Wonderful atmospheric effect on the Scarborough River our first night in Pine Point
(and you can see a bigger version too).

Two great weeks in Pine Point,
in July of 2016

This picture was taken by Cindy the evening of the day before Mark and I arrived,
while we still were in Erie Pennsylvania (and you can see a slightly bigger version too).

This year, for the first time, Mark took two weeks’ vacation in the summer, allowing us to be together for that long in Pine Point. And we definitely took advantage of the opportunity.

Sunday, July 17

It wasn’t the air fares that made us decide to take two days each way for driving, but the outrageous cost of renting a car out of Portland for two weeks. On the way eastward, we stopped in Erie Pennsylvania, and on the way back, it was Toledo. I don’t think there was anything notable about the two-day trip to Maine, but then I did take extended naps much of the way there. The two pictures below bracket most of the second day’s drive: on the left I guess we must have stopped for breakfast or coffee in Fredonia, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and on the right, Mark is already relaxing with Harris on the deck of the Cottage, across the street. That’s where Howard and Thelma, Cindy and Mike would be sleeping.

early in the morning near the shores of Lake Erie

At any rate, we arrived Sunday, in time not only for dinner, but for just sitting and relaxing. Everybody else had arrived before us: Mike and Cindy had brought the elder Kings, and the four US-based Greene gals had driven up from Rhode Island.

A 17-second clip from that first day, in which nothing happens, just people relaxing

This visit to Pine Point had a certain bittersweet quality. Howard and Thelma had been finding it more and more difficult to travel, and we realized that this would almost certainly be their last visit to Maine. We did not let anything like this dampen our spirits, though, for we filled our days with lots of good food and thorough relaxation.

Monday, July 18

Around six in the afternoon: the tide was out, and the sky
decided to perform for us. (There’s a bigger version, too).

Nothing but relaxation, and plenty of it. In the block to the left, the left picture shows Mark, Madison, M’lyn, and Cindy (big image, small), while in the right, Mark is out, Mike is in (big image, small).

As for relaxation, there always was the salt water nearby, and at this time of year it wasn’t at all cold. If you were brave, you could climb onto a paddleboard, and Cindy did this frequently, Maddy occasionally. This year, since we drove, I threw my swim fins into the car and hoped I’d be able to get a dip in. Indeed I did, in the Scarborough River alongside the Cottage, but I didn’t stay in very long. The water wasn’t that warm.

A leisurely 42-second video, scanning along the horizon at the
maximum telephoto setting of my pocket camera

Tuesday, July 19

M’lyn unfortunately had to leave that afternoon, taking Harris and the kayak and who knows what else.

But at least Brenda arrived from farther north today. She’s Diane’s sister-in-law, and is loads of fun, very good company. It’s not a clear shot of her over to the right, but it does show her in the way that we all think of her.

As the day wore on, the weather got more and more threatening. We ate dinner indoors, in the Cottage. By this year, Thelma and Howard had gotten unsteady enough on their feet that they couldn’t climb the short staircase to the Little House, raised up as it is nowadays. The video clip below shows Mark finishing up an account, Mike choosing hors d’oeuvres, and features Thelma, looking very good.

Later, when there was a threatening sky, I went out and took the pictures to the right. Now, preparing this page over two years later, I don’t recall whether it actually rained that evening. But it must have been either rain or cold that caused us to have dinner indoors.

Friday, 22 July

Not many interesting pictures the preceding days, but lots today.

First two snapshots of Mike, Maddy, and Cindy, over to the right, just standing in the water. Whether they were contemplating paddleboarding or kayaking I don’t know, but there they were.

I’ve always been fascinated by the play of light on the clapboarded sides of the Cottage, across the street from where Mark and I almost always stay. In the block to the left, upper left, is a picture of the Cottage and its tumble-down garage.

To the right of that is one of the pictures I took of a glossy ibis. There were a few of them on the flat this evening, and Mark caught at least one picture that was better than anything I could get. In many ways, his Olympus point-and-shoot is better than my fancy Canon 50-D. In this case, I was a cheapskate in the long-focus lens I bought. As for the bird, the edition of Sibley that we have says that they don’t frequent salt marshes, but they seem to have been coming to the tidal flats of the Scarborough River in increasing numbers.

