On Friday, Ellen, Mer, and I decided to head over to Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Stan Hywet was the mansion owned by the Seiberlings, who made a fortune in rubber. The city of Akron now owns and maintains the site. Ellen has been to Stan Hywet before with us, but we wanted to go back because they had a butterfly exhibit (with live butterflies) and an in-house display of late Victorian jewelry. Even better, Mer and I could get into the grounds for free since we are members of the Holden Arboretum, and Stan Hywet honors that.

It was a hot day, but quite bearable in the shade. The butterfly exhibit was in a specially constructed structure that resembled a mesh tent. It was over next to the conservatory (greenhouses). We went in and caused a small flurry of butterflies to wing around. They were very beautiful. I’m guessing there were six or eight different kinds. There was even an exhibit with sugar water that encouraged you to feed a butterfly with a Q-tip. I could not get a butterfly to eat from my Q-tip, but I did get one to land on it. I learned (from a sign) that butterflies taste with their feet, so you wanted to try to get them to touch the sugar water.

After the butterflies, we checked out the greenhouses. They were okay, but the gardens are what are really spectacular. The grounds of Stan Hywet are expansive and well maintained, and include reflecting pools, a quarry, huge expanses of lawns, and several gardens. The formal gardens near the house were largely in bloom, and were spectacular. We wandered along a birch-lined path to a tea house, and then back, and went around to the back of the house. There, as I looked at my map, I saw a garden path I had never seen before, despite having been to Stan Hywet half a dozen times. We had to take it, of course, and I’m glad we did. It led to a recessed, walled garden, with a reflecting pool. It was very cool. It led to a small wooded path that led to the far side of the house. We took that as an opportunity to check out the house and the jewelry exhibit.

We have been on guided tours of the house before, but our free admission only covered a self-guided tour. That was okay, since we could go at our own pace. The jewelry exhibit was in the ballroom, which may be my favorite room in the house. After we checked out the baubles, we wandered around the house on our own. It was a great way to see the house again (though I recommend a guided tour for first-time visitors).

By this time, it was early afternoon, so I thought we could go to West Point Market. West Point Market is a high-end grocery store, and I thought Ellen could get some tea, which she likes very much. They also serve lunches there, so it made for a good stop for a meal as well. We ate in a very private-feeling booth that was enclosed on three sides, and then wandered the store. I got some kettle-style chips, Ellen got some tea, and we all got some dessert items for later consumption.

Back at the house, we watched TV and ate desserts. We showed Ellen a couple more Big Bang Theory episodes, and since Ellen had heard of it, but not seen it, we broke into season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ellen seemed to enjoy it, both finding it tense in places and enjoying the tongue-in-cheek campiness of the show.

On Saturday, I woke up early to go run fifteen miles on the Towpath Trail. Ellen and Mer slept in. Once I had gotten back and showered and we all were ready, we headed south to Canton. We were meeting up with the Hubele family (except for Don, who was occupied). The destination of the day was the McKinley Museum and Library, a fun and bizarre place commemorating William McKinley. It is located at the foot of the impressive McKinley Monument, and the museum has dinosaurs, mock habitats, a planetarium, exhibits on local manufacturing, and a small but very complete late-19th-century town, including a working fire pole. I loved it.

I also worked the long-term angle. Mer and I joined as members, which costs fifty dollars a year. But the membership allows for free admission to over 250 museums around the country, including ones in Cleveland, Columbus, and Chicago. I figure it will easily pay for itself.

We met up with Donna and her two sons at the museum, and we explored it all, albeit at a rapid pace.  The boys seemed to have a good time. After we’d exhausted the museum, we climbed up to the monument, which the boys ran up. We looked around and went back to the museum for a planetarium show.

The show was okay. It was narrated live by the operator, and he did a good job of showing the effect of “light noise” on sky gazing. He pointed out some major stars and planets, and ended the show with a small presentation on the space race of the 1960s.

We all left after the planetarium show, and Ellen, Mer, and I went to Cuyahoga Falls, to a grad party. This was a party for Ben and John, two students whom I know very well. Mer had Ben in class as well, and both Ben and John were in my improv group. We had cleared bringing Ellen with Ben’s mom, so that was okay. Ben and John are very popular students, so there were a lot of fellow teachers there. We ate too much food and had a great time chatting with folks, and we were able to get under a pavilion roof when a brief rainstorm blew through. Ben and John’s party was Avenger-themed, so it was fun to see kids running around in superhero masks.

