Between Nature Valley in Minneapolis, MN and the Cascade Classic in Bend, OR Mayo and I had the privilidge to make it up to Squirrel Island in Maine. This wasn't an easy endeavor because it involved driving all the way across New England (including about 300 miles of upper New York) and then immediately back to western NY... at least for Mayo. I only had to go west to east, and not the return trip. This will be a picture diary of our trip to Maine.

It was fun as always to see the Splaines. Decia has since gotten a tattoo, as seen here. It's very pretty.

While Mike was busy yaking, Maggie got to watch Ruth, Mayo, and me play Scrabble. I don't fancy myself a great Scrabble player, but I certainly held my own this time around. The highlight of the game was when I used all 7 letters to spell "VALETING" thereby giving me a smokin' 72 points. I came out on top, as seen here.Clearly Maggie is impressed.

That night we also made ice cream with one of those crazy ice cream maker balls. In theory, this is an awesome invention to keep kids occupied in the summer. In practice, though, it's a fairly complicated procedure that can't be done by the camp fire, as they might lead you to believe. Our chocolate, coconut, chocolate chip ice cream was rather tasty all the same.

Boating in the fog and rain. Yeehaw!

And to top it all off, there's nothing finer than cocktail hour with great friends. Here are the Lescures, Ballantines, Splaines (x2 generations), and Teddy and Mayo hidden behind the camera.

So after Squirrel it was back to work in Oregon for me. We're finished with that after a successful week with Robbie, Brian, and Tom making their respective comebacks all at the same time, and now have Tour de Toona on the horizon! Busy busy busy.