Last week, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the beautiful state of Maine.  My husband and I have been talking about family vacations and we’ve talked about making a point to visit some of the national parks, but that’s all we did.  Talk about it in “some day” terms.  We finally just did it.  And it was so great.

We visited Acadia, which was beautiful…

…and saw our boys enjoy nature and each other (most of the time)…

…and I had a chance to slow down and appreciate simple things like colorful buoys lined up against faded wood shingles, the smell of sea salt and my toes in the sand.

Aside from a couple of hoodies, I didn’t buy much (although I did rubberneck at some antique shops…)  I did bring home three big bags of shells collected from the private beaches around our house, some drift wood and some buoys given to use by the owner of the cottage we rented.

I initially planned to comb the beaches for shells while my boys were playing sticks and throwing rocks into the water, but combing became a favorite activity for the entire family.  I showed my boys the kind of shells I was looking for and they brought tons of them to me (along with some they thought were beautiful.)

My husband was especially enthusiastic when he took off his shoes, rolled up his pant legs and waded in the frigid waters to get me some of these huge shells during low tide…

…that is love.

That beach was a treasure trove for shells.  They were at least 3 feet deep in some places.

I did make one little business purchase…

…these adorable blue and white paper straws.

I can’t resist something that looks cute in photos.  Photogenic straws…I’ve gone off the deep end, haven’t I?

It was a wonderful trip and I’m so thankful to everyone who wrote guest posts while I was away, covered for me at Lucketts and handled all of my administrative stuff.

The winner of the Oreck VersaVac is…

Robbie Canty who said, “Ohhhhhhhh, please pick me! I have a Princess III that is, no lie, at least 30 years old. It weighs almost as much as I do and I loath cleaning with it. I was just thinking (as I was lugging it around yesterday) that I would ask for a new vacuum for Christmas. We have carpet, hardwoods and tile sooooooo it is perrrrrrfect for me. My favorite feature is that it is bagless. My Princess III is so old that I have to research for a week to find replacement bags. Thx.”

It looks like Christmas came early for you this year.  Enjoy!