After the party, and after some time back at the house, Ellen went back to visit the Hubes. That was okay; Mer and I used the time to watch Olympic coverage for the rest of the evening. We both like the Olympics, and Mer is a veritable junkie. It was certainly a preview of coming attractions for the next two weeks.

On Wednesday, our friend Ellen came to visit from her home in Michigan. She was slated to stay for a few days, and my being on vacation meant that the three of us could hang out and do things together.

But not on Wednesday. Ellen got here in the late afternoon, and had made plans to catch up with her former professor and close friend Don Hubele (or “Hube” for short). We knew about the planned supper before Ellen got here, so she was not blowing us off. We got to visit for about an hour before she had to head off. I like to do some active things when I am on vacation, so I asked Mer if she would want to go for a walk. She agreed, so we headed over to the nearby Ledges park.

The Ledges is really cool in that it has lots of exposed rock, and has a grand view over the Valley (at least when the leaves are down). Mer and I had been to the Ledges many times before, but I picked up a map and noticed there was a trail I had never been on before that led down into the Valley, toward another park area called the Octagon (named after the shelter located there). Since we both like new trails, we decided to go that way. We did have to take one detour to get to the trail; our first attempt was blocked by a deer that was lying down and did not seem to want to move. We did not want to freak it out, so we took another way.

I’m really glad we did. The trail curved under the exposed rock face on which the Ledges sit. It was really pretty and, in places, awe-inspiring. I like exposed rock. We made it down to the Octagon, and I wanted to check out a little half-mile trail on which we had never been before. It was a pleasant little trail though the woods. After that trail, we headed back to the Ledges, completing a very pretty loop.

After our walk, I felt as if we had earned some slack, so after supper Mer and I went to get ice cream from Handel’s with the Churchills, after which we went home and chatted. We were still visiting when Ellen got back from visiting Hube and his family. Zach and Londa had met Ellen before, so we all just kept on visiting. Finally, the Churchills felt they had to get home, so they left and I went to bed.

On Thursday, I called up our friend Dubbs, and she agreed to meet us at the Blue Door restaurant for a late breakfast. The Blue Door is a gourmet diner, if that makes any sense. They use really fresh ingredients, and the chef makes authentic European-style pastries that are really wonderful. I thought Ellen should try it, so we went there. Breakfast was great, and we got to catch up with Dubbs for the first time in over two months. We picked up some pastries to go, and dropped Dubbs off at her place, and then headed over to Dale and Carlene’s.

Dale and Carlene had met Ellen several times before through Hube (Dale and Hube have known each other for over twenty years), and they were delighted to see her. We chatted and ate pastries (except for Ellen, who can’t stay eating at a Riordan pace), and stayed for about thirty minutes before we had to head out for the excitement of the day – the Cleveland Museum of Art.

I had never been inside the museum before, so I was looking forward to it. We got to the museum about 1:30, just in time for a guided tour that lasted about an hour, orchestrated by a charming Hungarian woman. The museum and the tour were both free (the museum general exhibits are always free). After the tour, which focused on a few pieces of Renaissance art and the ancient Egyptian collection, we tried to wander systematically through the museum. As such, I think we saw it all (or at least most of it). I liked the Tiffany glass collection and the sculpture room, and there were two Maine landscapes that jumped out at me, even before I knew they were about Maine. We were able to browse the museum in about three hours, which is a very good size for me.

By the time we were done with the museum, we were starting to get a bit hungry. So, we drove east, over to Legacy Village, where the nearest Cheesecake Factory is located. Before we ate, we swung by the art gallery in Legacy Village, to show Ellen several sculpture pieces we like very much. By the time we wrapped that up, we were all quite hungry.

We were still on the early side of supper (about 5:00), so we got seated right away. We sat outside because it was very nice out, although I kept one eye on a bank of clouds that was coming our way. We had an excellent meal, and Ellen and I had finished our individual desserts and were waiting on Mer to finish hers, when it began to sprinkle. We went inside, where Mer finished her cheesecake, and within a minute or two the heavens just opened up and poured for about five minutes. I was pleased we had made it inside.

