At long last...

So I'd like to start out saying that for some reason I've come to using ellipses (...) frequently, as you can see in the title. Not sure why this is, especially since I consistently use them wrong. The next obvious thing to say is that I haven't written in here for a VERY long time and I'm not sure anyone bothers to check it anymore. My theory behind my lack of diligence with blogging is that life in Maine is now just that- life. I initially started the blog when I came out here to do my internship and everything I did seemed like an adventure and a lot of new stuff was happening. When I moved out here to work, there were again a lot of changes taking place. Now, the things I do are part of life. I am still hiking, snowboarding, and visiting new places when I can but now they are just little exciting pieces of the everyday. I have been explaining this theory to a few people lately and every time I tell it I think "How sad that I no longer see life out here as an adventure worth writing about."

So what has been going on? Quite a bit I suppose since I last wrote and will obviously miss a lot. So major changes is that with the departure of my ACMNP friends to Denver and the recent relocation of my friend Kate to Austin, TX, all of my original network of friends have moved out of Maine. On the bright side I have met a good number of other people. I have moved from Brunswick to Freeport (home of L.L. Beans). This means a longer commute to work, but less of a commute to Young Life events. I am still volunteering with Young Life and continue to find myself amazed that I enjoy working with high schoolers so much. They keep me young and are so excited about life. We have an awesome group of kids here. I have done a lot of snowboarding this winter and was recently able to go with Rob and Julie who were visiting from MN. It is always good to see MN friends. As the weather is getting warmer, I'm earnestly waiting for the snow to melt, for mud season to pass, and to get out hiking again. My friend Eric has moved back to the Boston area from his brief stints in MN and England. I am now living with my friend Peter in a sweet Condo (which is about double the size of my last place). We just put a ping pong table in our garage. I was able to go to Yale with Peter and visit his girlfriend. We went to a hockey which was a lot of fun. I was able to go on the annual BWCA trip again which is always a guaranteed good time.

I still do not have any definite plans for moving out of Maine, which is to the delight of my Maine friends and to the chagrin of those in MN. I still do not foresee myself making this my permanent home, but I guess that is for God to decide. I have a great job here which would be hard to beat anywhere else. I still would love to move out West for a while. At this point, I have decided to stop saying, "I am moving at this time" because I have tried that about three times and have failed to even make a vague plan.

Well, hope you are all doing well. Come visit. Maine is beautiful!

P.S. So after adding these pictures, I've decided it has been a good year full of adventure. Praise God for all the blessings. I never cease to be amazed by what he has created for us! Some of these pictures are taken in New Hampshire on a day hike with my buddy Nate and another with Lee and Erin in the White Mountains. Some are from a couple different hiking trips in Maine. Obviously, one is from Yale and a couple are from the BWCA.

Panama Trip

So I know it has been a long time since I've posted again, and a lot has happened since my last one. Namely: Panama Trip 2008 (End of April/Early May).

So many of you might be thinking, "Panama? Why would you go to Panama?" I asked myself that question at first as well. It was actually our fall back plan for Belize. BUT let me tell ya, I was not even a bit disappointed with Panama... well Panama City wasn't overly exciting. I learned how out of practice my Spanish skills have once again become. Unlike Peru, no one in Panama City would even humor you to try and speak English or slow down their Spanish. Outside of the city, things were much better.

We (my friend, and former roommate, Matt and I) arrived in Panama City and about 1:30AM and caught a cab to our hostel. After convincing the guard (somehow) that we had reservations (which we did), we found a couple open beds in the dark and bunked for the night. We spent most of the next day trying to figure out what to do in Panama City. In hindsight we should have went to the canal right away but had it planned for later in the trip. We went to a park in the middle of the city. This isn't really a typical city park, this is like "state park" in the middle of the city. So we hiked a mountain... twice actually because I mislead us (oops). Then we took a ride on these crazy tricked out school buses which are actually their city buses. We didn't have a clue where we were going and ended up in a sketchy neighborhood. (I serious about sketchy too... we went through the same neighborhood again on bus on the way back to the airport and heard gun shots.) We decided to change our plans a little and head to Bocas Del Toro early.

