Nubble Light in Cape Neddick

Nubble Lighthouse/Cape Neddick Light Station is located in York, Maine - right before you get to New Hampshire. I've now been there three times. The first time I ever saw this lighthouse was last April when my sister and I were heading to Massachusetts for a homeschool conference. The second and third times were, once again, in April while I was in the Kittery/York area for a family weekend. 

I have a fascination with lighthouses and really enjoy visiting them. When my boys were much younger, my sister and I took all of them (my three and her one) and visited quite a few in order to photograph them. We had a lot of fun with that project. 

Nubble Light is located on an island so you can't actually get much closer than I was in these photos. It's a beautiful spot though. Since I only seem to visit in April, there aren't a lot of people there either so parking is easy and exploring the rocks is fun. 

There is just something about the waves crashing on the rocks that I absolutely love. I think the love of the sea is in my blood. My mom and her family used to spend summers on Cape Cod. I have ancestors that lived near the sea as well. 

I had a doctor appointment south of Portland (1-1/2 hours south) on the Friday before our shopping day. My mom-in-law offered to go down early with me so we headed down after my appointment. My sister-in-law met us and we headed out to see the lighthouse. Yes, you can probably tell by our body posture that it was cold and no, I didn't bring anything heavier than that sweater. Needless to say, the first thing I bought the next day was a warmer sweatshirt. 

Twice a year we descend on the Kittery area for a shopping day. Everyone lives outside of Maine except my mom-in-law and myself. Kittery is a centrally located area for all of us and it has outlets. 

On Saturday a few more relatives joined us. Around the table from left to right is my mom-in-law, myself, Aunt Betty, Aunt Irene, and then my two sister-in-laws. It was a smaller group than normal this time. Oftentimes there are a few cousins tossed in for good measure. 

The second evening, after we had eaten dinner, we headed once more to the lighthouse to take those who hadn't been on Friday. It was still cold, don't let that sun fool you! However, there is just something about the sea, the waves, the lighthouse, the open sky that is so very relaxing. 

I'm looking forward to the next Kittery weekend. 

Tour of the Blaine House

At the beginning of May our homeschool co-op was able to take a tour of the Blaine House. This was actually the first time my family & I had been inside. The Blaine House is the Governor's Residence. My husband and I had attended a picnic there a couple years ago for an event he was invited too.

The tour only covers the main floor due to the fact that the second floor is where the Governor and First Lady reside. As a result, the tour is very short. The biggest reason it's taken me so long to plan a trip here is due to the restrictions placed on groups.

As homeschoolers, we are a packaged deal. Typically any group contains moms and multiple kids. The Blaine House only allows five adults to attend per group but up to 25 children. As you can see, we didn't even come close to that child limit. This was the first group that went, but we had to have two time slots due to the adult limit. However, it worked out well.

We were given a brief talk about the history of the house and how it became to be owned by the State of Maine. It was originally intended to be passed down to the son in the Blaine Beal family. However, he was killed in France in World War I. As a memorial to him, the family donated the house to the state.

State events are still held inside. The parlor is rather large as is the state dining room. Although, I have to admit, the room I liked best was the study and not just because of the bookshelves. Mr. Blaine was friends with Abraham Lincoln. On the desk there was a pass given to Mr. Blaine to travel during the Civil War signed by Abraham Lincoln.

Visitors to tours first start here. 

Although, during state events this room 

(which spans the length of the house) is used for receptions. 

The Study

The framed wallpaper? Mr. Blaine wanted his study to look just like Mr. Lincoln's and so he patterned it after it. The paper in the frame is authentic, it is from Mr. Lincoln's study. The room was matched to it. I think the moms appreciated all of this just a bit more than the kids.  

Pass signed by Abraham Lincoln

All the little details throughout the house were amazing. The woman who gave our tour talked about cleaning the rooms so I have to assume she works in a capacity of more than a tour guide. She was very knowledgable about all the various items and the history behind the house. 

A Beautiful Day Near the Water

For more years than I care to admit, I've been getting together with these two ladies every month. We used to scrapbook together every time, but now we often work on computer projects, go shopping, or go on other outings. Today we headed to the coast and enjoyed a great day together.

This is called the Rockland Breakwater. It's a about a mile long walk along the granite block to the lighthouse one way. It took us just over an hour today to walk out, explore the lighthouse (which was open) and walk back. 

It's an interesting walk because you can go at a slow pace (although people do jog along the rocks) and you have to watch your footing. It's also deceptive since it doesn't seem as long as it really is. In fact, I thought it was only half of a mile until I looked up information about it!

It had been drizzling and rainy most of the morning. When we had almost reached the coast, the sun came out. It turned out to be a perfect day to spend near the water. 

Field Trip to the Maine Wildlife Park

Last month I coordinated a homeschool field trip to the Maine Wildlife Park located in Gray. They have educational classes in May, June, September and October for school groups including homeschoolers. I realized last year that we could fill a class (75 spots) and then some so I started coordinating a class time just for homeschoolers. This allows for a reduced entrance fee and then time to explore the park after the class. Last year we had just over 100 people attend (including younger siblings and parents), but the weather was iffy that day and it did start to rain part way through the morning. This year I had over 130 people attend and we had gorgeous weather.

Our time there started with a class on bears. The educator is wonderful. You can definitely tell she's done this a few times with all kinds of children. She does a great job relaying the information and keeping the children engaged.

This baby fawn died in utero when it's mom was hit by a vehicle and is now used in educational classes.

Pretty impressive paw print! The huge one on the left is from a grizzly bear. The one on the right is from a Maine black bear.

Once the class was over - they last about 45 minutes - we were able to go explore the park. I had a couple "bonus boys" with me today so I had a crew of five boys with me. 