The rain had all but stopped by the time we were ready to go, so we walked back to the car and headed home. Ellen had mentioned she had some gripes with Renaissance fairs being unhistorical, so we decided we had to show her a Big Bang Theory episode in which one of the characters (Sheldon) has the same complaints. Ellen was much amused, so we watched a second one. Then, since Ellen has recently become a huge Doctor Who fan, we watched one of the few episodes of that series that she had not seen, as well as some DVD special features that were new to her. A busy day, but a good one.

I still had a week of vacation I needed to take this summer, but we had unexpected car repairs and a new hot water heater that sucked up our potential vacation fund. Plus, with Mer’s folks having just arrived in the area, we wanted to stick around to see if we could help some. So, we decided to have a “stay-cation” and just indulge in day-trips.

On Monday, the big outing was to Hudson to see the new movie The Amazing Spider-Man. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of a film being remade so soon after a pretty successful series (the other Spider-Man movies came out starting in 2002, so it had only been ten years from the first film). I was pleased, though. I had been afraid the film might end up being too dark (a sort-of Batman-meets-Spider-Man), but while there were some dark moments, there was some very good humor as well. The choice of the Lizard as the main bad guy was a fantastic choice, and the script did him very well. I liked all the characters quite a bit, although I thought Spider-Man took off his mask a bit too much. I expect that makes acting quite a bit easier.

On Tuesday, Mer took me up to Cleveland to cash in on one of her CVCA auction items that she still had. We went to the Flats, an area near the river which used to be happening, but is pretty empty now. The city is trying to reinvigorate the Flats, and the new aquarium is located there. We were not there for the fish, though; it was also the launching spot for the two-hour “Lolly the Trolley” tour of Cleveland.

Trolley tours and bus tours are common in cities, but I had never been on one in Cleveland. The day was fine, so the trolley windows were all open, so it was easy to see. There were about fifteen people on the tour, including a family from South America and three people from Eastern Europe. There was a slightly boisterous family that got a little irritating as they got restless toward the end of the tour, but on the whole the group behaved.

The tour went around much of the city, but skipped the far west side for some reason. The trolley took in all the major sites of downtown, including the baseball field, the skyscrapers, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the football stadium. It went all the way out east to University Circle, where Case Western Reserve University and the art museum are located. We came back along the lake and stopped at the lakefront airport for a fifteen-minute break. The airport had an exhibit on women in aviation, including women astronauts. You could also see right out onto the runway, which you can’t do much in big airports anymore.

In all, it was a good overview of Cleveland, including some side-street neighborhoods I would probably have not found on my own. The driver and tour guide was pleasant and informative, and we had a good time. And it was at a discounted rate from the CVCA auction too!

Last Saturday was our fifth of six weddings spanning October 2011 through September 2012. There was actually going to be a seventh, but the bride and groom decided to delay their wedding for awhile. I don’t imagine we will be so wedding-rich again for some time, if ever.

Last weekend’s wedding involved a former student of Mer’s and one of my former improv students. Dan has stayed in touch over the intervening seven years since he graduated, and we were very pleased to be invited to his wedding. Dan had met his bride, Carolyn, online, which I think is the third such wedding we have been to since the dawn of internet dating made such meetings possible.

The wedding was in Pittsburgh, which is always an adventure, even with a GPS. For those who have not driven in Pittsburgh, the city is very hilly, and so the streets tend to wind, and the intersections can come up very quickly. We made it to the church with little difficulty (we were not quite so lucky on the way home, where I took two wrong turns, from which the GPS rescued us). Dan’s younger brother, Mike, was also in my improv group, and had just gotten back from a months-long mission trip to South Africa. We were able to chat briefly with Mike and his girlfriend at the reception, and made plans to catch up with Mike later.

The actual wedding was an Anglican wedding, and was presided over by two priests – Mike’s priest from New York and Carolyn’s priest from Pittsburgh. The ceremony was from the Book of Common Prayer, and the homily was given by Mike’s priest. She looked a little tired from her trip the previous day, but she did fine. The entire service was a real church service, lasting over an hour, and included several congregational hymns, and Dan and Carolyn served each other communion, which I found very touching.

The reception was nearby in a fire-fighters’ hall. Mer and I were seated with Dan’s fellow-students, most of whom were in my Royal Fools improv group, and most of whom have stayed in touch with both me and Mer. It is always a great time to see this group of former students; we have a good time together. The food was excellent, and the fellowship was grand. There was dancing after supper, and Mer and I got to dance a fair amount. The only downside to the evening was that the music was too loud to allow for conversation, even when we were on the other side of the hall. That was fairly minor, as we figured we could make plans to see most everyone, and we made definite plans to see Mike.

