Old Orchard Beach, ME

Another location, another surprise beachside boardwalk area – this time, with a bonus amusement park.

We splurged on a campsite at Hid’n Pines Family Campground, one of a slew of family-type resort campgrounds owned by the same company that dot the Old Orchard Beach area.

The spot provided us the ability to pop into Portland for an evening where we met up with our friend Holly for dinner and a saunter about town.

Hid’n Pines also provided us a safe place to leave Dyna and Lucy for a weekend so we could drive the Jeep back to NY to crew for our friend Mary Beth who was running her first 100-miler at Beast of Burden in Lockport. (Thanks Holly for checking in on Lucy!)

We drove to Rochester on a Friday, making a pitstop to help my mom purchase a new vehicle in Syracuse N.Y. On Saturday morning we drove to Lockport, N.Y. – about an hour West of Rochester – to meet Mary before her big mile challenge.

Mary is a badass woman who completed a 100-mile jaunt back-and-forth along the canal in just over 24 hours. We made sure she had what she needed when she needed it and she made sure she got that shit done.

Her race started mid-morning on Saturday, and she was done around 11 a.m. on Sunday. We crashed for a few hours at our friend Jeffy’s house (thanks for the hospitality Jeffy!) and then stuffed ourselves with garbage plates and burgers before passing back out until Monday morning. Monday morning we headed to snag Dexter – slightly off our path back to Lucy and Dyna who waited for us in Maine.

After a long Monday of driving back to Maine, Dexter hit the pool at Hid’n Pines for the half-hour left before closing time at 10 p.m.

Jake took the next day – a Tuesday – off of work and we meandered down to Funtown/Splashtown for a day of rollercoasters and water slides. It was a good day that involved a lot of hand sanitizer use.

We settled in for a day of work on Wednesday, allowing Dexter to flop about the pool (I’ve gotten pretty good at working from pool areas over the past few summers with Dex). We popped down to Old Orchard Beach for boardwalk pizza, a stop at the candy shop, and a ride on the oceanside roller coaster.

And then our time at Hid’n Pines and Old Orchard Beach was over – it felt really quick. A fun little beachside town with lots of activities for kids and adults (two water parks + a beachside amusement park + a beach!) But the season is threatening to turn cold soon, and we’ve got more Maine to check out – so we’re rolling North again towards an RV park at a brewery for a few nights.

Dexter, RV Park