Maine Trip Part II

The McLean Girls just getting down to work

After Jeff's departure, the trip (for me) effectively entered its second, quieter, more family focused phase.

That involved a couple of off island jaunts into Bath and Arrowsic for some work party type stuff.

On Friday, Sarah and I set up a bank account to start saving for Margaret, and we had work party at Roz's house to stack the cord of wood that Roz bought to heat her home for the winter.

For this, Brad was indispensable for building the braces to hold the wood and Roz displayed her organizational skiils (where Sarah doubtless inherited hers) by instructing us on where to stand and how to pass logs most effectively.

Just getting started (look at that pile)
All this made a real difference, as we were able to quickly work the pile down and fill the woodshed in a matter of an afternoon, managing to save the grass under the woodpile from certain death and creating the neat stacks of wood that you see below.

As you can see, Margaret and Stanley, when they weren't napping, served as our rather effective cheer squad, keeping us motivated and smiling.

Lucy and Jerry even showed up for the last hour or so to help out and helped us to finish out the job much faster than expected.

Cheer squad with Aunt Sylvia

Finishing the job felt good, especially since we had all these neat stacks of wood to show for it. Plus, now Lucy and Jerry were there so we could get a nice group photo of the work crew.

The family photo from two posts ago, "Goodbye Maine" was taken by Lucy from the same set.

The work crew finished (look at those neat stacks!)
The rest of the time we spent back on the island, just hanging out, visiting friends, attending island meetings and going to the beach.

It was on one such occasion on the beach that the below photo was taken by Erica. As you can see, Margaret seems to have an affinity for seafood. I suppose that if the rocks don't kill her, the seaweed probably won't either. After all, it's what sushi comes wrapped in.

Moving on from rocks at Corey's Cove (thanks, E!)
Margaret is definitely into the beach. She loves crawling around in the sand, playing with (and eating) rocks, and splashing in the water. I suppose it is lucky that we don't live on the US West Coast or in some island paradise (yes, yes, Hong Kong is an island, but paradise....), otherwise, we'd never get her inside to hit the books.

It's interesting to me how Margaret doesn't at all mind getting sandy, dirty and wet. Considering how anal her mother and I are about such things, I suppose it's a good thing. I have this schizophrenic hope that we won't somehow make her neurotic about cleanliness, but at the same time, hope she's not a complete slob.

At V's house
At the beach, Margaret managed to spill the bucket you see to her right, all over herself, precipitating a complete meltdown. Luckily for us, Mom had a complete change of clothes for her, and dad arrived with apple juice. We then retired to The Monkey's (V's) house to warm up and enjoy the company of V's entire extended family.

Bubbles!
On Sunday, the morning was spent under a beautiful thunderstorm that kept us inside, leading us to light a fire and to come up with lots of creative ways to keep M occupied.

The weather cleared by the afternoon, however, leaving us with a beautiful sunny day to celebrate the joint birthday's of Chris and Sylvia with the Pieh clan.

"Welcome to MacMahan!"
We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful afternoon. The Pieh's brought pizza and salad and the McLean's provided 7-Layer dip and drinks. Everyone brought joy and good cheer.

It was a good way to get caught up with Lucy, Jerry, Chris, Tim and Amy and for Margaret to spend some additional time with her little (yet relatively bigger than her) cousins.

Lucy's successful tree walk
Jerry, true to his Outward Bound roots, even found for us a tree bridging an open span of water for a tree walk. All the adults gave it a go and I am proud to say, made it safely across.

Between tree walks, the beach and just hanging at the house, the day passed quickly, and before we knew it, present opening, and the entire day was over.

The Birthday boy and girl
Unfortunately for me, Sunday was my last day on MacMahan and in Maine as I needed to get back to Hong Kong, reality and work.

However, the saving grace was that by driving the Pieh's back over to Georgetown in the boat, Brad, Sylvia and Chris joined me on a final lobster run to Five Islands to bring back a couple of delectable sea creatures for my last lobster dinner on the island.


Bundle of Joy
Monday was a blur of getting out of the house and to Portland early in the morning. All the rushing was for naught, however, as my connecting flight in Newark was delayed by four hours.

Despite the late arrival, I arrived safely in Hong Kong (though late), and was pleasantly surprised the next day as a typhoon canceled work.

Thank you, Hong Kong Observatory!

Walking to the beach
Now, I'm back at home and back at work, and awaiting Sarah and Margaret (and my own mom) to arrive tonight.

Unfortunately, our Maine vacation is now officially over, and we're now entering the recovery phase.

However, as that chapter closes, we open a new one.

Flying
Somehow, perhaps due to time spent in school, the end of summer vacation always feels like the start of a new year - even more than January 1 does.

So now begins a new year for all of us, and a year of new experiences and new blogs.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

M&M hitting the sand


The Doctor and his Fisher Price equipment