Doctor's Orders

"My doctor always says vacation calories don't count," Emily told me as we discussed whether or not to stop for ice cream the other day. 

"That seems like healthy advice," I nodded. 

Even so, I decided against the ice cream right then, especially knowing we were going to feast on seafood and blueberry pie later. I did get a cone of Moose Tracks a couple days later, though.

And when I stepped on the scale this morning, I found that even though I had pretty much eaten whatever I wanted, with all that hiking we did, I had actually dropped a couple of pounds over vacation.

Yet another reason to love Maine!

Fireworks

Thanks to some skillful driving by Bill and Emily, we made excellent time on our trip home from Maine: we left Bar Harbor at 8:30 a.m. and for most of the day our ETA was 8:30-something p.m. We originally chose to travel today because it was both a Monday and a holiday, factors we were hoping would keep traffic manageable on the notoriously congested northeast corridor. 

And as road trips go, it was a fun one: replete with the Sunday NY Times crossword and an assortment of 70s singer-song writers, the Beatles, and several Song Exploder episodes. We made a few stops along the way for snacks and relief, and as we approached Baltimore, the map app was predicting a 9:15 arrival. I was at the wheel, and it was only then that I considered that our route would take us right by the 4th of July fireworks display on the National Mall. 

And indeed, the nearer we got to the city, the more unofficial fireworks we saw in the darkening summer sky. Emily suggested detouring to the Beltway, but based on his regular commute back and forth from Baltimore, Bill thought that our route would be okay. As the driver, it was my decision, and personally? I just kind of wanted to see what was going on down there, so I passed the exit to 495 and kept on going into the city. 

The fireworks all around us were very distracting, but it was kind of cool driving through them. In the distance, we could see the National 4th celebration getting started, and the traffic slowed as the fireworks intensified. We were a bit dismayed to find our exit closed, and we crawled on to the next one until we realized that the right lane was blocked by cars that had intentionally stopped to watch the show and changed lanes. 

The finale lit up the sky ahead of us as we rolled down next exit ramp, and the streets were nearly deserted. We easily made our way past the stadium and on to 395, also very empty. It was then that we realized that we were among the first cars to be allowed on the freeway after the police opened it following the fireworks. From there we zipped home, noting all the boats and barges dotting the Potomac and all decked out in their red, white, and blue. 

We pulled into Bill and Emily's house just 10 minutes behind our scheduled time, and although we were all tired and even a little cranky about the inconvenience, I couldn't help feeling a little thrilled about being witness to such pageantry and its inevitable effects.

Thanks, Ruthie!

My friend Ruth is the person who first brought me to Maine. I met her in 1991 when we were both starting a masters program to get our teaching degrees. When she was growing up, her family had a small summer place on Mount Desert Island where they spent most of every summer, and she and her husband were building their own place on 7 acres they had recently purchased on the island. Ruth invited me to come up any time, and I finally did in the summer of 1995. After teaching summer school and shoveling several tons of lathe and plaster out the window and into a dumpster as part of a home renovation project, a road trip to Maine seemed like a good break. 

And it was. I clearly remembering rolling along in Ruth's minivan, windows down, past coves and inlets and through balsam-scented woods, and skirting pink granite mountains. "I hate it here!" I said, "because it's perfect, and I have to leave."

But I've come back many times in the last 27 years. In the early days, we used to stay with Ruth and her two young sons in the ever-evolving cabin. First it had cardboard walls and plywood floors, and we slept on a futon in the nook outside the bedroom. Mornings were spent watching VHS recordings of kids television shows, because there was no TV reception, and afternoons we packed lunches and carried the boys up and down mountain trails, picking wild blueberries along the trail. I usually bought the NY Times on the way back and did the crossword puzzle while the kids napped. Then we would have a lobster picnic down at the beach and play games until an early bedtime, so that we could get up and do it all over again.

But I couldn't keep Maine to myself, so soon I started renting places where we could bring family, which was awesome, but we didn't spend as much time with Ruth. Circumstances and COVID had kept us away six years, and a couple of weeks before we headed up here for my birthday week, Ruth let me know that she had room for us if we wanted to extend our vacation for a couple of days. When we pulled down the unimproved  gravelly road last night, it had been many years since I had been to Ruth's place, and many more since I had spent the night here. 

It is still a pretty rustic place, although the cardboard has been replaced with knotty pine and the floors with carpeting, tile, and hardwood. There are also a couple of bedrooms downstairs and extra bathroom, but the kitchen is still small, although extremely functional. It was almost like muscle memory as I made pancakes this morning on the American Serviceware griddle while Heidi and Ruth sat at the linoleum topped table. Then  had to sit in my favorite chair for a minute and play the theme song from Katie and Orbie before we packed lunches and headed out for a beautiful hike on a nearly deserted trail (despite it being Independence Day weekend). The land was managed by a group other than the park service, so the dogs could run off leash along the stream and up through the woods to the granite ledge where we ate our lunch, and Lucy was one happy pup.

After the hike we returned to the house to shower and chat until it was time to order lobster rolls and drive over to Pretty Marsh for a picnic dinner. As the sun set over the western islands, we saw a seal and a dolphin fishing herring in the cove, and an osprey chased a bald eagle along the shore. Returning home once again, we sat outside in the fading day as the stars came out and coyotes howled not too far away.

