A Big Week at Blueberry Cove

Ollie, this was your your first week at Blueberry Cove!!  I had to write and ask for special permission for my very mature, independent, confident (and tall!) 4 1/2 year old

be allowed to enroll in a camp where the youngest age officially is 5.  I must have been very persuasive, because there you are!  You had a great week doing so many different things -- exploring on the coast and in the woods, gardening, crafts, a big beach trip where you got to ride on a school bus to get there (you were very excited about that!), and so much more.  Weston was at camp this week, too, and it was fun to see you both having such a good time.  Maddie loved coming to pick you up in the afternoon, and she would dash through the

woods excitedly each day, eager to find you.  Sometimes after camp we'd go straight back to the harbor to have more fun in the sun; other days we'd go to Grandma and Granddaddy's house to visit with them.  What a great week - can't wait till next time! 

Daddy's Big Adventure

As noted in yesterday's post -- it's HOT HOT HOT up here in Maine! Unreasonably hot. And unfortunately, this year's Lobster Ride and Roll falls smack in the middle of this heat wave.  Andy was committed, though, so he headed to Rockland around 7am, and the 100-mile ride started at

8am.  He could estimate pretty accurately when he would be biking through town, so we all gathered near our house in the center of Tenants Harbor to greet him with huge cheers and fanfare.  He stopped for a few minutes to rest and chat in the shade with us, and we refilled his water bottles with cold water.  Then he was off again, into the blazing sun.  My husband, the cyclist.  (I recommend visiting that link, if you're curious!) xoxoxo

Hotter Than the Hinges

Today is Friday, and it's 95 degrees here in Maine... yes, in MAINE!! The "real feel," according to the Accuweather.com, is 98. On days like this it feels like it's literally impossible for it to be any hotter anywhere on Earth, but come to find out, it is currently 98 degrees back home in NJ, "real feel" 114. Good god! Andy is supposed to participate in the Lobster Ride and Roll here tomorrow, the full 100 mile route, and we're banking on the weather forecast suggesting it will be 10-15 degrees cooler than today... which is still NOT COOL ENOUGH for a comfortable ride. We'll see. We actually beat the heat for a bit today, getting out in the boat for a trip to Weskeag, which was gorgeous... I was so happy to discover that it really IS remarkably cooler out on the water than inland. Lovely and breezy, big swells on the water, air that's cooled by the cold, cold sea, seagulls swooping, even a couple of seals popping their heads out and going back under. We took the kids and met Carol, Maurice, and my mom at the 'Keag for crab rolls. Coming back into port was brutal - you hit a point where it just feels like you've opened up an oven door. On broil. I think this afternoon we might go and submerge ourselves in the water at Drift Inn Beach. For several hours.
(Postnote: we did this! Arrived at the beach exactly at high tide, waded in a bit, and Granddad Maurice was the first to take the plunge. It took me a few minutes more - it was super duper cold, and I screamed when I jumped in, but after a minute I got used to it and I just sat in water up to my neck. Definitely a high point to the day. Ollie was at my mom's house playing with his cousins, but Maddie had fun with us at the beach. I was only in for 30 or 40 minutes before we had to head home, but I think I could have stayed in for a couple of hours!)

Thar She Blows!

So, Andy can check another thing off his "bucket list" -- owning a boat! He spent ages researching and then ordering various bits and bobs to make up the final package, which is a 14' Saturn inflatable with a 20hp outboard. We had a crazy time blowing it up, attaching the engine, getting it onto the trailer,

then maneuvering it into the water at the Tenants Harbor town dock (backing down the long ramp was especially stressful!). But once it was in the water... man! We do love our boat. Andy and I took the first nip around the harbor, then the next day we took the kids (including Aidan and Eli!) all the way from Tenants Harbor to my mom and dad's house,

then on from there to Port Clyde for lunch and ice cream. What a fantastic trip!!! Ollie is so enamored with the boat, he loves to gather all the things we need before we go, and to be in charge of untieing the boat and pushing it off. We all loved the trip, bumping over little waves and swells, seeing the shore from a totally different perspective, watching other boats sail or speed by, admiring the buoys up close, watching sea birds.

Fun! On the way back, Maddie fell sound asleep leaning against me, rocked to sleep with the gentle movement of the boat.

Drift Inn Beach

Another warm, hazy day here in Maine - time for a trip to Drift Inn Beach with Grandma Carole and Granddad Maurice!!   With the tide coming in, there was loads of shallow water for the kids to splash around in.  Ollie ventured out the farthest, of course, getting soaked from head to toe, including his hat.

Tall Ships

There's always something cool going on here in the summer, and today it's a trip to see the Tall Ships, by special invitation from Marianne and Arthur! Their condo near the breakwater in Rockland

offers pretty much THE best view of this wonderful event, and we all had such a nice time sitting on the grass and chatting, enjoying a lovely lunch, and then walking the breakwater (that's Aidan and Ollie walking out). We were especially glad that Carole and Maurice were here to enjoy this with us, because it's just the sort of thing that (otherwise) would have prompted us to say , "Oh! Carole and Maurice would love this!!" Maddie looked especially sweet in her new sundress. :-) What a gorgeous day.

Garden Tour

We're finally all in Maine for our big summer holiday... and by "all" I mean the four of us, ALL FOUR grandparents (yay!), and Ian and Suz, Eli and Aidan. Two weeks of fun (and an extra week for me and the kids when Andy heads off on a trip and Carole and Maurice have to go home). The two weeks stretch generously out ahead of us, but we all know the time will fly by in a snap. On our very first full day here, Carole and I decided to join the entire Kahn clan for the famous "Garden Tour," which was slated this year for Union, Hope, and Appleton. What a great day out!! The kids stayed with Andy and Maurice back home, so it was an *extra* peaceful day for me. Our wonderful friend, Hillary, was with us as well, which added immensely to the happiness factor. The first photo is of her and Carole, chatting away in the summer sunshine. We had packed a great picnic lunch (my favorite was Dad's smoked salmon with cream cheese and diced red onion on crackers) which we ate at one of the garden spots, a home on Alfred Lake. That's Eli on the swing! It made me miss my summers on Crawford Lake. The last stop of the tour was the home of our old neighbors, David and Tracy, who live directly across from the house I grew up in, which my parents owned for 30 years, starting when I was two years old. In the nine or ten years since my parents sold the house, the most I've ever done was drive by it slowly a few times, gazing at it wistfully. Our house! It really was a member of our family, full of personality... it still shows up in my dreams, quite frequently. So on this day, I sat on the steps of our friends' house across the street, stared at the house and at the windows of my old room, and cried! I think it knows we love it so, even after all these years.