Weekend At Wanakee

It is amazing to me how much I can actually LOVE a place. The minute I get anywhere near Wanakee, I am incredibly happy. As I was driving up on Saturday morning, my first sight of the lake and the island made me break into a huge smile. I feel so lucky to have this place be such an important part of my life. Jean and I walked down to the waterfront this morning and were talking about how it just does our hearts good to be there and, for me, having Jean and Mike there makes it even better. I spent Saturday helping Jean out with Work Day - we cooked lunch for the volunteers and just did some general work around camp. I'm hoping to spend as much time as possible up at camp during the month of June. It gives me a chance to be at my favorite place on the planet AND spend time with Jean, Mike and the kids, some of my favorite people. So look for many more Wanakee pictures and posts to follow. Life is good at Wanakee!

Bar Harbor with Sarah

As some of you know, I spent every summer of my life up near Bar Harbor - our camp is on George's Pond in Franklin, about 30 minutes from BH and we were always going into BH since it was the only place around where there was anything to do. My dad was born in BH, so we have always felt close ties to the place and growing up there was an incredibly important part of my life. I wouldn't have traded spending every summer on George's Pond for anything in the world. It was a very idyllic life and I know how lucky I was to have that.

I'm always happy to be able to share BH with people and let them see how special it is, so it was great to have Sarah come up to visit. She took Friday off and made the long drive up here (Sarah, you are the best!) and we arrived in BH by mid-afternoon. It was sunny and beautiful and we had a great time walking around the town and checking things out. A lot of shops were beginning to close, but we made note of which places we wanted to check out the nest day, being the practiced shoppers that we are. :) Here were are in the park overlooking the pier in downtown BH.

Unfortunately Saturday ended up being very rainy, but we still made the best of it. We did some shopping and got some great things - BH has an awesome dog store with all kinds of gourmet treats, so Sarah stocked up for Annabelle and Bentley and I bought a few things to bring to my boy Ralph. We had hoped to do a boat ride around the island and see the sights from the ocean, but decided it just wasn't going to happen in the rain. We would have been freezing! Instead, we opted for a trolley ride, which meant we got to see the sights, while still staying relatively warm and dry. Our trolley driver was very informative and we hit all the big things to see in Bar Harbor - Cadillac Mountain (which was completely fogged in), Thunder Hole (which wasn't doing much, but still always nice to see), Sieur de Mont spring, all the big mansions along the ocean, Jackson Laboratory, and Jordan Pond House.

This photo is from Jordan Pond House, where we stopped to warm up with coffee. When it is warm and sunny, this place is packed with people who've come to eat the famous popovers and drink tea on the lawn. It was pretty quiet when we were there, but the view was still beautiful, even in the rain. The mountains are called The Bubbles, or the Boobies as we used to call them when we were little.

One of the best parts about being in BH this weekend was being able to eat at Rosalie's Pizza. This is my favorite restaurant in BH and my favorite pizza place in the world. It used to be called Napoli's and, to my family it will always be Napoli's, even though the name changed to Rosalie's probably 20 years ago. Eating at Napoli's is always an important part of our summers in BH. It is only open in the summers and, lucky for Sarah and I, it opened for the season two days before we arrived. We saw a line out the door when we walked by on Friday night, but we were able to get a seat on Saturday afternoon. The pizza was as amazing as I remembered it, if not better, and Sarah said it was some of the best pizza she has ever had. We had a great time drinking beer, eating pizza, and talking, talking, talking, as good friends do. Sarah is one of my favorite people to travel with and I always love our girls weekends away. It was great to be able to show her around BH and for her to enjoy it so much. All and all, a fabulous weekend!

Golf Carts, Lawn Mowers, and Hondas

I think the title of this post accurately describes the last couple of weeks up here in Maine. It has been great spending time with my parents - I think we have spent more time together in the past 4 weeks than in the previous 4 years. I've gone golfing with my dad a couple of times and he actually let me drive the golf cart! It's pretty impressive since the last time I drove a golf cart was probably 20 years ago and I ran it into the post that was holding up a deck. Not good! But this time I safely transported Dad around the golf course and he happily told me all about the ins and outs of playing golf. I don't think I'll ever actually be a golfer, but it was nice time spent with my dad and I know he liked being able to share his favorite hobby with me.

Since I've been living with my parents for free since I got home, eating their food, driving their car, and all of that, I decided that it was time for me to get off my butt and do something. It came in the form of mowing the lawn. I've never been a big lawn mower - I tried mowing the fields one summer at Wanakee and Dave Johnston yelled at me because I hit too many rocks with the tractor. Luckily our yard doesn't have too many rocks, though it is pretty big and mowing it takes a lot of time. However, we have a riding lawn mower, which makes it much easier. I was pretty happy to tool around on the lawn mower, listening to my iPod and enjoying the sun. It wasn't a bad way to spend an afternoon and I know my parents were happy to have all of us working out in the yard together. I think Dad is a little sad that I am moving to the cottage and won't be around to mow the lawn for him this summer. Maybe I have a future in landscaping if the whole teaching thing doesn't work out...

One of the big things that has consumed the last few weeks is having to buy a car. One of the things I loved best about living overseas was not having to worry about owning a car, but having a car is unavoidable here. I wish I lived in a city where I could use public transportation, but instead I live in rural Maine and I have to have a car. Luckily my parents again came to my rescue (have I mentioned how amazing they are and how great they have been about my sudden life change, which has affected all of our lives?). When I thought I would be returning from Lima at the end of next year, my parents and I had talked about me buying my mom's Honda CRV from them and she would get a new car. When I came home earlier than expected, we went back and forth about whether that was still the best thing to do financially. Dad and I went and looked at used Honda Civics for me and found nothing. We also looked at new CRVs for Mom and decided that they were too expensive. Now, my mom has always wanted a minivan (I know, it makes no sense - she has no one to schlepp around anymore, but she still loves them) and luckily the people who live next to my grandparents own a car dealership with a lot of minivans. They were able to give my parents a good deal on a year old minivan that my mom absolutely loves, which means I get the CRV. The CRV is a great car and it was really the solution I wanted anyway, but I needed to let my parents work through the different options. None of the solutions were perfect, since we weren't planning on 2 car payments right now, but this seems like it will work out. And now I have a car!!

So, that is my last few weeks in a nutshell. Being in Maine has been good - my counseling sessions went well and just being home has made me feel better. I leave tomorrow to move to our cottage at Hedding for the summer. After having been in Maine for 4 weeks and basically spending all my time with my parents, I am ready for a change of scenery and a chance to catch up with friends.