Well, here we are, at the end of May 2012, heading into summer! A few really great, really important changes have happened in my life since my last post!
First of all, I have been an auntie for one month and five days!
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| My super cute nephew, T! |
Secondly, I graduated from UMO with my Master of Social Work degree!
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| Walking away from the stage wearing my Masters hood for the first time! |
And lastly, in about eighteen calendar days, I will no longer be a special education teacher! I am in the process of being licensed as a Master Social Worker in the state of Maine, and am in the market for a new job and a new apartment this summer!
After all these exciting events, I was really looking forward to a great Memorial Day weekend, and boy did I get it! On Saturday night, I went camping with C, his sister, and her boyfriend on our family's property up on Township 24. I remembered my camera, but forgot to get it out once we got there, so I don't have any pictures, but it was a great time! There is nothing like hot dogs on the fire, pasta salad, and cookies under the star. Though it was a little cold for sleeping and we probably should have taken advantage of the fact that our camp was about a mile away from where we were, it was still a great time! I LOVE TO CAMP!!
Then, on Memorial Day itself, it was time for to get back in the saddle! The Rhythm came out of storage!! Mom, my sister M, and her boyfriend J decided to come with me today, and J brought three kayaks from his family's house for them to use. The destination? Jones Pond in Gouldsboro!
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| The kayaks getting some gas before the adventure! |
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| From the front! |
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| Mom's car a little close to the trailer... |
I was so excited to go! After a long winter, it was certainly time to get back in the water.
After running some errands in Ellsworth and picking up life jackets for M and Mom (and little T, even though he wasn't on today's adventure), we finally got to the public access beach on Jones. It was beautiful, and the water was very calm.
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| J and Mom getting kayaks ready to put in the water. |
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| Pretty kayaks on the beach, headed for the lake. |
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| The put-in point! |
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| The "You are Here" dot really doesn't help you orient yourself. I looked for that dot and the thick red line the whole time we were out there, and never found it, so I struggled to figure out where we were on the pond! |
Mom had been looking forward to getting out on the water all day, but was a little nervous when it came down to actually doing it! After explaining that the kayak is supposed to tip a little bit, she got more comfortable.
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| Yelling, "I'm winning!". We weren't racing. |
We had a mission on this trip: we were trying to find our family members' new house that is situated near the pond. We had directions, provided by my cousin J, but no guarantee of finding the place! After heading out of the public access cove area and taking a right, we made for Sunset Cove, across from the clinic in the town.
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| M having a great time! |
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| J got a little bit behind; he was trying to scare up a monster fish. |
Alas, after getting all the way to Sunset Cove (not really that far, but far enough when your arms are getting used to kayaking after having a winter long break) we couldn't find the house. We found out later that it can't even be seen from the water =(. Oh well...in this case, the journey was all the fun!
On the way back, two exciting things happened: we saw a family of geese, and J decided to cut through the bushes connecting the small island that can be seen from the beach to the other side of the cove, because he was too tired to go "all the way around" the little island again.
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| The baby geese were so cute! |
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| J bushwhacking his way back; he made it through! |
All in all, a great day, and a great way to start off the kayaking season. I look forward to many more!!