So we catch the overnight bus to Bocas thinking we'll be able to sleep for 10 hours on this bus. Well things were going great until shortly after I fell asleep it got really cold (and I had no warm clothes with as I only brought my small backpack on the trip), then water from the AC started dripping on me, THEN we had to make a rest stop and they forced everyone to get off the bus, THEN we had to stop for the drug test. Needless to say, it wasn't quite as restful as we planned. When we finally get to Almirante at ~5:00AM it is still dark and we have no clue where to go and still cannot communicate in Spanish. Luckily for us, we have made some friends by this point who we follow as they are headed to Bocas as well. So Matt and I get separated at this point into two separate truck taxis and I start praying we end up in the same place, which we do. From Almirante we take a water taxi to Bocas. Where we then sit and wait an hour and a half for the hostels to open.

Finally, we get into an awesome hostel. We shower, nap, and then start our vacation. I will be less specific for a little bit. We get a snorkeling trip where we do some snorkeling, see a bunch of dolphins doing cool tricks, hang out at a sweet beach, see poisonous red frogs, and relax in hammocks talking to newly made friends. Honestly, the people we meet on this really were awesome. People from all over the world and country who have traveled a lot. We went out a few times at night and went to a few beaches. We tried surfing at one; saw a ton of starfish at another. Greatest snack ever: Trits! They are like an ice cream/cookie sandwich but way better than anything I've had here in that category. On our last day on the island, we rented a scooter to drive around the island. Yes, I did say "a" scooter as in one. Think Dumb and Dumber and that is pretty much what it looked like. Crazy fun though. The islands were beautiful. I recommend Bocas del Toro to anyone. Note: when snorkeling, make sure to apply lots of sunscreen to your back and triceps. We got REALLY burned. Couldn't sit back against a chair for days. Matt's back looked leprous when he started to peel.

We changed our plans last minute and went to the mountains for our last day. (Skipping the Panama Canal). It was one of our best decisions the whole trip. We took this ridiculously cramped bus up to there. It was packed with the locals. I luckily got the inconvenient but cool spot next to the door. Matt was cramped in the hot and steamy back. The mountains were amazingly gorgeous. Our hostel was really cheap and probably the worst one I've ever stayed in but we didn't have much of a choice. We survived though. The owner was super cool and helped us find the Canopy Zipline Tour we went on. Again- wicked fun. (p.s. if you want to pretend you are from New England use "wicked" frequently as an adjective... for anything). We ended the trip with a red eye flight back home. I'd love to give more detail if you want them. God blessed us with an awesome trip that couldn't have had better weather or run more smoothly. Burgers in picture called "Super Burger of Luxury". I don't even remember everything on it, but it was the best burger I've ever had.

House pics

I don't know if anyone is reading this still, but I know some people have been curious as to what my place looks like. It is pretty small and anything but luxurious. It works as shelter though I guess. My room is actually leaving soon too so if you know anyone who is looking for a place to live for a few months, let me know. Ha!

One picture is of the kitchen and the other is the living room. I didn't take any pics of my room because it's too messy.

I Like Ecstasy!

Yep, that's right. I like Ecstasy. Frankly though, I'm a little disappointed in those of you who thought I meant the drug. Although, the Ecstasy I like can give you a little bit of a high or maybe an adrenaline rush. The Ecstasy I'm talking about is actually a run at Sunday River. It isn't a double black diamond or even a single black diamond. It is actually a blue square, but it is just a fun run. I have been spending almost every friday the past few months at Sunday River. Dropping the cash for a season pass was tough, but it has been completely worth it. I have went snowboarding way more because of it. Luckily, my friend Peter is able to go up on Fridays as well. Last weekend, we took a group of Young Life kids up there Friday night and stayed at one of the kid's family's cabin. It was a ridiculously fun time. They had a ping pong table and an air hockey table on the floor that the guys stayed on. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. However, as the warmer weather and decreased snow is great to see along the coast, it is less exciting up in the mountains as snow conditions are suffering. It's to be expected I guess, and in all honesty I totally stoked for the late spring and summer. I can't wait to start hiking and kayaking again. Not that I own a kayak... yet. Bethel, Maine which is near Sunday River now has the world record for the tallest snow man and woman. They broke the record for the tallest snow woman this year. In other snowboarding news, I also hit up Sugarloaf for the first time. It is the other popular mountain here. Maybe some of you remember Bode Miller from the past Winter Olympics- This is the mountain he developed his mad skills on.

For Easter and my birthday, I travelled down to Pennsylvania with my roommate Matt. We went to his hometown of Hollidaysburg which is near Altoona. It is right in the Appalachian Mountains. It was pretty beautiful despite the lack of green yet. We hung out with his family and some of his friends. We went fishing one night which proved to be quite an exciting adventure believe it or not. They didn't have any snow left when we got there, but you better believe they got 3 inches one night while I was there. We celebrated Easter with his immediate family on Saturday then drove Easter day to Philly to eat even more food with his dad's side of the family. I ate SO much food. The following weekend, my friends had a birthday party for me and my friend Jenny. It was small but fun.

In other news, I'm going to Panama at the end of the month. Matt and I had decided a while back it would be fun to go to Belize just because. Unfortunately, by the time I was told I could have work off, ticket prices to Belize had increased. So we looked for another option that was also cheap. So to Panama I go. I can't wait. It is going to be a blast. I better start tuning up my Spanish skills.

Otherwise, I stay busy with Young Life. My friend Sarah (not the Sarah from previous posts) and I lead the game time disguised as Boris and Ivana. It is a riot. My costume includes a pair of shorts that are right on the verge of indescent. Well, they might actually be indescent, but they aren't too the level of scarring. Work is going well. After about two weeks of a horribly slow schedule, I've spent the past two crammed with patients.

I also received good news recently that my time off request was approved in August so I get to return home for the annual BWCA trip with my boys from GR. Unfortunately, we have to wait until August.

Due to popular demand-

Hello again! Sorry for the delay. I have gotten a few requests to post some blogs again so I thought today would be a good day since it is snowing yet again and I have some time. Once Cody started making comments on Dokken's blog about how big of a blog slacker I was, I figured maybe I should get back in gear with it. I will admit that it is sort of flattering to know that people actually give a crap. Sometime when writting, I think "Is anyone even going to read this thing?" I think I do need to take a lesson from Cody and maybe focus more on short updates rather than feeling I need to write short stories.

So, what have I bee up to since October huh. Wow! Well, mostly I've been settling into life in Maine. I haven't settled too much. I still try to keep exploring and not just settle and forget that I have tons of God's beautiful creation all around me waiting to be appreciated.

For example, last fall during a "Nor'Easter" storm, some friends and I drove down to Portland to check out some popular light houses. Let me tell ya, being along a rocky coast during a storm is AWESOME. It is so powerful. Watching huge waves crashing into large, solid rocks is actually sort of a spiritual thing. Not to mention, you feel sort of young as you are your buddies make get excited and make comments like, "Whoa! Did you see that one? It was huge." Plus, rocky shores also provide a chance for rock jumping, which honestly, who doesn't get a weird enjoyment of jumping from rock to rock. The only down fall was that it was sort of wet and cold. Wind and rain will do that.

I've taken a couple trips to Boston. Once with my friends who had never been there which was fun. So besides the ridiculously rude service (but really good food) we received at an Italian restaurant on the North side, the next best story from that trip that I can remember was the hawk I saw sitting in a tree eating a squirrel in the middle of Boston Commons. So cool! Smart bird huh! There are tons of squirrels around there and not many hawks. Surprised I never saw any on the UofMN campus. The picture was taken on the subway on the way to Harvard. It was Leah's first time on a subway, hence her silly facial expression in the picture. My next trip to Boston was also a great time but on less happy terms. This trip was to hang out with Dokken before he left for England. It was great to catch up before he left, and we had a good time. Unfortunately, we did not represent Minnesota well in the pool games we played. Sorry MN!

