What can I say? I love Maine. Some of it is the memories of going to visit my grandparents every summer. I loved their house with its little screened porch and its glass dooknobs. Some of it is the smell of the ocean and the rocks and the cool weather. Some of it is all the antiques contrasted with the wonderful tackiness of Old Orchard Beach. Some of it is all the little roadside cabins that seem to be disappearing. Some of it is the early architecture and the sense of history. Some of it is buying cosmos and wild blueberries at the Higgins Beach stand. Some of it I can’t explain. I just love it.

I am so thrilled that my boys love it too. You should have heard them scream when we crossed over the river from New Hampshire into Maine. My Leo just seems to have fallen in love with Maine the way I did. Owen still has some serious questions, such as “is there macaroni and cheese in Maine?” but loves it too. Leo, in particular, still seems to view the ocean as an adversary however. He lectured the ocean about eating good food, not junk food and fed it shovelfuls of seaweed. He also did a search of seaweed for some ‘Vitamin Z’ which he claimed the ocean needed. He also threatened the ocean with a time out. I’m not sure how he would have accomplished that but evidently the ocean behaved so it didn’t come to that. He also did do a little fist shaking the ocean.

Owen was still a little concerned about crabs on the beach and so on the first day he felt it necessary to wear his yellow firefighter boots straight into the water over my protests. We found some little crabs swimming around at low tide though and he seems to have come to terms with them somewhat although he still says—‘if you see a crab, get OUT of the water’.

My sister Debbie was with us and she was absolutely wonderful. Of course she spoiled the boys rotten and was wonderfully easy to be with. She gave Ernie and I the chance to get away. We went to an antique show in Bath, hit some antique shops, had a wonderful lunch at Solo Bistro Bistro (best sweet potato fries I’ve ever had) and spent the night there with a lazy dinner and some time spent at a wonderfully tacky Holiday Inn bar with a great bartender. Debbie was great—-letting us sneak out for walks to the beach or a quick visit to an antique mall on our own without ever making us feel like she was doing us a favor—which of course she was! The boys are still talking about their triumphant visit to Toys R Us with her in charge….

We ate tons of seafood–scallops, shrimp, swordfish, clams and lobsters—oh and an inordinate number of chicken wings were involved….

and I got incredibly sunburned—-in fact I’m still peeling away. The boys were fascinated that my skin was coming off…..I’ll post some of our more memorable moments soon…..