Intrepid Kayakers

They are all crazy for kayaking, down there at the Big House. Ray and I are still pretty much lurking around the edges of this cult. It's fun to watch them all set off, though.

And, as you can see, getting the boats down to the water is good fun, too.

Sleeping Bag Story Hour

As part of my librarian's duties, I hold story hour on Thursday mornings. Sometimes just a few kids show up, sometimes lots. Sometimes it is all just my family members, sometimes there are lots of non-family members.

This week, just a few turned out - on a very rainy morning - and it was all family. James, Nora, and Alden snuggled in the sleeping bag, and I read a story about a loon family.

Next generation of Dave Mirra

Turns out there is an extremely exciting skatepark in Sullivan (next town over). Alden has been spending a lot of time there of late (even in spite of pretty inclement weather).

Alden says:

"first I roll in on the far end of the skatepark, then I go off the box in the middle, get air, then I come down getting just as much speed back, then I go off the quarter pipe, as you can see!

The talking has begun

Finally, words are beginning to form. Not that we have been impatient, but, it really is fun to see (hear...) it actually happening.

so far:

cookie

kitty

juice (often said when there is beer around. Poor kid, reaching and yelling for the beer, and us without any apple juice to fend him off with)

Ray! (said so sweetly and lovingly)

truck

boat

ball

I know there are a few more, but those are the ones I can think of for now.

Goin' to goin' to goin' to goin' to......

Bean Island.




You wouldn't think that there were 2-4 foot waves just around the corner looking at this picture. But, there were. Last year we drove to Sand Beach (a sort of once a summer or so treat, going over to Mt Desert Island to a big sandy beach for the day), and there was a certain amount of chanting in the car "we're goin' to, goin' to goin' to Sand Beach" - in spite of the fact that, in theory, chanting in the car is NOT OKAY.

This year, the chanting carried on, and the trip to Sand Beach was much talked about and long awaited. This year, though, the idea was to have a group go over in the motor boat. A typical epic Ray boat adventure. Everyone was really excited, but the weather was not that cooperative, and so the days went by and we kept not being able to go. Finally, we just had to go for it. So, Sunday morning was the appointed day. 9:00 departure from the dock. Departure really was more like 9:45.... The boat had Ray and Samantha, and Max, Kira, and Alden. Clarissa and Milo driving (the long way...) with ALL sorts of gear, food, toys, etc. in the car.

Before I was even all the way up the HP road, I got the phone call: "we're aborting... 2-4 foot waves, totally impossible to get there."

So, new plan. Lots of cajoling and browbeating, in order to get Max and Alden on board with the new plan:

goin' to goin' to goin' to goin' to..... Bean Island (much closer and oft-visited. So, not much of a treat or exciting at all).

Sort of a disappointment, but, in the lee of Bean, it really was totally calm and lovely, and we ended up having a very nice time.

Plus, big score for Ray in the "weird found metal object" department (he used it as an anchor for the boat while we were at the island.)

We love Lily!

We love a lot of people, really. But, this post is going to be about Lily.

Lily is Alden's third cousin. She is first cousins with James and Nora. Her dad Greg is Jean Louise's older brother. There is another crazy extended family, connections across all sorts of contexts story here. Short version: Greg's and Jean Louise's dad's partner/girlfriend is a professor, and not just any old professor, but a professor of education no less, and in a field similar to mine, and, more importantly, she is close friends and colleagues with my dissertation advisor, the wonderful Pam Grossman. Small world small world.

Anyway, back to Lily. Unfortunately, Lily is only here for two weeks (and last year, she and her family were only here for one week. They spent their other summer vacation week at Block Island. What were they thinking?) Anyway, this year we had almost two whole weeks with them (we also love Lily's parents, Greg and Sue, and her two cool older brothers, Max and Evan).

Alden and Lily have a good time hanging out, playing, playing tennis, eating, etc.

A highlight for me was getting to ride Lily on the back of my bike for a short bit. Lily is petite (a word I love, but cannot usually use with my own immediate family members), and she was just barely able to still fit in the seat. I needed to bring her to the library to see Alden, and my bike was the best mode of transport for the task. It was great fun to ride down the road with her right behind me. She's a better conversationalist than my usual biking friend (Milo...). Don't be fooled, though - Lily does usually ride a two wheeler on her own, with grace and confidence!

And it is not just Clarissa's crazy extended family, the history and the connections go on...

I hope I can make this short and sweet, but, really, it may be difficult, as it is layered and complex...

So, Hancock Point has more than just Thompsons; there are other families, some similarly large and extended. Some families live right down at the end of "the point" (Hancock Point is a peninsula sticking out into a bay. Actually, it is technically an island. But, we'll come back to that later) and everybody sort of knows and sees each other regularly. Other families live down at the end of long dirt roads, and exist only as names, on little wooden signposts, at the tops of the roads. Growing up, I knew certain families, and other families, I only knew of.

The road just before "the Eddy Road" (the Eddy road goes down to the first house my great grandparents ever built and owned here) has a sign at the top of it that says Zabriskie. So, growing up, I knew there were Zabriskies down there, but beyond that, I knew nothing. They kept to themselves, those Zabriskies.

Switch gears a bit now:

Before some family members got into the whole kayaking thing, we had this metal Grumman canoe (I think we actually still have it, stored under the Big House). At that time, if you wanted to go out on the water, the canoe was pretty much the only option. The story I am about to tell features my mom, who, one day, many years ago now, decided to head out in the canoe. Alone. All fine and good, until the wind picked up, by which time she had gotten pretty far out and, all by her self in the canoe, she just couldn't paddle back in the face of that wind.

Well, lucky for her, along comes a sailboat, with some nice people in it, and they rescue her, bringing her aboard and towing the canoe back. Mom knew, at least vaguely, one of the boat's occupants (they were Zabriskies). In the course of the sail home and casual conversation, she discovered that the other two people on the boat had this connection to the Putney School, a place I was either currently working, or had been working at. So, funny small world, here we are on Hancock Point, and there Clarissa was, working at the Putney School, and there are these nice people, with some sort of a Putney School connection, rescuing my mom.

And then there is Ray, who went to Putney School, as some of you know.

Somewhere along the way, Ray and I meet, and eventually we move in together, get married and have some kids.

Here we are, nearly 20 years later.

Now, we need to try to tie up this crazy story...

Back to those Zabriskies, remember? They have a place at Hancock Point, and some of them rescued my mom that day, long ago, and established some sort of a Putney School connection.

Turns out, those other two people in the boat that day, rescuing my mom, were Mike and Rebecca. Who are Mike and Rebecca, you might ask. Rebecca and Ray were high school classmates, both starting at Putney in the ninth grade, so, four years of high school together for those two. Mike also went to Putney, though he is older than Ray and Rebecca, by a few years. Mike and Ray became friends over summers, after they had both finished high school, but were still hanging around in the summers and working on the farm at Putney.

Somewhere along the way, Mike and Rebecca also got married and had kids.

In addition to being a Putney person, and a classmate of Ray's from way back, Rebecca is also a Zabriskie. And as such, has some claim to some time each year at a house here, down at the end of one of those roads I mentioned above. Odd, how it's not that big a place, Hancock Point, yet growing up summers here, she and I never knew each other.

But now, here we all are, almost 20 years later, spending a little time together each summer, here in Maine, on the beach, with the kids: Charlotte and Olivia, and Alden and Milo.