L.L. Beans main store is in Freeport, ME (essentially where I spend most of my free time- Freeport that is, not Beans). Anyway, they pretty much have a campus there. The morning of their Grand Opening of their new Hunting and Fishing store, they were giving away free gift certificates ranging from $25-$500. So Sarah, Kim, and I woke up ridiculously early to get in line. Unfortunately, we all thought we'd be able to wait inside the other store, but unfortunately that was not the case so we were slightly under dressed and spent most of the morning huddling together for warmth. ;) Yeh!!! Huddling with two ladies. hahaha. Our friend Peter, did take pity on us late in the morning and brought us some Dunkin' Donuts coffee and doughnuts. This was shortly before the Starbucks people came I believe. Anyway, after all the wait and cold, I only ended up with a $25 gift certificate. Better than nothing, and the guy first in line who was there at 7pm the night before got the same thing. His friend did get $500 though. Sorry, that was sort of a lame story. I'll try to pick it up a little.

As most of you know, I started working with the Young Life ministry out here which means I get to hang out with a bunch of awesome high schoolers. I'm not even joking, it's fun. (As all my teacher friends reading this roll their eyes- ha!) I was able to go to Camp Saranac in upstate NY, just a short distance from Lake Placid. First of all, it was beautiful up there. We were doing a Work Crew Weekend, which means there are NY kids there doing the "camp" thing and our kids are there being Christ-like servants to make their stay a good one. This means our kids were preparing and serving food (restaurant style- essentially), doing dishes and laundry, etc. The poor kids on my crew got to do the outside physical labor. Needless to say, my crew started with three kids and I think ended with one. His name was Kyle. Let me explain mine and Kyle's experience. We had the job of digging out the foundation of a building. So we are underneath a building, digging out all the dirt underneath it. So at the tallest point it was maybe 3 feet. Plus there was the foundation was built around a large boulder and the building built over it. So we have points where we are laying over this rock trying to get all the dirt out. It was pure insanity, but we did get to wear sweet white jump suits. Can't deny that is a little cool. You know how hard it is to display a Christ-like servant attitude when you have dirt in your nose and eyes and your back and shoulders are screaming. Just saying! But we got it done and definitely grew from the experience. Otherwise, I stay busy just trying to be a part of these kids lives, help them grow in their relationship with Jesus, and to reach out to other kids.

Hmmm... what else. Oh yeah! Thanksgiving away from home. So I went with some friends to Connecticut (who would have thought you spelled it that way) to have dinner with a family my buddy was connected to down there. So imagine the most Italian-American family you can and that was this family. They were great. It was a lot of fun and the food... Wow! The first course was lasagna which I was all about since I love that stuff, BUT this lasagna was all homemade even the noodles. It was probably better than the lasagna I actually had in Italy. I think I'm drooling a little just thinking about it. The rest of the food was great too as was all the homemade wine. Turkey was an option, but mostly as a technicality. I think only myself and a couple other people ate any. I had to eat some, I mean, it's Thanksgiving, right.

I was able to make it home twice in Decemeber which was great for seeing family and friends but bad for the bank and getting a little homesick. The first time was be there for two of my best friends getting married. Bryan and Alicia said "I do" on December 9th. It was a great time and a beautiful wedding. They are now living in Iowa trying to not get bored out of their minds. At least I moved someplace fun to visit! (Just kidding Iowa- I'm sure its great there). The second trip was for Christmas. I can't even explain how it felt to be home for Christmas this year. I love my family. I was also able to see some high school peeps which was for far to short of a time though. This trip also encompassed the last time I would see my Grandfather alive. He passed away in February. When I saw him in December, he made the comment "Sometimes I just want to give up." What do you say to that? At least, I know he was ready to go and ok with it. He is not longer suffering and is in a much better place. I was able to travel home to be with my family as well. Perhaps the best thing about a funeral is that it brings family together. For my immediate family, it was the first time in years that we have all been together. My oldest brother and his family flew in from Neveda. It was so good to see them.

What else: I got a season lift pass so I go snowboarding whenever I can (thankfully I have fridays off). New Years was a total gong show which entailed my roommate at one point having to press his bare chest against a cold door window for 5 minutes and Rob dancing a little to close to Peter for everyone's comfort, especially Peter's. You'll have to ask me about that story if you want more details. It was the result of a crazy board game called "Would you rather..." I own it, we'll play it sometime. My friends Nate and Jen had a beautiful baby boy, Christian, on Dec. 9th. He was about 3 months premature and spent a few months in the hospital but is now home and growing like crazy. I went cross-country skiing for the first time last weekend. I pretty much rock at it. ha! or something like that. I went snowshoeing today. I think we've gotten about 100" of snow this winter already. I hate shoveling. My roommate and I have done a little rock climbing. My roommate continues to travel a lot for work, but he is on his last trip now. Then he will be here from mid-March till beginning of May before he moves out, which will be a sad day. Well, I think I covered most of the highlights since my last post. I'm excited to see all of you who are planning trips out here.

