Day 18.103: Wordless Wednesday: Travel

Day 17.339: Parade of Lights

It was chilly and dry for the parade of lights this evening. We were especially looking out for the dance school (I'll be spending some more time with them tomorrow), E5N1 marching with the school performing arts department and some of our birding friends representing Saco Bay Trails. This is how some of it looked:

Including; Slugger (member of the Mascots Hall of Fame), festive Mandalorians and Santa in the fire boat.

Here is the school group:

And E5N1 - adding puppeteering to his performing arts roster:

He had a great time having his puppet alter-ego high-five the little kids along the far side of the road,

The funniest moment was this snowman starting to limbo as the inflation pump stopped just as the float passed us. He was almost horizontal before he stood back up again after a technical intervention.

But the most surprising moment was the float that brought the snow storm to this chilly evening.

Day 16.260: Surfacing

In mid-August, we had a sign in our neighborhood warning that resurfacing was about to start. After a week or two of sporadic progress, it all went pretty quiet until yesterday when they finally did the majority of the actual paving (including the other half).

As of today, it's back to no progress again with a number of finishing-off tasks still outstanding - hopefully it doesn't take another six weeks to get to the finish line.

Day 16.244: Travel again

I'm on the road again - for a variety of road that results in arrival views like these. These were my window-seat views as I arrived in Chicago mid-morning:

and in the seemingly endless flat cornfields of Indiana around lunchtime:

Day 16.233: ...and back again

I know I joked on Tuesday about the "coast" I was visiting, but this view as I took off from Detroit on the second leg of my return journey could easily be the ocean rather than Lake Michigan.

Even more baffling - was this view of a "bridge". It looks like something glitched in the Matrix.

The real ocean this time - this was my view of "our" beach as we looped around into Portland:

Day 16.125: Peaks - too soon?

Yesterday, four of us went for a ferry trip to Peaks Island. Although far from high season, most of what we wanted to do was open (and much less busy that it will be later in the summer).

Leaving mainland Portland

Arriving on the island

When we arrived we headed straight to the quieter side

Cairn beach

Back for lunch - a lobster roll for Dad with a great view

That was our lunch spot

The gang walking off our lunch

On the way back, we unexpectedly detoured around the eastern side of House Island and got a good view of Fort Scammel...

...along the coast to Portland Head Light...

...and a close pass by Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

It wasn't such a serious birding day but we couldn't miss out altogether:

Clockwise from top-left: A splendid snowy egret, common grackle, northern mockingbird, song sparrow (in full song), osprey (we saw three or four), tree swallow

Day 16.114: Five at home

Exile #2 and I drove to Massachusetts and found Exile #4. 

Despite the months having flown by, they had accrued a surprising amount of stuff - but we got it all out of the room and into the car. Now we have to work out what to do with it here. 

 It’s nice to be back to five in the house - for a few days.  After that more change is afoot. 

Day 16.075: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #432

Exile #2 writes...

We had a little trip out today to visit a newly opened trail nearby. Although it is fairly short, it is lovely, following the path of Stackpole Creek along to its end, where it empties into the Saco River.

To get there, however, you have to cross Stackpole Bridge, a little old stone bridge with a keyhole arch, built in the 1840s and the source of some stress in recent years. It even closed for a time, while the town decided whether to mend or replace it, causing a significant detour for the locals. It seems the Friends of Stackpole Bridge must have won out because it was open and looking pretty good today.

It’s there somewhere. Apologies for the terrible photo of this historic bridge [Ed]

Perhaps they need to follow the example of another old stone bridge we have known, and set up a toll booth. I think the current charge at Swinford (Oxfordshire, UK) is 5 pence, so I guess a dime would do it.

Day 16.057: Paddle your own…sled?

Exile #4 experimented with this form of locomotion during storm clean up at the weekend as an alternative to trudging through snow deeper than their legs are long. It wasn’t remotely successful but it was very amusing. 

Day 16.019: Exile #2's Sunday Column #426

Exile #2 writes...

We often have National Public Radio on in the car. It's a national treasure and full of shows that make you want to listen to the end, even once you’ve reached your destination. On Sunday mornings, our journey is perfectly timed to catch the weekend puzzle section. Whilst, on our way to and from the beach yesterday, we heard about a mysterious internet scam involving Nespresso pods, then a tale about an American scientist who was called upon to forecast the weather for the D-Day landings. This being the age of the podcast, however, we don't have to wait in the car any more to hear the gripping conclusions, we can track them down later. But it’s worth it. If you don't already, and you're ever in need of something to listen to - dig in to NPR!

Day 16.007: Constructed

Exile #2 mentioned that I had been constructing. In my case it was this fun and challenging model which was a birthday present from her brother and family (thank you!)

Day 15.340: Storm path

As I watched the snow fall all morning, the plan to spend this afternoon driving to Massachusetts to bring Exile #4 home started to seem a little more ambitious than it had when we were predicted to get only rain. 

Fortunately, by the time I got twenty miles down the highway, I left the snow behind me and the rest of the journey was in “just” pouring rain. 

Unfortunately, the snow was waiting for us when we returned to a similar place and the last few miles were very wintry. 

However, everyone behaved sensibly and we made it home safely:

And yes - Exile #4 did travel home from college wearing a shirt from Elementary School!

Day 15.336: Diamond Riverside Park revisited

Last time we went there, the area between the boat launch and the railroad bridge was rather overgrown. We returned on Saturday morning and it couldn't have been more different - an open area with a gravel path that leads all the way to the railroad bridge we had failed to reach on the previous occasion.

The bridge itself seemed to have had some recent repair work. The railroad is still active albeit with only occasional small, slow freight trains from Industrial Park Road across the river to Biddeford.

We also saw what I assumed to be an immature osprey, but in fact appears to be a young bald eagle. A fairly rare sight for us here.

Day 15.297: Funnily enough...

Funnily enough, when I wrote that post yesterday, I had no idea that this evening I would be back in that same dorm room (albeit very briefly). I went down after leaving work a bit early to deliver a warranty replacement phone that was delivered to us instead of to Exile #4.

It meant that I could help with the transfer of the SIM card etc. and ensure the old phone got packaged up and taken to the FedEx dropbox. It also meant that I spent 4 hours driving to spend about 20 mins with this one: