Vacation!

Woohoo! We're off for Maine in the morning, and I'm excited about getting away for a few days and eating food that I don't have to cook. A little nervous too, about going away with the family. We've not spent this much time together in years, and I've been worrying about whether or not we'll like each other still. Fortunately, family doesn't have to like you, they just have to love you.

Beautiful trip Sunday and Monday through southern Indiana, where it was green and still and hilly. And taking a bath in a tub you don't have to clean (especially when you have water as hard as ours) is almost as good as eating a meal you don't have to prepare. We passed the Jug Rock near Shoals, Indiana, which was really unusual. This picture, compliments of Wikipedia, is from a 1920s postcard of the area, I believe. Good pizza at Bobe's in Washington, Indiana, where they're also generous with their oatmeal raisin cookies, and then a long drive home.

Tomorrow we fly to Manchester, New Hampshire and then drive to Fryeburg, Maine for a couple nights at the Admiral Peary House. I'm looking forward to all the touristy things we plan to do - the Conway Scenic Railroad, the Mt. Washington Auto Road, and moose-watching in Gorham, NH. After that, we're going to spend a night on the coast at Five Gables Inn, where we'll hopefully just do some lounging by the fire, watching the bay, and drinking tea. It's possibly my favorite place in the world, and normally when we've been there, we've got so much going on that we don't get to just sit and enjoy it. (But we have plans to spend a few days there this fall, too, just lazing around and eating big breakfasts!)

It will be good to be home again, too: putting up my retractable clothesline, finishing mulching the back flowerbeds, working on getting through several work trips in June, but now it's time to dig the suitcase out of the closet, pat the kitties on the head and check my "things to do before leaving home" list!