Some of you may be wondering about my future plans. Status: Still waiting on God's direction. I'm still considering moving out west (maybe Bozeman, Montana) for a while or trying traveling PT for a while. I'm not sure when I'll leave here yet. Getting involved with a ministry doesn't make it any easier to leave. Please pray for me as I look for God's guidance with that. p.s. Apartment pics are on the way soon.

Miss you all. God bless.

There and Back Again

No, this is not a tale by Bilbo Baggins, which is too bad because if they made a story of this movie, I'd really make a lot of money. The title will make more sense as you read on.


So has happened since I last wrote. Quite a bit actually. I went white water rafting on the Kennebec River with some friends from work, which was awesome. It is such a rush and, surprisingly, it wasn't that cold. Granted the wet suits probably helped some. We got up to camp very late Friday night and pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up, ate a small breakfast and started getting ready to head out onto the river, but not after some training first which included a lot of shouting and throwing. We then stacked the rafts onto the van 3 high and headed to the dam. After carrying the raft down the steep steps to the river and jumping in we were we on our way. There were a lot of sweet waves. I was sitting in the front and think that most of the time I was so far off of the water that my paddle was mostly only pushing air. The other great thing about a front seat is that you catch a lot of waves right to the face and chest.

At one point, Buddy's brother had fallen off this raft type thing that he was on himself. So we pulled over to the side of the river, and the next thing I know, Buddy was handing Lee the rope telling him to hold on and a second later he was jumping into the water action hero style. After a little delay, his brother showed up to guide our raft until we were able to meet up with Buddy again. After eating lunch, I was told and shown how to jump into a whirlpool. It is pretty sweet. It sucks you down, spins you around, and then spits you back up down the river. That night after getting into dry clothes we went to check out Moxy Falls and also had a fire which Sarah (my co-worker) lit with a large blow torch. The Moxy Falls are beautiful. On Sunday we went to the Common Ground Fair on our way home. Buddy and I liked to refer to it as "Hippiefest". It is all about organic living for the most part and anything else you can associate with hippies, except Woodstock. When I got home, I was able to wrap up my already fun weekend with a cook out at the Foley's. Mmmmmmm... grilled food.

Now, remember the title of this blog? It is about to make sense:
I was referring to the fact that I was able to take a brief weekend excursion to the motherland (aka Minnesota) the first weekend of October to participate in the celebration of the joining of my friends/classmates Jeff and Carrie in Holy Matrimony- not holy macaroni, but that is what I was saying when referring to how much fun it was see be there and to see so many friends again. Duluth was a little on the cold side, but the wedding and reception where a lot of fun. The dance was quite a blast as well. You should have seen me cutting the proverbial rug (is that the right use of proverbial? what I wanted to get across is that I wasn't actually cutting any rugs. Don't want anyone thinking I was participating in vandalistic acts). I digress. I don't want to brag about my dancing skills, but....





The next day I was able to hang out with Alicia, Bryan, Rob, Julie and Andrew. I did lose both games of Settler's but it was still fun. Watch out if you play with Rob though. He is a self-proclaimed cheater. It was fun to hang out with all of them again. We went to the playground for awhile, and I learned that I can still tolerate a pretty sweet tire swing ride, and I can swing quite well still. More weight equals more momentum though I guess. The flight home was very non-eventful which was nice. I was able to sleep the whole way and enjoy Benny and Joon on the bus ride back to Portland.


