Maine Travels: Old Orchard Beach

Kids on Main Street at OOB!

The first full day that we were in Maine, we went to Old Orchard Beach.  This town has some family significance in that my grandmother's family used to own the Staples Inn, which is currently a bed and breakfast at the top of a hill that looks down on OOB.  Growing up in Maine, my husband and I used to go to OOB every summer so, we wanted the kids to have the experience.

OOB has changed a lot since we left Maine 20 years ago.  There are a lot more condos and the town itself has built up.  There are still shops selling beach ware on the main drag, but the pier and entrance to the beach have changed.  There's now a water fountain, places to sit and a larger police presence than I remember.  The water was still cold,and there was still a prevalence of French speaking people in the area.  My French is very rusty, but its hard to miss the old man in the Speedo commenting on how warm the water is in Maine opposed to Quebec.

Elijah's face sums up my opinion on the improved Pier.

Change is not always a good thing.  One of the main reasons to go to OOB was to walk on the Pier and see the view.  My grandmother use to tell us about the night club and shops that were on the Pier when she was growing up, but she always described the view. The Pier used to be a happening place and I think that's what all the improvements were supposed to be about, but they missed.  There are several restaurants on the Pier and a Bar at the end that advertises live entertainment.  The Pier is so littered with restaurants and nick knack shops that you can no longer see the Atlantic Ocean.  Hello, main draw to walking on a Pier is to see the beach and the ocean.  Now you have to sneak into some outside seating or pay 10.00 for a beer to see any type of view.  All of us were very underwhelmed.

Colin enjoying pier fries and vinegar

To be honest, the only reason to go to OOB is to eat pizza, pier fries and fried dough.  At least that's what we told the kids.  The objective was to make sure that my husband didn't leave OOB feeling like the Goodyear Blimp, but still enjoyed OOB classic food from our childhood. When your 40 you can't eat like your 16 any more, but with the smell of ocean air and grease, your mind will tell you that you can!  Some of the kids were brave enough to try fries the French way (meaning doused in vinegar).  After two boxes of fries were finished we took the kids to the beach to play in the water (really we took them to the beach to make room for fried dough, but they bought the swimming idea).

Someone got thrown in!

I have birthed Southern children.  They are accustomed to the Atlantic of the Panhandle that runs about 70 to 75 degrees. We did warn them that the water would be a lot colder than what they were used to, but some of them jumped right in anyway.  There were quite a few people with wet suits on, but there were just as many with little to nothing on.  Josie put her toes in and decided it was too cold, but before she could make it back up to the blanket, her older brother threw her in. The boys played on boogie boards and now that their older, we didn't have to pull anyone out when their lips got blue.  People at OOB are a lot less concerned with what swimming attire that they wear than the beaches we normally frequent.  Even my younger boys commented on how many moms with stretch marks, guts, and tattoos were wearing bikinis.  My youngest even told be I looked pretty good and my daughter thanked me for modesty at my age (read I was wearing boy shorts and a very sportive bikini bra top and nothing was hanging out or falling out).  We didn't stay on the beach but for an hour.  It was crowded and the kids thought the water was a little cold for an all day affair.  There is an outdoor shower to wash away the beach and free clean bathrooms in the amusement park.

The reason I have fond memories of OOB is fried dough, dipped in vanilla soft serve ice cream.  Can't leave OOB without some.  Elijah also has a fondness for this dessert and the two of us usually eat our weight in the stuff when we can find it.  To my Southern friends there is a difference between New England fried dough and funnel cake.  Both are worth breaking the diet for!  We like to eat our fried dough loaded with cinnamon, sugar and powered sugar.  It's messy and sticky and there is no point in cleaning up until your done!  Your going to make a mess, but it is a yummy mess.  The dough is sweet and hot and dipping it the soft serve ice cream makes sure you don't burn your mouth (because some of us can't wait until its cool enough to eat).  With bellies full we headed to the car for our next adventure..... Portland Headlight!

Maine Travels

The Saco River

I have returned from a much needed vacation to Maine ten pounds heavier and a phone full of pictures.  Hopefully, the four kids that went have a lifetime of memories to go along with the extra pounds that they brought back (both in food and items).  We crammed a lot into our week and a half.  Old Orchard Beach, Popham Beach, Family Picnic, Boston, University of Maine Tour, Portland Seadogs Game, Kayaking down the Saco, North Conway and Freeport Outlet shopping, 4th of July 10K and strolling down memory lane.

Pier Fries at OOB: Part of my 10 Pounds

I grew up in Maine, went to high school there and promptly left during college.  Other than visiting my husband's family, we went to Maine so I could do some research for a novel I'm working on.  We also went to tour the University of Maine for some of the children who think six months of snow, in the middle of nowhere, sounds like the perfect place to go to college.  I thought it would be fun to do a series over the next couple weeks on our adventures in Maine.  It will be nice to share my home state with readers and relive some new memories as I return to the grind of school.  To wet your reading and viewing appetite here are a couple photos from our vacation.

