Day 2 - Rocklin to Bar Harbor

Today was chilly and damp - spitting rain off and on, with temps in the low 40’s - but we managed to find 3 of the 5 lighthouses on our route. 

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First up was Marshall Point Light, in Pt. Clyde, famous from the movie “Forest Gump.”

Wish we could have seen the interior of the keeper’s house but since it’s Sunday, a lot things - including the house - were closed. 

We found the Fishermen Memorial on the seaward side of an outbuilding, with a list of names and dates on the back. Several of the surrounding memorial benches had been knocked over and broken apart, possibly by the hurricane that hit Maine this winter, but the memorial itself looked undamaged.

Hubby and I climbed to the top of Owl’s Head Light - 53 steps! - in the rain and **cold** wind. Worth it!

This is a functional light, controlled by the US Coast Guard, and was “on” while we were there. 

Our third stop was the Rockland light

but we quickly decided walking a mile out across the breakwater - and a mile back - 

in the rain and wind was not going to be as fun as going to find lunch. Gotta admit, food (almost) always wins. 

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

I had 2 more lights on today’s list, but one was on an island with no bridge and the second was… gone, with houses all around where it was supposed to be. So I’m guessing it’s either been torn down or someone has an awesome backyard ornament. 

We also stopped at a couple of antique stores, drove through a bunch of quaint small towns, and saw some amazing scenery (and houses!)

Teeny, tiny baby irises 

Tonight we are in Bar Harbor, gateway to Acadia National Park, where we plan to spend the day tomorrow.

Spring is coming

Then we head south again, hopefully visiting a couple more lighthouses before we finish the trip in Salem and Newport. Stay tuned…

Daffodils at the Marshall Point lighthouse

Maine Tripping

Why Maine, you ask? For Christmas, hubby gave me a gift promise of a trip to any quilt festival I wanted… then Leo and Jac’s parents decided to take the girls with them on their week-long annual anniversary trip… and Rachel said ‘go to Maine! And I’ll go too!’ 

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LAX to BOS via a northern route due to ‘weather uncertainty’ - aka tornados - in the Midwest 

Friday was our travel day; LAX to Boston for us and Denver to Boston for Rachel. Over 5.5 hours in the air (3.5 for Rach), plus the 3 hour time change meant we left home at 5 am and arrived at our hotel in Kennebunk Maine, almost 2 hours north of Boston, at 9 pm. We were tired!

Restored mansion in Kennebunk

We spent today sightseeing along rural winding roads, (we saw some incredible houses!)

Kennebunkport Historical Museum

from Kennebunk to Kennebunkport,

Kennebunkport

then on to Biddeford,

Rachel found us a really great lunch spot

Portland Head Lighthouse,

Fort Williams (such a huge, beautiful! park),

From the sea, this looks like just a hill. From the back you can see where the guns and ammo lockers were during WWI and the start of WWII.

Bath,

and finally Thomaston/Rocklin and our home-away-from-home for tonight. 

Tomorrow we head to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. (And maybe a covered bridge or two . . .)

Life Skills

 Teaching Jac to cut mushrooms. 

She won’t eat them but chopping them is funnnnnnnnnn.

Embellishment

I made this quilt way back in August 2021 (here), calling it “Retirement Goals” since hubby and I have talked often about visiting all most of the National parks once we retired. 

My plan was to embroider/embellish the block of each park we actually visited. The quilt has seen a lot of use, and done a lot of traveling - it’s one of my favorites - but I could never fix on an embellishment plan I was happy with. 

Until I got the MSQ Wildflower kit (here) - I really like the durability and colors of #8 perle cotton - and we decided to take a trip to Maine’s Acadia National Park (and more!) next week. Nothing like a deadline to get me motivated. 

I’m starting with a round of simple chain stitch in a variety of colors for the parks we’ve already visited together (solo visits, pre-married life, don’t count.) Maybe I’ll add some thread weaving and simple flowers later. 

So fun and a great tv watching project. Four parks ‘chained’, only 58-ish to go. 

Finished! But Not Mailed

I’d hoped to get this in the mail today 

54x54”

but Jac and I went to Simi to pick up my (hopefully) repaired sewing machine. New repair guy, at my usual repair shop, said he couldn’t find anything wrong except a bent needle . . . Crossing my fingers he’s correct but we’ll see . . .

I originally thought this one was going for donation (here) but Rachel said she wanted it (hooray!!) so I backed it with an orange print she picked out and then had it quilted with paisleys, one of her favorite designs.

So pretty. So soft. So glad it’s going to a good home. 

Spring Is Sprung

Spring is finally here (crossing fingers…)

Jac was out hunting lizards - she actually caught one last year and I don’t know who was more shocked, her or the lizard 😂 -

and practicing her rooster tail watering skills - I was standing well out of range -

for the first time this year.

Today’s Daily Jackie:

Me: I can’t find my phone.

Jac, age 7: You really need to be more responsible with your things. 

😳

Goldilocks

My big sewing machine started making funny noises and, just in case I didn’t get the hint, skipping every other stitch, so Friday I took it in for service a spa treatment.

Good news is I apparently hit a sweet spot and they think I’ll have it back in a week or so (it had been a 2-3 week backlog).

I’ve been using Big Baby, with its 9 mm feet, for all my quilting projects for, oh… 3 years now? But before that I did everything on my DC2011, which I adored. 

Too small…

Now…. it seems so small! Going back to 7mm feet feels so strange and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what the needle setting was for a 1/4” seam. 

Too big…

I have a bunch of projects in-progress but switching machines mid-stream seems (seams? 😂) like asking for trouble, plus the smaller machine can’t sew bindings (too many layers, not enough umph) which is what I’d planned to work on this weekend.

Just right

Soooooo, I started a new project.

Sew pretty! One quarter down, three to go. 

Roundup

Donovan was too sick to go to school this week so he got to stay home with us. 

(We’re hoping it was allergies, like his parents think…)

Poor baby fell asleep less than a minute into the drive to get Jac

I think we must have been pretty boring since his main question each day - asked often! - was “when does Jackie get out of school???”

Jac and I made a new-to-us bread that’s sooooooo easy. (Here)

Only 4 ingredients; mix, cover and set aside for 8-24 hours; then bake. So delicious! And it’s small loaf so it doesn’t go stale before we can eat alllllll of it. 

Aunt Teena made Leia the cutest Spiderman purse. I think she likes it!

Recount

Apparently I can’t count.

I thought the last block I finished (here) was #4 and was tearing my craft room apart trying to find the missing piece.

So, here’s Wildflower block #3, which I finished fourth. 

And #5 is well underway. Still having (miscounted) fun with these!

I’m struggling to get accurate pictures. The blue in #5 is closest to the actual dark denim color of the background fabric.