We got back to my Aunt’s house around 8 pm and went to bed.

Friday morning I got up at 3:30, intentionally. We left my Aunt’s house by 4:30 and drove up to Freeport, Maine. Freeport is the outlet store capital of Maine, it’s almost always swarming with tourists. So we figured that if we’re going to go to such a black hole of commercialism on Black Friday we should probably get there early. Our only destination was L.L. Bean. We were there around 7 and there was no crowd, yay! We ended up buying a couple bags of clothes and some new bedsheets and a big goose down comforter. I love that store. We left a little after 8 to head down to South Portland, Maine to see my sisters.

We met up with my sisters at my father’s place. Since my father is in the hospital they stayed there together (Heather normally lives down the street, but Annette lives 2 hours north). It’s not a bad little place. After talking for a bit we all headed over to Maine Medical Center, where my father was.

My father does not look good. I was glad that my Aunt Meg had prepared me, and happy to find that he’s stilly clear-minded, even though he’s quite tired. It wasn’t easy though, so I made sure that we’d be spending a lot of time with him. Throughout the day we stopped back at the hospital every few hours to visit with him.

That evening he got very tired around 6pm, and we went up toward Grey, Maine to meet our online friend, Morgana. Maybe we didn’t know as much about her and her husband as we should have (like a last name? their age?). But hey, we’ve talked online a lot, she’s very nice, a linux geek, and lives in a house in Maine! So we drove up to their place, and wow. Wow. They live in a huge old farmhouse that they’ve completely renovated. It’s beautiful! And they have something crazy like 120 acres of land. Their kitchen is beautiful and Morgana is an amazing cook. So we had some delicious crab cakes, then some very tastey steak and mushrooms, potatoes, spinach… yum! We talked and then watched a few episodes of Coupling until late. Best of all, Morgana and her husband are amazingly cool people. It was an excellent (I am going to break out a thesaurus in a minute to find more synonyms) night, and a great break from all the family stuff.

Morgana, Bob, pleia2, Michael

Saturday we met He
ather at 9:30 at the hotel Michael and I were staying at. My mother showed up too (and caused some unwanted trouble that I won’t get into here) with her boyfriend. We all then drove out to the storage facility where things from the house were being kept. We hat to go through it to find out if we wanted anything, see what could/should get thrown away, etc. I got a few boxes of nice books (perhaps I’ll write an entry about the stuff I got at a later time) and an ocean painting that hung above our fireplace when I was growing up.

We stopped and saw my father at the hospital around 11, then went out to lunch with my mother. My mother and Annette left to go home after lunch (apparently my mother had to work in the afternoon), so Michael and I headed back over to the hospital. We spent the day there. My father suggested I leave when he felt tired, but I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to spend with him, so I picked up a Reader’s Digest and sat by his bed while he slept. If he wanted to talk I was there. I’m glad I spent that time there with him, I got to do a lot of thinking. Eventually my father got his dinner and we decided that it’d be best if Michael and I got going (we needed dinner too, and my father was quite tired for the night). It was hard leaving, knowing how sick my father is, but it was getting late.

It was Saturday evening and we still hadn’t had our lobster dinner! We wanted to go somewhere nice. Surprisingly, many of the lobster places around Portland cater to families, which means they’re relatively inexpensive and crowded with kids. We didn’t want that. So I suggested the Snow Squall, a nice place that I’ve been familiar with since I moved to Maine (we actually lived in the attached apartment/condo complex when I was very young). So we got there, sat down, and looked at the menu. No lobster. Ack! The waiter understood our disappointment, and we thought we’d try somewhere else. We left and went to one of those family-friendly places. When we went to sit down a paper football landed about 6 inches from my foot. Guess what? We left! Lobster or no, the Snow Squall had atmosphere we needed that evening.

We got back to the Snow Squall feeling quite silly. The waiter was very nice about it, and we started looking over the menu when the waiter came by and informed us that they had a couple 1 pound lobsters in back if we were interested. Nice! (yes the waiter got a huge tip) So we ordered a bottle of white wine and each got our lobster. It was a perfect dinner. For dessert I ordered a crazy “cheesecake” dessert that was flavored with Creme de Cacao and Kahlua. Ever gotten tipsy from a dessert before? Hehe. It was great. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Sunday morning we got up and left by 9 am. The ride home was nice, we didn’t take the way through CT and NJ. Instead we took 95 t0 495 to 290 to the Mass. Pike to NY Thruway, to I-88 to I-81 to the Northeast Extension on the PA Turnpike. Mile-wise it’s longer, but there was barely any traffic (except when passing the I-84 exit, I hate that road!) and it was nice and scenic. We got back home by 7ish. Went out for dinner, then picked up Caligula from Michael’s mother’s. We got home and snuggled in our brand new flannel sheets and down comforter.

It was a good trip.