Maine

How do I describe this week? In a word, amazing. Honestly, we had a wonderful trip to Maine. There were some bumps and bruises along the way, but it was a very fun trip and allowed us to spend time with family who we don’t see nearly as often as we would like. How often do you get the opportunity to spend a week with an entire side of your family? Not too often. At the rate we've been averaging, the next trip will be in 2024. I personally vow not to let it be that long. Even if it’s not the whole group, it will happen again sooner than that.

26 people, 3 houses, 1 week, Boothbay Harbor…or more accurately, the tiny town of Newagen (pronounced new-wag-en if you’re a local) on the island of Southport. So what did we do? I’m going to bullet the high points, and these are specific to my family – because with a group that large, you can’t (and likely don’t want to) do everything together. That said, we managed to do quite a bit as one large group throughout the week – something that surprised me.

Kayaking – the ‘Stoners’(what Tyler coined us early in the week…those who were staying in the Stone House and adjacent Coseclif, the kids’ bunk house) rented two kayaks on Sunday and we had them the entire week. With a tandem and single, it gave us lots of options for adults and kids to venture out together or separately. This was Steve’s idea, but something James and I have done on vacations before so we were definitely on board – or on kayak, so to speak. Most of us used the kayaks every day, and had a lot of fun. We kayaked up and down the inlet…up to the Big House to the north and to the docks and little islands to the south. One day, we kayaked with dolphins as they swam up and down the inlet. It was so cool, though I wish I could have gotten a little closer to them.

Campfires – several nights, fires were started either on the rocks or in the fire pit. S’mores were made. Long talks ensued. Late nights were had. Some of my favorite memories from this trip were from the times around the fire. There’s just something about hanging out on a summer night, chilling out by a camp fire. It was a blessing to get to know my younger cousins better, the next generation of this family, by the honest conversations (sometimes, too honest but no harm done) we had by those fires.

Boating – we rented two boats with just our family. The first was a sailboat called the Eastwind. This was our entire group on a two hour evening sail. Steve commandeered the boat for much of the sailing and navigated our family around the harbor and surrounding islands. It was a gorgeous night for sailing, and we all enjoyed the time on the boat. The second was a small fishing boat called the Miss Boothbay. There were 15 of us on this boat, again the entire group was our family. We fished for mackerel, but also caught some other fish. Most were thrown back but we did experience the gutting and filleting of a few mackerel…that were later grilled by Kyle. The fishing wasn’t all that great, we had to move from place to place a lot but everyone caught at least one fish so I’d declare this a success.

Dining – we actually ate out twice with the entire group (or whoever was still in town at that point – which was 17-18 people both times). Four nights we all ate together at the big house. James and I cooked pasta on Sunday night, Yves cooked kabobs another night, we hired a lovely lady named Dawn for two other nights – London broil one night, and the big event of a lobster and clam bake at the Stone House one night. I would be remiss to leave out the lobstering – only five of us did it (Keely and I among the group), and it was way more fun than I thought it would be. We got to go out on the boat with Doug, the lobsterman, and pull up the traps and catch the 20 lobsters that were later baked on the rocks for our dinner. It was definitely interesting to learn about lobstering – I didn’t realize how competitive and hard it is to do that for a living. Breakfasts, lunches, snacks were mostly on our own – or in smaller groups. I didn’t think we could pull off dinners together for 6 nights but we did and it worked great!

 There’s so much more to mention….donuts from the General Store, fritters from the Vietnamese bakery, biking, running, lawn workouts, ice cream, trips to town, the aquarium, jumping in the freezing cold (well, not really – but still bone chilling) ocean, miniature golfing, laughing, talking, drinking, Keely’s cuss cup…I could go on and on. These memories will really last a lifetime. Maine was truly a blast and we had so much fun. The location will likely be different, the group not as large, I don’t know how long it will take but I know I can’t wait for another opportunity like this to happen so we can enjoy the company of the family that we love dearly.

On The Eve

Tomorrow, we will embark on a trip that has been in the works for over a year. My mom turned 60 earlier this year, and in celebration of that birthday her wish was that her whole family be together for a week in Maine. It’s the first time that all of us have been on a vacation together in many years. Actually, I think it’s the first time we have all been on vacation together ever. There have been other trips, including some of the extended family…Florida ’90, Cape Cod ’96ish, OBX ’02 come to mind. But those trips weren’t the whole family. This trip is almost the entire family, except for Uncle Joe and J.R., who were supposed to come but unfortunately have to stay home - they will be missed. Over the course of the week, schedules vary but for a few days all 25 of us will be in the same place, on the same vacation. That’s quite monumental, a rare opportunity to spend time with those we love and cherish dearly. Life is short, and we have to take these moments when they come. From the spacing of family vacations, you can see that it’s not often that we get this chance, this opportunity. I am grateful to my mom for making this happen…without her will and persistence, it wouldn’t be a reality. Everyone’s life is busy, pulling us all in different directions…but with a push, we can make something special like this happen. New places, new experiences with the ones we love, and I personally can’t wait.

25 People, 3 Houses, 1 Week - I’m sure it will pass quickly, but the memories will last a lifetime.

Florida

When we visited Florida for Easter, an idea floated its way around and then came to fruition. With James at home, he and the kids have a lot of flexibility come summer. The idea was for them to drive to Florida to spend roughly a couple of weeks. We decided on the last week in June and first week of July…mostly because I could fly down for the 4^th of July weekend and we could all drive back together.

I, on the other hand, don’t have that flexibility and had to stay home. Luckily, I had Callie to keep me company…and I traveled to New Jersey for the weekend to celebrate Ryan’s high school graduation and have a girls’ day out in New York. It was very strange to be home alone, and I had to do a ton of things that James normally does. I certainly appreciate the things he takes care of way more now that I’ve had to do them myself…one major thing was mowing the lawn, way harder than I expected!

On their way down to Florida, they stopped in Jacksonville for one night to spend some time with the North Carolina Donovans. Then they headed to a small town in southern South Carolina for one night, and finally made the finish to Melbourne on the 3^rd day. One amazing fact – they did the entire 1,000 mile drive with no air conditioning. Not because it was broken, just because James wanted to J I know they were all happy to get out of the car when they arrived in Florida!

They had a fun time…visited the zoo, beach, and pool to name a few things. Mostly though, they relaxed and spent time together…cousins enjoying the time together as they should. My time there was short, but fun. We hit the beach and pool, BBQ’ed for the 4^th and watched a pretty awesome fireworks show. 

Saturday afternoon, we left for our two day drive back to Virginia. And in case you are wondering, we did use the A/C on the drive back! We arrived home on Sunday afternoon, all happy to be back home together. We had 5 nights of normal, and then the next adventure awaited us…our much anticipated family trip to Maine!