Upon return home, I met my new roommate who had moved in the night before. Matt will be joining the ACMNP kids (Sarah, Rob, Kim). So we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out. We tried to do some fishing off of Land's End, but unfortunately didn't catch anything. However, it was a beautiful night and was great just sitting out there. Maybe we would have caught something if we would have remember a flashlight considering how dark it was. Actually, it wouldn't have mattered. We tried fishing again on Wednesday. Again, it was dark. We tried going farther south this time and finding a beech right on the open ocean. We finally got directions to a state park where there was a good area. We parked outside the park, as it was closed, and walked in. We got down to the water and climbed down to the waterline. Granted this was more difficult then it sounds as it required walking down semi-steep slippery rocks. I almost lost it once but managed to maintain standing. I'll admit I was a little nervous that night of rogue waves and of getting marooned as the tide was coming in as we were fishing. Not to mention, the wind eventually got a little cold. Unfortunately, we were again unsuccessful in our endeavors to catch fish and haven't been able to go again since. However, we would have to go quite a ways south by now as they are all migrating.


Last weekend Rob, Matt, and I went hiking in White Mountain National Forest. We hiked Caribou Mountain which is 2828 feet above sea level and about 6.5 miles round trip. The leaves were vibrant, the air was brisk, the sun was bright, and the company intelligent and ridiculously humorous (and a little gassy). We crossed numerous rivers, streams, and creeks. There were a lot of water falls and cascades. The view from the top was pretty stellar as well. You could see the rest of the surrounding mountain range, including Mount Washington (not seen in picture) which is the highest point on the Appalachian trail and I believe East of the Mississippi. It was a sweet hike. On the way home, we found a great little greasy spoon restaurant where I ate a ginormous greasy burger. It was so good. If that wasn't a great enough find, further down the road about an hour or so, we found an ice cream shop that was closing for the winter and giving away 2 for 1 ice creams. Talk about luck. Unfortunately, despite our best to charm the young lady at the window she would not give us a 3 for 1 deal considering our odd predicament. (Catch the pun?) I got Maine Black Bear ice cream. Let me tell ya- that flavor is sinfully good. Honestly, I can't believe they don't have in everywhere.


I wrapped up the weekend with a good Sunday. I went to church, which was followed by a potluck (Mmmmmm... potlucks). Then after doing laundry, the Foley's, Matt, and I went over to Nate and Jen's to watch the Patriot's vs Cowboy's football game. They have the best place for hosting, not only do they have a big TV, big living room, and really comfortable couches, but Nate loves to make delicious foods. I mean, these two have hospitality coming out of their ears. After the Patriots ran over yet another team, we played a rousing game of TriBond. My proudest moment came when I found the connection between the following three words: Danke, Tank, Grazie. Take a minute to see if you can figure it out. Maybe you are really quick, but it took us a minute. The trick is to not pronounce them in English as they are all ways to say "Thank you" in foreign languages.


In general, life here has been great. Work is going well. Having a roommate has been phenomenal. We get along great and have a lot of common interests. In addition, he likes to bake and cook. He has made me really jealous though by telling me about he past jobs. He did the ACMNP ministry 4 years in Yellowstone and spent the past summer working just north of Yellowstone for the National Forest Service maintaining trails and collecting wildlife/plant data. He has some awesome pictures and stories. He started traveling this week though for work, so now it will be like I'm still living alone with a visitor who keeps stuff here. I've been getting to hang out with other friends a lot more as well. I've really been blessed with some amazing friends out here which made returning from my Minnesota trip a lot easier. The bus ride home from the airport had me really questioning my decision to move. I am comforted though, that God wanted me out here. I can see the difference people here are making in my life, and I believe I am fulfilling a need in their lives as well. I'm glad I followed my heart out here rather than staying in Minnesota for the higher pay.


Will I stay in Maine? I'm still not planning on this being very long term, but I can't say when I'll leave or if I'll return to Minnesota when I do. I am actually feeling a strong pull to the west and to the mountains. There is so much out there left for me to explore. Huge beautiful vistas that God has created for us to enjoy. I'd hate to not appreciate as many of them as I can. I imagine someday I'll be back in Minnesota. My family is still there and some of my best and truest friends.


God bless!

A Bit of Minnesota

So I know it's been a while a since I posted. Unless you blog, you might not realize how long it actually takes to write a post. I suppose if I wrote more often it wouldn't take as long. I digress- I should tell you about my last couple weeks.

