off for Maine to visit with The Sylvesters.  We are eager to catch up with our friends because we haven't seen them in a while.  Bennett was doing well in the car.  He tried reading for a while.

And, then we listened to The Wiggles until he made it clear he wants to watch "Frozen."

The roads were very wet.  We passed this beauty on the road around York, Maine.  I bet that's a fun ride.

We made it to Bath, Maine in good time though despite the bad weather.  As we entered the city we noticed the sign said "Welcome to Bath. The City of Ships."  So we did a little digging and found out that Bath is renowned for shipbuilding, which began here in 1743 when Jonathan Philbrook and his sons built 2 vessels. Since then, roughly 5,000 vessels have been launched in the area, which at one time had more than 200 shipbuilding firms.  But the most famous shipyard is the Bath Iron Works, founded in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde. It has built hundreds of wooden and steel vessels, mostly warships for the U.S. Navy.  DuringWorld War II, Bath Iron Works launched a new ship every 17 days.  The city also displayed a brand new destroyer at the time of our visit.  We could see the giant crane used to built the ships from Linda and Jake's apartment (granted not very easily).

After settling in and catching up a bit, we headed out to dinner at the Sea Dog Brewing Co.  I love microbreweries and this place was awesome.  It sits right on the water.  Too bad it was rainy and we couldn't sit outside.  The food and beers were delicious.  Ali likes to make silly faces for pictures.

The boys were having a deep discussion about I can only assume candles or beer or farts.

It was Jake and Linda's Wedding Anniversary so we got a chocolate brownie a la mode to finish off the meal.  Happy Anniversary to you guys!  I cannot wait to spend the day on the beach and the carnival tomorrow.