The next wedding will be in early September, and will involve the same group of students. It will be a fine way to wrap up the Year of the Wedding.

This last week was mellow, but family-focused. On Monday, we drove down to Canton, to Aunt Mary’s place. We got take-out from Chipotle (Aunt Mary got a salad from Wendy’s), and we went back to the house to eat and to do our classic game-show watching: we played along with Wheel of Fortune and then Jeopardy!

On Thursday, Mer and I drove up to Cleveland, to the airport, to pick up Mer’s parents, Dale and Carlene. They were moving back to Ohio, which made me and Mer pretty happy. Their possessions were en route and would not get to Cuyahoga Falls until Friday, so we all drove back to our place for the evening. It was a later flight (8:00 pm), so Dale and I went to bed fairly directly, while Mer and Carlene chatted for awhile.

On Friday, Mer and Dale and Carlene went over to Dale and Carlene’s new home – a two-bedroom apartment in a nearby retirement village. The furniture was being professionally moved, so the movers did pretty much all of the heavy lifting. They got the heavy things into place, and took a bunch of boxes over to a storage unit until such a time as Dale and Carlene are ready for more boxes to unpack.

I ran over with Mer after work to see how things were shaping up. The place has real potential, although it was full of boxes. We brought over our older LCD TV, and I set it up on the existing cable line. The picture came in pretty well. The management of the apartment complex had left a cake for Dale and Carlene, so we all had a piece of that. I know it cannot be easy for Dale and Carlene to leave their home of the last fifteen-plus years in Florida, but it is my hope that having family and old friends in the area will help the transition. Mer and I are pleased to be able to “drop by” when we want to; it remains to be seen if Dale and Carlene see that as an advantage or not.

We left Maine late Friday morning, with the goal of reaching central New York. We stopped near Portland to eat brunch at IHOP, eating a ridiculous amount of food including a stack of “cinnamon roll” French toast. That certainly held us until our late supper.

We drove until about 7:00 or so, reaching Syracuse. We got off the highway to look for a motel, and the first one we saw was called the John Milton. Milton is a famous English author, and so it seemed as if we should stay there. It did not hurt that it was only $42 a night. It was a bit run-down, but it was clean, and was located next to a Dunkin Donuts and a Denny’s. We did smile at the notice that people who did not pay their bill on a daily basis would be asked to leave, no matter how long they had been in residence. That is not a sign we had seen before in Hiltons or even Motel 6 chains. The front desk also had a sign that said something to the effect of “Poor customer service will be remembered long after the joy of a cheap price is forgotten.” The odd thing was, the sign was pointed at the customers, when I would have expected it to be a reminder to the people behind the desk.

We ate supper at the Denny’s, and grabbed dessert at Dunkin Donuts. We got back to the room around 9:00, and went to bed. I slept fitfully, and was up before 5:00. Mer had to use the bathroom, so I used the opportunity to urge us to get on the road. She acquiesced, although a bit grumpily.

We got home about noon, and used Saturday and Sunday to get caught up on house things, like laundry and paying bills and such. One unfortunate occurrence was I found out our hot water heater was leaking, and so I put a call in to get a plumber to come out and replace it (which he did on Monday evening). It put a slight damper (ha!) on the vacation, but we had a great time in Maine. The kitties were all safe, and it was good to sleep in my own bed again and not be rooting around in a suitcase for clean clothes.

Thursday was our last full day in Maine, and it was Mer’s day. We had arranged to go to Julie and Paul’s house in Brunswick in the evening for supper. Add to that the fact that my wife likes to see everything, and I figured out, when we were still twenty minutes outside of Brunswick, that we were headed back to Brunswick, to take and finish the campus tour of Bowdoin College .

The tour group looked to be huge, with forty or more people, and I was not looking forward to it. Happily, there were three tour guides, and so the groups split into smaller groups of twelve to fifteen, and each person could choose a guide. Mer, not surprisingly, gravitated toward an English major. We toured around the main quad of Bowdoin, with the guide pointing out various dorms and various department buildings. We went into a science building, and into the student union/fitness center. The fitness center was a gift from the guy who founded Subway restaurants, who had graduated from Bowdoin with a physics major. Mer wanted to know when I was going to found a multi-million-dollar business with my physics degree. The tour lasted about ninety minutes, and we came away with the impression that Bowdoin was very similar to our college, Middlebury College (except we both think Middlebury is prettier).

