Maine!!! Part 1 of many...

Our Maine trip has come and gone and I really can't believe it. My mom and I started talking a looooong time (like maybe even 10 years ago??) about how we would like to someday drive up the East coast together. It was just sort of a daydream really. And then I got married and had Blayne pretty quickly so we sorta changed our daydream to be that we'd go to Maine and maybe drive a little of the coast. And then it started to be a real plan. And then my Mom decided she wanted to take me for my 30th birthday so it was a REAL thing. All this planning, all the talks and thoughts about what we were gonna do and where we were gonna stay and it's all over! I just can't believe it. Did I say that already?? Well, it's true, I can't. And I survived! (Btw, I'm not saying that I survived 5 days with my mother although that was a trial in and of itself. I'm saying I survived 5 whole days without my baby boy. And it was a little rough. I missed him like crazy!!) But we had SUCH a good time!! We did all sorts of awesome things! We went on a lighthouse tour, we went sea kayaking (and yes, Mom did paddle... some), we went whale watching and we saw some whales. We explored a couple National parks and saw Maine's rugged, beautiful coast. We ate lobster. Oh did we ever eat lobster!! We saw lobster boats and I learned quite a bit about the lobster that I never knew before. We discovered quaint B&Bs and saw beautiful scenery pretty much everywhere we went. So thanks, Mom, for the amazing birthday present. I couldn't have asked for a better one or a better Mom! Thanks for taking me and planning and everything you did. I wouldn't have wanted to go with anyone else.

Now, on to the pictures! I took almost 600. In five days. Four days really if you count the two half days for traveling. So we're talking an average of about 150 pics PER DAY. I may have gone a bit overboard but I couldn't resist. Everywhere I looked there was something beautiful. But don't worry, I will not be posting all 600 pics. I'm gonna break our trip up in to pieces and try to even things out that way. So today's post will be about traveling to Maine and our first day there and our first lighthouse. Oh and a cool story - all the times that we talked about driving up the coast or going to Maine we always said we'd rent a convertible. But when it actually came to the planning part and looking for a rental car we quickly realized that may not be possible. Convertibles are like $50-100 more per day. So Mom just went to some website to book our car and reserved the cheapest one for our trip. I think they called it the 'economy car.' How appropriate! So anyhoo, we arrived in Portland and picked up our car and we are out in the garage loading it up. First of all I should have thought something was off because it was a really nice Volvo. But I didn't. When I sat down in the driver's seat to unlock it, I did notice something weird though - a button in the middle that looked like a diagram of the roof folding off of the car. 'How strange!' I thought. And then I sorta looked at the car and noticed that the windows didn't really have that top layer to them. And since it was a sporty little two door I got curious. I opened the trunk and there was something even weirder. This strange little divider thing that said it had to be in place BEFORE YOU OPERATED THE CONVERTIBLE ROOF!!! Yes, we got a convertible!! It was so cool! Definitely a little gift from God to start our trip. We drove all over Maine with the top down and the heater on. I've decided now that I want a convertible. And I was very sad to close the roof for the last time and leave it in Maine. But it was such an awesome way to start our trip. So here we go! Pictures of my 30th birthday present trip to Maine...

Our first glimpse of MaineMom reading on the planeWe got a convertible!! I'm a little excited...First meal - Lobsta chowda (that's Lobster chowder for those of you unfamiliar with the Maine dialect) The Portland Head LighthouseView #2. I think these two lighthouses talk to each other. I heard them blowing their foghorns back and forth.Look at the wave crashing on the rocks!! So exactly what I pictured...Pretty much all of our pics are like this - self portrait at the Portland Lighthouse. My first attempt had the lighthouse growing out of Mom's head. I think I got better at it as the trip went on.Just in case you can't read that it says, "Annie C. Maguire shipwrecked here Christmas Eve 1886"Maine coastlineDid you see that?!?! It's totally flashing me...Awww, we're so cute!!Me... on the rocksThis cool old mansion that we read about in the paper on our way home. It's like 150 years old and they were going to have a town committee meeting to talk about destroying it!! I'm glad we got to see it first.

So that's not even all of our first day... but I think it's enough for now. To be continued!!