Maine Stay - Day 3

Grandma taught Shane how to play Citadels. This wasn't their first game. Shane won that one!

Believe it or not, I'm not always taking pictures. I try to be in the moment when I can! I did take a couple of good pictures of them playing this morning. Shane's got good spatial skills.

Carrie and I slipped out for a treat. She's been on the hunt for a blueberry pie without luck. We stopped by the Atlantic Baking Company, but they only had crumble tops. Carrie wanted a latticed pie if she could find one!

We walked around a little bit downtown. The Lobster Festival setup was underway.

A heatwave rolled in just in time for the festival. I wanted to walk around more, but Carrie nixed it due to the heat.

We thought this was a neat house. Carrie noticed it first. "Look! They're bumping up the roof," she said. "They're adding a second floor."

When we got to the other side, we saw they were adding a lot more than just a few rooms upstairs!

If there were people around and it was normal, I'd have walked up and started asking a ton of questions. I love that Shane's curious about stuff. He gets it from me.

Carrie, Shane, and I went with Grandpa to the Owl's Head Transportation Museum when we got back.

Shane pouted when we warned him, "This is not a touching museum."

He perked up the first time we found a button he could press a hundred times.

Shane started calling over other kids when they walked in with their parents.

Grandpa told us about the museum before we got there. It's got a huge collection of cars and they rotate what's on display. He's visited many times.

I don't know if Grandpa noticed the antique horns all over the place. "Honk once and find the next!"

Gotta honk'em all!

I tried to point out the evolution of the automobile to Shane as we walked around.

Motorcycles, too.

He was in it for the horns.

Carrie pointed out where "Cars" found the inspiration for Doc Hudson from.

Grandpa pointed out a Shelby I took a picture of for John McG.

Shane's interest in the cars was passing. He liked the orinthopter, but he was mainly interested in progressing and exploring rather than staying and examining.

Some of the cars presented were to be part of an auction later in August.

The museum wasn't limited to land transportation.

There was a workshop and a hanger out back. The museum itself is adjacent to the regional airfield.

No ropes save those blocking work areas. You can go right up to everything. There were lots of oil pans under cars throughout the museum. Grandpa said that they keep everything in working order, believe it or not. I guess that means they could drive the pieces right off the showroom floor if there was ever a need.

Shane was happy we found a kid area no matter how small it was. He's a tactile customer.

I haven't met a museum that will let you crawl into WW1 fighters, but if I do I'm going to hop in with Shane.

Carrie took a phone call while we were walking around, so I did some solo exploring.

This little three-wheeler reminded me of the car Mr. Bean is always picking on! I made sure to show Carrie when she rejoined us.

Shane made a friend in the kids area. He doesn't discriminate based on age. He showed the little boy the horns.

Shane would have been happy to stay and play with the kid half his age if we weren't all hungry for lunch.

Grandma was at home working throughout. I think it was later in the trip she had choice words to say about Delta's customer support, but you get the picture: Working vacation.

Everyone went in the backyard again after lunch.

Batter up! Carrie!

Here's the pitch....

Contact! There goes Shane!

Grandma took a turn at bat next.

The bat was extraordinarily thin for a wiffle ball bat.

That's Grandma's excuse.

Carrie coaxed me into trying after. That's how we lost the ball.

Grandpa turned the heat up a little on his pitch. I nailed it. The ball rebounded off the roof of the garage and landed in a thicket. No one saw where it landed.

While we were outside a pair of older women introduced themselves. They asked if we wanted to see the gnome garden.

"We've seen it!" They were delighted. They were the ones responsible.

"I haven't seen it yet!" Shane exclaimed.

And we were off.

The ladies have been working on the gnome garden for 14 years! They told us the story as we stopped at their house. They loaned us a replacement wiffle ball and a frisbee for Shane to play with.

They said that there were 10 acres behind our houses. They hoped that no one bought it up and developed over their gnomes.

Then they took us for a tour.

Shane started off with Grandpa.

When Grandpa stopped to take pictures, Shane ran off to explore deeper in.

Can you guess who followed him? Here's a hint: That person was not wearing shoes at the time. He'd hadn't seen the need to put on shoes for batting practice. He hadn't foreseen the need to chase his spawn through the woods, either.

Shane and I mentally mapped out most of the trail while everyone else stopped to admire decorations and talk.

There was a tepee, 'reading room,' 'workshops,' and an area where the trail was bedded with pine needles instead of mulch.

Preventing accidental Shane damage was high on my priority list.

I cannot stress enough that an amazing amount of effort must have gone into creating the garden. The ladies were thrilled to share it with us.

The elder women's great grand-children (her daughter's grandchildren) had helped with the work and painted some of the signs.

I liked the spiderweb of paths. I took an alternate route to jump ahead of everyone when Shane latched on to Mommy.

If not for the mosquitoes (and bare feet the mosquitoes bit), I could see grabbing a book and hanging out.

We stayed in for dinner and the rest of the night (There may have been croquet). Shane's been doing his writing daily to earn his electronics time.

Carrie and I logged in to WoW and met up with Chris and Genevieve some, as well. Shane narrated.

Dinner was either hamburgers and hot dogs or pasta. I can't recall which. Eating dinner in keeps food costs reasonable.

It was a quiet night. Tomorrow, the Lobster Festival!