good vacation times continue....

wednesday dawned simply perfect; first a meet up with denise, a maine quilty pal and soon-to-be first-time grandma!  her cheerful spirit and ability to coast over rough roads has always inspired me...she is a tornado of a busy gal!

then it was beach time....oh so perfect with plenty of waves and water temp near 70....yes, 70....so refreshing and enjoyable!

on the way home after a bittersweet departure, stopped for more lobster and some uber-fresh haddock fillet...yummmm!  ***  thursday was the trek to machias, an all day drive and time to meet more family at the original farm of my mother's grandparents....

we also drove by the burnham tavern, home of my DAR chapter and used as a hospital during the Battle of the Margaretta back in 1775...a must see if you are ever in the area...

northeast maine is blueberry country and they were present on every corner...but we picked our own at the local cemetery....the annual blueberry festival was due to start the next day, another must-do event!  and last by certainly not least, we had to stop at helen's restaurant, a local institution, for some of their renown pie.  of course they have lots of fresh, local seafood too, but we had picnicked, saving room for dessert....

there were 3 of us; i had this chocolate cream--best ever--another had their famous blueberry and another lemon meringue, all very delish.  it was a bit of a slip off the cardiac diet, but i didn't eat all that whipped cream, which is over one inch thick on top of barely sweet, must-be-homemade chocolate mousse/pudding and the flakiest pastry i ever saw. 

helen's is another can't-miss venue if you find yourself in machias....it's friday and that means only 3 more days that'll be low key, just spending time together, before the long ride home to my DD and DSIL and my cozy apartment....

some sewing...

in the midst of the travels and fun...

these work up quickly and have almost a block's worth here...i keep a plastic pencil box stocked with cut pieces to grab and go...the weather has been so-so with gray skies and clouds plus an occasional downpour, but didn't prevent us from trekking to boothbay harbor, which is nice even on cloudy days, especially when temps are high...i never get tired of the ocean vistas or the sea's fragrance....lots of pretty places to stop and do just that...

on today's schedule is lunch with another quilty gal pal plus another farm stand hit, more lobster maybe and more ocean/beach time....the days are dwindling before back to home and my maryland life....

vacation train rolls on....

with a bit more retail therapy to start....visit to that awesome reproduction shop of cyndi black called "busy thimble" where i picked up these few goodies for my dutch chintz tree of life project...

cyndi's shop is jam packed with plenty of beauties like this, so the choice was daunting as you can imagine....and despite mother nature keeping the sun to herself, we soldiered on to freeport monday to another yummy place...

and the surroundings couldn't be more, well, port-ish with boats all around....always wondered where the water was in freeport and my coworkers at LLBean clued me in when i worked there...the claim was it was where the locals went for seafood but yesterday plenty of tourists judging by the languages we heard....

sunday we got in a band concert, again cloudy but rain held off until it was over....the US Army National Guard band at this quaint small-town park not far from my first grade school and where i fell off the merry-go-round on the playground....(ignore the thumb)

and the highlight of monday's seafood shack visit was meeting up with vic from NH, a long-time Stashbuster (yahoo group) pal and fellow partner in fabric crimes...lol....we have both weathered difficult winters but still smiling and vertical, which is all that counts....she scarfed down a lobster roll and me and mom had fresh haddock sandwiches...plenty of catching up and hugs goodby as she trekked back to 'nahampshire' as they say in these parts...

this was my first-ever selfie and you can tell technology had my attention!   *** as if we weren't busy enough, got into a minor fender bender with the rental vehicle...someone was illegally passing on the right and nearly ran me off the road.  slow speeds prevented any serious damage or injury of any kind, but bit of a hassle with police, paperwork and a swap of vehicles.   other driver clearly at fault, so we were able to trade cars and go on our merry way...today's itinerary a bit slower as the vacation train barrels on at warp speed, it seems....