Lemonade Sweetened with Maple Syrup

Post-Babb visit we took a couple days off from adventures and eating fried seafood, and just rested at home a bit. Then our friend Sasha came to visit and it was once again time to go visit the various lobster shacks, Portland sites, and water/woods hikes. The first night we went into downtown Portland, ate and walked around a bit showing Sasha the sites. Cesar had a very memorable lemonade sweetened with maple syrup and then we walked down a long pier and saw a lovely boat named St. Croix (see pics!). Of course we had to pose next to it... Then we drove around and showed her the Eastern Promenade and we found the West End neighborhood with its beautiful townhouses that reminded me of the Upper Westside in New York or some lovely Village street. I liked the area a lot.

The next day we headed to Mackworth Island, which is a little island in Casco Bay that you drive over a causeway to get to. I chose it because it said it had an easy hike, good for kids, with beautiful views of Casco Bay and the other islands. It is also the home of various fairy houses, which are houses people make out of leaves, twigs, shells, etc. for fairies. Cesar was very against the whole fairy house thing, but I told him the hike should be pretty nice and we can ignore the houses. Well, the hike was pretty nice. There were great views, the beach was rocky and cold (Che and Sasha went in), and there were some huge pine trees that created perfect borders for pictures of the ocean and islands. There were also lots of wild raspberries and blackberries which we consumed prodigiously throughout the hike (see pic of Sabine gorging on raspberries). When we got to the spot with the fairy houses Cesar changed his tune and became architect/Zen gardener expert and we began constructing our fairy house. In typical European fashion, we immediately created a fence around our property, taking care to include enough space for an orchard and playground. Then we went to work (see pics). Che created a lovely slide (see pics) for the backyard, Sasha took care of the orchard, and we all built a lovely flagstone path connecting everything. While we were doing this, Sabine went around playing Godzilla crashing everyone else's fairy houses. I tried to stop her as much as possible. It was a fun little activity.

After naps we went to hear music and take more pictures at Winslow Park where we watched boats sailing in and out as the sun set. It was spectacularly beautiful. While we were exploring on the rocks down by the beach, Sasha spotted a ferret-like animal peeking out from the rocks checking us out. It was very cute, but I know those little buggers can be nasty and temperamental, so I stayed away. Then we headed to eat at another lobster shack, where Cesar tried some of Sasha's lobster and declared that although the various lobster shacks win in terms of location, view, and atmosphere, the Chicken Shack in STX beats the lobster shacks in Maine in terms of food.

The next day we took Sasha to get some Wicked Whoopies (pies that is) and we all sampled a bunch of different flavors. I am partial to the pumpkin ones if they are cold, or the chocolate peanut butter ones if they are warm. The we headed to Cape Elizabeth to eat some more seafood and check out the views. Sasha brought with her perfect weather-- 70s and sunny with blue skies-- and lots of good conversations. We had a lot of fun during her short visit!

Today we took a short drive (1 hour) to Kennebunkport to visit the Bushes. The architecture was so cute, the beach looked deceptively beautiful and inviting, and the downtown area was precious-- full of tons of stores in which to purchase things to decorate my STX beach cottage. Unfortunately, I am on a budget and I don't have enough space in my suitcase to bring home anything, so we escaped with only a book for the kids and some sweets. It is too bad that Kennebunkport has so many postcards of the Bushes, because I actually liked the place.

We said goodbye to Target and Whole Foods-- they will be sorely missed. We are getting ready to say bye to Portland and Maine pretty soon and head to Vermont. We definitely enjoyed our time here!

Check out Sabine entertaining us at the Lobster Shack:




Some other newsworthy events:

More animal sightings! We saw a HUGE family of turkeys-- thirteen of them-- foraging on our property. The other night they started heading for the field and I suppose scared a little rabbit that came bounding towards our house. What a treat! However, we also had a very unfortunate sighting, and smelling. We drove by a recently killed skunk on the road and it stunk up our car so badly that my eyes burned and watered and the car still stunk days later. I also felt like my skin and hair still smelled of skunk the next day while shopping in Freeport. Gross! Of course, Cesar's incessant mother skunk jokes made it even worse.

This morning, while I was brushing my teeth, Che was getting ready in the other room and I heard him singing a song from a book that I read to them, although I haven't read it to Che in awhile. It goes likes this: "My mother bathes me, my daddy feeds me, I am loved, ooohhh ooohhh I am loved." He kept repeating it; it was very cute. I hope he knows that it is true-- he is very loved!

The other morning Che was struggling and received a few timeouts. One of them was so bad I had to take him upstairs and, although Sabine had been a little mean to him all morning, she suddenly got on his side and started screaming "My brudder, my brudder!" and tried to prevent me from bringing him upstairs to give him a timeout. It is nice that she feels like they are a team, but boy am I in trouble if the two of them start ganging up on me!

Keep Moving Prisoners

Mita and Pop-Pop came to visit this past week and we sure kept moving, hence my inability to update the blog. Besides waiting for them (FOREVER) to get ready in the morning, we barely spent any time at home. I think I kept the AC too cold for them and they needed to get out into the above-60-degree air. Whatever the reason, we certainly kept busy and did lots of fun things and we definitely enjoyed having visitors. Sabine woke up this morning and from her nap this afternoon and said "Mita? Pop-pop?" and was disappointed each time when I told her they had left.

