Mike and I rode our Motorcycles up through the White Mountains in New Hampshire, absolutely beautiful. We also played a round of golf with his oldest son Derek and one of our older sisters Kathy. He beat me, as usual, but I always seem to play a little better when we pair up. He shot a respectable 86 (a little higher than his usual) and I shot a 96 (a little lower than my usual). The rest of the time was spent enjoying the lake, awesome home cooked meals, local brews and wine, and other brews and wines. Mike also showed us how to make Tennessee Tea (A shot of bourbon, a shot of triple sec, a shot of sour mix, and coke for color) yummo.
When we were kids we used to play a lot of games together as a family, Clue, Pit, Monopoly, cards, were reining favorites. Carol (our oldest sister) found our old Pit game (commodoties trading game) and we, of course, had to indoctrinate Mike's wife (Ramona) and older kids (Derek and Cori) and Michelle. It's a riot and quite loud.
It's been a long time since I have been to Naples in the summer time and the flood of memories made me miss my home town even more. We used to ride our bikes every where, swimming behind the old Irving Convenience store, building forts in the summer and snow caves in the winter, taking swimming lessons rain or shine in Brandy Pond (and man was that water cold when it rained), working summers in a local Mario's Pizza shop (long since burned down).
I believe a winter trip is necessary to bring me back to reality. Snow is fun when you can play in it but shoveling it....well, it's about as fun as tarring a roof on a hot Virginia day.
Well that's all from the other half. As they say in Maine, "It's been wicked good".
So we are back from our week vacation in Maine. 13 and 1/2 hr. ride back, we arrived home around 1:30 a.m. this morning. We had a blast! The weather was perfect, high 70's-mid 80's all week. We drove up with Mike in his Astro Van trailering his Harley and Mitch's Magna. We left at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and were in Maine eating breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. When we got out of the van, we were all freezing! The temp was somewhere in the low 50's. Yikes!! I was not prepared for this at all! We ate breakfast and then continued our ride on the Maine turnpike.
Get your Maine accents out and ready to use when you read this entry. It's easy to do, just open up and say ahh.
Okay for all you rookies, here are a few words to practice with:
Beeah, cah, lobstah, trailah and Mainah.
Since check in time was not until 2:00 p.m. we decided to kill some time down at the causeway. Basically the causeway is a stretch of Route 302 (Route 302 is the main route from Portland to Naples) that goes through Naples Maine. On one side is Long Lake, which is a very long lake, hence the name and on the other side is Brandy Pond. On the sides of the causeway are places to park, shops and restaurants. We went to Rick's and I bought a sweatshirt and Mitch bought a longsleave shirt. Below are some shots of the causeway and Long Lake.
Long Lake and the Causeway.
Long Lake.
Causeway.
Bridge opening at the Causeway.
Bridge opened at the Causeway.
We drove to the cabin and unpacked then Mike took the Van to pick up Ramona, Katie-Beth (2 & 1/2 yr. old), Carl (1 yr. old), Corie and Derek at the Portland JetPort. Mitch and I waited at the cabin for the rest of the crew to arrive. Carol and Kathy arrived around 3 ish and we learned of their troubles flying from CA to ME!! Their flight was cancelled due to weather and they were pretty much on their own to find a flight to ME. Oh yeah and just to add insult to injury....they did not get their luggage until mid week (Carol got hers on Wednesday and Kathy finally got hers on Thursday). Just in time for their trip back to CA! Crazy!!!
Carol and Kathy do not recommend flying!!!!!!
Heah is wheah we stayed. This was a really nice place. 3 Bedrooms on the first floor, nice size kitchen, dining area and living room. 2 bathrooms, one with a whirpool tub and downstairs: a laundry room, bedroom and game room with a futon. Plenty of room for everyone!
Carol made Betty's Chop Suey on Saturday and that really hit the spot!! It was yummy!! =)
When Mike got back with Ramona and the kids, we all ate and relaxed outside chatting the night away. On Sunday, the York family came over for a cookout. Hamburgers, hot dogs (red hot dogs, apparently it's a Maine thing, because I had never seen a red hot dog before) and Italian Sausages on the grill along with side dishes, cake, cookies, pie and ice cream. We had enough food to feed a small army! Everything was yummy and it was great visiting with the York crew!
Darcy and Breanna came up from Harrison and joined us for the cookout too. She even brought her new dog Spencah (Spencer, to all you tourists) with her. He is a two year old golden retrievah. Such a sweet dog!! We also went swimming in the cove of the lake. The watah was warm, all though the Florida group would disagree. It was warm to Mitch and I and we enjoyed a nice dip in the Lake to cool off.
