Maine

Several days ago, we got back from a week-long vacation in northern Maine, where we stayed with some dear friends... well, almost more like family! We kids call them "Grammy and Pappy Washburn".  It's a trip we had been tentatively planning for almost a year. We hadn't seen the Washburns since Melinda's wedding, and their lodge on Upper Dobsis Lake has to be the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth! 

{At the Maine Welcome Center.. You could smell the pines the
minute we left the car. Delicious.}

Our little signs in the back car windows =P

Unfortunately, this was the only moose we saw all week... 

LOL

We stopped for breakfast in southern Maine to visit with this dear couple, old
friends who we hadn't seen in many, many years.

                       Almost to our final destination... the Washburn's "Cedar Wood Lodge" is seven and a half miles back this dirt road...

Forty-five minutes to the nearest only grocery store in town, house run by a generator, no internet, no cell phone reception.

Inconvenience? Yes.

Awesome? Absolutely!!

We got up most of the mornings to watch the sunrise with Pappy Washburn (who is always up to watch it). We'd sip our coffee, listen to his stories, watch the rays peep over ridge, and snap dozens of pictures.

One morning, the loon and her baby came out and paraded
across the sunbean on the water several times. It was
picture perfect!

{the whole family}

We enjoyed watching and listening to the loons all week:

  We fished every day. Pappy Washburn allowed us full use of the canoes, rowboats, and motorboat tied to the dock. 

Success is sweet!

Daniel got the biggest catch of the week with a small-mouthed bass that was just under five pounds.

He kept saying, "That's the biggest fish I've ever caught!!"

We drove this four-wheeler around the dirt roads surrounding the lake.

Mom and Grammy Washburn

Nate and Andrew played "Taps" before bed.
{notice Daniel.. lol}

We roasted marshmellows and sang around the bonfire

   Saturday, we had a traditional New England meal -- bean-hole beans and red hot dogs. Delicious.  Bean-hole beans are baked for about 10 hours (??... if I remember correctly) in a cast iron kettle buried in a hole of coals. And they are the best beans you will ever taste!

Digging them out Friday night

 Time to taste-test! Yum!

It was very sad to leave. The Washburns kept trying to talk us into staying another week.  We told them it was now their turn to come down here! =) 

A lot of memories are in this special place with it's special people. A place you can hardly to describe to those who have never seen it. You just have to be there...