Early winter comes to New England

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I got a big dose of family visiting early this year with a trip to Maine. Playing with granddaughters was the major objective of the trip, but I did get to do a little sight-seeing and and a few touristy things as well.

I was disappointed when I had to leave Colorado in late September, before there was much color on display. So I was pleased to find a little bit of the fall attraction still around in Portland, as you can see above. Pretty much the end of their season, however. And in fact an early dose of winter was upon us soon after my arrival...there was even some snow!

Among our many fun adventures was a hike at a nearby state park that I'll tell you about next time. But closer to home were many other enjoyable outings, like a quick trip up the coast to Brunswick and Bowdoin College. Its campus includes not only a very impressive free art museum and tremendously handsome, ultra-New England-architecture...

...but also a wonderfully expansive (and flat) quad that makes a perfect biking route for 5-year-old riders, as you can see here (click to enlarge).

Also in Brunswick, we visited an artisanal vinegar store—a first for me. Boy were the samples tasty! As all agreed...

Another child-friendly outing that was also great fun for the adults was a visit to Pineland Farms' educational center, where we got to make butter! Another first for Gramma!

Yes! I was very excited to see my perfectly-formed little ball of butter where only heavy cream had existed just moments (well, several minutes) before.

Did you know that all you have to do to make butter is just shake cream for a while? I never knew that's what churning was all about. My understanding is that it's not a chemical but a physical reaction as the fat molecules clump together when agitated. So cool! And tasty, too, since we got to put our product on some toast when we were finished.

We also got to see where the cream came from with a visit to the dairy barn and then had a nice lunch in the Pineland cafe.

More mundane food-related outings were trips to Portland's Whole Foods, but you must know that pushing the giant car-cart around the store is something of an adventure itself...

...but, anything for my granddaughters!

We also went to a real NE craft fair, where I bought a pair of mittens, after discovering that the gloves I brought with me were not up to the task of hand-warming in these early winter conditions. Here's a panoramic shot of the fair...

and here are the mittens:

snuggly warm!
and when it's really cold I do a double-decker with my gloves

One of the more bizarre "entertainments" we had was watching a couple of crazy moms take their monthly dip in the ocean. Yes, my otherwise rational daughter-in-law and friends have made a pact to go into the ocean once a month. (This is the first winter in the pact.) The warmest day of the week they chose was still pretty raw, around 40° and rainy. But they did it anyway! Keeping hats on, though, I noticed.

I was in charge of holding my youngest granddaughter during the quick dip, and, believe me, she was not happy at seeing Mom head out to sea. But she came back quickly enough and maintained that it was easy to get warm again...a visit to a nearby bake shop helped.

Other than the temperature differential with home, the most noticeable thing about winter this far north is the low sun and the early sunset. However, when it comes, it can be rather glorious. More than once while I was there the clouds broke just at the horizon and just at the right time, treating us to a really fabulous sunset...at 4:30, but still fabulous...

More about my latest northern sojourn next time.