Gardens and Flowers

 

Some more pictures from early on the vacation.  When we drove up from Boston it was super hot, and on arrival in Maine we spent the night at my sister's house in Boston. I checked out her garden and it is far more impressive than my own in Alaska.  Everything in her garden is already huge and so much further along than what I left in Alaska.

The first week of vacation it was sunny every day, but for the past few days it has been foggy.  Today, however, I woke up to sunshine and it is supposed to be sunny and nice for the rest of our stay.

Patrick

My favorite white oak seems to have lost a few limbs recently

Polly's beets from her garden in Camden

Polly's Garden

Lobsters on the deck

 

Last night Stuey and I had lobsters on the deck with Stuey's namesake Stewart. Earlier in the day Stuey and I had paddled by the floating docks where the lobstermen store the lobsters and the bait for their traps.  We've noticed that in the evening they sell lobsters directly from the 'lobster pens'.  And so yesterday evening we made a trip out there to buy lobster.

I was surprised at how cheep lobster seems these days.  It was 7 dollars a pound for hard shell lobsters - or about 9 dollars a lobster.  So we bought 6 and the guy added some mussels in for free.  He picked them off of the dock mooring ropes.

We cooked them up and had them for dinner on the lower deck.  I love lobsters on the deck because eating lobsters tend to be kinda messy.  We just threw the shells over the railing and onto the beach.  So easy to clean up - the perfect place to eat lobsters!

Patrick

I gather if you just let the lobster grip you, and don't try and get away, it does not hurt

Still nice to have bands on the claws to keep them from nipping

Launching a kayak from the deck

We later ate lobster just to the left of where Stuey is sitting

Morning kayak trip - we launched from the deck and returned to the deck

View from the deck

Eat coast purse seiner

More Picnic

 

This is a final photo dump of the pictures from the first couple of picnics.  I have already posted way too many photos!  

On most North Haven picnics we do not leave the Thoroughfare.  We generally drive to a beach or take my mom's small motorboat to a nearby beach.  But Polly and John have a big boat and that allowed us to go to exotic places - to leave the protective waters of the Thoroughfare and explore the outer coast of the Fox Islands.  

Patrick

All grown up

 

During a recent picnic the kids and I were clambering around on the granite boulders when I suddenly realised that this is probably the last family vacation we'll have together before Nora goes off to college.  Nora is off to college in the Fall and Stuey will be a Senoir in high school.  Of course we'll still go on family vacations, but from now the dynamic will be a bit different.  Everybody is all 'grown up' - whatever that means.

So as we clambered around and explored, and jumped off of rocks into the ocean, I made a conscious decision to appreciate the moment.  And pretty soon they will be taking me on vacation!

Patrick

Granite and Sand

 

These are all pictures from the first few days of our vacation.  The scenery on the first 2 picnics was so spectacular that I took way too many pictures for just one blog post. 

We are on vacation in the Fox Islands in Penobscot Bay.  There are 2 big islands in the Fox Islands - North Haven to the north and Vinalhaven to the south with a 'Thoroughfare' in between them.  We are on North Haven just across the Thoroughfare' from Vinalhaven. Basically Vinalhaven is all granite rocks while North Haven is baked and contorted 'country rock'. North Haven rocks are sort of ugly.

On the first 2 picnics we went to where it was all granite.  Granite makes for spectacular scenery.  It is all bright white and it is easy to scamper around on top of it.  These pictures all feature the granite from those 2 picnics.

Another difference between North Haven and Vinalhaven is that the landscape on North Haven tends to be more open with fields and vistas.  When you drive around on Vinalhaven all you see are spruce trees.  I have often wondered if the vegetation reflects the underlying bedrock.

Patrick