Cathance River Preserve

It is fall! I could see the leaves turning from the highway on my way to work and I wanted to see them up close over the weekend. So me and Mr. Handsome went to the Cathance River Preserve and went for a long walk. I learned about it because I found a new site that will tell you where all the trails in Maine are!

I wanted to see the rapids and to get there we had to cross this very worn out looking bridge. I think I prefer the colors at the beginning of fall when there's an equal amount of green to balance the reds, oranges, and yellows and almost no brown.

Some Rapids

The leaves in the preserve were still mostly green however!

From the Top of the Falls

I regret only taking pictures with my iPhone. But I had my phone handy through the whole hike because the Preserve had it's own app that could tell you where you were on the trails! Even though the trails were well marked and the blazes were clear it was handy to have to settle disputes between me and my other half.

The still river was a mirror.

On our way out.

Birthday Recap

On Friday at work everyone "surprised" me with pizza, cake, and a nice scarf as a present. (Everyone gets a desert, pizza, and a present for their birthday so I knew it was coming and it wasn't really a surprise but I am happy to be working someplace where everyone is so nice and thoughtful.) I also got to leave work early to kick off my birthday weekend. I needed to pick up my mom because she had flown out to spend my birthday with me.

My Mom and Me at Dinner

I got caught in horrible traffic on the way to get her though. It was so bad it reminded me of being home in Chicago. So now I won't feel homesick for a while. The worst part was that I was stuck all by myself. It would have been just fine being stuck in the car with my mom. But I felt so bad that she was waiting all by herself.

When we got back to my house, I started making oven fajitas for dinner. They were delicious and we had extra fixings since my mom thought guacamole and was an essential item.

My mom bought us delicious wild blueberry pie at the grocery store for dinner and we had that for desert.

The next day was my birthday! I knew my mom would want to go to Freeport for some shopping and I was happy to oblige. On the way to the outlets we stopped at the Bow Street Market and got two of my favorite drinks--Capt'n Eli's Blueberry Pop and CuriousTraveler's Shandy. The Shandy is a delightful beer that even I like and I am a not a beer drinker. They don't carry it at the regular grocery store. 

We went shopping. My mom got new work clothes. I was sorely tempted by the Oxford cloth button front shirts at Vineyard Vines as they were 30% off. We went to the Coach outlet and my mom got me a new navy blue cross body purse because she wasn't able to fit the largest present she bought me in her suitcase.

On our way back from the stores we stopped at the Mediterranean Grill for lunch. It was delicious! I had a chicken sandwich. I can't wait to go back because the menu discretion for the gyros makes it sound like they have real ones 

We went home and walked around downtown. I am so fortunate to live in a town with a unique and thriving downtown. We stopped into a home goods store and I picked up an early Christmas present for my husband.

My Birthday Cake!

My husband used the time we were out shopping to go get my birthday cake. I had requested a store bought cake. Homemade cake is nice enough but I just love the frosting on the cakes from the cakes from the store.

Only the best lobster houses have giant mutant lobsters.

I had the hardest time trying to decide where to eat my birthday dinner. I was trying to decide between my favorite nice place, Richard's, a new place, Enoteca Athena, and the lobster house, Cook's. We ended up going to Estes Lobster House because my mother in law suggested it when we called to see how many of their family would be joining us for dinner. I was so glad she suggested it! The menu was a little simpler and a little less expensive but the atmosphere was extra kitschy (I consider this a plus) and the food was delicious!

A lobsterman?

My husband got fried clams instead of the scallops he
ordered so he got two dinners instead of one.
While I think clams are gross, they do taste just fine fried.
My theory holds.

As I mentioned, I loved the decor.

My lobster mac n cheese with a double side of fries
was so 

After dinner, we went back to my apartment, ate cake and ice cream, and I opened my presents! My husband got quite a few quality action shots.

My presents.

This is my favorite. It's so flattering.

This is a good one too! In terms of oddest facial expression ever.

My mom got me a vera bradley home and away
cosmetic case. But I already have one. :/
I told her I liked it so much I had already gotten it myself. 

Now I have all the Skylanders Giants
except for Ninjini.

The next day my mom, my husband, and I went to Broadway Deli for brunch. And, the my mom had to head back to the airport. : ( But I got doughnuts in Portland right before dropping her off.

Pink Tangerine in Kennebunkport, ME

Kennebunkport, Maine

There are two places I know of where I can buy Lilly in Maine. One is a bridal shop called Spoil Me (where I found my bridesmaid's dresses and my veil). The other is the Pink Tangerine in Kennebunk!

Instead of braving the parking in town,
I parked in the town parking lot about a
ten minute walk from the shops. 

I love going to Pink Tangerine. Kennebunkport is a ways from Portland and like most of Maine it's crazy with tourists in the summer so I don't get there often.

The walk was nice.

Before going to Pink Tangerine I stopped at the Deep Blue. They have sea glass and I wanted to get some for my sister since her birthday was soon. None of the sea glass looked interesting but the did have some very cool sea urchin tests (skeletons). I hope she will be able to do something crafty with them.

I really wanted to get this Island Co. dress that was on display.

