Where The Sidewalk Ends

Beginning Monday next Friday, this will be my new front yard.

Maine

Whenever we go on a trip, many funny or interesting things happen along the way and I think, "Oooh, I'll blog about that later."  And then when Later arrives I can't seem to remember any of the stories in detail, or I'm just too exhausted to re-write them.  So vacations always turn into bullet-point posts.  So here you go.

• My children CAN share a bedroom, as long as one goes to bed before the other.

• Tai enjoys the beach for about 2 hours at a time, then he's ready to go back inside.  We never found Quynh's natural beach limit, always having to coax her off the beach after 3+ hours of sand play.

• Speaking of limits, Tai usually announces he's all done about 2/3 of the way through an ice cream cone.  And one night he declined dessert altogether, opting to sit and watch the rest of us share a slice of chocolate cake.  Again, we have never seen Quynh reach her dessert limit.  Her ability to eat ice cream or anything chocolatey knows no bounds.

• The one limit of Quynh's we did learn is her Sitting Still Limit.  It seems to be about 20 minutes.  We learned this while on a 40-minute motor boat ride and then again on an hour-long Duck Tour.  We promptly cancelled the two-hour schooner ride we had originally planned.

• Although Quynh was fidgety, this year's Duck Boat experience was better than last year's.  Tai seemed to enjoy it and really paid attention to the narration, including the fact that Portland has burned to the ground no fewer than three times.  

• Tai now plans to be, "a scientist who studies all the creatures that live in Maine and write books about them" when he grows up.  And he's going to be awesome at it. 

• While at the beach, Tai's preferred spot is in among the tide pools, hunting for periwinkles and hermit crabs. And one day he dashed into the water, fully clothed, to retrieve a plastic shopping bag that had blown in, explaining, "some fish eat the plastic and could die!!" 

• While riding on a ferry, we tried to share with the kids the beautiful view across the bay.  But Tai was only interested in watching the mechanics of the ferry as it docked.  And Quynh was only interested in the people on the bench behind us.

• Once on the island, we started walking aimlessly, looking for something fun to do until it was time for lunch and ice cream.  I pulled up a map on my phone and announced that we were about to walk by a church, a library, and a playground.  If you know Tai well, it will come as no surprise that he was heartbroken to learn the library was closed.

• The member of the family who enjoyed the greatest increase in quality of life while on vacation was definitely Buttons.  She ran free on the beach twice daily, peed on seaweed, played with new doggy friends, but steered clear of the Scary Ocean Waves.

• While on vacation, Buttons behaved unusually well, Tai behaved unusually poorly, and Quynh decided she only eats potato chips, fritos, and dessert. 

• Quynh is so stubborn that the other night she chose to watch me eat her piece of whoopie pie rather than take the one tiny bite of scallop we asked of her in order to be granted Dessert Privileges.  Even after I put frosting on the scallop, she wouldn't touch it. 

• Tai collected numerous rocks, shells, and dead animal parts during the course of the week.  We encouraged him to return all but one favorite shell to the beach before returning home.  (We certainly don't want stinky crab legs at our house!)  On the last morning we took Buttons for her final walk on the beach and Tai brought his bucket-o-shells.  Just before he dumped them out he said into the bucket, "If there's another fire in Maine, call me."