We are here! We are happy to say that the big storm bearing down on us fizzled! While we have had plenty of rain and blustery weather, most of us escaped the damaging winds.
There was a tornado on the Pacific coast, in the town of Manzanita, just north of Rockaway Beach, that did a lot of damage. We don't have tornadoes here, except when we do, because some freak storm occurs.
So we still have leaves on our trees and the coloring up is in various stages of lovely. Like this bonsai tree.
We have been busy in the week since we returned from our travels in New England. We got home late on a Saturday night, and the next day we participated in the scattering of ashes in a beautiful old growth forest in Mt. Rainier National Park. Tom's sister-in-law's parents were put to rest in a place they loved.
On Monday we went early and stayed late at a friend's home for lunch. Tuesday and Wednesday we took advantage of the sunny weather to work hard in the yard. Then Wednesday evening we went to a Sounders match at the stadium.
Thursday the rain returned and I made applesauce again, and pozole for dinner. When I wasn't busy doing other things, I was sorting, editing and posting my trip photos. I finally finished them on Friday, not knowing if we would have power over the weekend. On Saturday we watched for the storm to come, prepared to be powerless, but did go out to watch Isaac play soccer.
Since the storm didn't materialize, we got in lots of TV watching, catching up with programs we had recorded while we were gone.
Sunday we were able to get in a walk, even though we got rained on, before we settled in to watch the Seahawks and the Sounders, who were unfortunately playing at the same time. The Seahawks managed to pull off a win just about the time the Sounders lost a heart breaker in the final minutes. We were just happy to have power and a warm house so we could watch.
And so that brings us to Monday, today. We cleaned house, did the laundry, and went for our exercise walk, without rain! I got some flowers picked and arranged, and I even had enough of a rain gap to get some photos of the garden.
Everything is soggy and messy, but we'll get to the clean up when it dries out a bit. Meanwhile we'll enjoy the increasing color as dogwoods and maples turn.
The cedar tree is doing its annual thing.
The vegetable/flower garden tumbledown is ready to be cleaned out
Areas of the lawn were completely torn up by moles and raccoons, so we have put wire down to discourage the raccoons from digging where the moles are tunneling. Of course new areas erupt over night.
We are ready for a festive fall.
I spent much of this last week sorting and editing photos from our trip and preparing posts for this blog. I used to create photo albums and written journals of trips, but now I use my blog to create and store my albums on the cloud.
This is the last post of the trip. I am doubling up today because we are expecting a storm that is likely to cut off our power, so for those of you dedicated souls who have been following along, after this post scroll down to the next one which is also new.
For those of you who have persisted in following this "photo dump", thank you. I was happy to take you along.
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And then it was Saturday, Oct. 8th. By now we were about 150 miles north of Boston, where we were to fly out at 6:45 that evening.
It was foggy that morning, the first fog we had encountered since that first wet weekend at the start of our trip.
After breakfast at the inn, we checked out and paid a visit to the nearby Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.
The breakwater is obviously a popular place for a morning walk, with lots of people coming and going. But it is long and we did not take the time to get all the way out to the fog obscured light house.
It was time to set off inland toward Augusta, where we would pick up the I-95 freeway back to Boston.
The sky cleared and we were treated to more wonderful Maine autumn color.
We arrived in Augusta with plenty of time to walk around the capitol and spend a little time on the river walk on the banks of the Kennebeck River.
Because we allowed ourselves plenty of time, we didn't get stressed when we were slowed down in traffic getting back to Boston and the airport. We were air bound on time and back in Seattle and at home to hug our kitty by 11:00 Saturday night.
It was a wonderful trip!
After leaving the botanical garden on Friday, Oct. 7, the last full day of our New England tour, we drove south to Boothbay Harbor, and beyond, to the end of that peninsula, at Newagen, and The Cuckholds Light House.
Back in Boothbay Harbor, we spent a little time looking in shops.
There wasn't much of a view of the actual harbor, just this peek-a-boo look where we sat to eat our ice cream.
We bought a few locally made pottery pieces here to give as gifts.
And then we were off to explore the next peninsula and find Pemaquid Point.
We got slowed down a bit passing through the town of Damariscotta, where they were getting ready for their Pumpkin Festival. In front of each business was a huge pumpkin/squash that they were busy decorating.
And after all of that glorious color we reached Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park.
Some of our country's first settlers were dumped here when their ship wrecked in 1635.
A wedding was in progress.
The lighthouse keepers house is now a Fisherman's Museum.
We still had daylight and time, so we went looking for the Colonial Pemaquid Historic Site. This is the Fort House, most likely built by the last commander of Fort Frederick as part of a farm about 1780.
This tower dated from the first fort on the site, Fort William Henry, built by the English, dating from 1692 until it was overrun by Native Peoples joining with the French in 1696. In 1729 Fort Frederick was built here on the ruins and maintained during the colonial wars, ending in 1759.
There was a colonial settlement here, with small farms overlooking this bay.
And then it was time for the final drive of the day, to Rockport, where we would have our final lodging of this trip.
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