Gabes' Homeland

Those are all of the cousins. Let's see if I get this right (in order L to R): Steve, Ben, Jeff, Cathy, Matt, Kevin, Cory, Gabe and Kim.

Conrad, loving the outdoors. And that's the back of Linda and Bob's house, with the pond and the garden. That's where Gabe grew up after 8yrs old.

Here we are on Wednesday and it's now been almost a week since we've been in Maine. It really has flown by. But it's been a busy week. There was a wedding shower for Melissa, Ben's fiance; a memorial service for Gabe and Ben's first cousin Suzanne, and a fundraiser for another first cousin Matt. On top of that there has been tours, hikes, photos, and all that goes with visiting family.

This is a picture heavy blog post because there have been so many pictures taken that just seem to show so much. But it's a bit concentrated because I put off blogging till the end of the week and there is a ton to show!

It has been lovely to stay here at Linda and Bob's house. The house is cool. Bob built it all by himself and has the duel comforting qualities of real pine board siding (which was hewn in Bob's own sawmill!) and lots of windows providing plenty of light. Its rather spacious and cozy here. Linda's garden is beautiful and is set between the house and the pond. Conrad jumped right off the dock into the pond the other day. He was surprised because I think he thought that he would hit the ground! The look of surprise on his face was priceless! Yesterday we walked through the back yard to the state park and the hiked up the trails to the mountain top. You could see the ocean from the rocky peak. It was a nice hike but seemed extremely exciting to the dogs.

I'm very close to my family and it's important to me that the person I love has strong family ties. So it was a real treat to see the report in which Gabe and his brother and cousins treated each other. Though there were some pretty heartbreakingly sad moments, there was a lot of laughing and reminiscing and good involved conversation. While maybe I'm more vocal about the importance of family, it turns out that Gabe feels the same and is just as, if not more, respectful of it.

Gabe took me to his first house in Cape Elizabeth. It was a demure little house in the "Cape Cod" style. Then he took me to a park called Fort something... (I'll change it as soon as I learn the right name.) At the park, we were walking up to a plaque that told something of the old Goddard Mansion and Baloo decides to take a poo. Of course, I don't have a baggy, they are all in the camper and we had Linda's car for the day. Well, seconds after Baloo does his dirty business, while Gabe is looking for plastic bags blowing in the wind, a high school group with a healthy number of Asian foreign exchange students walk up to read the plaque and take pictures. They are roughly 5 ft away from me. I'm situated between the plaque and the mansion. I'm pretty sure they are staring at me in my cowboy hat and the dogs just as much as they are staring at the dilapidated shell of Goddards mansion. I'm trying to get the dogs to sit calmly as Gabe walks away and as they both sit, I hear a collective, "Ooh..." from the observers. When the restless dogs whine and stand back up, I hear a higher pitched, more sympathetic, "Ooh!". And when I get them to sit again, I hear the same, "Ooh..." from these kids. I turn my head slightly toward them and I get a waterfall of giggles. Finally, they walk past me towards the mansion and as they do, the foreigners timidly walk past the dogs, who,naturally, bark at them. They, again collectively, jump back with screams and relieved laughs as they realize that the dogs are reigned in close. A few minutes later Gabe comes back and is followed by a nice girl who had a plastic baggy to offer.

So, it seems that the country has had some pretty awful weather this week. Chicago in particular. I hope that none of you Chicago readers had any damages or trouble. We want to avoid that storm so we are changing our route. We are not heading back north and west to Canada and down, we have decided to head south to Washington D.C. and Virginia and then over to Louisville K.Y. from there. It really isn't changing the dates of anything so if you are somewhere expecting us, we should still get there in time. No more Shakespeare festival in Stratford Canada but we'll just have to make it out there another time.

And so, I bid you adieu.

This is Gabes mom Linda, stepfather Bob, brother Ben and Ben's fiance Melissa.

Here is Gabe relaxing in the camper. Baloo catching some breezes while driving.

Here we're at Two Lights park in Portland Maine. Right on the ocean.

These crazy rocky cliffs. And the lighthouse off in the distance.

These are two of my favorite pictures of the "Family".

Conrad is afraid of the waves. Baloo was jumping right in wanting to swim.

We met famous pen and ink artist William Harrison on the street in Portland.