Thursday July 2, 2015

59 degrees w/ 5 mph winds

Day 49

Yesterday was our “go ashore” day, plus it was our first time to drive to Portland since we arrived. 

We said “Goodbye” to our overnight guest Joan and her family.  They will be leaving later this morning.  Larry and I headed down to meet Ethan who was bringing a group of WW.  Cyndy and Abby also came with them to the island to be our WW.

A new flowering plant I found

Normal shore day stuff….drop off trash at Cyndy’s, change our shoes from our wet sandy ones to a fresh pair for the day.  We also keep a change of clothes at Cyndy’s “just in case” we decide to accidentally go swimming while trying to get to Ethan’s boat.  We fill up our water jugs while we are there, then off to town.  First stop is always the F.O.S.I.L. office to get mail, drop off sales stuff and visitor’s logs, and pick up inventory, etc…  Catherine tells us of guest coming this weekend for two day!

Breakfast!  Important meal of the day!!  We have been enjoying Southgate Restaurant, so that’s where we went. They have a cinnamon raisin bread that is marvelous.   

Grocery shopping and the important thing is “packing” our crates so that they equal in weight….and today they weigh a little more than normal….My Babies and Grandbabies are coming today!!!

We got done early and headed to Portland Airport.  So now that we knew where it was we decided to go see the town.  Bought the babies buckets and shovels for their visit and a few other things.  Now for lunch….Pizza or Mexican….Mexican it is!  You would have thought Larry would have won the lottery.  He was like a starving man once the chip and hot sauce arrived.  It was good, we shared a lunch chicken fajita, which was enough. 

The plane has landed…so off to the airport!  You know those shows where people are waiting at the doors for their loved ones to get off the plane, and then they start waving and blowing kisses…that was me!  Got my kisses and hugs  and off to the pickup where Larry was waiting.

We rushed back to Fort Popham so that we Ethan could get us back to the island.  Oh my goodness…the weather was foggy and the waves where HIGH….ok, not going to kid you…it was a little scary!  But I had faith in Ethan that he wouldn’t have us out there unless he knew what he was doing…ok, I was praying too!

 

My first set of grandbabies have arrived at Seguin

They were starving, hadn’t had anything all day, so we whipped together some chicken salad.  Had to make sleeping arrangements and get everyone acquainted with the layout of the house as well as anything else they might need.  Bed time finally came!  Thank you God for a safe delivery to the island with my family!

Family just arrived, looked out to sea

Today….. we woke to a beautiful day, with a little haze in the distance.  Larry was already up with coffee made and was starting the beginnings of Blueberry and pecan pancakes and bacon.

Our daughter Katie helping her dad put up flag

Took the grandbabies to the cove to play in the sand, but I didn’t check the tide and it was high tide, so they didn’t get much sand time.  My daughter in law, Amy did a lot of seaglass searching.  Her pockets were full when they arrived back at the house.

Kaleb by the bell

 

Kurt with Kaleb....Kaleb is the same age I was when we first came to live on Seguin

Gave everyone the tour of the place and got ready for a day full of visitors.  Ethan brought his big boat full of people…about 15 of them were family of new friends from Texas….Steve and Joy Olson.  They just recently moved to Texas from Maine, so when she heard we were coming here she told me that they would be up here for the summer and would come see us!  Wonderful group of family with her.  Several individual boats came with visitors, so we continued to give tours.

Steve and Joy Olson

Lunch was a hodgepodge of different things…it was kind of a get what you want and go meal.

Had another group of six young sailors come ashore from their sailboat around 5 pm.  I gave them the tour and they enjoyed the lighthouse.  They left to go on some trails.

The gb’s just went back down to check out the cove and get some treasures (rocks and shells).

Our oldest..Kurt w/Amy, Zoe & Kaleb

Dinner tonight will be my kids favorite: meatloaf, Mac & Cheese and a salad.

We will all sleep very well tonight, having searched for treasures and filled our bellies.  We have an overnight guest coming tomorrow night, so I need to prepare for them.

