We have been back in the US for nearly a month and home for a few days here and there, six days total. The rest of the time we have been traveling, first in New England and now for the last week in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
During the few days we spent in Houghton unpacking and sorting and repacking, we have seen deer wander across our back yard. The picture above was a near miss of twin fawns and their mother, who surprised us. I scrambled to get my camera. Mama deer had disappeared over the bank into the woods before I got the camera ready.
Our time in New England was spent mostly in Maine, where the pictures below were taken. Maine usually brings to mind pine forests and rocky coast lines, lobsters and sailing boats. These pictures are of a harbor just north of Kittery, Maine, where we had met our son Ian and his wife, Kristen, for lunch.
Yes, the sky and the water really are that blue. And, yes, we smiled for the camera for those who like people in pictures.
My T-shirt reads "Wicked Big Sox Fan" just in case you can't read the tiny print. "Wicked" is characteristic New England adjective meant to intensify the noun that follows, after the manner of "very." "Sox," of course, means the Boston Red Sox, a major league baseball team and a New England obsession. The "Sox fan" designation is crucial to clarify loyalties, especially since the New York license plates on our car might suggest "Yankee fan" instead.
I add here parenthetically that my wife claims to be a Yankee fan although she does not follow baseball. Her loyalty can be traced to her father, who was a Yankee fan of the "rabid" sort, another American adjective that both intensifies and colors the noun that follows. "Rabid" indicates not only close support of the favored team but also necessary hatred of its close rivals. Further explanation makes for interesting story-telling, but it tends to raise more questions than it answers.
Most of our time in Maine was not spent at seaside, however; it was spent at Whitney Pond, a small lake with few boats and at least two resident loons.
I do not have photographs of the loons handy as they are "shy" birds that are more at home swimming for food underwater than either flying or trying to walk on land. Photographing them takes more patience than I have had to date, as they will appear suddenly on the surface of the water looking very duck-like and then disappear just as suddenly under the surface again.
The lake may look like Golden Pond, the idyllic lake from the movie, but it isn't. This photo was taken from the little beach just after the sun went down behind the trees.
A week later, the morning I was packing the car to travel south to Virginia, this yearling wandered into the side yard to chew on a bush near me.
She waited for me to get my camera and snap a few pictures -- undisturbed by my movements -- before she wandered off to graze on other things.
Apart from the traveling since we have been home, and apart from sleep issues we will attribute to jet lag, our readjustment to American life has been seamless. We had the same sense of seamlessness (again, with jet-lag issues) in December when we returned home after four months in England.
I suppose this seamlessness is all to the good, but I do find it a little unsettling simply because our experiences overseas were so good, so positive. I must say that I am determined not to let our travels, in Korea, especially, slip away too fast.
For that reason, I will continue to keep this blog going a bit longer, if only to recount some of our experiences and impressions before time bleaches them away.
