Maine a-gain

We've only been here three days so far, and already we've had fried shrimp twice, delicious crab rolls, and steamed lobsters - not to say that the purpose of coming to Maine is yummy food, but come on! It's just too good, it deserves a lot of comment. We decided today that the fried shrimp (tiny lovely sweet Maine shrimp) at Cod End in Tenants Harbor is a bit superior to the Dip Net in Port Clyde, though we all love the Dip Net...

St. George Day was happening when we first arrived on Saturday, and we enjoyed a wonderful lobster feast, along with everyone else in town!! Here's a photo of Oliver having dinner with dad - too bad Oliver can't have shellfish yet, according to baby allergy experts!! His cousins tucked right into it, though, as you can see from the photo! Later on, Oliver tasted the last drop of dad's beer, which makes for a cute photo, even though there's not actually any beer in there.

We've been to Drift Inn Beach a couple of times already, where Oliver gets thoroughly covered in sticky grey sand, and he doesn't like it much when we dunk him in the cold water to wash a little of it off! But other than that, he has the time of his life, running in and out of the shallow water, moving rocks from place to place, jumping into the deep holes that daddy digs, and generally having great little boy fun.

We've seen Chloe a few times, went swimming in Crawford Lake in Union, and have seen little Weston across the street, too. Andy's been out in his kayak once, and on his bike - he's signed up for an organized ride on Saturday, the "Ride and Roll," where upon finishing (50 miles) he gets a lobster roll!! Yum. Today was the St. George Ocean View Kitchen Tour, where 8 homes are selected for public viewing, and mom and dad's house was one of the eight! So we've spent lots of time making the place all nice and tidy, and today about 175 people trudged through the entire house, with lots of compliments on the cool kitchen. I'll try to write more updates soon!

HAPPY 4TH!

Well, our festive holiday weekend is drawing to a close... we missed being up in Maine, but we did have lots of fun down here. We had our friends Sharon and Johan down for 2 nights, as well as Johan's sister, Lise, who has become our friend as well over the last few years. Their friend, Bruno, came for one night as well. On Friday afternoon we all went to Swartswood State Park, where there's a very lovely beach and lake - the weather wasn't great, but Oliver and Andy went for a quick dip! Andy biked there and arrived only about 10 minutes after we did! That's where Oliver enjoyed a very patriotic ice pop!

On Saturday we slept in a bit and had a nice bagel brunch, then headed up to the Warwick Valley Winery, just over the NY border (Andy biked there, too!). We had a nice snack there, sitting outside on the terrace, then Andy and I strolled around the grounds with Oliver a bit while Sharon, Johan and Lise tried out the wine tasting inside. Not great wine, really, but a great day out and very nice ambiance! Live music, too, which Oliver liked a lot!

Then we came home and started preparation for our big blow-out bbq -- we had marinated pork tenderloin and Andy's homemade tandoori chicken on the grill, as well as kielbasa (a big hit with Lise!), a big bowl of Asian Slaw, and rice, and lemon tart for dessert. All super yummy! Johan and Bruno added their homemade garlic aoli and "European cocktail sauce," which were great. After a bit, the girls got first dibs in the hot tub - lots of girl talk! And then the boys went in, complete with cognac and cigars!!! I think we all slept well that night.

Oliver has loved all the company and special attention - he's been such a good boy. Today we said farewell to everyone after brunch, and the three of us will head up to Lake Mohawk later for a stroll and an ice cream.

Sorry for the delay!!

Ok, back again... back home from our trip and back to a fairly busy life at home. Sometimes I don't understand why it seems so busy, but it does...... and this weekend we're having lots of houseguests, so it's *extra* busy!!

I was FAR too optimistic to think I could keep up with the blog while we were traveling, especially when we went to a cottage in Wales for a week that wasn't internet "ready!" We had one neighboring cottage, probably also built in the 1500s, and lots and lots of neighborhood sheep! We didn't miss the internet at all.

Stories are best told through photos, though, right? The photo you see here is of Andy and Oliver with Grandpa Maurice, Grandma Carole, and Uncle Steven - only missing is Auntie Alison, but you'll see her in the photo show! So here's the link to photos from our whooole trip:

Oliver's First Trip to England!

I spent a lot of time working on captions so you'd know a little bit about what's what; unfortunately, I don't think you can see the captions in the "slideshow" mode. You have to just click on the first photo, then click next, etc. Stupid design!!! Hope you like it... next up: our trip to Maine in July!