I say "First" because there's another one in November to see the kids. THIS one was to see sister, Ruth, and her hubby Don in Maine and then to attend a family wedding with them in New York, 2 weeks total.
Clamp your seatbelt because this is from both Astrid and me (from our Facebook posts), for the record:
Let's start with when we landed in Portland, ME, on Astrid's 68th birthday, August 24,
and met up with 8 family members for supper in an Irish pub at the harbor.
It was a great beginning to our trip, after a hassle-free travel day!
We still had to drive the 2 hours to
Searsport, where Don and Ruth live, but we made it,
and 25.5 hours from when we started in the Netherlands, we finally turned out the light for bed!
And then we just relaxed at Don and Ruth's!
Good food...and later a walk, with free peaches to passersby!
Look at the pics Astrid got of the resident bald eagle!
The days were shorter, so the walk ended just before nightfall...and the hordes of mosquitoes!
Sometimes Astrid takes her own walks alone...so, these are her pics.
See why Don and Ruth...and WE...love where they live!
Don and Ruth love trying new recipes, like this deep-dish pizza in their cast-iron skillets.
And as if that wasn't enough, how about this complicated lobster bisque (with Reuben sandwiches).
Did I mention...from scratch? Look at them trying to figure out the recipe on the cupboard!
O M G. Guess who are the lucky ones to be their guinea pigs. HA!
The only sight-seeing outing we took the entire 1.5 weeks was to
Stonington,
the lobster capital of Maine, on a gorgeous, sunny day.
You know me and architecture. Can you tell that this is New England?
This is what Astrid saw....
We're both similar/different witnesses to the same thing.
And as outings go, it was perfect to have it be the only one.
In the meantime, everyone (except
moi!) was working on projects.
Besides helping Don hang a cupboard in the garage, Astrid made a copper hanger
for the slate shingle painting she happened to find. It didn't make sense for US to keep it,
so she left it for Don and Ruth: a Maine keepsake.
And besides all their meals, Don and Ruth made jam out of their yard's blackberries
(giving us a bottle to bring back home with us, thanks to their generosity!).
But of all the projects Don and Astrid did, THIS was THE ONE to top the charts:
a cutting board (one of Don's hobbies) for Astrid's son Jeroen.
Don helped her through every step of the process from choosing the wood, planing, gluing
and clamping it, sanding and planing again, oiling and waxing. Step after step for a week.
I couldn't show it on FB until we came home to give it to Jeroen.
But talk about Happy Campers: All THREE of them!
(BTW, it's made out of white oak, cherry, ash and black walnut.)
But now back to Searsport. This was the first time I walked with Astrid,
including our last trip in 2019, the 6-km round-trip into town.
I really DO like architecture. I really DO like New England.
Astrid's pics.
In between everything, we played games: mostly Five Crowns (which we learned in England).
AND, in the evenings, we watched the
Alone 7th TV series of the 100-day Arctic $1m challenge.
After all that, on Friday, the 2nd of September, we left Searsport for Cooperstown, NY,
for the wedding of our niece, Jennifer, and her Joshua, on Sunday the 4th.
Another story altogether, so, to be continued....
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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