Big news in Bar Harbor

The nursing home was abuzz today with the sights of two huge cruise ships coming into port today. One of the nurses' husbands works aboard a ship that goes out on whale watching trips and she was excited all day knowing that her husband was helping shuttle the passengers from the ship to the harbor (because they were too large to dock in the harbor). It was an interesting experience to be a port of call. As I was leaving Acadia NP tonight I noticed that one of the ships was leaving port and heading South.

Panda-monium

We went to the zoo this weekend and of course checked out our resident baby panda Mei-Lan. Since are members of the zoo we were able to go in early and we spent lots of time with the little baby. It actually a year old and I was the last one in the family to see it. We saw lots of other animals too. While we were there the zoo staff let the Golden Lion Tamarind monkeys out of their cages onto monkey island. This is a spot where the monkeys can be out of their cage in a more natural environment. This gives the animals a chance to be out among predators (hawks are constantly circling around the zoo looking for an easy meal) and to get used to roaming more freely. The zoo has a reintroduction program and several monkeys have been sent back to brazil in the past few years. We were literally 5 feet from some of the monkeys with no cage between us. It is amazing to see how quickly the monkeys move in those trees. We thought that was pretty cool to see.

I pulled into Bar Harbor last night about 3:30. Right now I am staying in a tiny little motel room with about a 15 square foot bedroom and a tiny bathroom. I will move into my three bedroom cottage on Saturday. I felt a bit discouraged when I saw the motel room, especially by the lack of a kitchen ... but I have improvised and made a shelf on the wall and a plastic bag on the door into a pantry and the bed into a counter. Right now I am sitting out on the common porch in the cool of the night eating a delicious sandwich and wild Maine blueberries ... so it is not all bad!!


This is the small little room I am in right now.

This is the house I will be moving into on Saturday.

Here you go Nate!

Oh, one more thing ....

All of the sudden yesterday .... it was Fall in Wisconsin. Not everywhere but there were a lot of trees that were already changing. It was a beautiful little gift from Wisconsin. Michigan also had quite a few Fall colors.

... This is what I saw today

The Macinac Bridge at night.

A poor dilusional skiier in Michigan.

A lighthouse on Lake Superior in Wisconsin.

Lake Superior from Wisconsin.

A farm in Wisconsin with notably missing cows.

... in all my travels I have never before seen the Great Lakes. They are amazing. Lake Superior is the largest ... and I can certainly attest to that. I awoke to it this morning and it stayed with me until about 7:00 pm. The scale of these lakes are unbelievable. They extend into the horizon like oceans do but they have a calm to them that decieves the illusion of sea. Although I learned today that Lake Superior can get wicked storms that can rival and ocean storm and which have sunk quite a few ships.

Hard Work

I don't want you all to think that it is all just fun and games traveling across the country and seeing amazing sights. This is where I spend the bulk of my time and it is hard work! ... especially three days into the trip.

Life is a Highway ...

... and here is the one I was driving on today through Michigan.

North Dakota

Danny told me that I needed to post to the blog so here is a copy of what I wrote last night after getting to my hotel.

I have wanted to go to North Dakota for a very long time. I guess it is on an unofficial "life list" I have. I have always perceived it as a distant frontier that only a select few ever make it to. That always made it more attractive and mysterious for me. I however never though that I would love it as much as I did. I was delighted by everything about it: the grasslands, the Badlands, the prairies, the farms, the cities. They all brought a smile to my face and an ever increasing love for North Dakota. The grasslands were wonderful, simple and wonderful. There was a touch of red in the grasses, a sign I would imagine of the oncoming Fall. The Badlands were stunning, intricate, and peaceful. I stood atop an overlook in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park; a soft wind rising from the valley and passing through me over the hill behind me. The landscape below me rich in the texture of the Badlands and the prairies. It was a spot wherein I could have stayed for a long time letting my senses enjoy the richness and peace. The farmland was in a time of transition; bails of hay lined the fields and farmers harvested their corn. The hill that crested just before Mandan and Bismark revealed a beautiful river valley that made me wonder why North Dakota is loosing population rather than gaining it. The blue, blue lakes surrounded by the greens and browns of the prairie delighted me with every one that I passed.

Big Spider, Big Goose Egg!

It has been a day of "Bigs". The kids found two giant garden spiders amongst the black-eyed susans. They are beautiful, amazing creatures but Emma wasn't excited about getting too close to them! The heat has broken a little bit in GA(only in the high eighties!) and the kids enjoyed playing outside after school.

Tonight was also Chas' first official Skate Night as a Camp Creek Kindergartner. He celebrated by breaking a fall with his head. He has a nice big Goose Egg on his forehead that he can't wait to show his teacher tomorrow.

We also found out today that Emma is definetly having heel lengthening surgery sometime this fall, probably early October. That is very Big because she will have walking casts for 6 weeks and then wear special braces for 6 months. She is well on her way to being the Bionic Girl!

Back to School Ward-Anderson Style

Even though Labor Day has yet to arrive on the calendar, summer has come to an abrupt end in Maryland with the start of school daze.

Posted here are pics of the kids ... Joe is a 5th grader; E is a little Freshman and Clay is a big Junior. Joe is finishing his last year of elementary school and E and Clay are both at the Mill (Watkins Mill High School - alma mater for all three big Anderson boys + Jaqui; all of whom are well known at the Mill). The other pics are of our "bus" driver (yep, that IS "little" Clay driving mom's Santa Fe) and Joe smiling big in front of his school's mosaic after just re-connecting with a host of buddies who yelled, "Hey it's Joe" with happy glee when they saw him walking toward them.

You can probably see that Clay and E possess no happiness at all. Though there was a moment of laughter on the way to school when they got a big kick out of mom's [in]ability to remember the words when singing along with the radio (some things are apparently inherited grandpa Doug). There was yet another moment of nervous laughter when the bus driver made a last minute decision to "go" on a left turn and the oncoming car suddenly seemed to be approaching REALLY fast. Leo (the car) gave his tires a rowdy squeal before succeeding in reaching warp speed just in the nick of time. Mom is now sporting yet another gray hair.

The window behind the kids is the front door of the Bawlmer house. I painted it this summer and when the light shines through it looks like stained glass. During the day the colors reflect on the exposed brick wall and at night the interior lights give our neighbors some insight into what REAL mountains look like. On the bottom panes you can see our beloved ocean (i start sailing lessons next week ... yippeee!) with one sea creature representing each one of my babies. The mural also has a beautiful, but rare, blue moon and stars that represent all the people who light my way (including and especially my family!)