Vacations in Maine

For a few weeks in June my family goes on a vacation to Maine. A few days before we leave, all of our cloths are washed then packed. We pack everything… well it feels like everything. When it’s time to leave, we pack up the car with all the suitcases and hit the road. When we leave my house in Goffstown it takes about three hours to get to the house that we stay at in Maine. Plus with all of the stops we make, it’s about three and a half hours of sitting in a car squished with three or four other people and their things. There is never enough room in the car. That is why we have a roof rack to put the "extra" suitcases in. Out of the whole trip there are two things I don't like about it. One, the car ride up and two, the car ride back. There are belongings stuffed everywhere. While my family is sitting in the car for so long we have time to play a few games. The license plate game and the alphabet game. The license plate game is when you try to find one license plate from every state. The other game is the alphabet game. The alphabet game is when you try to find all the letters of the alphabet in order on signs and you can only use one letter per sign.

We usually get to the house around 10:00 at night and everyone in the back seats is sleeping. After we pull in everyone is woken up. We are all half asleep. When we get out of the car we grab our blankets, pillows and go inside. When I first walk in the house I can smell the vacancy, like no one has been ther in a long time, or even at all. My brother and I walk slowly through the kitchen door, to the living room then around the newel post and up the narrow staircase one behind the other trying not to fall backwards onto each other. When we finally get upstairs, we both have no idea where we are sleeping. My grandfather comes up stairs and takes out one of the little blue cots. My brother goes and lays down on that and I get the bed.

In the morning I get dressed and my grandfather comes in the room and will ask my brother and I if we would like to go with him to the Little Market Basket down the street. My brother says “no” but I always say “yes”. I go out the door as fast as I can and get into the car. I’m obviously ready to go. The Market Basket is right down the street so we don’t have to go very far. We pull in I get out and go in and wait in line. Sometimes there is a tray of lemon bars on the counter but other time there isn’t. Once we get to the lemon bar dish I grab a bag and quickly put one inside as for my grandfather he takes his time. We go to the checkout and I put the lemon bar on the counter and my grandpa puts the scones next to mine. We then pay for the food and leave. On the ride back I say thank you a gazillion times. By the time we got back to the house and pull into the driveway I’m so excited to go in and eat the lemon bar. I get out of the car and run inside and sit at the table. But there are still people sleeping and I have to wait to eat it. When everyone wakes up we have breakfast together. When everyone is done we get ready to go to the beach. We pack our towels, food for the day, boogie boards, beach chairs, blankets pails and shovels. The beaches we go to are either close to the house or far away. One beach that my brother and I really like to go to is, Birch Point. It is about an hour away from the house. You can tell when we are close to the beach because you can smell the salt in the air. When we go to the beach with my grandparents, we usually stay for about three to four hours. I usually stay on the shore because the water is really cold. While I’m on the shore my brother goes in the water to swim. He doesn’t mind the cold water as much as I do. Going to the beach means so much to me because that is where I can relax and spend time with my family.

After we go to the beach, we usually go shopping and then out to dinner in Camden. Some places we like to go out to eat is Zaddicks. It is a pizza restaurant where my grandparents always take us. My favorite pizza is their plain cheese pizza. Another restaurant that we like to go to is Primo's. There is a garden out back where they grow their own vegetables and edible flowers that they use for entrees.

When I go shopping, I like to go into a store called the Smiling Cow. This has been one of my favorite stores since I was a toddler. When I was younger, I would like to buy different toys. They also make homemade fudge in many different flavors such as chocolate, peanut butter, mint and white chocolate. We sometimes go to the docks to feed the ducks. We usually bring bread. There is this one duck that is white and it has a big white puffball in the top of its head. It is so cute. Camden has an outdoor amphitheater that has performances during the week. Some performers play the flute, guitar, banjo, and violin. The people who preform are really good. There is also another store in Camden that my dad likes to go into. The store has little lighthouse figurines. My dad has me buy a bunch for my mom, because she collects them. My dad first started to get the little lighthouses for my mom on our first trip to Maine. Ever since she saw them in one of the stores we have bought some for her every year for her birthday or mother’s day. Last summer in Maine with my grandparents my dad asked me to buy lighthouses for my mom. When I went into the store the women at the cash register told me that they aren’t making them anymore. I called my dad and told him. He ended up having me buy all the lighthouses that my mom didn’t have. We gave them all to my mom for Mother’s Day. my mom places them in the hallway on a shelf at home. I also bought her some sand dollars and sea urchins to put in the hallway. My mom has a sea glass wreath for the hallway because she wanted the hallway and the bathroom to be an ocean -beach theme. There is a little blue boat that I got my dad when I went to Martha’s Vineyard.

Down the street from the house in Maine is a small cove that has a playground. I like to go there to look for sea glass and crabs but also to play with my brother and cousins. When the tide is low, you can walk out on the rocks and search for starfish in the tide pools. The seaweed left behind is cold and slimy to touch. It’s a cool place to go. When I go to Maine, I go to spend time and have fun with my family.