A move from Virginia to Maine

Nov 14

After six years of living in Virginia, mom and her husband Jack are moving back to Maine. Robin and I flew down to Virginia on the 10th early in the morning so that we could arrive early afternoon to allow us to go out to eat at The Cracker Barrel, a restaurant that Robin enjoys (Maine doesn't have one). While eating, we were talking about Geocaching and mom was interested in what it was like finding a hidden cache with a GPS; so on our way home we stopped at a cache that was nearby their house and found it just as it was getting dark.

The next day mom dropped Jack off at the airport where is Zenith CH 701 plane is housed. He and a few fellow pilots were ready to help him load the airplane into the 21' moving truck they rented. To complete this what I thought was a foreboding fete, they had to disconnect the wings and slowly lift the 500lb machine into the truck and then secure it properly so that it did not move during transit.

While that was taking place Robin, mom and I found a few more local caches in Bedford. While searching we came across an area home to several pine trees that had dropped this season's cones; they were large enough so that you could not enclose it in your hand. We picked up several to take back home with us as Robin had some ideas for decorations.

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Ten-Ten-Ten – The End of Our October Vacation

Oct 10

Since we have purchased our house, we’ve implemented upgrades, fixes etc. to our own likings and style which have kept up mostly home throughout the summer. This past week we decided to take off as Autumn is our favorite season.

This year the foliage was not as vibrant as it was two years ago on our honeymoon, it wasn’t as bad as last year however a combination of heat in the summer with a lack of rain and the many windy September days did not help.

Despite that I think the foliage was fairly modest and worth getting out and appreciating. On October 2nd Robin, myself and a fellow co-worker made our way up to Gulf Hagas to hike the entire 8 miles. This would be Robin and I’s second trip however our friend’s first.

It had rained the prior two days which had me worried and excited for this hike. I had worried that the wind and rain would have blown the majority of the remaining foliage off however was in hopes that the water flow would be higher than last year. When we arrived to the sign-in station we were advised to not start off at the beginning of the trail, which would require you to ford the Gulf Hagas Brook which empties into the West Branch Pleasant River (The River that flows through the gorge). The reason was due to high water flow, which really didn’t bother me however the ladies did not want to attempt it. We drove an additional 7 miles past the start point to a small parking lot sits about one mile above the Head of the Rim which is where the gorge and waterfalls begin.

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Our trip(s) to IKEA

Jul 30

I have been researching and mostly longing to have a desk from IKEA. Most people have never heard of the franchise as they have around 15-20 stores in the US. They are popular in Europe and gaining popularity in the US. IKEA is great if you like clean, modern minimalistic furniture, decorations, lighting, etc.

Since we purchased our house my office upstairs has been in desperate need of a new computer desk; the one my mom purchase for us in 1996 from Ames just did not hold up to 3 moves over the course of 14 years. I’ve held out for a long time, at times almost giving in to purchasing another cheap desk but kept telling myself it was worth the wait for a good office, house and desk from IKEA and finally the time came.

After 3 months of painting, fixing things at home, waiting for our tax refund and planning out our "big" projects (cutting down 4 Poplar trees, sealing the driveway, IKEA) we decided to head to Stoughton, Massachusetts on July 17th.

We got up early at around 6AM Saturday morning, showered, got dressed and made our way to Massachusetts; on our way we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts in Augusta for breakfast. Traffic was light which made traveling fairly easily as it’s been about 7 years since I’ve driven that far south before. Once you’re in Southern Maine the 2-lane highway turns into 3-lane highway which makes sense as the slow traffic can stay to the right and the other two lanes can be used for passing. Once we made it through New Hampshire the lanes turned into 4 which was confusing as I am not sure which lane to drive in. The confusion continued with the addition to exit ramps on both sides of the interstate- something we don’t have in Maine, they are always on the right hand side. To solve this problem I stayed in the middle lane and drove a little slower to ensure enough time to switch to either the 1st lane or 4th lane. The GPS really helped out as we could keep our eyes on the road at all times as traffic got busy within Boston.

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Carriage Trails

Jun 19

Robin had mentioned that she wanted to bike around Eagle Lake in Bar Harbor since she used to run the 6 miles in the past so, this past Saturday we loaded our bikes and headed towards Eagle Lake. The weather was in the mid-seventies with mostly clear skies which would make the riding more enjoyable. Upon arriving to the main entrance of Eagle Lake we found the last parking spot, unloaded our bikes and started out. Since the Carriage Trail takes you around the lake you can go in either direction; I chose the opposite direction that most people take and am glad. The route we took starts off going up a hill with a slight elevation however after about two miles of incline the remaining 4 miles was decline or mostly level.

There were several areas where you could stop and hike down a path to look at the lake, get water and rest which I took many breaks not having the best endurance for biking, especially compared to Robin. The lake is a fairly small lake being 436 acres, it is surrounded mountains, two of which are very familiar to people who have visited the Acadia region. They appear to be two lumps side-by-side and usually they reflect nicely over the lake on a calm day- unfortunately it was windy the day we visited which resulted in what I call messy photo. If anyone knows the name of those two mountains, please post a comment to let me know.

After our 6 mile bike we walked Sand Beach for a while taking photos of the coastline as well as looking for any type of sea shells, glass, etc to take home and use for decoration. Later in the evening we met up with Robin's parents and went to diner.

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