Vacationland

Photo by Dave Benton

Yes, it is that time of year again.  Time to pack up, load up, and head up the familiar highways to Sabbathday Lake, in New Gloucester, Maine.  This will be our 28th consecutive summer in the Pine Tree State.  The thought of it rests gentle on my mind.

It was a long, hard winter, both in New England and here in the Mid-Atlantic states, with lots of snow and bitterly cold temperatures; pretty much what the weather pundits were saying last fall when we began to batten down the hatches while making ourselves ready to weather the storms to come.   But spring finally arrived, slowly but surely, and before I knew it the temperatures were beginning to creep up into the 80s, and even the low 90s, as Washington’s pervading humidity laid its heavy hand upon us. 

I have been following the weather reports from Maine for months, since we departed the lake for home in the early days of October.  The autumn colors were resplendent as we departed, but it was not long before the first flurries of snow were in the air.  Ice bound the lake tight by Christmas and then the snows came and piled up ever higher.  Ice out came in mid-April as the last vestiges of snow finally disappeared from the shadows.  A new Vacationland season was beginning.

So it is time to look northward, to the quiet and peaceful summer days along the shores of Sabbathday Lake, to the gentle breezes off the lake, and to the star-filled nights and the sound of the loons calling from the near distance.  It is a finestkind summer hiatus and it always arrives none to soon.

Check out the "Looking Toward Portugal" Facebook page for more information and photos.