Tuesday, September 6, 2011

How I Spent My Summer Vacation in Maine...2011

I've been away from blogging for more than a week. My husband and I left home on August 27th and headed up to Westport Island in Maine for a week--just ahead of Hurricane Irene. We were joined by my daughter, her husband, and my three-week-old granddaughter Julia Anna. Two good friends also spent the weekend with us. Despite the rain and wind, we were having a grand time--eating, playing cards and Scrabble, making a jigsaw puzzle...and holding the baby.

Even though the island hadn't seemed to be hard hit by the storm, our electricity went out at 5:30 PM on Sunday. Fortunately, we had a gas grill and were able to fix a tasty dinner. Unfortunately, no electricity meant we had to do without water. That was a problem!

Monday was a glorious day on the island--sunny, dry, and in the seventies. We decided not to return home and to stay in the house we had rented in hopes that the electricity would come back on by the end of the day. No luck with that.

Still, the weather looked like it would be fantastic for the rest of the week. "What should we do?" we asked ourselves. We decided to rent a room at the Hampton Inn in Bath so we could all take showers and bathe the baby. Then we returned to the house to spend the night. We lit candles and started a fire in the fireplace. We heated up the chili that I had already prepared--and had it for our dinner that night with homemade guacamole, jack cheese, and sour cream.


My husband and I headed off to the Hampton Inn Tuesday morning to take showers. We had planned to rent the room for another night after deciding not to leave Maine...and to tough it out. As luck would have it, we didn't have to rent the room Tuesday night. Our daughter called and informed us that our electricity was turned back on at 11:00 AM. HOORAY!

My husband, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and I drove to Georgetown that afternoon for lunch. We had some lobsters and fried clams at the Five Islands Lobster Company.  We sat on a picnic bench overlooking the ocean and "five islands." It was a beautiful setting--and the food was delicious.


On Wednesday, my husband's cousin Kate joined us. We ate lunch outside on the deck.
I so enjoyed having my new granddaughter with us on Westport Island. It was fun feeding her...rocking her...singing to her...watching her sleep.
I was so sad that my daughter, her husband, and little Julia Anna had to leave late Thursday afternoon. It had been such fun having them around.

I had hoped to post a poem on Poetry Friday last week--but we lost power again at 9:00 AM that morning. It was back on by 12:30 PM. My husband and I sat out on the deck Friday afternoon sipping wine and eating cheese and roasted glazed figs.

Despite the lack of electricity and water for part of our stay in Maine--we managed to have a grand vacation. I hated to leave!


8 comments:

Faith E. Hough said...

What a beautiful baby! My daughter is three months old now, but it still seems as if she was just born yesterday!
We were out of power from Irene for a few days, too--I agree, cooking on the grill is delightful, but going without showers is a lot more annoying. ;)

Elaine Magliaro said...

Faith,

Julia Anna is one-month-old today. It is so wonderful being a grandmother. I love it!

Not being able to flush the toilets was the most troublesome thing of all!

Linda B said...

Love that next to last pic where Julia looks as if she's questioning her daddy. Beautiful baby. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time, even a little adventure too! I agree, being a grandmother is the best!

jama said...

Glad you had a nice time despite the blackout. Can't believe Julia Anna is already a month old! Getting cuter every day :).

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Elaine Magliaro said...

Teacherdance,

people had told me how great it was to be a grandparent. It's even better than I had expected!

*****

Jama,

My son-in-law told me last night he thinks that this was our best vacation in Maine. In fact, he feels the loss of electricity had added to the fun.

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