The End Of The Trip

While in Lake Placid daughter had wanted to check out the Ben & Jerry's ice cream place. Once she finished supper however her stomach had other ideas and convinced her to walk away...to just walk away from those calories in a cone. Once on the road again the car needed to be gassed up and daughter found a small treat that made her day.
Even after all this adventure she is still happy and relaxed.

Now we jump forward again, to sleeping in a strange hotel in a strange town. After a good night's sleep in the hotel, Alberta friend and I found a bank to exchange some Canadian funds to American money. Lucky for me there was a "Micheals" craft store right next door! That is one of my alltime favourite stores and there it was laid right in front of me. The girls sighed collectively and pulled out their books to settle in and read while this Canadian chick did a little R&R shopping. *sigh* American prices beat our north-of-the-border prices all to s***!!

Then it was time to hit the road. Some lovely scenic driving and some speedy driving once we hit a major highway heading to the coast. We ended up north of Boston and stopped in at a beautiful beach area around Kittery (I'll have to check the map; although some of the American readers might recognize the pictures).

This was a gorgeous place! I definately want to return and see more of the whole area. But for this day's pit stop, we wanted to walk out on the rocks and check out the lighthouse we saw from shore.

Tourists are not permitted on the lighthouse island and I could not tell you if it is a working lighthouse. I think it might be as there weren't any others visible to the naked eye. This was just such a photogenic spot!


The girls, being the intrepid & invincible teens that they are, clamoured over the rocks heading as close to the water as they could. This made me nervous as occasional rogue waves washed a little higher over the rocks. There was also slippery seaweed and moss clinging to the rocks. The girls pooh-poohed my concerns but did hang back, away from the water, when I foamed at the mouth politely requested they be a bit more sensible.


While admiring this area and munching on some hot food, the weather crept in from the sea. Uh...actually it was more like rolled in and fast! As visible in this picture a wall of something could be seen heading our way. It actually unnerved the girls! I lived on a sailboat when I was a teenager and am familiar with some water weather patterns, so I knew this was a squall headed our way.


I'm amazed at how the weather snuck upon so many unsuspecting people! The little cluster of folks you see on the rocks below the building (a hotel) seemed completely unaware a storm was headed right for them. They ran like mad to take cover when the rain hit. And it hit like the wall it was! Isn't that little door in the hotel wall just the cutest thing? It opens to the rocks...makes me think of all those horror stories about big homes on the lonely cliffs...secret doors...murder... oops; wrong idea!


Here is Alberta friend tentatively smiling at me. I wanted her picture BEFORE the storm hit in case she was swept away or anything so exotic. Her and daughter were trying to get into the vehicle before the blackening sky overtook us however I was all game to snap away! Right after I took this picture a little girl started screaming hysterically to Alberta friend's right (off to the left side of this photo). A man shouted to stay put and someone would come to help. A bit of excitement then! Apparently, this child's mother was following said child across the rocks and up towards the parking lot, when her hand slipped on one of the slippery rocks. Her face hit the rock and she slid down between a couple of rocks.
Fortunately for her and her family, it appeared she either cut her lip and/or got a bloody nose. She made her way out and they walked over to the visitor shop/information store which probably had some sort of first aid station. It poured on them as the skies opened up before they made it to the information store.

With the rain we decided to head north. We drove and drove and drove some more through some beautiful countryside. We actually ended up at Portland...and I ended up circling the freakin' runway about 4 times. I think it is one of the few times I actually lost my temper and my alter-ego made a hysterical appearance. By the time I found an hotel with lodgings available I was wiped out. So were the girls. But we needed to eat. Out we went. Again.

By this time there wasn't a lot of vim and vinegar left in anyone. We ate a decent meal in a decent restaurant late at night. We did a bit of shopping at a favourite American store after ~ "Borders". Then we went back to the room and hit the sack. The following picture shows the last morning...and the sheer enthusiasm the girls had by now. Daughter wanted to hit her favourite stores in Bangor and then go home!
Due to the fatigue felt by all of us, the shopping, eating, driving, border crossing and subsequent boring drive back to home, I did not take anymore pictures of this particular adventure.

We.Were.Tired.Out.

Upon arriving at home we three looked forward to crashing in our comfortable home and just relaxing. That was not to be. As luck would have it hubby didn't expect us home for another 24 hours and so the next day he had arranged for the exterminator to fumigate against those *(&*#%@ ants again. We had to get professional help last summer after moving in, against these puny and totally annoying critters. Seems that lot left some family behind that came out to torment us again. We had to vacate the house for at least 4 hours.

Four hours! I didn't want to go anywhere ~ except for my soft & fluffy bed! Instead we dragged our sorry butts down the road to our family, where we could sit up or crash, as the case may be. I fell over in a drool-induced sleep until I culd get home.

So that ends this summer's great adventure. There is still more to come and reflections to muse about but it is late and I'm going to fall asleep at the computer if I stay here much longer.