Maine: You Can't Get There From Here...

Though it may be a mighty two weeks to the day since we left Maine, it would be a disgrace not to chronicle it.

Has there ever been such a perfect melody of sea, rock and sky as this?

So, to start, here are some beautiful pictures of the new house (Tilly Tigh? Morgandy? Mom & Dad?) up there:

So beautiful isn't it?

The boys are pretty much spoiled for life because of this experience. Now they think they are meant to run outside at their leisure, fall asleep
to the sound of grasshopers and crashing waves, and find rocks to throw into the ocean.



Here is everyone at Portland Head. In a minute Ben is going to go head first into a little wave. Good times.

Sam at Grimes Cove. He was very diligent about helping Grammie, ahem, beach comb. (wink, wink)

Grime's Cove again, with Cory and Sarah, GQ, Mikey and Mathieu.









Here's a wee little taste of Boothbay Harbor:




Ben sips up (or rather wolfs down) Zach's frappe (pronounced frap, not frap-pay, that's a milkshake to you people from away). This was at the Ice Cream Factory in Boothbay. I could be wrong, but I think this was the Cherry-Vanilla flavor. Of course the boys were very undiscriminating when it came to the different flavors, as long as they got some. Or half.

It is interesting to note that in the land of the wild blueberry, the Ice Cream factory had the most delicious blueberry ice cream I tasted. Crazy good.

Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the store hanging this sign, but doesn't it make you want to go in there and buy a pound for all your skinny friends? That's good business right there.

Ben, at Seal Harbor in Acadia, after having eaten quite a bit of sand on Grammie's watch, is learning to throw rocks.










Sam and I are strolling along the beach at Seal Harbor. I believe this is about when I found my little sand dollar which has since broken, despite the fabulous little box that I made for the plane

ride home. Alas. But on a brighter note, isn't this perfect? The light on the water, the rocks and pebbles, the trees, the streams of sunlight freckling me like mad. It's just so perfect. Well, I guess that's Maine for you.

Settling In so we can start over...

We've settled in enough now that I feel like I can start rearranging things without it being too much of a headache. Does that make sense? To rearrange the cabinets in the kitchen while unpacking sheets and toys and paintings would be like putting your naked hand into a jar of scorpions and hoping for the best. Now it will be more like a jar of worms or slugs; unsettling, but in no way dangerous.

We made pretzels today. Don't expect a steamy cauldron for pretzels? Well that is the way Alton Brown does it. And Zach does everything Alton Brown does.Zach made them and I brushed egg yolk onto the tops and salted them. So. Darn. Good. They were perfect. We invited the Katz's, Zach's cousins, over to help devour them. Though, I'm not sure we would have really needed help.
A little puffy maybe, but so very good. The boys continue to love it here. Though they were a little upset that it rained on Saturday. They didn't get as much of their outdoor time as they wanted. Though, they did get some out of me.

Barefoot, no less.

Welcome to California!

<- All our worldly possessions passing over the Bay Bridge

It is the end of our first week here in sunny California. It's been pretty wonderful so far, especially considering that all we've been doing really is unpacking and filling out forms and unpacking and getting supplies and unpacking and realizing that we are missing stuff and unpacking. But still, all in all, quite nice. We're pretty happy with the apartment and the courtyard. I've asked Zach about a million times what are address is. Eventually I'll just have to write it on my hand and look at every few minutes till it is ingrained in my memory. The boys have taken to everything, especially the freedom of being outside, swimmingly. Even though they did make a break for it and almost got to the street, which scared us half to death. But more on that later. This is mostly just to get started and move along with this whole blog thing. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain this one. Fingers crossed!