Popham Beach

Portland Headlight

Boston Freedom Trail

Travel with Kids and Chronic Conditions

The suitcases are packed, the kids are bathed and the car is loaded.  Boarding passes are printed and other than making sure the dishes are done and the trash is taken out, there is nothing left to do but take the long trip to Atlanta.  Tomorrow we fly out to go visit family in Maine.  Only one child remembers flying and while the lectures on what not to say at the air port have been frequent, you never know what will come out of these kids' mouth.

Most people who travel, with or without kids, think about climate and activities and pack accordingly.  In this house, we have to think about how you pack medication for a two week trip.  Do you let the kid who it is prescribed to carry it?  Do you carry it with your medication?  Are you going to get pulled out of security for having all these drugs?  Will your kid be able to explain his conditions and the need for all the meds?  Will the grown up be an ass playing twenty questions?  These are all questions that go through your head when you travel with a person that has a chronic condition, and we haven't even made it to the airport yet.

We are hoping for a good trip.  Medication is packed.  Weather has been checked and possible emergencies have been planned for.  No one wants to be the reason why a planned activity doesn't happen and no one wants to feel bad on vacation, but its likely to happen.  Maybe it won't, but seizures, migraines and Hashimoto's don't really take vacations.  The best we can hope for is that we have a good time with the illnesses that we have and that people who don't normally deal with us are kind.  Wish us luck!

Everyone's Getting Brooms

I'm finally sitting down, waiting on the plumber to get here because we have a busted pipe at our well. I remember as a kid that my parents would get up, have a cup of coffee and then start cleaning. My mom was a housewife for a while and she'd clean until noon. When my dad got sick, and Mom went back to work, the real cleaning began. Short a lung due to cancer, my dad was up at 4am every morning to clean the house. By 7am (the longest he'd let you sleep in) the floors had been vacuumed, swept and mopped, cabinets washed down, bathrooms disinfected and breakfast ready. The smell of scrambled eggs, bleach and Pine-Sol welcomed you to a new day, everyday!

I tell you this because I assure you my children do not live in an immaculate house. In fact, they live in quite the opposite because their mom and dad work, a lot! I clean on the weekends, if I'm not exhausted from the week, but these kids are home every day. Theybdo not seem perturbed that the house looks like a disaster daily. It begs the question, where did my dad's cleaning gene go?

This morning, when I got up, I noticed the daily battle over the dishes was won because there were no dishes in the sink. This is probably because my husband told the kids he was cutting off the water, and if Josie had any hopes of driving the tractor again, the dishes better be done. Without the mountain of dishes a family this large produces, to despair over in the morning, I could turn my attention to other matters.
Please tell me why five other people live in this house and NONE of them are capable of seeing dog hair, food debris, or trash on the floor? What stops them from grabbing the broom and sweeping, or plugging in the vacuum, or hell, just bending over to pick up the trash that they threw on the ground?

It took me ten minutes to wipe down the counters, sweep the kitchen and the living room floor. Is it too much to ask that if you live here, you could take ten minutes from your hetic schedule of XBOX and social media to bend over, pick up the trash you threw down and sweep up the dog hair? The response from the child who was up was "yes" and "no one other than me notices such things". Impossible I say and because four kids live here more than I do, I know they made most of this mess! Maid was never a career aspiration of mine so, for birthdays and Christmas everyone is getting a broom! Maybe then their cleaning genes will be activated and I can go back to sitting on my porch, drinking a Coke and writing. Hey, we all have dreams!

Independent Thinkers

Working hard!

I wanted to go to the beach today. I assumed that my children would also like to go to the beach instead of staying at home to do yard work. Their response last night was "No, Crazy Lady we'd rather do yard work and eat pizza at home!" After my intial shock of teens not wanting to go the beach, and a little bit of whining on my part, the children informed me that I should be proud that they are independent thinkers and can make decisions on their own. Really stupid desiicons on their own, but then I was told I wasn't a good judge of decision making because I was crazy.  My husband assumed when the morning came that the kids would agree to go to the beach instead of yard work. Obviously, the picture demonstrates that I'm not the only crazy person in the house because my children opted to stay home.

I woke them up at 730am on a Saturday! I was met with blank stares and then the lovely "GO AWAY CRAZY LADY!" Response that I can only assume all kids greet their mothers with when they are capable of being independent thinkers. Out of their beds, into the car, and off to Lowe's to get yard work supplies. This could of been a nice road trip to the beach, including the normal fighting over the front seat, but no, my little independent thinkers viewed completing yard work in the South Georgia heat as a less crazy decision than taking a car ride to swim in the Atlantic.

It's getting hot out there!

