May 16 - May 25 New Hampshire, Maine, New Hampshire

Off we went to visit our friend Marie (whom Leslie calls Helen?) in Wells, Maine and of course more seafood lunches! Marie has a place in Florida and on the beach in Maine so who could resist the visit? It was great to see her and have a few laughs. We stayed at a very nice “resort” in Wells quite close to the beach and very pretty, albeit a bit pricy. We took a day trip to Gloucester, Mass. For the obligatory photo of the monument to the Fishermen of Gloucester as well as a bronze in tribute to the wives and children of the fishermen.

From Gloucester we visited the Desert of Maine (well not really technically a desert but it surely looks like one!) and of course LL Bean!

 

From there were were excited to head to Porter, Maine to visit with David and Janet Atwood, Les’ childhood friend and as Les puts it his BBF (best boy friend forever LOL). We had a wonderful time just relaxing and catching up. They built a house on their property themselves, having solar panels installed and the frame but that’s about all that they didn’t do themselves. They live “off the grid” providing their own power…it was cool to learn more about the process. If you didn’t see the solar panels you would never know the house wasn’t connected to municipal electricity. They have a new “puppy” Sasha that we enjoyed playing with and she enjoyed Les’ playing with her. The kitties were none too pleased and didn’t want anything to do with the dog but we suspected that she had no clue what a kitty was!

 

On Saturday we hung out, chatted, had cocktails, of course with dinner and just relaxed. Saturday night brought the majority of the neighbors over for a community fire complete with S’mores! They all arrive either by pickup truck or ATV (all terrain vehicle). They had the biggest marshmallows I have ever seen! And I might add the nicest people…each of them building or completing their own “Ponderosa” in the Pines. Les calls the shot of David and him the “old men at the fire” photo. The weather was superb so on Sunday morning the guys went out 4-wheeling for a good 3 hours’ ride. When they came back Janet and I decided to go visit the neighbor…and of course did I mention there are certain things that you should not begin after age 50? One of them is learning how to, or how not to, ride an ATV by yourself. Of course I’m a klutz and after being on it for about 2-3 minutes I ended up hitting a ditch and upending the machine, flipping it on top of me….luckily my right leg was free so I used it to free my left leg but my shirt was stuck under the handlebars in the dirt…by that time Janet realized I was no longer behind her and came back, gunned her machine up the dirt road when she saw me and flew off the ATV to help. We were quite a sight….she pushed the ATV enough to get my shirt unstuck and then rode me back to the house to get the guys to upright the ATV. She was a love and super concerned, but right there with the ice and more ice! Bottom line is that it seemed so easy in theory…but…guess I’ll stick to being on the back! I’m pretty sure that I cracked a rib or two since that was where the bulk of my issues were and I was sporting some ugly bruises…but all in all I’m fine….actually am looking forward to visiting them again because we really did have a great time.

We left Monday morning and decided that while I was still able to move a little we would go to Mount Washington, NH where the home of the World’s Worst Weather is as well as the highest point in New England. It was cool to ride up the Auto Road and climb to an elevation of about 6200 feet. The road was rather scary but Les is an excellent driver and really I was concentrating on holding my ribs in.  One of the buildings at The Summit is actually chained to the ground because of high winds.  The highest wind speed ever recorded was here and 231 mpg in 1934.   The Summit temperature was about 49 degrees with a 45-50 mph wind so it felt quite a bit colder. While it was gorgeous to view and very interesting we were shocked to see how many hikers died or were seriously injured while hiking this mountain. As a matter of fact when we returned to camp Monday afternoon we read in the paper Tuesday that they had recovered a body the morning we were there off one of the trails. Apparently this was the first clear day that was safe for the recovery team to attempt recovery so that gives you an indication of just how dangerous this trail can be.

We decided to go back to Liz and Jerrod’s house in New Hampshire for the Memorial Day long weekend, arriving Tuesday and leaving this coming Tuesday. We missed Lyla, who is such a doll, and we thought, what the heck…I’ll have a few more days to get back on my feet and we’ll have Lyla to play with…all for now…

New Hampshire Visit

We meandered up to (from Mass.) my niece’s home in New Hampshire to spend a week with her family, husband Jerrod and daughter Lyla. They previously lived in Arizona and moved back to New Hampshire last year to be closer to family when Lyla was born. She turned 2 in March and is super cute. We had a terrific visit with them and had fun with Lyla. I now know more about the Bubble Guppies than I ever thought I would or need to! We just hung out, played with Lyla and do what we do best - nothing! Liz and Jerrod went to the Red Sox game and I received a 100 Years of Fenway t-shirt as a gift for my birthday! Of course Les has to be doing something all the time so he puttered around the RV. Had a chance to catch up with sister Kathie in between her busy schedule with school and her activities.  We were sad to say good-bye but we thought we should head to our next destination.

Arrived in Wells, Maine May 15 and had a nice visit and lunch with our friend Marie who lives on the beach during the Summer and in Florida in the Winter. We didn’t have a chance to see her this Winter so this made for a nice catch up session….plus we had lobster rolls for lunch yummy!

Today we are heading to Gloucester and Rockport to check off another item on our list of things we really need to do sometime in our lives!

Posting some of our favorite pics from the visit with Liz, Jerrod and and Lyla. On the sunny days we were Flying a Kite, riding bikes (I was pushing Lyla in her stroller), and shopping at Walmart with Lyla.  We ‘wuv you’.

April 28 thru May 3

Had a terrific visit with Shirley, Don and Barbie today in Plymouth. Barbie made “Wacky Cake” cupcakes, one of Shirley’s favorites! Then back to the campsite. Waited for some time on the canal to catch a whale traveling the canal, but we missed him. Lo and behold after snapping some photos of boat traffic and reviewing them, we saw that we had captured the whale’s head on film without knowing it! It was quite cold and windy at the “beach” but we still enjoyed our time there.

Headed back to Lakeville to Pat’s “Motor Coach Resort”…went to Boston to climb Bunker Hill Monument, tour the USS Constitution and have a “real Italian meal” in the North End, followed, of course, by pastry from Mike’s on Hanover St. Boy we had a great time although it was somewhat embarrassing that we had not visited the monument or “Old Ironsides” before, having lived here most of our adult lives!

 

Weather has been iffy, with on and off rain showers and rather gray, but hey that’s New England! Last night we had the pleasure of having dinner with the McGarr Family….brother-in-law Bill from San Diego, his brother Michael from Reno and their mother Maggie. What a crew we were! Another terrific visit with them and how nice that Bill flew in with Michael for a surprise visit to celebrate Maggie’s upcoming birthday! Hope the guys will be able to get a couple of rounds of golf in with this weather..but I suppose that’s why they make rain jackets!