After the college tour, we drove a very short distance to the center of town, to the Skofield-Whittier House. The house is a Victorian-style house that is now owned my the Pejepscot Historical Society. It had been built by a sea captain who had done well, and handed down through a couple of generations. In the 1930s the last of the family, a young woman, left the house with everything inside, and eventually gave it to the historical society to keep up. As such, many of the furnishings date to 1900 or even before, and the house is in pretty good shape, although the historical society is small enough that upkeep on the house is an ongoing task.

Our tour was excellent. It was just Mer and I and our tour guide. We were taken all around the house and told its history, and I saw at least one newspaper on a cupboard that had a headline about Nixon (the last woman who owned the place did come back from time to time, but changed nothing in the house). It was interesting to see various appliances from the 1920s and 1930s, and the house itself is very pretty.

After we finished the tour, which took about an hour or a little more, we drove over to see if we could tour the Brunswick Naval Air Station, a major air field for the Navy. We got there only to discover that the base had closed (in 2011, it turns out, with the last flight in 2009). It is now open as a civilian airport, but there did not seem to be much to see, and no way of knowing any of the history of the base. So, we moved on.

We headed south toward the ocean and a number of scenic islands that are joined to the main (Maine) land by small bridges.We crossed over Great Island to Orr’s Island, all the way to Bailey’s Island to where the road stops (a gift store called Land’s End). We got out of the car to look around briefly on each of the islands, and wandered around quite a bit on Bailey’s Island. The bridge from Orr’s Island to Bailey’s Island was worth stopping to see. It is a cribstone bridge, which is a bunch of granite blocks just lying on top of each other in a grid pattern. It is the only working bridge of its kind in the world.

We drove back to Brunswick to Julie and Paul’s house, where they had supper waiting. We had a good supper of corn on the cob and chicken, and then we sat in their backyard and chatted. It was a fine evening, and it was a good night to sit out. Julie and Paul’s daughters needed to get ready for bed before the sun set, so we left while we still had some daylight. We decided to use it, and Mer had me drive south to South Harpswell to a peninsula, all the way to where the road ended, with a fine view of the ocean. The sun was not quite ready to set, but it was still very pretty. We did not linger too long, as we had a ninety-minute drive back to Dad’s place, and a start to the long drive back home on Friday. The relaxed evening was a good way to end our vacation.

Mer did arrange to have dinner with her friend Julie and her family, on Thursday. So, we swapped days so that Wednesday was “my” day. I wanted to take a hike, but several of the hikes I looked at were either very difficult, or very far away. After a little online research, I found out that the southern coastal town of Oqunquit had a mile-and-a-quarter-long paved trail called “The Marginal Way” that was right on the ocean. In addition, the town was supposed to be charming, so I settled on Oqunquit as our destination for the day.

Oqunquit is very far south in Maine, only a few miles from New Hampshire, and a good thirty or more miles south of Portland. It is on Route 1, and is very much a tourist-driven town. We got there late morning, and found a good municipal parking lot to park in, near the center of town and very close to the beach. Food seemed like a good first order of the day, so we wandered toward one of the main streets and found a restaurant called The Wild Blueberry. We were both in the mood for breakfast, so it seemed a good pick. For some odd reason, Oqunquit has a town law forbidding restaurants from serving guests on their decks, so we had to eat inside, even though it was a beautiful day. The food was good, albeit about fifty percent more expensive than it should have been, but that is the cost of eating in a tourist town.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Marginal Way path. Once we got to the ocean, I was shocked at what I saw. From the start of the walkway, you could see Oqunquit’s beach. I had no idea that Maine had such beaches. Most of Maine’s coast (and many of the lake shores) is all rock, with little or no sand. Oqunquit had a huge sandy beach that ran north to the town of Wells, where the beach continued. In fact, Oqunquit’s beach was a small island joined to the town by a small bridge, so the beach actually wrapped around the southern part of the island. Even though there were lots of people on the beach, the beach was so large it did not appear crowded. I was amazed.

