Happy Birthday, Joshua

Happy Birthday Joshua Adam. Today is our grandson's 8th birthday. He has grown so quickly into a smart, young student and football fan. He loves to play flag football and is very good at it.

He is very protective of his younger sister which is a blessing to see.

Papa and I are very proud of you, Josh, and we will see you very soon. Have a great birthday and keep that beautiful smile, because you are a real charmer.

And all the crazies

Well, we are back in Ohio with daughter and family and I am reflecting on the past 10 days or so. I call it the "crazies". Whenever I go into crowds, such as airports, I am fascinated by all that goes on. How I wish I was bold enough to take pictures in airports. This trip would have produced some dandies.

There was the row of 4 wheelchairs with little old ladies in every kind of dress and hat (one had a baseball cap on with a sideways tilted brim) as they were waiting in a row to be wheeled onto the airplane. The wheelchairs had a long flag stick attached to them to make sure that everyone could see them. There they sat when the Trout says to me "the Indy 500 waiting to race." That's a crazy! And then later, as we sat in the airport, we saw an elderly couple. I nodded to the Trout to take a look to his left. There sat a man with his pant legs raised enough to see black and white horizontal striped socks that were in black rubber wedgies. He had a striped shirt and all that was missing was a hat. The Trout says, much too loudly for me, "The Cat in the Hat." Another crazy.

We few Southwest Airlines for the first time, and all the flight attendants had very funny senses of humor. One elderly lady passenger had a piece of overhead luggage that she asked the flight attendant to pull down for her. She asked for the green bag. The flight attendant said there was no green bag, only a gray one, which turned out to be the correct one. Then the flight attendant said, "now we will work on colors and numbers."

For my travel, I have a nylon tear-dropped shaped shoulder purse that holds a lot. It is in pretty bad shape this trip. I have to admit, it is butter and lobster stained from all our eating escapades. Will need a thorough laundry workout when we get home.

Thirty some years ago, I developed an aspirin allergy after the birth of our last child. Also at this time, I became very sensitive to wintergreen. It is very bothersome to me that toothpaste, gum and mints, do not come right out and put wintergreen on the labels. I have thrown out a lot of this after purchase. Wintergreen gives me a severe migraine headache. I have had to move in church because of the smell and I smelled it on the airplane for a few seconds, but it was someone passing by, not sitting near me. Such nonsense--more crazies.

The trip was great, and we would definitely go back to Manchester, Vermont, and the Bar Harbor, Maine area. Friendly folks all over and of course, the lobster and chowder and blueberry pies were great.

Last day in Maine

Spent the day touring. Acadia National Park is a beautiful hiking park with a gorgeous setting. We first drove up to Cadillac Mountain. Cadillac Mountain is the only mountaintop in the park accessible by car and it is also the highest peak. During much of the year, it is also the first place on US soil touched by rays of sunrise. To me, that is exciting and I can only wish to be there so early in the morning, but unfortunately, the park does not open that early. It is at 1528 feet and the highest peak on the Atlantic between Canada and Brazil.

We also stopped at Mount Desert Oceanarium and learned more about lobsters and sea creatures than I ever knew existed. These people have a wealth of knowledge that they share and there was a lot of lobster, sea urchin and sea cucumber touching going on. I would definitely recommend this place, especially good for school children to learn about sea life.

I also promised that I would take a picture of the next plate of oysters on the half shell, but, darn, we got so excited about it that I didn't think of the picture until they were gone, so, here is what is left.

Okay, now this is it! We had to have lobster one last time. This was a little longer drive to a lobster shack right on the bay. They certainly aren't fancy, but they offer the best and freshest lobsters around.

This was by far, the best lobster we have had this week. If you are keeping count, this was our third night in a row for steamed lobster. In talking to the workers there, we find out they steam in those metal boxes outside the shack with water pulled right out of the sea. This flavors the lobster giving it the perfect saltiness. We would definitely recommend Thurston's Lobster Pound south of Bar Harbor, Maine, in Tremont.