Mer and I both had two weeks off for Christmas, so we jumped in the car on Friday the 18th. We had booked a resort room at Woodcliff Resort in western Rochester, about 4.5 hours away from home. We have done the Maine trip a bunch of times, and Mer was tired of shelling out $85-95 for a bland motel room that often was not very good. She asked me to look for something better, and after some online research, I stumbled across Woodcliff. Woodcliff is a very nice spa and resort hotel, but December must be a very slow month for them, because the room we booked was really amazing, but only $105. The resort is on a hill, and the room looked out over the hills around Rochester. The room was big and the bathroom was nice, and it was just soul-soothing (as Mer observed the next morning). We relaxed in the room – we watched a 30-minute collection of Pixar short films that was on the Disney channel. I slept like a rock, and since check-out time was not until noon, we slept in. We also took advantage of the $15 (for both of us) breakfast buffet that was elegant and very tasty. The dining room had tons of windows that overlooked the snowy hills. Quite wonderful. Sadly, the return trip would not take us here, as the January room rates jumped up to $135/night. Ah, well. It was a great stay. We were well rested and well fed, and we did not need to stop for food until we got to Maine.

The trip on Saturday was uneventful. There was a huge storm that was moving up the east coast, but we managed to get through Massachusetts about three hours before the storm arrived. We were happily furnished with lots of trip food thanks to the generosity of Mer’s students bringing in good things for Christmas gifts. We called Carleton (Mer’s grandfather) once we got to the bridge at Kittery, and found out that Mer’s parents had missed their flight due to misreading the tickets. That was sad, but it would only result in a two-day delay for Dale and Carlene, so no great harm.

As we proceeded up the coast, we started to get hungry (it was pushing 8:00), and Mer needed a bathroom. We were just north of Bath, so we stopped at the Taste of Maine restaurant in Woolwich. I had grown up seeing the commercials, and Mer had gone by the restaurant most of her life (on trips to Maine), but neither of us had ever been before. We split a pizza (in a seafood restaurant), and then I was a little sad when we passed Moody’s Diner 30 miles later and saw that it was still open. Ah, well. We arrived in Rockland safely around 9:30, where Carleton and Aunt Mary were waiting for us.

Sunday was off to church with Gramps and Aunt Mary. I really like Pastor Gabe of the First Baptist Church in Rockland – a very good and passionate and thoughtful preacher. We were mellow for much of the day Sunday, but went back to the church for the evening service, which was taking the place of a Christmas Eve service this year. I love Christmas services – I would find it very strange and incomplete now not to sing “Silent Night” by candlelight during the Christmas season. The evening service featured a pastor-in-training  who gave a short sermon, and he did very well. After the service, there were refreshments in the gym, and I got to chat with the newer pastor. He is an interesting man who got a Master’s degree in marine biology before feeling he should go into ministry. I ate too much food, and then decided to tromp through the 3-4 inches of new snow to go back home, which is about a mile. One of my favorite pastimes in Rockland is to walk. I love the town, and I like looking at the houses. With the new snow, it was very pretty.

On Monday, Mer and Aunt Mary went off to Bangor to pick up Dale and Carlene. That left me alone with Carleton, so I took the opportunity to take him to lunch at the Owl’s Head General Store, a store in the next town that has the best burgers in the greater Rockland area. I really treasured that lunch – I admire Carleton and like him very much, and it was good to get to talk with him one on one. We chatted quite awhile about his service in the Pacific in World War 2, at my instigation. While Carleton does not shy away from talking about his service, he does not bring it up on his own. He spent 2.5 years in the jungles of New Guinea and other Pacific islands. He was attached to the field HQ of an artillery unit. It was very very interesting. Mer and Aunt Mary and Mer’s parents made it back safe and sound in the late afternoon.

Tuesday was another pretty mellow day. Mer and I had lunch at Bricks, a restaurant in town that serves $5 lunches. After lunch, we headed over to the cemetery to see Gram’s grave (Gram passed away last October). It is still a very pretty place to be buried. We headed back home, and later that day, three of Mer’s relatives came over for pizza. It was a pleasant meal.

Wednesday was an exciting day – in the morning I went over to the breakwater to walk out on it, but it was bitterly cold. It was very beautiful, but it was painful to be in the wind on the breakwater, so I only made it about 100 years out on the the mile-long breakwater. Whew, was it cold. Around 11:00 or so, Mer and I took everyone to lunch at Bricks. We have been the charity cases for 2.5 years now (because of the two-house situation), but we had a little money set aside for this occasion, and we were pleased we could finally treat everyone. We headed back home after a good meal, and we watched a couple of videos about Alaska that Aunt Mary had. She had been on a cruise to Alaska in September, and had brought these back. Alaska is beautiful – what amazing county. Later that evening, we broke out the Skip-Bo cards. Gram and Gramps were huge Skip-Bo players while Gram was still alive, and Skip-Bo was always a highlight of visits to Rockland. It was me and Carleton versus Mer and Aunt Mary (it is always guys versus girls when the numbers work out right). The games spread out over several days, but I won’t keep you in suspense. Carleton and I triumphed, 5 games to 4. I made some mistakes, but not enough to lose everything. I corrected a very minor play of Carleton’s, and he talked about it for the rest of the day (in good humor). It was very funny – I believe he claimed he had not been “yelled at” like that even in the army. What was especially great was that I made a pretty obvious mistake right after I showed him his very minor one. Ah, the joys of Skip-Bo.

That evening, Mer and Carlene and I went to see The Blind Side. I knew nothing about the move, and I was very pleased that it was about football and it had Sandra Bullock in it. Then, on top of that, it actually portrayed Christians in a decent light, and on top of that it was an inspiring story, and it was (mostly) true. What a great movie. I am glad that I got to see it.

Thursday (Christmas Eve) was spent getting ready to have the entire family over. We all made food (I made homemade bread that turned out well), and all the kids and grandkids and great-grandkids showed up early that evening – I think there were 15 of us in all. We ate a ton of food (and still had lots left over), and then exchanged gifts (not counting immediate family gifts, which waited until Christmas itself). I ducked out at one point – I had a headache coming on, and I wanted some fresh air, so I went for another walk around Rockland. Again, it is much fun to admire the houses there – many of them are very beautiful. Once I got back from my walk, the gift exchange was over and the party was starting to break up. I went upstairs to finish off The Great Gatsby, which Mer had been encouraging me to reread, since she had just finished teaching it.

That brought us to the about the half-way point of our vacation in Maine, so I’ll wrap this up here. Maine is a pretty great place to spend Christmas.