The Marginal Way itself was no less a happy find. It wound along a rocky section of coast that had a couple of very small beaches along the way. The path itself was very easy since it was paved, and it climbed gently to a high point that had a good view. The rocks of the coast were immediately accessible from the path, so Mer and I clambered around a few rocks. There were many small hotels and rental beach houses facing up against the path, but there were also some very beautiful private homes that commanded spectacular views of the coast. The path ended (going south) in a little coastal grove of trees, and finally in a parking lot with a few restaurants about. Mer and I walked it to the southern end, and then returned the way we came, taking a short detour to explore one of the mini-beaches, where we both waded into the fairly cold Maine ocean.

Once we got back to the northern end of the trail, we walked a block through town and took a footpath and bridge over to the main road bridge that led to the island-beach. The beach is very low-lying, so that I think much of it must disappear at high tide. The sand goes out very gently, as far as I could tell. Mer waded in the ocean again since she always wears easy-off sandals. By then, it was late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the car and started heading back north along Route 1.

On the way into town we had seen an ice cream stand called Sundaes on the Beach, and we decided to stop there on the way out of town. Sundaes on the Beach has an interesting business model: you order your ice cream, and then you can top in any way you like from a small but good sundae bar. We had seen similar places that worked with yogurt, but never anywhere that used ice cream instead. We were both pretty pleased by the concept, and we were happy to have stopped. After our snack-break, we headed back home.

On Tuesday, early in the morning, I drove up to Augusta to take advantage of their paved running/biking path that runs along the river south for 6.5 miles. By running a short section of the path twice, I was able to take advantage of the wonderfully cool weather and run about fifteen miles. The biggest issue was the small, rolling hills along the path. By the time I got back to the car, my hamstrings were in a fair amount of pain.

Once I got back to the house and Mer and I got ready for the day, we jumped in the car and took a winding and scenic route south and west to the the New Hampshire border, to the town of Fryeburg, Maine. Fryeburg is best known for its fair in the fall, having the second biggest fair in New England, after the one outside of Boston. It’s an odd place for a huge fair, since the town only has a few thousand people, but that is what it is known for.

We were there because I wanted a scenic drive, but also because the town had a company that offered kayak rentals to paddle on the shallow and slow Saco River. It seemed like an ideal place to try kayaking. Before the big river adventure, we ate at one of the three restaurants we could find in town, the Fryeburg House of Pizza and Family Restaurant. The food was decent, although the air conditioning was cranked to an uncomfortable level, even for me.

On the way back to the kayak place, we stopped briefly to check out Fryeburg Academy, a private high school with a dorm option for out-of-town students. It was very pretty, with several brick buildings and large athletic fields. I later looked up tuition, and decided that forty thousand dollars a year (for boarding students) should buy some scenic views.

The kayak folks did have a kayak for us, so we opted for the shortest trip, a ninety-minute excursion down the river to a landing where the company would pick us up. We had a tandem (two-person) kayak, with Mer in the front and me in the back. We felt comfortable in the boat right away as far as stability, and as the river was never deeper than three or four feet, we felt quite safe. Most of the time, the river was only about a foot deep, with a sandy bottom, so it really was a  perfect place to try kayaking.

The day was fine, and the river pretty. The only frustration we had was that our kayak did not steer well. We had always seen that kayaks would turn away from the side you paddled on. So, if you paddled on the right-hand side, the kayak would go slightly left. For whatever reason, our kayak would do that occasionally, but more often it would turn toward the rowing side. Even when we tried correcting for this by rowing on both sides, we never did get the kayak to go where we wanted it without my dragging my paddle in the water as a break. We will need to try kayaking again sometime to see if it was just that particular kayak.

Despite the steering issues, the trip was worthwhile because of the surroundings. We often chose to drift to enjoy the river, and while there were people about on and in the river enjoying it, we often had stretches of the river to ourselves. We made it to the landing in about seventy-five minutes, and by luck the company was there picking up some other people, so we did not have to wait.

Once we got back to the car, I decided to drive north to Bethel, Maine, as that would take us through the White Mountain National Forest. What an incredible drive. The forest was very dense on both sides, and the road wound up into the western Maine mountains. We even zigzagged into New Hampshire a few times. It was the prettiest place I saw inland on this trip to Maine.

Once we got to Bethel, we drove back through Rumford and on to Jay, and back through Livermore Falls, back to Dad’s. At least I figured out how to steer the car.