The first night after Mita and Pop-Pop arrived (after getting lost a couple of times) we headed to Old Port and to a great restaurant called Flat Bread Pizza Company. The place was awesome-- funky interior with a big wood-fired oven, a view of the bay, loud (perfect for our kids), and delicious organic and creative pizza. They also were the first restaurant thus far to serve real brewed ice tea-- praise Jah. The one downside was that Sabine was way past sleepy and did not behave very well, but since Che ate all of his food without complaining it made up for it!

The next day we headed to a hike at a huge farm complex. The hike was pretty lame, but the store was great! Yummy milk, cheese, and desserts. Later that night we headed to the Johnny Rockets in Freeport, after shopping of course, and although I protested eating there we all actually had a good time. The kids all danced and were well-behaved. I'll trade good food for well-behaved kids any day.

Wednesday we went to a farmers' market in Portland, walked around Old Port (mom sure loves a tourist trap!), and then went to walk around Portland Headlight (one of the oldest, or maybe THE oldest, lighthouses in the US) and ate at the Lobster Shack. Che and Sabine both impressed Mita and Pop-pop with their amazing rock climbing abilities and we all enjoyed our meals. Mita ate lobster (she avoided picking it out, which was good for her, the way they look up at you from the tanks and plead for you not to pick them is heartbreaking), Pop-Pop ate fried clams, and I of course had a veggie burger.

Thursday we headed out early to Peaks Island. You have to take a seventeen minute ferry from Portland to get there. It is a little island that has quite a bit of summer traffic, but only 800 year-round residents. The houses are perfect little summer beach cottages and most of the views are spectacular. We headed to a pebble and sand beach and Sabine collected rocks and waded in it a bit. Che got in a little and then rock-climbed. It was WAY too cold for the rest of the family to partake in any water activities. We ate at this great place overlooking the water and Cesar and Pop-Pop began their hunt for the perfect haddock sandwich and chowder. In almost every restaurant after Peaks they ate haddock sandwiches and chowder or some combination of the two. It was a tough week on the hearts. Well, after missing the 12:45 ferry, and realizing the next one wasn't until 2:45, we walked some more around the island and then ate obscene amounts of blueberry ice cream. Thursday night we went to a park to listen to music with yet another playground overlooking the water and then found the spot that we ate in fifteen or so years ago in South Freeport. It was a really nice place with seafood overlooking the water and I am excited to go back there at some point.
Friday we headed to the Maine Wildlife Park. It is a park that rescues and rehabilitates animals from Maine that are usually hurt and cannot be released back into the wild. Some of them made me pretty sad. I am glad they are being cared for and saved, but it is still obvious that they want to be in the wild. It was pretty awesome to be able to see a black bear up close and a moose, and I would definitely rather see the former in a zoo than on a hike. Then we ate at a delicious Mexican restaurant and shopped a bit before going home. Cesar and I got our first date night-- HALLELUJAH-- and greatly enjoyed a cool little restaurant called Silly's and some time away from the offspring.
Saturday we went on a terrific hike to Bradbury Mountain. We walked up to the summit and then down the long way and I thought Che wasn't going to make it, but then he got his second wind, and kept forcing us all on screaming "Keep moving prisoners" and pointing a stick at us. As long as he isn't whining I am fine with it. The hike was really gorgeous and at the summit we could see all the way to the ocean plus a beautiful farmhouse. Saturday night we ate at Gritty McDuff's pub near Freeport, which was like a Freeport version of Cheeseburgers, only with better food.
Sunday we headed to Boothbay Harbor and went on a great hike around this river leading into the ocean. Besides the bugs and mud, it was a pretty neat hike with views over the water and beautiful trees. Che urged us all to keep moving again...After the hike we drove into town and ate at another seafood restaurant on the water. Then we drove back and Mamita and Pop-Pop headed back to Boston.

Although it was great having Mamita and Pop-Pop here to have other people to play and talk with, and get us to explore new things, the following is a list of the consequences:
1. Sabine expects to be snuggled all the time now because of Mita's spoiling.
2. We are all fatter and our hearts are in worse condition, although our legs might be in better condition because of the walks.
3. Cesar expects the house to be clean (Mamita in her typical OCD way cleaned relentlessly the entire time she was here).
4. We have lots of leftovers in the fridge.

A couple of other things:
1. Che refuses to smile in pictures now. He either will do scared or worried faces in the pics-- so don't be concerned when you see them. We are not torturing him.
2. Sabine told me last night that my beans were "yummy" and that she "loved them".
3. After getting lost on the way up here, and after watching our GPS work its wonders in the car, mom and dad decided they wanted one if they ever go on a big car trip. However, after mom told dad to ignore the GPS's instructions, and then was interrupted talking three times in a row by the GPS giving directions to dad, mom declared : "Never mind, I don't want one after all. It won't even let me talk." Ha ha!