On the Road Again

My Mother's Day gift was a weekend in our little Casita...our first of the season. We drove up to Searsport, Maine...right on Penobscot Bay...for the annual "Clean-Up Weekend" at Searsport Shores, one of our favorite campgrounds. It was great to see old friends again and have some quiet time outdoors.

We sleep so well in the little camper that we were up by 6:00 the first morning...in time to go down to the beach to see what the tide had brought in. I love to look for sand dollars, colored sea glass, shells, and special heart-shaped rocks.

But, alas, we were there to help our friends Astrig and Steve get their campground ready for another season so we finally had to leave the beach behind and get to work...

But not before plenty of hot coffee and some of Astrig's famous homemade donuts...her grandmother's recipe.

After the donuts were cooked, they were rolled in sugar...yummy. (8 points each on Weight Watchers but so worth it!)

The weekend was full of projects. After I completed my annual task of organizing the "Green Shed", I settled down to a more creative job...repainting the roof on this little lighthouse. In the background, DH and "the guys" are building a new deck on the front of the Rec Hall.

I used some of the leftover paint to paint rocks with one of the younger campers. While he painted a dog and a sailboat, I made little markers to put on some of Nancy's favorite spots at Searsport Shores.

I placed this one on Site #22, where Nancy and I camped on our 2006 "Sisters Road Trip". What fun we had that week!

And I had to take some photos of this outhouse to show you...it has a Dr. Seuss theme and a rather appropriate message painted on the side.

The female Dr. Seuss characters are lined up waiting anxiously for their turn to use the Ladies' room...

While, as usual, this confident little guy just walks right in to the Mens' room on the other side.

Astrig is an artist and the children who come to Searsport Shores are the lucky recipients of many craft opportunities on rainy days. I loved these mushrooms that she and the children made last summer. They just seem to have popped up all around the grounds.

They were molded in the camp sandbox! Astrig said that you mold the damp sand into the shape you want for the mushroom cap, pour in the cement, and let it dry....right in the sandbox. When the caps are dry, they can be painted and mounted on logs, cut to look like stems. I can't wait to give this a try and decorate the woods behind our house with some of these magical mushrooms.

And with everything else going on, Astrig found time to give Lolli a trim.  There are three goats at the campground and Astrig spins their wool into beautiful hand-died yarns, which she uses in her many fiber art projects.

It was hard to pack up the camper and leave Searsport. It's a beautiful place full of even more beautiful...and creative... people.

But when we got home, these were waiting at the door to welcome us home. Thank you Taka and Toshi for Nanny's beautiful flowers!

No trip we take is without at least one stop at a junk store, flea market or antique shop  and this one was no exception. I can't wait to start working on my next post...about a junker's paradise we stopped at in Liberty, Maine. Be sure to check back tomorrow for lots of dirty, chippy, rusty eye-candy.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day...whatever your favorite way to celebrate it was.