Caught in the Act

The last day we were in Maine, Chris woke up early and headed out to Old Orchard Beach with his new metal detector. He was lost in his own little foggy world under the pier when he noticed a photographer nearby taking pictures of him (and other shots) as he worked the beach. The man approached him and introduced himself as a staff photographer for the Portland Press Herald, the main newspaper in the Portland area. He asked Chris a few questions about what he was doing and jotted down his name, saying that he might use a photo of him in tomorrow's paper (tomorrow being Saturday, July 1st, the day we were leaving). And lo and behold, it really happened - this photo appeared on the front page of the Local News section that Saturday. How many people can go on vacation and end up being published in the newspaper? The shot was aptly titled "Expecting Change." Thank you, Staff Photographer John Patriquin for a fun souvenir.

http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?gallery_id=7058&process=gallery&provider_id=326&ptp_photo_id=portpress%3A420941&sequencenum=0&page=

Bike Has Been Sold

Our 1983 Honda CB1000 has been sold. This picture was taken as Chris rode the bike for the last time, on Saturday. I was following behind in the car as we drove over the river to deliver the bike to the new owner in Walton, Ky.

Chris had placed it for sale a couple of weeks ago (without mentioning it to me...) and he sold it to the first person who came over to look at it. We've both got mixed feelings about selling Brownie (my little nickname because of its deep brown color). It was taking up precious space in the garage, and with Chris' new job at Toyota, he has very little free time to do anything. The bike would just sit there taunting him, "Ha ha, you can't ride me!" (Well not really, though I imagine Chris felt that way every time he walked out into the garage.)

There will be another bike one day, a bigger and more comfortable bike if Chris has his way - can you say Goldwing? But not until we have a bigger garage, and more spare time. Or until Chris can't wait any longer, whichever comes first!

These pictures were taken in late October, 2004 when we made an insane weekend trip to Oneonta, New York to pick up the bike from the seller, Jon. I'll never forget the day that I came home to hear Chris say, "You won't believe this, but ... you know that bike I was bidding on, on e-Bay? Well, I was the high bidder ...." I only took me a minute to realize that we were going to have to drive 10 hours to pick it up, turn around, and drive 10 hours back home. What a crazy trip that was. Let's hope that the next bike (and there will be a next bike!) comes from someone local!

Vacation in Maine - Sunday

Sunday was somewhat of a slow paced day– we got up in the morning at a reasonable time – don’t remember exactly what time it was, but I know we got down to old Portland by late morning. We let the girls go and do their own browsing and shopping while we went our own way. Eventually we chose a place to stop and have brunch, a colorful café on a street corner. Once again the lack-of-air-conditioning issues cropped up – they seated us inside and upstairs where the warmth was absolutely stifling. We asked to be moved to an outdoor table where it was cooler and breezy – perfect! I don’t know how those customers were able to sit inside and enjoy a meal – seriously, if someone put an animal in that kind of awful situation, the Humane Society would intervene. (OK, I’ll stop now.)

The girls eventually met up with us, we compared the souvenirs we had bought, and it was time to drive down to the Portland Head Light to visit with cousin Rick and family. We had arranged to meet in Ft. Williams Park in the playground area at the lower level parking lot, and while we waited, the girls started climbing the rocks down at the beach. (And yes, that's the way teenage girls climb the rocks - clutching their little purses tightly under their arms, cell phones by their side.) By the time Rick and Jackie arrived they had climbed around the bend and up the rocks into the old fort to explore. The rest of us hiked up the paved trail (much more civilized) and spent some time walking in and around the stone remains of the fort. What a view! We continued our walk around the coastline and up to the lighthouse. This is a very recognizable lighthouse – it appears on countless posters, calendars, greeting cards … you name it. Just beautiful! It wasn’t crowded and we had a leisurely walk around the grounds (and the gift shop!).