I stopped in at Green Tangerine, Pink Tangerine's sister store, they carry Vineyard Vines and other brands you read about on "preppy" blogs. What I liked most of all were the Island Co. dresses but they were linen (I have an aversion to very wrinkled clothes) and they were rather short (I am on the tall side).

Pink Tangerine!

I went to Pink next and struck out. The Janice Dress in Sunkissed was too low cut for this prude. (Lilly didn't make many simply shifts this season.) The Foley dress was too expensive (I knew that would be the case) and it fit oddly (I think it ran larger than the Mariekate or the Tabitha). The Darcy dress in Ice Cream Social on sale was very low cut in the back. They were sold out of my size in the Delia in Cha-Cha.

 

But the girls who work there are the nicest and were incredibly helpful. I ended up getting the Maritime Skort in Get Nauti (it is so short as you can see in this blurry photo I took to send out for opinions on the length and the OOTD shot from later). I love the Get Nauti print. I hope I can get something more modest and easier to wear later, maybe a re-cut in the Endless Summer Sale. I also got the goody goody necklace and the storage bin in chin chin that I came for.

 

I walked back to my car and only stopped at one other store on my way back (I had donated platelets that morning so I was a little bit tired and I knew I had some more errands to run before I could go home.) I snapped some lovely photos though.

On the Bridge between Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.

P.S. I am trying to schedule posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last week I had some trouble with the Internet so I wasn't able to schedule my posts.

Up to Camp?

My husband's family friend invited us to their family camp, their cabin on a pond in the middle of woods and mountains, for the weekend. Everyone but me had Friday off so, after getting lost on a gravel road in the mountains in a Prius instead of my all wheel drive SUV, I arrived in time for the sunset. And, it was lovely. But, not as lovely as seeing my husband again after thinking that I was going to run out of gas and die in the wilderness.*

Much to my consternation they bought fire works. I hate loud noises and having my limbs blown off but some of them ended up looking very pretty and no one was burned or maimed. The best looking ones ended up going off right above us. I kept darting back and forth along the beach to avoid getting hit by shell fragments. Our neighbors enjoyed the show.

After we set off the fireworks, mother nature decided to put on her own show. Fortunately we did not lose power. I'm going to pretend that we didn't lose power because there were windmills on the mountains by the camp.  I thought they looked pretty. And, having grown up under one of the flight paths for O'Hare, they reminded me of home (except for all the mountains). 

The next morning me and my husband went for a walk because we woke up before everyone else. Except for the children next door who sounded like they were having a whole lot of fun all day long.

We went canoeing in the morning. We saw some loons on the pond.

I went for a lovely walk, looking for cellphone reception, and saw lots of lovely lillies. I also got to walk along a creek and listen to all the little waterfalls along the road.

When I got back from my solitary walk, which was fruitless as I walked towards civilization fro over twenty minutes and still had no cell reception, our friends had started to stir. We made pancakes with wild blue berried that everyone had picked yesterday during a disastrous hike up the mountain across the lake from the camp. (Apparently, everyone was told that it would only be twenty minutes but it was a whole hour. It was also very hot that day.) The pancakes were delicious though. Some were blue berry chocolate, even.

Later in the afternoon I tried swimming in the pond and I think I had a panic attack. I am a strong swimmer as I grew up with a pool in my backyard. It was like an asthma attack because I was gasping for breath but it didn't feel asthma and my heart was racing. The water in the pond was warm so it wasn't my body seizing up because of the cold, like what happens when you capsize in Lake Michigan at the beginning of the season. It was odd. I spent the rest of the time on the shore and went birding from the safety of the screened in porch.

Our friend's great- great-grandparents built the camp at the turn of the last century so it was really interesting inside. I loved the bookcase most of all since the books appeared to be arranged in chronological order by publishing date.

There was lots of cool looking old things like an old poster with the pledge of allegiance on them and the camp "rules" from the 1930s. All in all I was happy to be invited and am now incredibly envious.

* I was supposed to drive up after work on Friday. I swapped cars with my husband because I have a small SUV and he has a clown car sized Prius. My car was large enough to take up all the stuff and all the people so we traded. I left work on Friday late since I hate leave a mess for Monday and I was anxious to join them. I did not remember to stop for gas. After I realized that the gas gauge was down to two bars, I passed exactly two gas stations but I wasn't really sure if they were gas stations because they were so old fashioned looking. I missed a turn. So I had to turn around. I drove the tiny Prius up a gravel road that went straight up the side of a mountain. I thought I was going to slide back down and die or break my husband's car and be stranded in the wilderness. Then, I ended up driving right past the camp and continued on further into the wilderness. The gravel road got rougher and I was sure my husband's car was going to fall apart as I was driving it. The gas gauge went down to one bar. Eventually I found a place to pull over and looked at the atlas and my directions. Some people on ATVs went by and slowed down. I was afraid they were going to help me (or harass me, except I don't think people in Maine even think about doing that but they did look like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie almost and I was panicky on account of almost running out of gas). I figured out I had probably gone more than two miles since the last turn so I turned back. I found my husband about one and a half miles down the road, he had started to run after me after I drove past him, and everything was okay.