Josie made some more of her natural weed killer to spray around the yard, and I truly think that these independent thinkers thought they'd spray the weed killer, come back inside, and hope I forgot that they opted for yard work INSTEAD of the beach. I appreciate hard working, independent thinkers, emphasis on the hard working part! After five minutes, these little independent thinkers first tried to point out that they were being punished for being independent thinkers and not wanting to go to the beach. The crazy lady that they call Mom, pointed out that they had the freedom to be independent thinkers, when they were independent workers, who paid their own bills. I then went inside to start a load of laundry, because independent thinkers don't usually contemplate where theif clean clothes come from. They worked for about thirty minutes before the true whining, complaining and blaming started. I mentioned the they should be thankful for the breeze, access to shade and as much water as they wanted. With the looks I got, I'm sure my little independent thinkers were not thinking up nice names to call their crazy lady. I spent at least an hour kicking one of the three back outside, and reminding them that independent thinking has consequences, after all their mother wanted to take them to the beach! Elijah asked if yard work was included in child labor laws and the older two told him not to approach that line of argument  (being that the three oldest have on occasion attempted such an agreement and received a multi day history lesson on child labor).

The children have all played/cooled down with the hose (depending on whose independent thinking view point you take about spraying your children and siblings with the hose on a hot day). They have had plenty of water and Gatorade. They even had frozen pizza for lunch. The independent thinkers have completed one bed, of like ten at the house.  My husband thinks that there should be no weeds on our little acre of land when he gets home tonight. After all, he works 12 hours a day in an un-airconditioned wharehouse, and would prefer the independent thinkers not have to do what he does for a living. Of course, I have a PhD and my children think I'm crazy for working in an airconditioned high school and wanting to go to the beach. Hopefully, my little independent thinkers will see today as brilliant parenting when they have kids of their own, but for now it's time for them to go outside and think about the next time their crazy lady mom asks them if they want to go to the beach!

Killing Weeds

My daughter is a big agriculture person. She wants to be an agricultural engineer when she grows up, she's an officer in the Future Farmers of America, and she loves playing in the dirt. She's all about agriculture, until it's time to deal with our yard on a sunny, South Georgia day. Anyone who has lived in South Georgia knows that by 10 am the tempereature is well above 90 in the shade. I tried to get our agriculture princess up early this morning, before the heat hit hard.  She is spending the summer working on an SAE project which includes lawn maintaince, landscaping, and various other home garden things. I tried getting her up at 8am so, she could pull weeds and trim bushes, but in typical teen fashion she ignored all calls to get up and get going. By 9 am, when she finally rolled out of the bed, put on her boots, FFA shirt, shorts and gloves (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE BOOTS AND SHORTS THING), the temperature was 86 outside and whatever shade was available in her assigned work areas had long since disappeared.

Today's chief mission was to trim bushes and weed. My agriculture princess and I both take great joy in killing weeds, but neither one of us has a great deal of patience for waiting on chemicals to kill things.  Usually we just pick them out of the ground and throw them in the burn pit, but the soil is stating to get hard and the weeds are starting to get hardy. We went to Pintrest to see about a natural weed killer because the commercial stuff is expensive. There are also a lot of safety precautions you're supposed to use when dealing with the commercial stuff, and since the agriculture princess has to document her yard dealings for her summer project, we decided trying an all natural method instead. Of course now all you smell is vinegar and dish detergent outside, but by this evening when it cools down the weeds should magically be dead due to a chemical reaction and South Georgia heat.  I personally don't believe this to be true, but the agriculture princess is willing to wait and try tonight.

My Agriculture Princess with her natural weed killer!

Hiatus

It's been four months since I last wrote a blog post. There are a multitude of reasons behind this. Some are valid and others are just me being, well out of touch to mull life over.  I did get the flu (twice).  My husband seems to have worked non stop since Christmas so, any time I get to spend with him I try to give him my undivided attention. Unless I'm reading from the Outlander series, which is well written and has filled the last two months of my spare time with thoughts of Galiec and time travel. There was also the end of a school year (both my personal children and school children) to close out so, it's not as though I've been doing nothing. Honestly, I'm not sure how many people read my blog and doubt it has been missed.

Someone asked if I'd given up writing. The answer is no, I'm just contemplating writing a novel. Writing a novel is a lot to contemplate and as I currently struggle with balancing my health, family and work responsibilities I'm not sure how to fit such an endeavor into my schedule. When I was younger I would of just found a way, usually when everyone was asleep.  Now, with my Hashimotos, I value my 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Having teens and tweens in the house means there is rarely a time when someone isn't up and writing has always been a solo activity for me. Exhaustion is real my friends and not for the weak of heart. Risking my tenuous health to write the great American novel would not be well received by my husband and children.

Things are fairly scheduled here. Get up, go to work, come home, make dinner and go to bed. I'm bored and restless with the same thing day in and day out, which means I spend a lot of time in my own head, contemplating the best way to shake things up without the disruption of the lives of the people who love and depend on me. I'm not made up of the stuff to just cut and run on some wild adventure while there are others depending on me to do something  (like keep food clothing and shelter in place). I'm hoping a vacation back to Maine and possibly some travel in the fall will help put life back in perspective. Either way I'll try to be a little better entertaining the masses with my little blog.