A Two Week Vacation

On Saturday, July 24th, I began a rarity in my life -- two whole weeks off from work all at once.  

WEEK 1 - Maine

For about a year, we had been planning a 5/6 Gangwer family (no NC Mitchells) reunion along with all of Tammy's immediate family in attendance in Saco, Maine at the Ship Captain's Mansion.  Jaclyn and her family arrived from OR around 1am Friday, July 23.  Tammy's mom and dad arrived later that day.

The vacation got off to a rough start as the Saturday ride to Maine was filled with puking grandchildren and traffic, traffic, traffic - a 3 hour trip took us 5.5 hours.  When we arrived we scoped out the home which initially left us disappointed.   Some of the room set-ups were not what we expected, cleanliness was lacking, a horse was living in the driveway, and the owner of the house lived over the garage with his dog.  As the week went on we adjusted to the above drawbacks even making sport of some of them (i.e. the catch a mouse pool in which Jordan won 40 dollars).  Saturday saw my clan (Tammy, myself, Jaclyn, Blake, Lilly, Juniper, Lizzy, Stas, Grandpa and Grandma Kelly) and Chad; the NY Gangwers, the VT Beauchemins (Rachelle, Al, Jordan, Brandon, AJ, Vania, Ellie, Jusin late that night), and the OH Raffas (Randi and Gabe) arriving and getting situated for the week ahead  We ate dinner at Rapid Ray's down the street.

Sunday was a rainy day.  Tammy and I along with the OR Laberees, and the IL Kellys attended Saco Bay Community Church.  We then just hung around the house the rest of that day.  The VT Gangwers (mom and dad) arrived late that afternoon after being the only ones to get lost finding the place.  We ate Grandma Kelly's chicken dinner for lunch (and several more times later that week for lunches).  During the evening, I won my first ever game of Ticket to Ride. 

Early Monday saw me, my dad, Blake and Chad head to South Portland for a 4 hour inland fishing trip.  It was the foggiest the ship's captain had seen in quite some time leading to myself especially and Blake a little getting sea sick (No vomiting happened luckily, but I was apparently a green hue.) as we stopped so my dad and Chad could catch some live bait.  We then headed to our fishing spot near Mackworth Island where we each caught a stripped bass that was not a keeper.  Blake came the closest at 1in away from the legal size of 28in.  Unfortunately the boat's live wells were malfunctioning killing most of our live bait before we could use it.   The IN Raffas arrived that afternoon after dealing with an airline ordeal of delayed and cancelled flights.  We played in the pool a little that afternoon.  For dinner, we went to Sea Salt Lobster with the the OR Laberees (Where we all had expensive lobster rolls.) and the great grandparents.  In the evening, Tammy and I made our first visit to Bay View beach for a walk.

Tuesday, the OR Laberees went to visit nearby distant relatives; so Tammy and I watched the girls.  We went to a nearby park during the morning.  Then the granddaughters took advantage of the pool in the warm afternoon.  For dinner we had the 5/6 family reunion cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs (cooked by yours truly), corn on the cob, pasta salad, baked beans, potato salad and regular salad.  Afterwards, we had a July white elephant party.  I traded my original gift for a remote control set of bumper cars that were a favorite to play that evening.

Tammy and I did a little bit of antiquing Wednesday morning.  During the early evening, we visited the Bay View beach with the OR Laberees.  Tammy and I stopped on the way home for some ice cream at Garsides getting scoops of Almond Joy and Keylime Pie.  

The next day, all the girls and ladies headed to a local cafe for morning coffee and tea.  Thursday afternoon, Tammy, I, and Lilly braved heavy rains to take part in an hour and a half lobster boat demonstration in Portland with the OH Raffas.  We all got to handle a live lobster out of the trap for proper processing.  Lilly also got to be captain of the boat for awhile.  We had dinner at a McDonalds where we learned that the Portland Sea Dog baseball game we were planning to attend that evening was rained out with a make-up date when we were gone.  Blake had the good idea of donating all of our tickets to the Saco Bay Community Church for their use.

On Friday, we visited the town's local library book sale purchasing several history books of interest.  In the afternoon, the OR Laberees, Tammy and I, and Rick and Lauren did an escape room in Biddeford.  We literally made it out with 1 min and 1 sec to spare.  Tammy and I went out to eat that night at the Golden Rooster in Saco.  I had the lobster mac n cheese.  

Saturday was pack up and leave day.  We got up early and left around 730am so we could avoid the traffic, traffic, traffic.  We were successful in making a 3 hour trip in 3 hours.  

Some photos of the week can be seen here https://photos.app.goo.gl/diAJ4MH3XsJUAdqJ7

WEEK 2 - Staycation with the OR Laberees and IL Grandparents

The OR Laberees stayed for an extended visit with us until Friday, August 6 and the IL grandparents stayed until Tuesday evening.  The days were filled with playing with the many toys (castle, barns, kitchen, roller coaster, slide, bikes, bubbles, sit-n-spin, karaoke, Doc McStuffin, garden stones, and a cookie kit) Tammy had been accumulating from tag sales for just this occasion.  Some special notes of interest during the week were attendance at the Sunday morning service at First Baptist Church followed by a get-to-together with Jaclyn's childhood friend Chelsea and her family along with her discipler Elaine; a visit to the gun range by Blake and I on Monday and an evening game of Oregon Trail; a visit Tuesday to the Riverside Reptile Center here in Enfield followed by lunch at 99 and a chicken dinner prepared by Grandma Kelly and another evening round of Oregon Trail; Blake and Jaclyn's Wednesday visit to Charlestown, NH for some ancestry information after which Blake made us a chicken enchilada dinner; and wrapping up the visit on Thursday was clothes washing and suitcase packing in preparation for the plane ride home early, early Friday with a 6am take off time and a sick Juniper who had came down with a cold Tuesday.  Friday at 8am, I finished off my last day of vacation with a visit to Baystate Hospital for my portacath installation in preparation for my first round of ICE chemo that begins on Tuesday, August 12.