Apple Picking

We're ending a great month in New England, and since fall is around the corner, we do what seems perfectly fitting: apple picking. Though they are early apples, they are super-crisp, juicy, and a little tart, just the way I like them. Pippa has a hard time eating them since she is now so toothless.

 

At Shelburne Farm, it's not just about the apples. There's also ice cream, apple cider donuts, and some very sweet time with the grandparents.

 

All in all, it seems like a fitting way to end our trip to New England and to usher in fall. The girls and I can't eat one more gigantic American "kiddie" scoop between the three of us; we are leaving my parents with about 20 pounds of apples that we, sadly, can't smuggle in to France; and the girls have started to complain about going swimming every day. Now we can't wait to get back home to Paris.
 

The Cape (Finally!)

You wouldn't think 100 miles is so far, but this is a trip four years in the making. Our good friends (who recently visited us in Paris) live in the Bay Area but have a family home on Cape Cod, and we have been invited there ever since the summer of 2008. That year, we were literally just heading out the door to get in the car for the trip when the phone rang. My friend Daniela told me that both her kids were throwing up with fevers, and since it was just days before we would be getting on an airplane to go back to San Francisco, where Gigi was going to celebrate her 5th birthday on her first day of kindergarten at her new school, I decided not to risk getting her sick. So we skipped the trip.

Summer after summer, there has been some reason it didn't work out. One summer, our trips East didn't coincide. Another summer there was again some illness, I believe. I can't even remember all the issues, I only know that summer after summer we talk about visiting them on the Cape, and it never seems to work out. Until this year. Finally!

We are late getting there, due to a host of things like not being able to locate the bathing suits to pack; pit stops along the road; having to detour to my parents house to pick up forgotten items; hitting rush hour traffic jams; etc. But still, we refuse to cancel this year. And we are rewarded right away with this sight, as we arrive:

Though the visit is briefer than we would like, we enjoy every minute of it thoroughly. Great friends, great surroundings. How can we go wrong? We hit the beaches, both bay-side and pond-side, and several local treats, including one coated muffin which is nicknamed the "sugar bomb".

 

There is kite-flying involved, and much moving around of crabs and small fish.

 

But perhaps the best nature lesson is helping Bill the neighbor and experienced turtle volunteer check the turtle egg protective enclosures. After several letdowns, the kids are rewarded with a nest of real, live baby turtles.

 

 

 

And we see this guy at the side of a road. He's not a protected class of turtle. He's just a regular slow plodder, but we stand guard over him until somebody goes back and gets Bill's expert advice which is that he'll be just fine and will get himself over to the woods. Even if he's not endangered, we like him, and all the kids suddenly understand why turtlenecks are so-named.

Like this turtle, we are slow getting to our destination. We just hope we don't need to wait another four years till we visit them again on the Cape.

 

Cousin Time

One of the best things about heading East for the summer from San Francisco -- or West in our case from Paris -- is the chance to see cousins of all generations. Precious!

 

Some cousins come from far. This is Pippa and her cousin from NYC who is 15 days younger, but who gives her hand-me-downs nonetheless. Selfishly, we are quite pleased that both she and her mother have really fantastic taste in clothes and access to all those Manhattan stores...

 

 

Also from NYC, my own first cousin who is 15 days younger than me. Though we're beyond the days of hand-me-downs, she does give me excellent free therapy, being a psychologist and all. It's my annual visit on the couch. Except that we usually do our chatting in a Goodwill store, at a restaurant, or on a nice long walk. I call her my "couster" -- that would be a cousin-sister. And my relationship with her is the perfect proof to me of why childhood cousin time is so important.

 

My couster has kids of similar ages to my own, and they love each other. Here, Pop-pop (my dad, that is) visits his magical endless-stuff garage. Think Mary Poppins' handbag. And he comes up with a spontaneous puppet theater set for their production. The youngest boy is doing his best Spider Man impression. And I have become Spider Man's latest nemesis -- an evildoer named "Freezy Von Waffle" who has the audacity to serve unthawed waffles (but only upon request. Yet still mysteriously considered evil).

 

 

 

Here he is in his beloved car, Blackie. Besides being Spiderman, he is also a budding photographer who takes this excellent photo of his mom and dad; it's a family classic that involves taking pictures of other people taking pictures.

 

 

 

Some cousins are close by (well, once we travel the thousand miles to get to the Boston area, that is). Here the girls and their first cousins on Anthony's side -- Anthony's brother's two kids -- enjoy the last days of summer before heading back to school.

 

 

We've always thought their cousin (the girl without the goggles) could easily pass for Pippa's big sister. DNA strikes again! Here's a photo from four years ago that shows it best:

 

 

And, of course, we spend lots of quality time with my own sister's kids, whom we see a lot of during our trips to Maine. It's still a little bizarre to me that my "little" nephews both stand tall among the men already. Am I that old?

 

 

They are great with their little cousins, who basically use the big boys like jungle gyms whenever possible.

 

  

 

 

My own girls won't be little ones much longer -- wanting their cousins to read them bedtime stories and playing pattycakes.

 

 

 

And how much longer will he be able to pick up Pippa like she herself is the basketball? It's Michael Jordan, with a slight Pippa-sized handicap. Gigi's already too big to cart around while dribbling. But she's not too big to find it absolutely, positively hysterical.

 

 

 

 

Maine in Technicolor

Do not adjust the color on your screen. If you are blinded by technicolor, you're seeing it just as it should be.

 

From Acadia, it's the Moss and the Gloss. (Or should I say, we're Likin' the Lichen!) First we have the girls in their birthday suits -- literally, that is: the bathing suits given to them for their birthdays. And then some beautiful moss/lichen growing on the rocks at the top of Cadillac Mountain.

 

 

 

Up at our rental in Southwest Harbor, it feels like a like a little bit of Nepal has snuck in. The owners have decorated their dock with these gorgeous flags, and I can't help but photographing them -- repeatedly.

 

  

 

Back at Cape Elizabeth, we stop by to see the rock at the entrance to town that is covered with messages, with the police chief's approval. The latest is the gift from a graffiti artist who was staying with my sister's family as an exchange student from France earlier this summer. Besides having special meaning for my sister's family, it's also generally acknowledged to be the best rock ever painted here. Yes, the town is even selling it on a sweatshirt.

 

 

Here's the colorful Cape Elizabeth ice cream stand.  

 

 

 

And the birdhouses the girls paint are planted in Aunt Lisa and Uncle Paul's garden. Lucky birds! 

 

 

And last but not least, a tradition, but one that is so colorful, I had to include it in this posting: picking bouquets at the local flower garden. Besides its physical beauty, what makes it so lovely and quaint is that there's just some scissors and empty vases hanging around, with a pay-by-honor system. Pick what you want and pay what's appropriate! Borrow a vase if you need one, and just bring it back with you the next time! (As opposed to Paris, where my wallet has twice been stolen -- from inside my bag and inside my pocket.) This time at the garden, in addition to my normal two beautiful models, I also have some little creatures that poses for me quite obligingly.

 

 

    

 

It's going to be really noticeable to go from Maine in technicolor, back to Paris in black and white!