In the evening, the sky put on an even better show than on the nineteenth, shown above, starting with the dramatic pictures in the lower row. And then, when it was dark, lightning in the distance had us ooh ing and aah ing. But as I recall, this storm bypassed us completely.

The lightning show in two clips. Upper: 26 seconds; lower: 13 seconds.

The Cottage, straight on, around eight in the morning.
There’s a bigger view, too.

Saturday, 23 July

Perhaps not so many pictures this day, but still some good ones.

If you look out toward the Scarborough River from the Cottage, to the right is, first, Bayley’s Lobster Pound, and beyond that, the town pier, projecting farther into the bay. Both of these furnish endless fascination, as the activity and the tides change. In the block to the right, upper left is the town pier, with a boat temporarily moored.

The other three pictures in the block show a shore bird, but let’s face it, it’s hard to distinguish among the various species. The bird here may be a Willet, or, less likely, a Marbled Godwit, or maybe even a Short-Billed Dowitcher. Don’t forget that you can see them up close on this page by passing your cursor over the thumbnail.

Picture taken at about 7:30p.m., low tide, lowering sky.
(You can get a larger view, or an even larger, as well.)

Sunday, 24 July

This is the one good picture of a Glossy Ibis that I got all summer.

Tuesday, 26 July

Again, not many pictures this day, but a movie and a few pretty snapshots.

In preparing the movie below, I killed the sound, because it was a very windy day, and the noise of the wind whistling about the camera obliterated all but a bit of the conversation.

The movie itself starts with Nicole and Scott: she is a cousin on the King side. Both are good fun and give good conversation.

Making a panoramic shot with the iPhone is a bit chancy. You have to keep the horizon right on the guideline on the little screen, and you must move the iPhone steadily, neither too slow nor too fast. Half the time, your horizon looks like a giant oceanic swell has taken over. The picture below has an exemplary straight-line horizon (yay!), but I see a bit of vertical banding, which must have been caused by my turning the phone too slowly, or else too fast.

very wide panorama of the horizon, needs scrolling

Upper picture: the whole panorama, in small; lower: larger, but
you have to scroll to the right to see it all.

Wednesday & Thursday, 27 & 28 July: sunsets

Perhaps fittingly, since our stay in Maine was coming to an end, two sunsets.

A fifteen-second stop-frame movie made from snapshots taken around
6:30pm on 28 July, a wonderful dark and threatening sky. But as you see
above, we got enough clearing for a fine sunset.

Friday, 29 July — our last day in Maine

much shrunken version of the picture below

very wide shot of the horizon at low tide

Part of the horizon at about two in the afternoon, low tide.
As in the scrolling picture above, the upper version is the whole thing,
but you get the proper view in the lower picture by scrolling.

This day was rather subdued, no guests it would seem, maybe just some sadness all around, because it was generally understood that this would be Thelma and Howard’s last trip to Pine Point. Howard had been coming to this very cottage since his childhood, and had taken care of it, fixing and patching, repairing and painting, for all the years up till his failing eyesight made the work impossible.

That didn’t mean we couldn’t have our usual happy hour on the deck, as the pictures to left and right show. The usual wine and snacks, and good talk, just the six of us.

same as above, but full size, and requiring scrolling

Another panoramic shot, this one showing the wavy horizon I complained about earlier.
But never mind, the lower picture again is full-sized, but needs scrolling to see everything.
This one was taken at about five in the evening, around happy hour.

Unlike my travel pages, these accounts of Pine Point don’t have a journal to support whatever narrative I can cook up. In particular, I have no recall of what we had for dinner that night. It should have been appropriately festive, maybe with some sadness. Mark and I would have been packed by now, and ready to leave for Toledo at three in the morning.

At the very end of the day, Mark built a fire in the outdoor fireplace,
and everybody gathered around. Howard made his way there,
and Cindy helped him get settled. I have cut out rather much
of the process. This is the last video I have of Howard —
his death came in January of 2017. (54-second clip)

Saturday and Sunday, 30 & 31 July


Waiting for our main course, in the Toledo restaurant not far from our hotel (big image, small).	A good rest on the front porch, with the help of Pippin (big image, small).

And so we made it home.