Girls Weekend Journal

Wednesday, October 11, 2017 (written by Kathi) Here we are again. For 20 years in a row, at some time on a fall morning, in some wonderful location in the U.S., Lori and I have awakened to discover that somehow, some way, Girls Weekend has come to an end much too fast. Today was no exception, but we are grateful for waking up at all, and for having been blessed with another wonderful travel experience together. This morning we were up at about  7:30  to start dressing and packing.  Lori gave me an echo dot this past Christmas, and had asked me whether I was enjoying using it.  My answer was a bit lukewarm, as indeed I had not made much use of it at all, other than to check the weather or ask Alexa to play music. Since we don’t have a “smart” house, none of the cool features highlighted on all the commercials, like turning lights on and off etc., were applicable. Lori brought her echo dot with her for this trip though, and over this past week has been s...

Tuesday, October 10 (written by Lori) We woke up to a stunningly beautiful day with a predicted high of 74 degrees.  Who knew it could be so warm in Maine in October? We got ready early this morning because we wanted to check out the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (located right here in Boothbay Harbor) before our 12:30 whale-watching adventure.  After a quick stop at Mama D's cafe for some coffee, we made our way to the Botanical Gardens.  There were still an amazing number of flowers and blooms left on the plants at the gardens considering the time of year.  There was also a nice scattering of pumpkins throughout reminding one of the season.  We spent about 2 hours roaming this beautiful spot when we both realized that we were a bit tuckered from wandering around with no breaks. I decided that I would call the whale watching place before we made our way to the dock to see if we would be able to get some lunch on board the boat or if we should grab ...

Monday, October 9, 2017 (written by Kathi) I stayed up WAY too late last night writing, and therefore was slow to open my eyes and face the day. Lori was already up and at ‘em by the time I came to, sitting in the rocker and checking stuff on her phone. Our tiny little shed does not really have the space for us to lounge and relax and follow our morning writing/researching routine. Added to this, although we do have freshly ground Starbucks and yummy creamer that we brought with us, we have no intention of going down the hill and into the basement to make coffee in the miniscule little pot we found there. Especially because Lori found a sign in our shed that said we have to “replace any supplies that we use”. Really? You’re going to advertise and offer a space for lodging, and then ask us to replace the toilet paper and one or two teeny weeny filters from your diminutive coffee maker? There is also a sign in the “kitchen” stating that it is self-cleaning. So, in addition to being do...

Twin Maples Outdoor Adventures Lodge (I stole this picture off the website...we did not have snow while we were here!) Sunday, October 8 (written by Lori) Once again, upon arising, the first thing I did was look out the window in hopes of seeing a moose just standing there for me to gaze upon, but alas, I was disappointed.  Darn it!!  Oh well.  Today is the day that we change location from this wonderful, beautiful lodge here at the headquarters of Twin Maples Outdoor Adventures to our reserved Air BNB in Boothbay Harbor.  Rich and Maryanne had told us, however, that they were not expecting anybody in after us today, so we did not have to be in any hurry to leave.  So Kathi and I did one of our favorite things to do on Girls Weekend and made a pot of coffee and planted ourselves in front of our computers to commit our wonderful experiences and memories of Girls Weekend to our hard drives and to this Blog.  We are so very happy that we do this, becaus...

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 (written by Lori) After a blissfully wonderful night's sleep, Kathi and I got out of bed around 8:30 this morning.  I was up first and hoping that upon glancing out the window of our absolutely wonderful lodge, that I would see a moose just standing in the yard.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Because we did not think to buy coffee when we stopped at the grocery store on our way from the airport to this home away from home, we did not linger long this morning before showering and getting ready for our day.  We did have a delicious breakfast of yogurt and fruit and nuts before we left.  The drive to Bangor is only about 30 minutes down Interstate 95 and was quite beautiful.  I was still keeping my eyes peeled for moose but had no luck.  Once we got to Bangor we decided that we both really required coffee before we could really do much of anything else.  After circling a few times around the Bangor Mall we finally loc...

Friday, October 7, 2017  (written by Kathi) One of the amazing things about GW is that the “crazy” things (crazy to others, but rarely to us) we find to do are ALWAYS amazing, we expected today to be no different. So even the though the alarm rang at the ungodly hour of  4:30 , we arose full of excitement, knowing that there was no way a “moose safari” – whatever the heck that turned out to actually be – would not be a great experience.  When we arrived at the main house we met Rich’s wife Maryanne, and their younger daughter Amanda. This is a family who completely commits to the early-to-bed, early-to-rise philosophy.  Rich had gone to bed immediately upon leaving us last night at about  8:30 , and now here were he and his wife, and their 9-year-old who was up at  5:40  on a school holiday! We enjoyed coffee and some of Maryanne’s delicious homemade blueberry muffins before saying good by to mom and daughter (no sign of Anna Rose – maybe she w...

Thursday, October 5, 2017 I arrived at the Indy airport at  4:20 AM , EST. Lori arrived at the Portland, OR airport  4:45 AM PST . Girls Weekend 2017, 20 th  anniversary edition, had begun! We opted for Lori not to take the red-eye this year because it just isn’t worth it. Last year was also a coast-to-coast trip for her, and she was so exhausted she was wiped out. We try to arrive as close in time as we can, but this year I beat her to Bangor by over 6 hours.  Because everything is as it should be for Girls Weekend, this was actually perfect. I picked up our rental car and left the tiny airport to get some lunch at Nicky’s Diner, which had been recommended by the Hertz agent. After a very tasty “swimming Reuben” (haddock, coleslaw, cheddar and thousand island – yum!) I left to locate a grocery for us to go to later. The weather was glorious: 70° and mostly sunny, with big puffy white clouds. I put the car under a tree in the grocery parking lot and held a confe...