The District of Maine was a part of Massachusetts when the merchants of Portland first petitioned Boston for a lighthouse in 1786. Construction began a year later but was quickly stopped for lack of funds. Soon after George Washington became the first president in 1789, the federal government took over the construction and operation of lighthouses, and Congress authorized $1500 to finish Portland Head Light.
Built on the cheap with light rubblestone and lime, Portland Head was a 72 foot tower that first shone its light in January of 1791. Over the years Portland Head has undergone many changes. The tower was lowered by 25 feet in 1813; in 1850 a new lantern was installed with a fourth-order fresnel lens; in 1864 twenty feet were added back onto the tower’'s height and the lens upgraded to a second-order. In 1882 the twenty feet were once again removed from the tower and the lens returned to fourth-order power. This last change was very unpopular, and within a year the tower was raised yet again by twenty feet and the more powerful lens restored. Portland Head changed little until 1989, when the old fresnel was removed and replaced with an airport-style revolving beacon. The tower today bears the scars of it's many changes in height.
Today the isolated spot where Longfellow penned his famous lighthouse poem is one of Maine’s most popular tourist attractions. Lines of tour buses glide through Fort Williams Park to the large parking lot near the lighthouse. After extensive renovation, the keeper’s quarters opened as a museum in 1992, and there is a gift shop on the grounds as well.

It was late afternoon when we parted ways and all I wanted was a long nap. We headed back to the house and crashed hard for 3 hours, not waking up until 7:45. Just enough time to scrounge some dinner, watch TV for a while and hit the sack again for more catch-up sleep. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Vacation in Maine: First Real Day

Saturday, June 24th - my notes read as follows:

Up at 9 a.m.
Tony's Donuts, Old Portland
Merchant Marine ship "State of Maine"
Amato's for lunch - 1st time!
Back at 11:30, woke up girls
Out again at 12:30 to run errands & get lunch for the girls
Maine Mall
Chris got haircut
Picked girls up from mall, went to Scarborough Beach
Girls played in ocean, Chris did metal-detecting on the beach
Party for Kevin @ Elks Lodge, 7 p.m.
Stopped at Rapid Ray's for late night food

Whenever we visit Maine there are several "must do" items: get donuts from Tony's in Portland and eat Italians (subs) at Amato's, home of the Real Italian. The donuts have been family favorites for ages - the plain cake donuts are best eaten with raspberry preserves (Chris' favorite) or molasses. My favorites are the cinnamon sugar cake donuts - mmmm. As for Amato's - well, the sub shops in Cincinnati aren't even close to making Italians the way they do at Amato's. I get mine "no pickles, no olives" and Chris gets his "no olives." The girls don't care for subs, but they proclaimed the cheesy Pazza bread to be heavenly. We ate at Amato's 5 time while we were in Maine and will be dreaming of Italians until the next time we visit.

The trip to Maine Mall was needed to buy a gag gift for the surprise birthday party we were attending that evening - we hunted down a Spencer's Gifts and found just the right items to insult someone who's hitting the big 5-0. (Spencer's is always good for that, aren't they? I've never bought anything else there.) A comment to the management of Maine Mall: Either a) turn ON the air-conditioning in the summer, even if it's not that hot outside - it's still MUGGY; or b) if you don't have air-conditioning, invest in it. We visitors from the other 49 states in the union are accustomed to a/c in malls! (And in our homes, for that matter.) Sheesh. I got so warm in the mall we had to leave before I passed out. It's a very nice mall, don't get me wrong - it just needs a little ventilation.

After the girls got their feet wet, then their ankles, then their knees, they decided to go for it. The water is still icy cold but they gradually went all the way in and played in the waves like little kids! You should have heard all the screeching and laughing as they enjoyed the (ice cold) water.

The surprise party was fun and we got to visit with many of Kevin's family and friends. Lots of goods snacks and a live band - the girls actually had some fun dancing and thought the elk head mounted on the wall was cool. It was probably against all rules to touch it (!) but oh well, we couldn't stop them from admiring it! And I had to encourage them by taking pictures of course. Bad mom. Now we probably won't be invited back.

The evening ended at a legendary hamburger place called Rapid Ray's, in downtown Saco. It's evidently been around forever and it's the kind of place you go after a rough night of drinking. Not that we had been. Chris just has fond memories of the place from the old days.

