Comfort Suites Freeport

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 ...

... in the city. From small mom and pop boutiques to outstanding malls, Portland has the upper hand on upscale shopping. You will definitely see your share of dazzling jewelry and fine art, and there is no better place to see it than in the fabulous museums and art galleries. The Portland Museum of Art and the Bayview Gallery are two of the premier establishments in town, and the equally delightful Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company and Museum is always a treat. You can ...

... 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 ...

... chris said BOOOOOO!) and so we hopped aboard shore for the last time. boothsbay is a bit more touristy than the other cute towns we had been in, but we settled in for one last meal of burgers at the only place still open (it was about 8 or 9 pm). it was perfect.

chris and i woke up at 4:30 am for a pick up to Rockland Airport. we took a tiny plane to Logan Airport and then we were off to Vegas!

thanks again tim and eileen!!!

... had no idea there were so many! but you can only see them by boat, and turns out maine has the longest coastline of any of the 50 states (i'm pretty sure this is what chris told me). some islands have lots of houses on them, plus a few stores, maybe a school. some kids have to take a ferry to the mainland for school in portland. but some islands are privately owned and have only 1 or 2 houses on them. if maine wasn't ...

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!

... Wow what a stunning drive this was, firstly we stopped by the winter ski resort of Stowe, a tiny village with interesting stores and eateries in a woodland setting backed by the Green Mountains. Just down the road is Ben & Jerry's original Ice Cream plant, we could not resist the tour of the production line and of course the tasting room! We we able to try their new flavour a mixture of chocolate fudge brownie and cookie dough, yummy! We then ...

... don't have to provide barbecue pits but that said, other countries do (Singapore, Australia) and they are free, completely free. I am beginning to wonder if Americans believe they should pay for everything. The park wasn't manned and the gate was open so we went in anyway (we would've left if it had been any different). Nice but not great, I think we were influenced by the fact that we were supposed to pay for this, so many places in England (Lake ...

... academics (my mom used to tell me the story about how I refused to speak until I mastered the English language), but through my own strength, will, and desire to learn, I began to excel once I reached my collegiate years. After college I moved to Freeport, ME in 1994 where I worked at the infamous retail store, L.L. Bean, which had always been a dream of mine. I then moved to Martha's Vineyard, MA to be with my college sweetheart, Alex. We got ...