u/mom4ever

We're a 60-ish couple in decent health - can hike 5-6 miles/full day with mild to moderate elevation climb. We have 2 half-days and 2 full days and hope to touch the highlights, but do need some downtime. Does the following itinerary sound reasonable? Are there any "must-sees" that can be picked up without too much extra effort? Edit: We're traveling Sept 28- Oct 1, so I know it will be busy.

Day 1 (arriving ~ 1 pm) - Park at Gateway Center, take the Island Explorer to Jordan Pond Loop. Hike the loop. Relax at Jordan Pond House.

Day 2 - Reserve/drive to Cadillac Mountain. Enjoy the Summit area. Drive to the North Ridge Trail to hike.

Day 3 - Take the Island Explorer to Sand Beach. Hike Gorham mountain, Thunder hole, Otter Cliff.

Day 4 (leaving Acadia noon-ish) Take the Island Explorer to Jordan Pond. Explore South Bubble and Bubble rock.

I wish we could tack South Bubble onto Day 1, but starting late, I'm not sure we'd have the energy to hike the full 5-6 miles.

I help with a homeschool coop with young teens. They're good kids. The older ones (16+) have or want jobs. The ones 13-15 would like jobs (that they're allowed to do), or other enrichment activities that don't cost an arm and a leg.

Any suggestions? Ones we know of so far:

• Free bowling: https://www.kidsbowlfree.com/center.php?alley_id=5154
• MJC Camps 4 Kids and enrichment classes: https://www.mjc.edu/cll/index.html
• Museums like Great Valley Museum, Children's museum, McHenry Mansion & Museum, Graffiti Museum
• Swimming at pools and reservoirs

One-day events are nice, but there are a lot of one-days between now and next August. It would be great if we could send them out to pick peaches somewhere every day for a couple months! Or a volunteer job on a farm...

They do "Love Modesto", and enjoy spending 1/2 day picking up trash from the river, but that's only a few times a year. They're willing to work if their friends can be along.

As a "grandma-type", I loved watching teens/youth dancing to Church Clap, and even danced a few steps myself. Then I came home and found the lyrics that referenced Shug Avery and the Color Purple.

Having read the novel, I understand the appeal of freely enjoying God's creation and throwing off artificial strangleholds of certain religious teachings. But at its core, it advocates a pantheistic view of God and embraces/encourages certain types of sin that oppose Biblical teaching.

Has anyone worked through this conundrum - what do you do with a song that kids like, which encourages good practices ("Gimme that God Almighty, that good ol' Bible, that old school doctrine...") but also advocates problematic ideas?