Tuesday June 30, 2015

62 degrees w/2 mph winds

Day 47

We woke to the fog horn, was a little worried the weather wouldn’t be good for our overnight guest coming.  But it was just a little hazy.  The sun is bright today, almost intensified by the haze. So it’s going to be a good day.

10 am… The haze is gone, the sun is bright and even though its 65 degrees, we have little wind and are already sweating.

The Lobster boats are out and busy, guess the last two days weren’t good for them to be out working, so they are making up for it this morning.    Again there are several sailboats out.

Texted one of the F.O.S.I.L. members about the windows letting rain in during the gale winds.  They will need to check on it and let us know what we might can fix it.

Ethan is bringing a group around 11.  When we know we have visitors coming, it makes it difficult to “start” doing something big.  Like I need to take the little chest of drawers from the kitchen and sand, stain and varnish it.  But I need to be ready to receive my visitors and give tours and run the gift shop.  We try to make each visit special for each one.  So we putter around doing little things. 

One more look around the guest quarters to make sure all is in its place and ready.  Yep….extra blankets available for them!

Ethan brought a boat load and we had two more individual boats come in.  Got to share my history and the history of our light with so many.  Gift shop sales were good.   The overnight guest are excited about being here.  They’ve each kind of taken to a different part of the island, taking in the views, the sun and the solitude. 

They came back from taking the south trail and loved it.  They saw several baby gulls, little fluff balls about the size of a softball.  They also saw several nest with eggs still in them…..more babies to come!  I told them at low tide that it was a good time to go down and look for sea glass, the two teenage girls did.

They told us they didn’t want to miss the sunsets, I told them I would come get them and we would go up to the top of the light and watch it.  They seem to be having a good time.

Excited about tomorrow….some of our kids and their family….my grandbabies…will be arriving and are coming to spend a week with us!!!  Thank you to the Friends of Seguin for rounding me up some lifejackets for my gb’s!!

The moon is full tonight and we really didn’t get a good sunset…too many clouds in the sky.

Making our list of what to do on our "on shore" day.

Sorry folks, but my computer is having issues today...it will not allow me to download any pictures.  I'll try to add them tomorrow.  

Monday June 29, 2015

56 degrees w/7 mph winds

Day 46

Went to sleep in the storm and woke to a beautiful day, sun shining bright, no rain, with a light breeze.  The seas look smooth, but I can see they are rolling high, almost hypnotic.  It isn’t until they reach Cobble Stone beach that the wave comes in with some force.  We have already seen one sailboat out to the East of us.  Later several sailboats were out…guessing this is there kind of weather!

Waves are still coming in hard and high

It looks smooth to me, but I bet a surfer would enjoy the waves we've seen

Breakfast Burritos to start the morning!

Around 11 the grass was dry enough to start working on it again.  Larry finished some around the house, then down the main path.

Saw a sailboat headed to our cove, so we thought we might be getting company.  You know how you can clean house much quicker when companies coming…well I did so much work outside trying to finish…then I saw them sail off.  Bandit barked at them, which was a first for him to bark at a boat, and for it to be such a distance away!?!

 

Trying to get a good photo of the waves for you to see what we see

Around 2 a family of three came up. They said the waves were rough.  The older gentleman had served in the CG in the 80's and knew a lot of history of our light.  He was excited to go up and see it. That was the only visitors for today.

Rocks everywhere and the cable to the island.....

We went down to the cove to see if there was any damage.  The waves did a number on the beach…it took almost all of the sand away leaving a million rocks.  Guess they were always under the sand.  The cable to the island is very much exposed  and I can see that they haven’t fixed the one problem area yet….so I’m going to send the CG an email and keep them up to date.  Everything else looked fine, no damage.

Our overnight guest for Tuesday night called and there will be 4 to 5 people.  We will be ready for them and they should have a great time being able to spend more time on the island, the sunsets, the sunrises, the morning air….yep it will be good.

More yard work, I finished the porch landing on our side, now for our showers and ready to sit and relax.  Too tired for dinner...think we will just skip it tonight!