A couple weekends ago my friends Josh and Amy Johnson came out to New England for vacation. So Saturday I drove down to Rhode Island to meet them and hang out for the weekend. We met at a Polo match which was pretty cool as none of us had ever been to a match. It is definitely an upper class sport considering the rest of the crowd and the spreads that brought to enjoy during the match. It was interesting to watch nonetheless. At "half-time" between the 3rd and 4th chukka, you can go onto the field and help replace divots. If you ever decide to help make sure to watch out for the horse apples that were left on the field. After watching nearly a full game, I still have no idea what the rules are. I did eat a pretty tasty sausage there though. They really decked the thing out too.

We left at the beginning of the 6th and final chukka and went to check out the mansions of Newport, RI. You should see these places. They are ginormous and to think that most of them are second or vacation homes. We then drove along the oceanview road and finally went downtown to grab a bite to eat. Josh and I each ordered Quahogs (aka clams) and Josh has an Oyster. The waitress thought it was pretty odd that we only ordered one of each, but hey!, they're expensive. We also had some pretty stellar clam chowder. Finally we drove up to Plymouth, MA to spend the night. We woke the next morning to walk down and see Plymouth Rock. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but it isn't overly exciting. The history of it is really the cool part. There is also a replica of the Mayflower, called Mayflower 2, which was built in England and sailed over. It is pretty cool to tour. We then went to the Plymouth Plantation which is similar to a live museum-type thing. For those of you from Northern Minnesota, it is sort of like White Oak Society. I learned a lot about the real story of the first Thanksgiving. After the plantation, I went back to Maine and the Johnson's headed to Vermont, the Green Mountain State.

I was able to see them again later in the week up in Boothbay Harbor which is a beautiful place in Maine. They were staying at a Bed and Breakfast that had one of the most amazing views I've ever seen from an Inn. It was called the Topside Inn if you are ever in New England and looking for a great place. The bathroom in their room was about the same square footage as my whole house. Amy and Josh were also kind of enough to share some of the tasty fudge they had bought earlier that day. You should also join them for breakfast sometime as not only is Josh a really good cook, but they bought a bunch of delicious syrup. We went out to eat again that night. Josh and I split a tasty crab cake appetizer and I finally had the lobster roll I'd been craving.

Last weekend, while the Johnson's were wrapping up their trip in Boston, I headed up to Katahdin for another take at the mountain. Again I made it up to the top, but alas the weather was again crappy so I was not able to get much of a view. I went with a group of people who I didn't really know. Out of the 9 people who also went on the trip, I knew Peter and had met Jenny once before, but I figured it is always good to get to know more people. We rented a bunkhouse so we had hard bunk-bed type "beds" to sleep on, but more importantly we had a fireplace which came in very handy after we got back from hiking all day in the rain on Saturday. Sadly Friday and Sunday were beautiful days, but I didn't hike either of those days. On Saturday, it was raining as soon as we woke up. The hike up went quite smooth. About half of the group, including myself, decided to hike to the top of Hamline Peak rather than Baxter (the tallest that I did last time). I am determined to get up there at some point and check out the sweet view that I'm sure awaits me up there. Nevertheless, I did manage to get a few cool pictures. The leaves are starting to really change here. I'm pretty excited for the fall foliage, but not the soon arriving winter and cold weather that accompanies it. I saw part of a Maine moose. Sadly, it was disappearing into the woods before I got up to a point where I could see it in the middle of the trail. Sunday morning, we took one last small hike to a pond to see if we could catch a glimpse of any more moose. We didn't see any large animals but caught a pretty nice view anyway.

In other news, I've started watching more movies again which was quite rare during PT school. I've played some more tennis. Got paid again (always exciting). Worked a lot. I'm getting used to the 10 hour days. The extra day off is quite nice. Got to know some of my friends out here a little better. All-in-all I've had a pretty good couple of weeks. It's always good when I get to see Minnesota people out here though. I also bought an antenna (bunny ears) for my TV so I now get a few channels. PBS comes in the best. I will hopefully have my DVD player all lined up soon so I can watch some movies here. Not that there is anything wrong with watching them on Sarah's 13 inch TV. That's about it for this posting. Plus I'm close to falling asleep.