We like to start with the deer and work our way around the whole park. I think we hit a lot of it since I had almost 15K steps this day according to my FitBit. This is one of our favorite places to visit and we often go every year either in the spring or the fall.

Of course, we did manage to stop for a fun photo op first....

Bonus Boy #1

Bonus Boy #2

My youngest

Mr. T - getting some help to get up there.

And yes, I'm missing a boy. I couldn't bribe or otherwise convince my 14-year-old to do the photo. 

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They had just fed the mountain lion. We had a great time standing there watching him (her?) eat.

They hide the food so that the animals have to work (kind of) to eat.

I thought it hilarious that this poor moose was trying to get this one little green plant on the other side of the fence. The enclosure (which is pretty big for one moose) had some nice greener in it that was much easier to get at.

Checking out the bears.

We always take a photo on this metal turtle. I need to go find some older pictures so I can compare how much my boys have grown!

Almost all of them are looking at me....

This was a great end to our 2014-2015 school year. While coordinating these field trips is always a lot of work, it is a lot of fun too. Although, this one did start with a bit of extra stress!

I was less than 10 minutes away from the park. I had turned on to a side road and was following a fully loaded dump truck. I noticed that he was swerving some, crossing the yellow line, and just not driving well at all! I backed off a fair distance and just made sure to keep my eyes on what he was doing. 

Once again he crossed the yellow line, but didn't correct back. Unfortunately, he did this just as he was crossing over a highway overpass. A Subaru wagon was coming towards him and I laid on my horn as he was clearly in the other lane and the car coming had no place to go. I must have alerted him because just before it could have been really bad, he jerked the wheel to the right. However, it was too late. He crunched that car right into the guardrail. 

He also kept going! He crossed the entire overpass before stopping to back up. Meanwhile I pulled up to the car and checked on the driver. She was shaken but completely fine. Her door, however, was smashed in and she couldn't get out. I backed up and called 911. By this time the dump truck had backed up. 

Thankfully a First Responder arrived soon after I hung up from 911 and checked on the driver. I was, however, beginning to panic just a bit. I had 130 people waiting on me and all the admission money with me! I was already later than I told folks I would be there and now I was the witness to an accident! Thankfully, the First Responder cleared me to leave after I left my name and number. 

I'm so glad I did because the dump truck driver was telling the other driver and the First Responder that he had hit her because he swerved around a bicyclist that was ahead of him. Even the boys in the truck with me knew he was lying. I had followed him that entire road and there was no bicyclist. I'm not sure he was impaired by drugs or alcohol, but he was definitely distracted! I'm so thankful no one was hurt, that I was able to leave when I did before the road was clogged with safety vehicles, and I managed to get to the field trip on time. The check in process went very smoothly and we started out class on time! 

Maine History

The State of Maine requires homeschoolers teach Maine history at some point between grades 6-12. Although, homeschoolers who are educating under "Option 2" or "Recognized for Attendance Purposes Private Schools" (RAPPS) are just required to teach it at some point. I am the administrator for a RAPPS school here in Maine and the above photo is some of the students who are enrolled. Each family teaches their own children in their own home, but being part of a RAPPS allows us to avoid some of the paperwork required of "Option 1" students. That's just a bit of background. 

I have found that field trips within the state do an extremely good job of helping students learn Maine history. They realize that it's not just dry information but it helps put real faces and artifacts to the stories they hear. 

This past Friday I put together a field trip with another friend who runs a different RAPPS school. I coordinated a day in Brunswick. We split in to four groups (two at two different locations) and then switched. My group started at the Joshua Chamberlain House. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the house. 

Joshua Chamberlain was a famous solider in the Civil War. The home we toured was the house he lived in while working at Bowdoin College as well as when he was Governor of the state. 

The history of the home was fascinating.  It was originally in a different spot and was only 1-1/2 stories tall. However, when Chamberlain became President of Bowdoin College, he had the home lifted up (11 feet!) and an entirely new first floor built. This is what we toured. 

We were able to go in to his office. It had some original items that he had while he was a solider. Many of the items were recreations but there were some originals. I always find this part fascinating since it's so neat to think about the people using the items. 

Our tour here lasted about 45 minutes. Once it was done, we all walked down the street (about a 1/4 mile) to the Skolfield-Whittier House. Both houses are managed by the Pejepscot Historical Society.

I actually found this house more fascinating then Joshua Chamberlain's. The home was built by two brothers. Each lived on one side (semi-detached). There were four brothers total and the other two brothers had homes beside this one. If you can see the fence behind my boys in the photo above, it surrounds all four houses marking them as families. 

The Skolfield-Whittier families were the only ones to ever occupy this home until the historical society bought it. The amazing thing was that they never threw anything out! Coupled with the fact that it looks as if they all just up and left for vacation yesterday and left their front door open, and it's a unique look at how families lived in the late 1800s. 

I found it interesting in that I grew up in a home of the same era. There was a wonderful cast iron cooking stove in the kitchen. My kitchen had a similar styled one, although my parents did purchase it for our house. It was not original. I also grew up with a hot water tank attached to the wood stove. In fact, until I was in high school, we did not have hot running water in the summer time. The only time we had hot water was when the wood stove was in use. So in the summer time we had to heat water on our electric stove and take sponge baths and wash our hair over the tub. I loved it when my parents had oil heat put in! This home also had a very large water tank attached to the cook stove in the kitchen. 

This house was simply amazing to wander through. I have to admit that oftentimes I set up these field trips for the parents more for the kids. They are just excuses for us to go out and enjoy some of these venues. At least, I'm sure that's what my kids think.