Monday was Mer’s day, and she pointed us toward the Augusta area, where we jumped on Route 24, which is a scenic drive alongside the Kennebec River. We headed south along the road, and she gave me leave to take any little side roads that I wanted to take, so in general I tried to take small roads that would keep us as close to the river as possible, since I figured that would be the most scenic.

We did stop in the small riverside town of Richmond. Richmond is an interesting little town in that it has a beautiful situation. The river runs alongside the town, and the main shopping street is on a hill overlooking the river. Mid-river is the nature reserve Swan Island, which I was very excited about. It turns out you can get a boat over to Swan Island, but you need to make reservations. That may be in the plans for next summer. Anyway, the town has these wonderful advantages, and the main street is cute, but there are also several buildings either empty and/or in disrepair. It seems as if the town cannot quite make out if it is succeeding or starting to decline. I hope it makes it, as it has a lot of promise.

We continued our scenic drive south, and finally ended up in the town of Brunswick. One of Mer’s college friends, Julie, lives there with her husband and two daughters. Julie’s husband, Paul, owns a cafe in Brunswick called The Little Dog (Paul and Julie indeed have a well-behaved little dog). Mer wanted to see if they were home, but first we had lunch in The Little Dog. Monday was Paul’s day off, so he was not there, but the food and hot chocolate were excellent, and we got to eat outside on the sidewalk, which Mer always enjoys.

On the way back to the car, we noticed a gelato (Italian ice cream) store that we had never seen before. It was called Gelato Fiasco, and we decided to check it out. They had the real-deal Italian ice cream (sometimes places just call themselves a gelato store to sound pretentious, when they really sell normal ice cream). Gelato is denser and more flavorful than standard ice cream, and is always served in much smaller quantities. Gelato Fiasco made their own gelato, and they had tons of flavors. Mer and I were both excited that they offered cookie sandwiches made from huge chocolate chip cookies stuffed with your choice of gelato. We each got one and ate those out on the sidewalk as well. It was a rather grand lunch, in all.

After lunch, we went over to Paul and Julie’s house, but no one was home. We decided we would take a walking tour of nearby Bowdoin College to pass some time, and try back later. So, we left the car on the street and walked over to Bowdoin, where Mer wanted to find the Admissions Office to see if we could get a tour. We found the office, but had missed the most recent guided tour, so we took a self-guided tour booklet and started off. We did not get very far, as the second building we came to was the library. It turns out that both the poet Longfellow and the author Hawthorne had graduated from Bowdoin in 1825, and the college library had original documents from both authors. We decided we had to try to check those out, and so we went up to the special collections area of the library on the third floor. The librarians were very helpful, and after we filled out a short form, they went to pull some items from their collection. In the meantime, I checked out a display case that had some letters and other items that had belonged to Joshua Chamberlain, a Civil War hero, Bowdoin College president, and former governor of Maine. I especially enjoyed reading a short letter Chamberlain wrote to his wife when he thought he was dying from wounds he had received. It was eloquent and touching, and happily, Chamberlain survived his wounds.

The librarians brought up some items from special collections. They included a handwritten copy of Longfellow’s poem “Excelsior!” and a letter to his sister. From Hawthorne, they brought us his well-marked copy of Bowdoin College’s rules for 1824 and a first edition of The Scarlet Letter. It is amazing that they let us handle these; the letters from Longfellow were in plastic sleeves, but the Hawthorne items were not. Hawthorne’s copy of the rules was interesting in that the covers were filled with his practicing his signature. I’m not sure why, but that is what was scrawled all over it.

We went back to Julie and Paul’s house after we left the library, and Paul was home with one of his daughters. He kindly let us in, and we visited for about a half hour before Julie came home. Julie had to walk their dog, so we joined Julie and the other daughter (who had not been home with Paul) for a walk along Bowdoin’s athletic fields, which included a wonderful path through the woods. I love walking while talking, and the woods were pretty as well as cool from all of the shade. The walk lasted over half an hour, and Julie and Paul encouraged us to come back for supper later in the week if we were able to.

We head back to Dad’s, and found that Kellee had used a gift certificate she had received at Christmas to buy us each two different kinds of whoopie pies. We ate them both, after supper, while watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory, which we had brought with us. I’m not sure we needed more food, but they were very good, including an unusual peanut butter whoopie pie that was made with cookie ends instead of the standard cake ends. While the purist might wince at that, it was pretty darn good.