Memories in Maine

Looking out on Great Moose Lake, Maine

When I was a kid we went to Maine for a month every summer.  We would spend the time on the lake at our family's camps (cabins for those outside of the Northeast) by Great Moose Lake. The other families that live or summer on the lake have been there for generations (it was our great-grandfather that originally started the Martin business in the 1920s) so my sister and I were known as "Greg's daughters" and most of our family still lives in the area. It's very different from the way I grew up in Missouri where my nearest relatives were in Colorado a 10 hour drive away.

Lobster Fest in Maine

My return to Maine this year brought back many of my memories from childhood and I gained some new memories too. Within two days of arriving, I genuinely forgot what day of the week it was (always a good sign at a vacation place). Time just seems to become unimportant. We spent time swimming, kayaking, reading, and relaxing. But with some effort I also made sure to continue my tourist mission and I ate lobster at every opportunity, drove Route 1 along the coast, visited L.L. Bean and Freeport, and went to a festival (the Lobster Fest!) to make sure I was seeing quintessential Maine.

Beyond the copious amounts of lobster I made it my job to eat, one of my greatest highlights of my time in Maine was spending an afternoon with my family. It's been a long time since we've been all together for a BBQ (although there were still a few people that were missed).

Lydia, Grampie (who turns 93 this month!), and Me

 
Things to be thankful for:
- My car making it to 100,000 miles!

- The Northeast. I don't know when I'll make it back again, but I will miss it until I do.

Playing in the Sand

After leaving Cape Cod we drove south to Narragansett, Rhode Island to meet my aunt, uncle and cousin for the weekend.  On Thursday night I tried some quahogs (quintessential Rhode Island) and we made plans for the beach on Friday morning.
 
The day was a bit cloudy but it wasn’t going to stop us.  We paid our beach fee (a sore point for someone that enjoyed free beaches in New Zealand – but it was a nice beach and right outside of our hotel so in the end a small price to pay) and set up camp between the surfers and swimmers.

First on the agenda: building a sand castle.  My uncle and I plotted a spot and then started to dig, 5 minutes into what was surely to be our masterpiece we changed directions and decided to test our skills with a sand turtle instead (the lack of building utensils may have been a big part of our switch).  People on the beach were beginning to admire what we were working on, a crowd was forming (actually it was just my sister offering her critique of the dimensions of said turtle) and soon we had a nearly life-like specimen.  Or at least we thought we did pretty well.

We sank back into our chairs and within five minutes a small, seemingly innocent boy of about 6 came over to admire the work.  I don’t think he realized he was standing within 20 feet of the creators because he bent down to inspect it a bit further. He carefully started appraising the turtle from several angles before plucking out the seashells that had been placed as eyes.  Ok, maybe he doesn’t think the eyes were well placed.  We weren’t really sure where they went when we created it anyway.  But, he had our attention. 

My family and I all watched bemused as the small boy then started to meticulously destroy the front flippers.  He wasn’t the smash and stomp type either.  He grabbed handfuls of sand and squished it between his little fingers letting it drop back in place, essentially pulverizing our turtle in slow tortuous steps.  Where was this child’s parents?! We had no choice but to giggle and observe as this child did his best work to destroy ours.

Next to go were the back flippers and then a nearby stick became a new tool of destruction and the turtle’s shell was turned into a mixing bowl for what he must have imagined was now turtle soup.  As the piece de resistance he threw a crab shell that was also within reach into the concoction and gave another callous stir with the stick. When that was finished he tossed the stick in and strutted away (yes, there was definitely a swagger in his step). 

An hour of building and 15 minutes of destruction.  It’s great how much fun can be had with just some sand.

Next Up:  Block Island, Visiting friends, and Dinner on the pier in Boston