Comfort Inn Brunswick

... are called "Kills" – i.e. Lewis Kill, Hudson Kill, etc.

· The Piscataqua Bridge is a 6 lane monstrosity that forms the border between New Hampshire and Maine.

PORTLAND, Maine:

We hadn’t seen Foster since June/08 and he sure grew over the past year – he’s over 6’ tall! Tom got transferred back to ...

... are called "Kills" – i.e. Lewis Kill, Hudson Kill, etc.

· The Piscataqua Bridge is a 6 lane monstrosity that forms the border between New Hampshire and Maine.

PORTLAND, Maine:

We hadn’t seen Foster since June/08 and he sure grew over the past year – he’s over 6’ tall! Tom got transferred back to ...

Ni hao! (Hello in Chinese...pronounced "knee how")

We are now one week away from our departure and realizing that next week at this time we will be in the air over the Pacific and headed to China! The accumulating of stuff is coming to an end and the real packing is beginning. The girls love the whole packing thing...their mother...not so much. Excitement is in the air as the count down begins.

We are looking forward to ...

... a ride on an authentic old time train around the city's harbor and see many of the extraordinary sites that have stood for decades.
Most of the city is compact and perfectly walkable. There is so much to see and do that you will never feel bored or disappointed. One thing for sure, you definitely will not go hungry or run out of places to shop! The Old Port District is the historic side of Portland, and it is a wonderful area reminiscent of America's humble beginnings.

... words, I'd be lost for them. As it is, I had to content myself with saying, 'wow' and 'ooh' a lot. If I had a camera, I definitely would've taken some photos. But I don't, so I didn't.

That's kind of been me for the last few days really; stopping at places that sounded interesting and then trying to find a motel when I've started to feel tired. It's all been very liberating, which ...

we sailed into boothsbay in the dark (as usual). we only had limited lights, so it was a crew effort to communicate with chris who was motoring the boat in via GPS coordinates and autopilot.

"boat at 1 o'clock!"

"mooring at 11 o'clock!"

we successfully docked (at the wrong dock than planned but we docked none the less). we had hoped to get farther up the coast but the last few days had been light wind (cary said ...

... in cold snow for the majority of the year i'd consider moving there.

for lunch we sailed up to a seafood restaurant called Cook's. we had a slight buoy mishap, that sent me running around the small bay to save the buoy but it was also the first exercise i'd had in days so that was good.

lunch at Cook's was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. we had steam-ahs and fresh maine lobstah in maine. simple boiled lobstah. it was awesome.

On Sunday, September 13th, volunteers gathered in South Portland near the Maine mall for Volunteer Day. The mission for the day was to clean up trash, build a bridge, finish a kiosk and other tasks related to building walking trails for SP residents to enjoy. The best thing to me was the range of ages who participated -- from very young of 4 or 5 to young at heart of any age!

We were in Portland, Maine today. Not too much there. The old Portland burnt down completely in the 1600s and then was built back up through 1700s / 1800s. The Old Port looked lovely, proper New England style fishing port.
Paul had "lobster stew" ! Portland is famous for its lobster trade. Lobsters everywhere. Lobster clothing, Lobster toys, Lobster restaurants, big fluffy ...

... Freeport, Maine a couple of hours later. We are staying in Brunswick but Cal wanted to try and find a place where he had had lunch about 30 years ago. I was pretty skeptical about this but strangely we were referred to a restaurant that turned out the be the exact restaurant he remembered.  ....and Sherrie walks into seafood heaven.  ...but before that I walked into ocean heaven. Having spent quite a bit of my youth living near the Pacific Ocean there is "that smell ...