And so ended Day 2 of the Great Vacation to Maine.

Beach Treasures

Most of the beaches we visited in Maine were sandy and rocky which made for interesting beach-combing. That whole area of the coast is filled with lobster traps so there are many parts and pieces of those that wash ashore during high tide - pieces of the colorful nylon rope that they use, for instance, and I saw any number of complete lobster traps that had crashed up onto the beach, stranded forever in the sand and rocks. When we were on Monhegan Island for the day, we picked up a lot of broken bits of glass on the rocky beach looking out towards Manana Island (some legitimately washed up, some newer ... but all pretty). In my estimation, some of the best mementos of a trip are the little things that you find along the way, not the things you buy in a gift shop or store.

I had a wonderful time wandering the beach while the girls played in the surf or laid in the sun (yes, there were 2 sunny days out of 9) and Chris used his metal detector. I know I sound like some old fuddy-duddy when I ramble on about things like this, but honestly, the best things in life are free and right at your finger tips, if you just look around. I loved seeing all the pieces of nylon rope as I walked, and I kept thinking I could do something with them when I got home ... didn't know what, exactly, but I finally started picking them up when I saw them buried in the sand or caught on the rocks. Very quickly I had a big handful of this colorful rope, and yes, I did bring it home. ***Martha Stewart alert *** I soaked it in a bucket, rinsed it off and laid it in the sun to dry. Today Kelly and I went to a crazy fun place called The Glass Barn and bought some inexpensive jars and containers, and I coiled all my pieces of rope into a nifty glass jar. I love it! I guess I'll keep it out on the back deck with all my other beach souvenirs - it's so colorful and will always remind me of my peaceful walks on Scarborough Beach.

Fortunately I have a husband who's a good sport and puts up with my crazy whims. He made my day when he spotted this stray buoy up on the rocks on Monhegan and hiked out to get it. He confirmed with one of the locals that it didn't belong to any of the Monhegan lobstermen, so we brought it back on the ferry when we came home later in the day. There's also a plain white one (off to the side) that he found out at Marshall Light while we were walking on the rocks early in the morning. (Ah, that would be the day that I fell face-first into a tidal pool when I lost my footing and got completely soaked, head to toe. That's a story for another day.)

Trip to the Vet

Our old girl cat Lucy has a chronic asthma condition which periodically worsens. Little things set her off on a wheezing fit - it gets especially bad when she gives a hearty "hisssss" to one of the dogs. It was time to take her to Dr. Jeff to be re-evaluated, most likely to result in a dose of Prednisone. We had an 11 o'clock appointment this morning so I stuffed her into the carrier - never an easy chore - the old girl can put up a good fight. The pitiful meowing began immediately and continued during the 20 minute ride to the vet.

Once there, the vet tech took her temp (normal) and weight (9 lbs) and trimmed her back claws (front claws were removed long ago). We checked her tummy for sore spots because she's had some nasty episodes in the past but all clear this time. However, in the process of looking her over the vet tech felt a lump in her lower abdominal area. Dr. Jeff had the techs shave her tummy so he could get a better look and then checked her over again. His thoughts are that Lucy has a mammary tumor: the feline equivalent of breast cancer. His experience tells him that it is very likely malignant and because of her advanced age (17 - 18 years old) he doesn't feel that surgery is the answer. Instead he injected a shot of steroids directly into the tumor, a treatment he has used with some success on other animals he's cared for. (Obviously not a cure for cancer, but an effort to reduce the size of the mass and perhaps give her some sort of relief. In the end, the tumor will win.) He sent us home with a bottle of pills (more steroids) to be taken daily starting one week from now. I'll take her back in 2 weeks to review the situation.

I'm thankful Lucy seems to be feeling fine in spite of the tumor - she shows no signs of ill health outwardly, is still always ready for a good scratch behind the ears and glad to see anyone who comes to visit her in the laundry room. We love her dearly and will pray for her health issues just as we would for any of the humans in our family.