We have been back in Maine since June 29th, enjoying spectacular Maine weather with just a bit of hot and humid weather. We’ve had the opportunity to spend time with all our children, catching up on the news and the challenges, and, this week, we had our three year-old granddaughter, Isabelle, who brought her parents with her from Indiana. We took them back to the Portland airport this morning at 5AM.
One our favorite things to do when we’re back in Maine is to go to the ocean. Something about the sea air is rejuvenating, and spending a day at the beach is almost always a satisfying feeling. We first visited Reid State Park with Wendy and Troy. We hung out on the beach for most of the day, then found some pizza in Brunswick and checked out the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. Sticker shock here, of course. Movies in Mexico are about $2.00US with less than a dollar for popcorn. We paid our $8 for the movie here and the popcorn…well, we skipped it.
We went to Mother’s Beach here in Kennebunk with Eric and Crystal, and, as you can see from the photos below, Isabelle is an exuberant beach person. She did not stop running from the moment she stepped onto the sand.
We also spent a day at Maine’s Coney Island, Old Orchard Beach. It was tacky, expensive, and a lot of fun. We checked out the arcade, the rides, and some of the famous OOB pizza.
Once back in Kennebunk, we hosted a lobster/clam dinner for all our children and their partners. Although the price of lobsters isn’t quite as cheap as it was last year, we had plenty to eat. The seafood was complemented by sweet corn, salad from Wendy and Troy, Crystal’s deviled eggs, and strawberry shortcake from Alana. After dinner we posed for our annual group photo.
Top Row: me, Pixie, Wendy and Troy, Front Row: Alana, Cassie, Eric and Isabelle, Crystal.
We spent a day in Portland visiting the famous Portland Head Light lighthouse and walked around the old port to look at the boats and enjoy some pizza.
Yesterday we visited the Maine Wildlife Park where Isabelle got to feed a deer and meet Mr. Moose in an up close and personal way!
Coming back to Maine is enjoyable in many other ways as well. I can enjoy the vast collection of microbrew beers here, read the Sunday New York Times each week, enjoy a variety of seafood (Pixie has her annual fried clam dinner), and see many old friends. We met our old gourmet group friends in Portland for dinner (below) and attended a service at our old UU church. We spent the night at Curt and Judy’s house, where we stayed on our unexpectedly long visit two years ago.
Here are Cassie and Alana (with Pixie) outside their East End home in Portland with their dog, Yote, and their good friends Lauren and Katie who will be getting married next summer:
Peter, our house sitter, reports that everything is well in Ajijic. He has been socializing with lots of our friends there and is enjoying spending time with Chuy. He sent this photo of the little guy so we could see for ourselves how well he is doing.
There’s a little black and white shi-tzu here at the condos in Kennebunk who looks much like Chuy. I can play with him and get my “Chuy fix.”
Our time here is going by rapidly. This week we are going up to Belgrade Lakes to visit Ron and Jean (from Kennebunk and Ajijic) who completely rebuilt their camp at the lake. Then, next weekend, we head down to Gloucester, Massachusetts to visit my brothers who will both be vacationing there, before leaving Maine to visit my dad and stepmom in Philadelphia on July 26. We will return to Ajijic on August 2nd.
Here are a few scenes from Reid State Park and from the Portland Symphony Orchestra concert on July 4th.
