Brooklin, Maine -- August, 2007
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We reprised last year's Maine trip with great success. This year we flew to Portland and then drove up to Brooklin, Maine. Robert was his traditional, great travelling self. And again, no extra craziness because of his watch list status; We're afraid that may change once he's no longer obviously under 12. The trip up was pleasantly uneventful: we flew up Saturday morning and Robert had a chance to nap a bit in the car on the way to our cabin, the "Close Call," at the end of Tinker's Lane (in the Google map linked to above, we were in the northern cove between North Brooklin and Brooklin). |
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| Our first task the next day (which was extremely windy and very pleasantly cool) was to explore Harriman Point. At low tide, there was a lot of mud flat between our cabin and the water; while that was (not surprisingly) muddy, the shore around the high tide line was fine for walking. So off exploring we went. |
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There were tidal pools and rocks and seaweed and logs and flowers and coastline and boats to check out. Even from halfway around the cove, it looked like you could walk over to our cabin -- which you could if you didn't mind getting muddy... We didn't try. |
| Robert was clearly happy to there. We were all happy to be out of DC's August weather. |
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| Robert found a float and turned it into a wrecking ball (courtesy of Bam, Bam, Bam, one of his construction books) that he used to "knock down" the rock houses on our trip back to the cabin. |
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| The timing and location of our trip were driven by a chance to meet up with the rest of clan Zapolsky. It turned out (quite well for us) that Sarah's time and energy hunting up our cabin paid off with us having the nicest spot for entertaining. So we had lots of chances to relax, watch the sunset, and catch up with events in Seattle and New Jersey. |
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The next day, Monday, we drove around the coast to Brooksville. Again Sarah's efforts paid off: Brooksville is known to us as "Buck's Harbor" from One Morning in Maine, a favorite book. In the book, Sal, Little Jane, and their dad rowed across the bay to this harbor. They walked up the hill with their outboard motor so Mr. Condon could install a new spark plug (so they would not have to row back) -- the red barn building is Mr. Condon's garage -- and picked up groceries and ice cream cones at the store behind the church. |
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Now when we read that book, Robert can say he dipped his toes in the water right there... After a nap and some lunch, it was time for another walk around our cove. This time we went north, just to see what we could see. And Robert practiced his rock hopping technique. |
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On Wednesday Ian took advantage of the kayaks Sarah rented for us from The Activity Shop in nearby Blue Hill. They were dropped off before we arrived (and we presume they were picked up after our departure). We had time to paddle around the cove, circumnavigate "Point ZWilliams" (a high tide island at the tip of Harriman point) and generally play on the water every day. Of course, there was also time to throws rocks into the ocean and walk around a bit to inspect the shoreline. |
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| Harry and Elle joined us for one of those walks out to Harriman point. Note how much the weather changed: It was downright blustery the 36 hours we were there, but the winds subsided and the temperatures warmed up a bit -- but never too hot. |
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After our walk, we were joined by the Muths, friends of the Zapolsky's from before Sarah was in school.
You have to look closely at the lower left photo: as the discussion roamed from Silver Spring in the
1960s to our present President's predicaments, there was a friendly game of catch going on in the middle
of the circle. Robert really enjoyed his time with Ian. Did I mention that the weather was great? |
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| The real reason for the timing of the trip was a visit Lindsay arranged with her cousins who live in Maine. After the classes were over Wednesday, they invited the Zapolsky clan for a tour of the WoodenBoat School, where they work. John's explanation of what they do and how they do it was very interesting (but maybe a little over Robert's head). |
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| Robert took advantage of one of Lindsay's nieces to practice his rock hopping (or step jumping) while we were touring the school. I was intrigued by the salute cannon class's progress. When not jumping, Robert enjoyed the model boats. |
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| Sarah picked up a little sailboat at the WoodenBoat School store and Robert really enjoyed testing it's seaworthiness Wednesday morning. They tried really hard to keep Robert's pants dry; they were rolled up as far as they would go, but he just needed to wade out a little more... |
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| After a change into some dry clothes, we drove over to Naskeag Point, at the southern tip of the peninsula below Brooklin for a picnic and some rock tossing. |
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| We capped the day by a visit from the Seattlelites (who all got a chance to kayak together) before a nice meal out. |
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| Clearly Robert enjoyed Harry as much as Harry enjoyed Robert. |
| The next day, it was a bit cooler and cloudy. Robert finished his breakfast to give him plenty of energy for the day (not that he was lacking energy on this trip). |
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| And we all took a trip in the kayaks around our cove. |
| We ended up the day with story time in our cabin... |
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| Friday, we headed to Bar Harbor to visit the Oceanarium. It was not as interesting as we were hoping for (and it reminded Sarah of her mosquito lab days). We learned a bit about the life cycle of lobsters (Robert got a close up view of a momma lobster) and were fascinated by their lobster-fry release system: a cooler with a long, weighted hose. |
| Most exciting of all at the Oceaniarum was the boat tub outside. Robert had lots of fun with that. |
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From there we headed over to the light house as the fog really rolled in. This ship was a very cool site: it looked just like a ghost ship to us (and we were a little worried that it was going to run over the smaller sail boat). After the lobsters, toy boats, real boats and lighthouse, it was time for a nap on the way home. Note Robert's new friend, his own Maine Lobster. |
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| Saturday, our last day in Maine, was a busy one. First we took advantage of our rented kayaks one last time and launched our trimaran -- there were plenty of corks available for hulls and the cabin came with paper clips. |
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| We visited on last light house in Castine where we had lunch on our way to the airport. The trip home was more eventful due to seriously delayed flights, but we and our luggage were reunited by dinner time Sunday. |
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| Needless to say, we had a great time. |
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Vacation notes:
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