All packed up – where's the feline ‘help’?
There isn't much narrative to present - it was the usual Pine Point vacation: walking on sand bars in the morning, supervising the tide in the afternoon, and convening the family and friends for a communal dinner in the evening. Even the pictures are repetitious! Everyone free to do their own thing. It was wonderful!
Some nomenclature - 81JCD refers to the “Little House” that Cindy and I bought in 2010 at 81 Jones Creek Drive. The “King Cottage” or just “the cottage” refers to the shack that my great-great-grandfather Cyrus Shaw King bought in the 1880s. The cottage is across the street at 82 Jones Creek Drive and overlooks the tidal marsh. The “Big House” would refer to the house now owned by my cousin Sally that was purchased by my grandfather Howard King Sr. some time back in (I'm guessing) the 1950s.
We drove again, about 1,550 miles by Google Maps. We took three days as we planned to visit Jonathan's friend of longest standing, Káča, in Lindsay Ontario in Canada. We spent the first night in St. Ignace MI, before heading across the border. We had a delightful brunch in Sherbrooke Quebec, before heading south back into the US, and arrived in time for cocktail hour on Sunday.
All packed up – where's the feline ‘help’?
Káča and Jonathan at the Hobart's steak house in Lindsay ON (13 July).
Mimosa and brunch at Auguste in Sherbrooke on the last leg to Pine Point (14 July).
An early freight train.
Sunrise.
Sunrise.
Sunrise.
The moon emerges over the bank of clouds that had obscured its rise.
More moon.
Aiming for the moon rise behind the pine tree on Prouts Neck, this was as close as I got.
An iPhone screen shot of The Photographers' Ephemera lining up our position on the beach with the pine.
Sunset.
Sunset.
The bar at the Bait Shed - I was liking the neon lobster.
Sparrow, possibly a saltmarsh sparrow or seaside sparrow (Ammospiza caudacutus or maritima).
Let cocktail hour begin.
Another attempt at a moon rise photo.
The sparrows were thick in the rose bushes between the King Cottage and the Kerr Cottage. They may have been garden variety sparrows, but there are some varieties that inhabit coastal marshes mentioned above.
Below is a shot down the beach showing the brightly lit rides at the Palace Playland amusement park.
I think my sister has a gardening habit…
Monarch caterpillar on parsley.
Orange and maroon flowers for the VT garden up front.
More orange and maroon flowers.
More orange and maroon flowers.
The front garden at 81JCD inside the fence.
Looking out towards the Bayley's office.
A monarch butterfly visits the milkweed in the front yard at 81JCD.
A rather dour shot of Nicole (1st cousin once-removed) and Scott Lewis.
First cousin Sally and her husband Roger.
Cocktail hour.
Clouds reflecting sunset.
The pine at the tip of Prouts Neck.
A tern in flight.
A pair of terns hover over the surf looking for a meal.
The moon setting over Old Orchard Beach.
Pine Point as seen from the sand bars in the Scarborough River../p>
Sunset.
Cloud formation illuminated by the sunset.
The King Cottage.
Sunset.
The Little House, a/k/a 81JCD, reflecting the color of the sunset.
Sunrise - the waters in Jones Creek were very calm this morning.
Boats in the river.
Boats at the town pier.
Cindy and Brenda Cook, aunt to the daughters.
Cindy took this shot of Jonathan with her iPhone.
Another calm morning, clouds reflecting on the surface of the water.
Lobster boat in the river.
A cormorant fishes in the shallows of the creek.
Computin’ by the dock of the bay …
Gull swims by boats.
In the maroon and orange garden - daylilies.
In the maroon and orange garden - more daylilies.
Also in the front garden - hydrangea.
A monarch butterfly caterpillar on a milkweed leaf.
Blueberry cobbler - recipe from the NYTimes cooking section.
Tenants, freeloading.
Sunset with clouds on the horizon.
Cindy returns from kayaking around the marsh.
Blueberry cobbler for dessert.
Reflections of the clouds in the creek at sunset.
Calm water mirrors the Bait Shed pier.
Color at sunset.
Cindy takes in the sunset.
↑Sunrise. Sunset.↓
Sitting around the fire pit - Mike, Cindy, Celeste, foster dog, Jonathan, and Lauralee.
Sunset.
Celeste gets a faceful of dog breath.
The fire pit.
The colors just after sunset - a group of kayakers out in the creek.
Morning mists in the distance.
The VT flag with flowers.
Sunset.
Harris takes in sunset.
A monochromatic view of the pier and lobster boats in the morning.
Jonathan on the deck at sunset.
A gull takes off.
Sunset.
A sandpiper silhouetted in the morning light on the mud flats of the creek at low tide.
A sea gull stands sentinel on the beer keg buoy in the creek.
Jonathan swimming in the creek.
Cindy - at Scales restaurant in Portland.
Sunrise
Cindy, me, and cousin Ann on the beach - taken by Ann's friend Laurel.
Cleve, Ann, Laurel, and Doug - they dropped by for lunch on their motorcycle tour of Maine.
Cleve and Ann getting ready to depart.
Ann checks the map to Kennebunkport.
Sunrise.
Amtrak's Downeaster heading to Boston from Portland.
A pair of big (relatively speaking) crabs on the beach - their main shell was about 3 inches across.
Surf clam preparing to bury itself - it has sunk its foot into the sand already.
Sunrise reflecting of tidal pools.
A tern, golden in the morning light.
The pine at the tip of Prouts Neck.
Sky reflections across the sand bar.
Sand dollar! First one found on this trip.
A rumble of six hermit crabs - their shells were about the size of a quarter or smaller.
A beach selfie.
Waiting (in vain) for the setting crescent moon.
Somebody left their drink (unopened!) on the side of the road.
Another large crab - I suspect she was unearthed by a clam digger.
A clam digger - I don't recall seeing so many on the ocean side of the point (vs. on the mud flats)
Surf clams.
Jonathan and Cindy walking out to the sand bars.
Sand and water patterns on the sand bar - this image used as the background for this web page.
I knew the ‘little black dress’ was versatile, but for clam digging?!?
I'm impressed.
The setting crescent moon - the back (dark) side of the moon is lit by earth light.
Driving back home, we took our usual route to Toledo OH where we stayed the night. Then next morning we headed West Lafayette IN to visit Barb Gibbs, a former RepliGen colleague and friend who settled there with her late husband Rich who taught at Purdue until his untimely passing. It was great to catch up in person and we plan on taking the same route home next year.
Toledo OH
Saint Paul MN
The background on the webpages for this trip is a shot of the sand bars at low tide. I've altered the color, but not the pattern, to match the color scheme of this site.
The images on the site, unless otherwise noted, were taken using an Olympus Stylus 1 (3968×2976 pixel RAW file, ~13 MB). I occasionally had a telephoto supplemental lens attached to the Stylus 1, especially for the wildlife shots.
I've whittled the image size down to two sizes - a thumbnail I use on the page for the day, and a 1280x960 pixel (or 960x1280 pixel, assuming I haven't cropped or altered the size) image that I've saved optimized for web usage.
A lot of the images I doctored using Lightroom, a trimmed down version of Adobe Photoshop. My most frequent adjustments were: "Crop", "Adjust Light & Shadows" to cope with the extremes of light and dark, "Auto Contrast" and "Auto Levels". I've occasionly tweaked up the vibrance on some of the shots to emphasize the color - I usually try to flag those images.
