Thursday, August 28, 2008

Travels in Maine

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a different sort of blog post for me. I'm really more interested in sharing the pictures than anything else this time around. I AM a grandmother after all, and I DO have THE cutest grandkids on the planet. And so, prepare for an extravaganza of pictures!! Carry on.


Our daughter and her family, husband Derek, daughters Lea and Sara and son Jake, live in Maine. Mike and I decided that a road trip was in order, so we headed there to visit. Mike, in a fit of optimism, rented a Mustang convertible. He was not the least det
erred by the fact that they were in the middle of 4 solid weeks of rain. I guess Mike knew something nobody else did, because the weather while we were there was perfect! Sunny with NO, let me repeat that N - O, humidity. In my vacation tradition of only getting sunburns in northern climes such as Canandaigua, New York, and Glacier Bay, Alaska, I came home a lovely shade of pink. In another vacation tradition, Maine was having what was, for them, a heat spell. Leave it to me.

Lea and Sara were VERY excited at the prospect of riding in the convertible, at least for the first two days. After that both of them were less than enthused at the tangle their hair became. Mike bought them sporty sunglasses to wear as we cruised about.

Mike had several goals in mind. He wanted to see as much of Keli and family as possible, he wanted to see as much of Maine as possible with Keli and family in tow, and he wanted a hat with a lobster on it. Nothing says, "Of COURSE I'm not a tourist" quite like a huge honking camera and a hat with a lobster on it. At first this proved difficult to find, and Mike had to improvise:













::sigh:: The search continued.

I had set a goal to see as much of Keli and family as possible while eating as many lobster rolls as possible. I took this VERY seriously. In fact the only meal (aside from breakfasts) where I ate anything other than a lobster roll was the night we had steak at Derek and Keli's house. Yum!

We had see the Maine Highland Games advertised. Now for years I have taken the cats to the Highland Games here and it's always a lot of fun. We decided to go. The Maine games featured far less animals than the Florida games. There was a demonstration of herding dogs, but no Highland "Coos", no Scottish Folds, no Scottish Deerhounds. They did have the vendors, the competitions, the bagpipers and everything else we are used to. In fact, they even had WOMEN competing in the events! One young lady in particular caught Mike's fancy.


Guess what ELSE Mike found at, of all places, the Highland Games? The Lobstah Hat! Hurray. We also got one for Jake because with his short hair and fair skin his little cheeks were getting mighty pink!






We went to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and turned the girls into pirates:


Now I'm just going to post some great pictures from the trip. Please, bear with me!

Here is Jake with Lea. We were at a crowded pizza place, and the kids had to wait an hour for food. These kids rarely eat out, and so they never have to wait for food, but they could NOT have been better behaved!











Here is the whole family. Aren't they fabulous looking?












Mike and I with the kids. We aren't nearly as pretty as Keli and Derek! Note the matching (and OH so attractive) Lobstah hats on the boys.









The kids are VERY athletic. They are always riding bikes, hula hooping, riding a scooter, kicking a ball or doing something else active. There are a bunch of kids on their street, so they always have someone to play with.