Goodnight Sand Dollars

Have you ever been lucky enough to find a sand dollar on the beach?

As kids, my sisters and I spent many barefoot hours hoping to find just one.

Well, we sure made up for that over this Labor Day weekend...

DH and I spent the last long weekend of summer at our favorite Maine campground, Searsport Shores, on a site looking over the beach. This was the first time that my sister, Andi, came camping with us (that's her on the raft, on the very right, with Nancy to her left, and me, the big sister, supervising) and we wanted to make this trip special for her. Well, it was better than special...it was a weekend of pure magic.

We found over 100 sand dollars on the beach in three days!



We got so excited that we went to look in our "magic river" at each low tide...

even late at night...donning silly light-up hats and an old flashlight.

We don't know if Hurricane Irene was responsible for bringing us so many sand dollars, but we prefer to think that our little sister, Nancy, who loved the ocean, might have had something to do with the magic we found.

When we got home Monday afternoon, we bleached the sand dollars and put them out in the sun to dry.

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Now we just have to come up with some unique ways to display so many sand dollars...anybody have some creative ideas to share?

It was sad saying goodbye to Searsport for another summer. As we drove away, I felt as if I was experiencing my own version of the favorite children's book, "Goodnight Moon". I guess my late summer version would have to go something like this:

Goodnight Searsport
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight campfires
And long days of June.

Goodnight bees...

Goodnight weavings in trees...

Goodnight goats...

And Goodnight knit things made from your coats.

Goodnight sailboats...

Goodnight garden...

Goodnight lobsters...

And Goodnight skunk!


Goodnight marshmallows
Goodnight Hershey bars
Goodnight sea glass...

And Goodnight tea in jars.

Goodnight ocean
Goodnight tides
And Goodnight to campers all cozy inside.

Goodnight kayaks...

Goodnight swing...

Goodnight sand dollars
And Goodnight summer things.


On the last morning of our trip, Andi gave me a gift she had chosen for me before we left home...

How could she have guessed how perfect this would be after our magical sand dollar weekend?

And we noticed these......

the first red leaves of fall... reminding us to treasure these summer-sister-sand dollar memories through the cold winter to come.

Goodnight friends.

I am linking this late-summer post to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
White Wednesday at Faded Charm
Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer
Nifty Thrift Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Sister Sunday at Sisters of the Wild West

Scenes From Along The Road

We just returned from a fantastic camping vacation along the Bay of Fundy in Down East Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.  My sister, Nancy, who was always my partner in crime on road trips, would have loved this adventure! Thanks to my Canadian blogger friend, Pamela Gordon at Playing With My Camera, we saw a lot in six days. Here are some photos from "the road" (as we rough n' tough cowgirl campin' girls like to call it)...

Beautiful campsite on Cobscook Bay...with its own log cabin...which was a good thing since we had to set up camp in the pouring rain...Murphy's Law!

Rainbow cabins spoke to my love of roadside nostalgia...

As did this shop advertising "Really Bad Antiques".

I've always wondered why, when you drive north in Maine, you are, in "Mainespeak", heading "Down East". See the map below? I live in Southern Maine, near Portland, and we traveled in a northeasterly direction toward Acadia...we went "Down East". Get it? (Note: Neither do I and I live here.) Ayuh!

I even remember my grandmother, who lived in Connecticut in her later years, telling us that she was going to go "down to Maine". Actually, according to Wikipedia,  Eastern Maine is referred to as "Down East" because the area is down wind from the rest of the east coast on the prevailing westerly breezes. Guess we'll just have to go with that.

I love photographing old deserted houses and wondering about their stories...especially when they are located in towns with names like "Meddybemps".

The road took us through Machias, Eastport, Lubec and Calais...before crossing into New Brunswick, Canada. Passports in hand, over the border we went...

To beautiful Campobello Island, which, although located in Canada, is a U.S. National Park as well. Campobello is the former summer home of  President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, where...

FDR's hat still sits on the bench in the library.

Wildflowers were in bloom all along the Bay...

Leading the way to East Quoddy Head light, at the tip of Campobello Island...you can walk to it only during low tide. The tides in the Bay of Fundy are among the highest on earth, rising and falling up to 55 feet in spots. If you stay at the lighthouse too long (taking too many photos for your blog?), you have to wait 12 hours to walk back...in the dark!

Aware of the warnings about the tides, we climbed out to the lighthouse....

Down the steep steps...over the rocks...

and back up...just in time.

In the seaside town of St. Andrews, NB, we fell in love with this little "Pansy Cottage".

I couldn't wait to "Pull the string and Lift the latch"...I could definitely live in "Pansy Patch".

Here is the third most photographed site in Canada (I think I missed the first two)...in the little coastal town of Saint George.

We loved the City Market in Saint John.  Saint John reminded us a lot of  our hometown of Portland...a fun, quirky seaside city with lots of beautiful old homes and quaint shops. The food was fun too...

As good as it sounded, this Weight Watcher stayed away from the Acadian favorite, Poutine...fries, cheese, and gravy all on one plate...talk about cholesterol...but it was tempting!

We decided to take the ferry back to the States...

You drive right onto the beach to board the car ferry...not fancy but it works!

On the way home, we stopped at a roadside flea market...

 Where local women were making and selling wreaths made of sea heather...

And I bought a few vintage treasures to share in a future post.

After a quick final search for vintage bargains at the Big Chicken Barn in Ellsworth...

We passed the Bait's Motel...only in Maine! (Note to Psycho fans: I couldn't make this stuff up)...

And our favorite campground, Searsport Shores (see related post)...on our way to...

Our own driveway.

We loved every minute of our road trip, especially the Fundy coast of Canada, but, as Dorothy said to the Tin Man, "There's no place like home". We'll be unpacked just in time for our grandsons, Taka and Toshi to arrive today...let the little boy fun begin!

This post is happily linked to:

 Sister Sunday at Sisters of the Wild West