Maine 2003

	We flew into Manchester, New Hampshire and rented a vehicle to get to our destinations.  ME & NH are absolutely beautiful late spring/early summer.  This is not a trip for the person who hates the color green!
	This is a building in Portland, I believe.  Old New England buildings are awesome.  We came up with the idea of doing a pictorial tour of Maine barns and seeing if I could get it published.  Great excuse for another trip!
	There are some gorgeous houses in the historical districts of these towns.  Find any costal city or town on a river and you'll find the castles that the well-to-do merchants built at a time when 90% of all products made it to market via boat.
	We stopped and toured a Korean War era submarine.  That was pretty cool.  You could imagine a Cary Grant or Henry Fonda calling the shots in the old movies (I know, different war - but good movies!).  They cruised this bad dog up the river and parked it as an attraction.
	L.L. Bean.  What more can you say.  If you go to Maine and you're into the outdoors, you have to stop at L.L. Bean in Freeport.  The place is on a couple dozen acres!  I believe this was the building with the fishing stuff.  REI ain't got nothing on this location.
	The Penobscot River from a picnic area in Orrington, ME.  I was supposed to canoe it with my brother-in-law, Chris, but he had to cancel his trip.  Each spring there is a canoe race down, I believe, the Kenduskaeg River.  I'm going to try to hit it in 2005 with either Patrick or Chris.
	Patrick, Shannon & Tiffany horsing around with the Penobscot as a back drop.
	I wish that I photographed as well as Shannon.  She was just over nine months old.
	These were all through trees along the freeway.  They are Gypsy Moth cocoons.  My other brother-in-law, Josh, says that they operate on a seven year cycle. They'll be all over the place and then they disappear for seven years.  He says that when they're really bad, you can walk through the forest and it sounds like it's raining because of all of the caterpillars eating.
	See my comment above.  There is just something about these old barns and what people have done to them over the course of time that I find appealing.
	Rustic living.  The cabin that we were to be staying in was right on the water at a pond/lake in Lincoln , Maine.  We were here because the Hoxie family shin-dig was headquartered at my mother-in-law, Bette's, cabin on a different pond in Lincoln.  We stayed one night and bailed and got a motel room in Bangor because I was paranoid about Patrick & Tiffany's asthma.
	This was the view from the front of our cabin that we bailed from.  It's gorgeous, but not a "family" thing.  It was more of a "going out to the woods with the guys" thing.  A cabin near ours had about eight guys, all dressed in cammies and riding ATV's.  On some sort of hunt.
	This is Joseph, Tiffany's nephew, and Patrick in Bette's boat on the pond at Bette's cabin.
	Bette's cabin is the one on the right.  The one on the left is for sale - about $50K, if I remember right.  On a southern California lake that same cabin at that location would be an easy $350-400K!  The next day I allowed myself to be talked into kayaking on an unstable ocean kayak.  I flipped and went into the drink - it was awesome!
	Tulips outside of Bette's abode.  The beauty of nature.  Bette thinks I'm wierd.
	Observing the world from mom's arms. closeness and comfort not much more in the world one could want for or need.
	Tiffany's brother, Josh, flew in from Alaska for the 'do'.  It was great to see him.  I (John) hadn't seen Josh since my wedding in 1988.
	The extended family.  Bette is on the right.
	Took a trip to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.  Did a bunch of roaming around, but not really hiking.  Next time I'll be cruising some of the trails.
	Here we are in front of the sign.  It was really foggy, so we didn't have the magnitude of views that I was hoping for.
	'Tis the pine tree state!
	I kept seeing these signs on the road through Acadia and had to stop to see what they said.  They aren't on trails and on REALLY steep hills that nobody is going to be going cross country on - and they are nowhere near a bathroom!
	This just struck me as a beautiful scene.  Awesome place for lunch!
	Driving along the road, we came across a pond with four beaver lodges.  A very serene setting with many felled trees on the other side - evidence of the busy beavers.
	Family isn't just something your born into its something you develop, nurture and coddle.  This is the whole of us at Thunder Hole on Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park.  Thunder Hole?  Sounds like John after Jambalaya.
	Her Royal Highness Princess Shannon of Acadia!
	After Acadia, we drove through Bucksport.  This is the Buck Memorial, erected in memory of Colonel Jonathan Buck, founder of Bucksport.  Notice the image of a ladies leg on the headstone.
	This is a plaque summarizing the legend of a witch who was burned and cursed Col. Buck before she died.
	Few people that I've met are as happy & perky as our aunt Donna.  Had to stop by and introduce Shannon.

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