Vacation Land- Part I

Usually when you return from a vacation one of the first questions you get asked is, "What did you do while you were there?"  For a Maine cabin vacation this can be a tough question to answer.  I mean, ok, there is stuff to "do".  You can swim, read a book, go for a walk, go sailing, lay in the hammock, play games,  kayak, nap, waterski, and eat and eat and eat.

However, in truth, while we are at the cabin we don't try to 'do' a lot, we try to just 'be'.  One of the best parts of being there is that you can wake up every morning and know that there is no schedule for the day, no plans, just hours of doing anything (or nothing, if you want.)

We took so many pictures during our week that even with some serious whittling down there are too many for one post.  I can make no promises that these pictures follow any sort of recognizable timeline, or chronological order.  Consider it instead a kaleidoscope of images from our trip with more to come.

The Journey

Some of my most vivid memories from Maine vacations growing up involve the mere process of getting from here to there.  Imagine a Windstar mini-van with 3 kids in the back.  Now imagine oodles of duffel bags, a canoe strapped to the roof, some groceries, and occasionally a chainsaw.  If you can imagine that for 14 hours straight while playing soundtracks from musicals in the background that pretty accurately approximates our trips to Maine.  Ah, the memories...

Things have changed in recent years and, for better or worse, there are fewer showtunes and more baby related stops along the way.  For Aiden's sake, and for our own sanity, we broke the trip into 2 semi-manageable chunks of driving with a night's stop over in Portland Maine. Aiden, thankfully, turned out to be as tough as a seasoned road-tripper, and probably could have gone straight through to Canada and beyond.

 Our less rigorous schedule allowed for some luxuries previously unknown in the mini-van days.  For example, we got to visit our cousin Meg, her husband Gabe, and their daughter Chloe at their home in Newberryport Massachusetts.  It was kind of a spontaneous visit, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip.  It was great to see Meg and Gabe, their home, the neat town that they live in, and of course the beautiful baby Chloe.

After a night in a Portland hotel, our journey continued on to the fabled town of Freeport Maine. For the uninitiated, Freeport is home of the L.L.Bean mothership store, and is also so chocked full of other outlet stores that it makes the Lancaster outlets look like they're not even trying.  We made the obligatory stop in Freeport.  We cruised the outlets.  We took a picture with the giant Bean boot.   But we did not dally long-  we knew the cabin awaited!

The final leg of the trip found us winding through pine trees, and blueberry barrens until we finally pulled up to the boathouse at Grand Lake Stream.  The trip across the lake provided the necessary transition from car-life to cabin-life, and soon we were tucked neatly into the picnic table at Spring Cove- ready to enjoy our first Maine dinner.

The journey was over, we had arrived.

Sweet Home Pennsylvania

We've returned home from Maine with rested bodies, sunburnt shoulders, and lots and lots of pictures.  

I'm too tired right now to do more than the briefest of posting, but here is a video window into our week in pine tree paradise.

(Much) more to come later...

Land of the Loons

As of tomorrow we are off to Maine for a week of lake and sun and relaxation.  Take care everybody! We'll return soon, filled up with new pictures and stories.  See you then!

Here is just a taste of what we have to look forward to:

Out of Focus

As of today we are officially a one car family!  This change has been in the works for a while now, and thankfully today it's all done.  

Jen and I realized a month or so back that because of my work schedule and Jen no longer working full time, we could very easily get by with one car instead of two.  This was made all the more appealing by the ever increasing price of gas, and by the idea of having one less vehicle to maintain/ insure/ stress over.  

After our initial realization  it didn't take long for the wheels to get rolling.  And now a couple of weeks later, thanks to Craigslist and some girl from Lancaster named Marie, it's complete. Adios Focus, you served me well- good luck in the land of the Amish.  (Look out for those buggies!)

Dancing

Earlier today I was perusing some of the blogs that I usually read and I stumbled across this video.  I don't know who this guy is, or how he pulled this off but I thought that it was worth passing along.  

The video is about 5 minutes long, but if you take the time to watch it it may very well be the most inspirational/ funny/ thought-provoking and just downright joyful thing that you do today.

If the video starts to stutter at all just pause it, count to 20 then push play again...

Where is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Loving every minute...

So, I've been meaning to do this for a while now- a compilation of video clips and pictures of Aiden from his day 1, right up until today.  It's on the longer side, but I hope you enjoy it.

1,095 Days

Last weekend Jen and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary.  

We've experienced some significant changes since we walked down the aisle.  Just in this last year we moved into our first house, I graduated from school and started working as a nurse, and Jen was pregnant and gave birth to our first child!  Whew, it's been a busy year!

 

To celebrate the start of another year of marriage (and to give us a chance to reflect on our first three years) Jen and I spent the weekend visiting places that have been significant to us in the past.  We started the weekend by having dinner at the restaurant where we went for our very first date.  It may not be 4 stars but you gotta start somewhere, and this is where it started for us.

After dinner we went to a nearby park.  This was a place where we used to come for picnics when were dating.  This time we hung out and had a little dessert, Ben & Jerry's style.

The next morning we spent a few minutes opening the anniversary presents that we got for each other.  Unbeknownst to each other we had both done a little research and found out that gifts  for the third year anniversary are supposed to be "Leather" themed.  

Hmmmmm...

SO, I got Jen a purse, and she got me a great scrapbook with mementos from way back when we started dating.  Jen saved everything from those days: letters, cards, ticket stubs, even receipts. It was great to look through it all and remember fun times together.

Later that morning we went to a special breakfast spot.  When Jen and I lived in West Chester we used to walk to a nearby coffee shop called 'America's Cup' for coffee and breakfast.  So we decided to revisit our place for an anniversary breakfast.  Sadly though when we got there we found that America's Cup was gone, replaced by a fancy tea house.  Gah!

We stayed though, and the coffee wasn't bad and the scones were pretty tasty.  Breakfast was salvaged!

After breakfast we did a quick drive-by of our old apartment.  We lived there for two years and our first memories as a married couple were right there.  Looking good South Walnut Street!

The big adventure of the day was going back to visit the place were it really all started.  We got married three years ago at Ridley Creek State Park, and it was great to go back to walk the grounds and remember our big day.  Things at the park look pretty much the same.  It doesn't seem like three years ago that we were all there- dressed for a wedding and ready to party.