Portland For The Day, Then On to Lake Thompson For The Weekend

Our Grandson Tyler, With His Friend, Helen, at Lou's in Hanover, NH

We are in Cape Elizabeth this morning, just south of Portland, staying with Chris Lane and family.  Chris is up, out walking the dog, and it's just after 7:00 as everyone is getting up.  Isabel is off for school around 7:20, as we sit around the island in their kitchen, drinking coffee.  Chris left around 7:45 and then I walked Brian down to the bus at 8:00, met lots of parents and their dogs, all waiting for the school bus.  We are off to Portland, probably around 10:00 for the day, then to Oxford, Maine in the late afternoon for the weekend.  We cannot wait to see our friends, Ron and Vickie Armontrout.

We were both up early yesterday, after a great evening with Mac, ready for our short drive to Dartmouth to see Tyler, our grandson for breakfast.  It's only a half hour from Woodstock to Hanover, so we were there by 9:30 and went straight to Lou's Diner, the campus legend, to get a table for our 10:00 gathering.  Of course, we waited for close to forty minutes; Tyler slept through his alarm, but made it by 10: 20. His girl friend, Helen, arrived five minutes later.  Anyways, we had a great time, super breakfast as Tyler not only had pancakes, but eggs, and toast and anything else he could find on his plate.  He's a happy boy at Dartmouth.  Why not, college is a great life and he's doing well in school, liking his classes, especially his engineering class where his only test is to build a bridge.

We talked with both of them until 11:40, when they both had to head off to a chemistry class.  It was fun to see them thriving in college.  We drove around campus for about ten minutes before deciding to head towards Maine by driving south before east and north.  Go figure.  The weather was horrendous all through New Hampshire, pouring, torrential rains interspersed with normal rain fall.  It was not fun driving.  We took a break where everyone in New Hampshire takes a break...the tax free state liquor, wine and beer store.  We picked up two cases of wine because you only got 10% off for one case but 20% for two.  So we bought two...our motto, you got to spend money to save money.

Maine Coast On A Wet And Overcast Day

Hiking The Marginal Way In Ogunquit, ME

A Sign With A Sense Of Humor

No Cairns?

We stopped at the village of Ogunquit, just inside the Maine line, set right on the ocean.  It surprised me because it was extremely touristy, with one ocean front hotel, motel, inn, or spa after another, with many more on the other side of the street.  It's obviously an easy two hour destination for Bostonians, thus the many places to stay, many vacant this time of the year.  We stopped in this town because of a great seaside hike called the The Marginal Way, a mile and a half of paved pathway, along the ocean, with benches every quarter of a mile to sit and enjoy the view.  On one side of the path is the ocean, mostly rocks, waves breaking on them, an occasional small beach.  On the other side, near town, hotels and motels, but as we moved a way from town, it was private houses, many huge, with multiple porches and views.  It was overcast when we started, but started to rain, of course, about ten minutes from our car.  When we got to the car, we were not only wet but sweaty because we overdressed and it was warmer than we thought.

Cris, Brian, Isabel And Maggie

A Happy Family

Spiderwoman

Spiderman

Isabel and Maggie

The Traveling Treasure Chest

We drove on to Cape Elizabeth, where our neighbor's daughter Cris Lane had invited us to spend the night.  She has a great house, a couple of miles from the ocean.  We got to see her kids Brian and Isabel, and Evie brought along the treasure box, so they were excited. Cris had beers for us, along with chips, salsa and guacamole, just what we needed after our drive.  Evie then watched an older movie version of Godzilla on Netflix with the kids and I sat in the kitchen and talked with Cris while she put together a great chili, with a side of polenta, both delicious.  We all enjoyed our dinners, then sat around eating a Maine tradition, Whoopie pies, for dessert.  The kids loved them of course.  By the time we finished eating, it was time for Brian to go to bed, so Isabel and I watched the Pats/Jets game, and talked with Cris.  Isabel is a great football fan so she was happy to be able to stay up and watch the first half of the game.

We were all tired, us from our trip, Cris I am sure from having company, so we were all in bed by 10:30.  A wet day but a great stay with Chris, Brian, and Isabel.