Back From Vacation in Maine!

Quote for the Day:

“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one”

~Elbert Hubbard

Did you miss me???  ;)

We just returned from a week in Maine visiting with Andy's family!  We had a lot of fun and squeezed so much into the week, that now I'm exhausted and ready for a REST!  :)  Unfortunately, I have to return to work tomorrow.  :(

So between getting the bags unpacked, the laundry done, and the bills paid, I also took advantage of the 80+ degree weather today and pruned the rose bushes and the black berry bushes today.  It seems that Spring may have actually finally arrived!  :)

Thought I'd share some of the highlights from our trip...

Last Sunday (our first full day there), my sister-in-law, Tricia, hosted a family gathering at her house to celebrate the eldest sister, Frances' birthday.  There was LOTS of tasty food to eat and plenty of poker-playing going on!  :) 


Andy & Frances (Toots) opening their birthday presents of lottery tickets from their brother, Mike...

Frances opening her gift from Andy & me...a Jadite platter...

She collects both platters and Jadite, so the gift was well received!  :)  That is her daughter, Val, standing behind her looking on!


Needless to say, neither Frances nor Andy won more than a dollar or two on the lottery tickets.  :(


Monday was Frances' actual birthday, so a bunch of us...twelve total, Andy being the only male...went to Hollywood Slots in Bangor and played some slot machines.  A couple of the people in the group won a little ($100-200), but the majority of us just played and had fun...

They don't let you take pictures inside of casinos, so I only have this one outside the entrance from the parking garage.  :(


While we were in the casino, it started snowing outside and as we were leaving Andy pointed out "Paul Bunyan" that stood in the park area across the street from Hollywood Slots.

Andy says he can remember it being there 40+ years ago when he still lived in Maine.  :)  You can tell how tall the statue is because of the power lines in the picture!  LOL

While we were in Bangor, we also visited some thrift stores and found a few "treasures".  :)  

On Tuesday, "everybody" had to go back to work so Mom, Andy & I hit two antique malls.  There was so much to see that it took us about FOUR HOURS to go through them both!  Again, we found some treasures!  :)


On Wednesday, my mother-in-law (Mom, as I call her) volunteers at the local "library".  It isn't what most of us think of as a library, but rather a local group that has gotten together a collection of books in a small room of the Town Hall.  

This is the Town Hall...

And off to the right is the "library" area...you walk down that covered, wooden walkway and the door is on the left across from the "book drop" box...

It is only open a couple hours 4 days a week...all volunteer...but very neatly ordered.  (One of the volunteers organized everything by the Dewey decimal system.)  The whole library area is only about 20 feet by 20 feet.

I went with her and we spent the two hours that is her scheduled time talking and doing handwork.  This little lady is an avid knitter and crocheter.   Unfortunately, we had no visitors during our time there.  :(

While she knitted, I worked on my paper-pieced hexagon quilt blocks that I started a couple months ago.


On Thursday, Andy, Mom & I went to an auction and I picked up a Singer Featherweight sewing machine that I've been looking for for a couple years now!  :))))  

Not only did I get the sewing machine, I also got the table that is made to hold it!  I got BOTH for $110!!!!  A STEAL!!!

The sewing machine purrs like a kitten, but is so dusty that I'm going to have it professionally cleaned and gone through before I actually thread it and sew with it!   These sewing machines only weigh about 5 pounds and are much-sought after by quilters because they are great to take to classes and retreats!  They normally go for upwards of $250 and the tables go for around $175 usually...so you can see that I really did STEAL them!  :)  But, hey...sometimes you get lucky!  ;)


According to the serial number, my little lady was born on November 22, 1946!!!  I'm thinking of naming her "Sadie" after my mother-in-law's mother.  Never met the woman, but I thought that since the machine is a "little old lady" from Maine, I thought that it should be named after a little old lady from there!  :)


Anyway...back to the trip's activities...on Friday, we had a get-together at Mom's with a big turkey dinner to top off a day of playing poker!  

Saturday we left Maine at 10:30 AM and other than a one hour stop for supper at Cracker Barrel, we drove straight through and arrived home at 1:00 AM Sunday morning...14 1/2 hours in the car.  :((((

Andy's family is not big on having their pictures taken, so I basically gave up on that a long time ago!  That's why you don't see many pictures of them in this post.  


Most evenings were spent playing cribbage or poker with his family.  We had a great time and I'm hoping that they did, too!  :)


Tomorrow it's back to the "salt mines" for both Andy & me.  Vacation time is always too short!  


Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here!


Loretta