We've just returned from our vacation in the Belgrade Lakes area of Maine. I don't have my pictures developed yet, but I'll post them as soon as I do. (I didn't bring the digital camera - duh!!)
We drove up in the middle of the night and got off to a rather comical start. We left about 9 pm, and drove off the cats scowling at us as if to say, "what the f*** are these people doing, packing up their car and driving in the middle of the night?" They probably think we're wandering off because we're in heat or something and wonder why it necessitates packing a vehicle instead of just wandering off to service the barn cats up the road. The trip started out uneventfully, until we stopped in Southern Conneticut and left the map and the directions on the roof of the car and did not realize it until we were well down the road. Shortly after that, Jason commented on what great gas mileage we were getting. I said, "well, we're certainly unencumbered by any maps!" We also discovered that the car was a bit small for such a trip. It's a SAAB "sports wagon" and the wagon end of it is just about big enough to pack 2 blankets and a pair of underwear... and Jason commented that they better be thong underwear because there's certainly not enough room for a "full assed" pair. Thus, the great gas mileage. Of course, it didn't help that Jeffrey had to bring a tackle box the size of a tractor-trailer, either.
The fishing was pretty good, though. Jason, Jeffrey and Gary caught several large bass and some perch. Jeffrey in particular had some small-mouth bass that were over a foot long (again, I will post pictures as soon as I get them). We also saw a family of Osprey, and watched one of the parents dive head-long into the lake after a fish while the babies waited in the nest and squawked excitedly. Kathy and I were treated to the sight of bald eagles circling the shore opposite our cabin.
On Wednesday, we drove up to the summit of Mount Washington, which was incredible. Jason got to put his feet on the Appalachian Trail there. I was hoping to see a moose on the trip to Mt. Washington, since we had to go all the way to New Hampshire, but I didn't have a bit of luck. By the end of the trip I was complaining about not seeing a moose and wondering if they really do exist because it was starting to feel like I was looking for sasquatch or the Loch-Ness monster. This was my third trip to Maine without seeing a moose. Jason bought me a moose shirt and Gary & Kathy bought me a moose-watcher's handbook as a toungue-in-cheek gag gift. We even got on the internet and listened to his moose calls. Gary and I decided that you could get about the same effect by taking some laxatives and sitting with your ass on the toilet at about a 30-degree angle. By Saturday night, I had totally lost hope. Jason woke up Friday night and thought he saw a moose in the lake, which turned out to be weeds. Luckily, he didn't wake me up for that.
Sunday morning, it was time to leave and Jason was up at about 5:30. At 5:45, he came running into the bedroom saying he swore to God there was a moose in the lake. I thought, if this is just a ploy to get me out of bed, I am going to have to pound him into the ground. We grabbed some binoculars and ran outside. I stood on the dock, barefoot and in my pajamas looking at something that looked like a bird moving across the water and I thought, if he woke me up for a f***king duck, I may have to drown him. I peered through the binoculars and sure enough, there were two big floppy moose ears sticking out of the water. That's all I could see, but it was definitely a moose. The deer are very red this time of year, so it wasn't a deer, it definitely wasn't a dog, and it swam all the way across the lake - about 1/2 a mile in approximately 10 minutes. Jason explained that he never heard it slip into the water. He was trying to get a few minutes of fishing in when he realized there was something in the water by our neighbors' dock. He wondered if it was their dog, but there was no splashing when it swam, and the way it moved quickly towards the middle of the lake with its head almost completely submerged told him it was an animal that spent a lot of time in the water. It couldn't be anything but a moose. After 3 trips to Maine and a lot of driving around looking for moose, one walks right into our camp. Unbelievable. We also found what we think were moose tracks in the road in front of our cabin. I still cannot believe it, but I am so happy we saw it.
Addison had a great time, too. He was such a water-baby. He saw Jeff get in the water the first day, and my Aunt Kathy said the next thing she saw was Addison with one arm out of his t-shirt. Pretty soon, he had stripped naked and was in the water. We talked him into putting his underwear back on while we found his swim trunks that weren't unpacked yet. He also put together a collection of "treasures" over the span of a week. The collection included stones, a crayfish shell, snail shells, and some other odds and ends. It nearly included some live clams, but I explained that we would kill them if we kept them out of the water. He relunctantly returned them to the lake. Every stone, flower, shell and bug was a source of delight for him. Where along the line do we lose that? I'd tell him to look for moose and each time, he'd say "NO MOOSE MOMMY, I TOLD YOU THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT!!"
In a few hours, I will return to work, but in spirit, I am still in Maine with the elusive moose. Blessings,
Erika
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