Maine Summer

Although we have been spending most of our summer in the Boston area, we have taken a week and spent some time on the water in Maine. We pulled into Libby’s Oceanside Camp (“camp” is the Maine name for a campground) where we have a second-row view of the ocean. The Ocean side sites are reserved for mostly seasonal stays. Also, we don’t think they are deep enough for a 40 footer. But we like our spot and the weather has been probably the best we have ever encountered on a trip to Maine. Usually we will have some cool or rainy weather but, for the most part, it has been warm and sunny.

The campground is right at the southern end of Long Sands Beach here in York, ME, and the beach is very nice at low tide but when the tide comes in it is nearly completely covered. It is kind of funny to see the beach crowded with people at low tide and then nearly deserted at high tide. Some even have to take to putting their chairs up on the sidewalk if they want to sit near the water at all.

A little north of the beach is the Nubble Lighthouse. We drove up there on one of the sunnier days here and took some nice pictures. Then we continued on up to Kennebunk and hit some quilting stores Ellyn has been looking for. There is a competition going on called Row by Row where a pattern for one row of a quilt is sold at each store. The first person to turn in a quilt with those patterns at each store wins (something). Ellyn will likely not be competing but she likes to get the rows. They have a decidedly nautical theme this year.

We went down to Portsmouth, NH and took a boat ride out to Star Island, one island in the Shoals Isles group. The islands are split between Maine and New Hampshire. Star Island is in NH and has big hotel on it as well as some historical markers and old stone buildings. The day was one of the coolest of our time here but the sun came out and it was very nice.

Of course, we visited lots of seafood restaurants and at some wonderful Maine lobster. The lobsters here are very fresh and is one of the most sustainable crops in the world. The rules for lobster fishing here are designed to keep the fishing plentiful and the lobsters go from the ocean to the boiler in very short order. Ellyn had three in total while we were here and Geoff had a couple of lobster dishes as well (he is too lazy to try and get the meat out of the shell himself).

We also met up with some friends up here.  A couple that Ellyn used to work with at IBM that live in Portsmouth met us for dinner and then we visited their house that they are remodeling. We also drove to Biddeford, ME to have lunch with Logan’s MIL, Diane, and exchange experiences with our shared Granddaughter, Simone.

It was a great week of camping in Maine. Now back to Salem, MA to finish up our time in the Northeast.

Turn, turn, turn

So another winter season at Sun-N-Fun RV Resort has come to an end and we are preparing to head out again in our motorhome to points north. Our plan for this year is to spend about a month in New England visiting with friends and family (and mostly seeing our adorable Grandchildren), and then working our way back down to Florida in July. We will likely be back into our home in August. We know, it sounds crazy but we have done so much traveling the past three years we have decided to do much less of it this year. Also, we have some doctor appointments this summer which cannot be done remotely so we will have to be here in Florida during the long, hot, dog days of summer.

The season at Sun-N-Fun was great. Geoff had a wonderful time teaching guitar, bowling, playing horseshoes and learning Pickleball. Ellyn had her many sewing activities to keep her quite busy and we had lots of time for going to the pool, visiting with our friends here in the park and going to events outside the park. The spring has had us going to lots of movies, as there was a Jewish Film Festival in March and then the Sarasota Film Festival in April.

The car has had its spring tune up and the RV will be going in next week for an oil change. Then we will be packing all of the stuff we will need for our travels into the motorhome and also packing into the last two weeks here in Sarasota all the things we want to do before saying goodbye for a few months.

Update: A day before we were ready to leave Sarasota for the Summer, we found out that Geoff’s Mother had passed away. She had been weak for a few weeks following a heart attack and, although we were hoping she would hold on until we were able to get up north, she passed peacefully in her sleep on April 30th. Our plans were changed accordingly to take us directly north to Vermont, where she had been living for 7 years since Geoff’s Father passed in 2008, to be there when family arrived for her memorial service on May 9th.

Geoff’s two brothers, their wives, our sons and their wives and kids, and several of the cousins in Geoff’s family converged in Vermont for the service and a general get together over a few days. It was decided that Geoff’s Mother’s ashes would be kept by one of his brothers and then brought to Michigan in July for interment with his Father in Lansing, where we would also attend the Lynch-Fineis Family Reunion. It will be the second year in a row for us to go to the reunion, a yearly event since the 1940s.

Next, on to Boston for time with our kids and Grandkids.

Our Winter Trip to Boston

In December, while we were in Florida, our second Grandchild and first Granddaughter was born to our older Son, Logan and his wife Maureen in Boston, MA. On January 16th, we flew from Sarasota, FL to Boston to visit with both of our Sons and their families and to finally meet the newest member of our family. Jetblue Airlines has reasonably priced, non-stop flights and Logan met us at the airport and took us to his house. When we arrived in their neighborhood, we saw that Maureen was walking down the street with the stroller and their dog, Gus. So, we caught up with them, parked the car and joined their walk. It was a cold day and there was a bit of a breeze, but the sun was out so it was a better walk than it might have been.

When we got back to the house, we finally got to hold the little princess, Simone Francis. She is so small but at over one month old, is starting to be attentive and responding to sounds and things in her field of vision. When Geoff got to hold her, she was cooing at him and really looking into his face and even smiling a bit. It was very satisfying. We had dinner with them and then, when it was bed time, we went to our hotel for the night. The next day, we spent most of it at the hotel, as both families had some pre-scheduled events going on. But it was the coldest day of the visit so we were happy to stay in most of it. In the afternoon, Brian, Katherine and Oliver came to the hotel and we went to the small pool. Oliver is really happy in the water. They have been giving his swimming lessons and he is taking to it quite well. It is nice to know he should be a very confident adult around water.

On Sunday, Simone’s other Grandparents, and good friends of ours, Diane and Marc Dubreuil came up from New Milford, CT and we went out for a nice brunch with them. It was so good to see them and to congratulate them in person, as this is their first Grandchild. We had a great brunch then went back to Logan and Maureen’s house for more baby snuggling. That evening was the big football game with the New England Patriots taking on the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC Championship. It was great fun to watch this game with our sons and Oliver at Brian’s house. The Pats won in a blow out so we had a great time. 

We stayed over on Monday, partly because it was MLK Day and our sons had off from work and also because, if our flight up was delayed because of weather, we would still have two days so see everyone. As it was, the weather was great, and on Monday we had sun and about 40 degrees, so we went to the Arnold Arboretum and took a long walk. It was a beautiful day. Then we took the kids’ car and went back to the hotel and then came back to their house in the evening for dinner.

The next morning we were up at 5:15 to get to the airport for a 7:40 flight back to Sarasota. Once again, all went without a hitch and we enjoyed being back in the warm weather. We have plans to fly back up in the spring before taking the motorhome to the West Coast for the Summer.