The Beach.
Sebago Lake.
On Monday, Mike and Mitch took a long (6) hour Motorcycle ride through Maine and New Hampshire. They were rained on for a bit, but overall had a great time riding. We went grocery shopping and bought some more wine. Kathy made her yummy roast in the crockpot!!
We killed 14 bottles total for the week. Lost count of how much beeah we all drank, but I am sure it was quite a bit.
On Tuesday, Mitch and I took the van out for a cruise around Naples. We drove by the house wheah Mitch grew up, then went down to the Causeway, watched the bridge open for the Songo Rivah Queen II and then rode up to Sebago State Pahk to the Songo Locks. We got to see a piece of working history. The locks were really neat.
Bridge manually opened to let the boats through to Songo Rivah from Brandy Pond.
Boats waiting to be let out of the locks to enter Songo Rivah. This is all done manually by the Sebago State Pahk Rangah.
Then later in the evening, we celebrated Corie's 19th birthday. Ramona made her yummy Spaghetti carbanaro, spinach salad and Corie's birthday cake. Below are a couple of pictures of the occasion. Bear in mind that at this point in the night, I already had finished a bottle of wine, so the pictures are not that great. Hopefully Ramona and Mike got some good pictures. Sorry Corie!
Corie and Mitch.
Mike lighting the candles on Corie's cake.
On Wednesday, Mitch, Kathy, Derek and Mike went to play a round of Golf in Naples. Later that day we all went to Darcy's for a Lobstah/clam bake. Yumo!!!! Nothing like fresh Maine Lobstah and Steamahs!!! We decided to take our group picture in Darcy's beautiful back yahd. I love the rock walls and the gahdens. Absolutely beautiful!! Darcy has put a lot of time into her yahd, it shows, it is lush, green and has gorgeous flowers blooming!!
On Thursday, Mitch, myself, Mike and Ramona drove up to Freeport Maine. We of course went to LL Bean and ate lunch. It was nice to have some away time from the cabin. I am sure Ramona and Mike enjoyed being able to have some alone time from the kids! It was Mitch and my turn to cook dinner. Mitch cooked steaks on the charcoal grill and I peeled all of the shrimp and cooked shrimp and scallops on the gas grill. Shrimp and steak were awesome! Mitch said the scallops were really good, I will have to take his word for it, I don't like scallops, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them.
On Friday, Mitch, Kathy, Corie and I all went to Portland and ate Sushi for lunch, walked around the old Port and did some shopping. The old Port is very similar to Cary town in Downtown Richmond. We also had a somewhat decent view of the Atlantic Ocean.
Okay, Philly has their cheese steak, Texas has their BBQ, Boston has their Baked Beans and Maine has its Lobstah, but what most don't know is they also have incredible Italian Subs. For the tourists out theah, an Italian is Ham, cheese, pickles, tomatoes, peppers, onions, black olives, olive oil, salt and pepper. Now that's an Italian sub!! We enjoyed subs on Friday night.
And, you can't come to Maine and not try Blueberry wine from Blacksmith's winery. This wine is somewhat dry and sweet. It is 75% Blueberry wine and 25% Grape wine. We brought a bottle home to enjoy also!
We also played putt putt one day, but my mind escapes me as to which day that was, but we had fun and Mike won a free game of putt putt! It was neat watching Katie-Beth play putt putt. We would help her hit the ball and then tell her to put the ball in the hole, and she would pick the ball up and walk over and drop it in the hole. Too cute!!! :)
We also hung out on the deck quite a bit. While Mitch was on the deck he caught Carl playing with his shadow. Mitch thought this was a riot and could not resist snagging a few pictures. Below are a few shots.
Before discovery of his shadow.
Wait.....what is that?
I gotcha!
And lastly, but not least, no vacation at the "beach" would be complete without the Ice Cream truck! The kids could hear this coming before we could. Breanna, Mike and Katie-Beth went over to get some ice cream.
Ramona and Carl enjoying ice cream.
Breanna enjoying her ice cream.
Mike and Katie-Beth at the Ice Cream truck. Breanna waiting patiently at the Truck and......
who is the biggest kid of all...............................that would be Mitch.
I have more pictures to post and hope to get them posted by Next Monday.
Check out Ramona and Mike's website for more pictures.
We had a wonderful time!!! We look forward to the next family vacation tentatively set for October 2010 in Florida.