And even though I have to leave tomorrow, I can't ever say I hate it here again.

Moving Pieces Gonna Move

It was pouring rain as we packed up the three cars this morning. Each of them had a different destination: Treat and Josh were off to camp and hike Katahdin tomorrow; Victor, Emily, Nadika, and Rosie were driving Emily Primes RAV 4 first to Mahwah, NJ and then home to Arlington. Bill and Emily were riding in the mini-van to a hotel in Bar Harbor for a couple days; Courtney and Annabelle were mini-van passengers as well, bound for Bangor to stay over for an early flight tomorrow, and Heidi and I were taking the mini-van to our friend Ruth's, once everyone else was in place. 

So many moving pieces made organizing and packing even more complicated than the regular whirlwind of vacating a week-long rental. In addition to cleaning and stripping and packing and pitching, we also divided our things into what we needed over the next two days and what we could do without, and then found room for them in the car we were in or a car that had extra space, trusting that we would be reunited with all of our possessions at the end of the trip.

It was a fitting way to end a vacation with so many hiccups, and when Treat texted this evening that he was pretty sure he had left his guitar by the door in the rental house, I couldn't be surprised. I dialed the after-hours number of the agency, expecting to get the same recording I got last Saturday when we were locked out on our arrival, but a pleasant voice answered the call. When I explained the situation, she paused. 

"Um, the tenants have had a rather rough check in," she reported. "I don't think it's a good idea to bother them tonight to pick up a forgotten item. They have had a really long day."

I thought back over the last 12 hours, and then the last seven days. "I can certainly understand that," I told her, and we agreed to touch base again tomorrow.

60-30-15

Mine is not the only big birthday in our family this year. Victor is turning thirty in 2 weeks, and to complete the series, Annabelle will be 15 in December. 

Since he is heading back to Iceland before his birthday, today we celebrated Victor with a seafood feast down in Southwest Harbor, and some blueberry pie and flourless chocolate cake for dessert with candles and presents. A few logs in the fire pit and some sparklers completed the festivities. 

It was a perfect end to an incredible week.

Mixty No More

For months I had a daily reminder on all my devices to Plan the big 6-0. I set it back when I was trying to find a rental place up here in Maine big enough to accommodate our group, and then I left it, because the agency I ended up doing business with had several deadlines and lots of paperwork to keep track of, and I wanted to make sure they were all on my daily screen. 

Oh, I canceled the reminder once everything was all set, but it's a little hard to believe that the day is actually here. This morning we tried to find a phrase to capture the birthday, something along the lines of fifty is nifty, but not much rhymes with sixty. Victor proposed "betwixty" and I'm still thinking about that one, and what I might be betwixt. Privately, I considered "My feelings are mixty about turning sixty," but it seemed a little too true.

And I needn't have worried about planning; the day was perfect: blueberry pancakes with peaches for breakfast, yoga and meditation with Courtney, Emily, and Josh, a hike up Gorham Mountain with 10 of our 11, picking blueberries along the granite ledges on the way up, and lunch at the summit overlooking the ocean on one side and over to Cadillac Mountain on the other, a brief stop at home, and then a mini-golf 5 on 5 team challenge complete with a school yard pick. 

Even though my team lost by just a little over 1 stroke each, we had a great time, and I danced to One Step Forward all through the 17th and 18th holes, never mind that group of dudes breathing down our necks in the back nine. And now? I get to relax and wait for my lobster and steak and lemon-glazed birthday cake.

Now that's what I call a plan!

A Win Is a Win

Originally created to keep a crew of energetic, competitive boys engaged on relatively tame walks along the rocky beaches, the Smoothest Rock Contest is one of our Maine traditions. The concept is simple: as contestants explore the incredibly scenic cobble stone beaches, they sort through the kazillions of beautiful granite stones tumbled round and smooth by the North Atlantic to find the smoothest one of them all. It is a ritual we have repeated with Riley, Treat, and Josh on each of our visits for the last 16 years.

Sometimes the judging is honor system, sometimes it involves voting for the smoothest rock not your own, and sometimes there is an impartial judge. That's how we did it today down at the beach at the bottom of the Wonderland Trail, even though 2 of the 3 original boys, now grown to men, were off hiking on another part of the island.

A cool breeze blew off the ocean under bright blue skies as Heidi, Courtney, Emily, Victor, Emily, and I all dropped our entries into a hat for Bill to judge blindly. Taking his time to run his fingers carefully over each of our submissions, he considered them rock, by silky smooth rock. At last he had it narrowed down to two, one traditionally flat and oval, and the other a prism-shaped piece of fine-grain, speckled black granite with a little dimple that perfectly fit my thumb.

"The winner is..." he announced, "this one!" And he held out my black triangle.

Silly as it was? I felt a bit of a thrill-- I've never won the contest before. After a little cheer and a friendly postmortem comparison of smooth rocks, we headed home where I could not wait to report my victory to Josh and Treat.

"It's only because I wasn't there," Josh joshed.

"Maybe so," I shrugged. "Too bad for you."