Hurricane Sandy

On Monday Alec’s school was dismissed early in preparation for the arrival of the outer bands of the hurricane. As I looked out the window at work I kind of scoffed because although it was cloudy- there was no rain and I couldn’t see much wind blowing.

Pa-leease.

On my way home, I stopped for gas and the breeze picked up.

I made it to the school and it was definitely windy.

By the time Alec I and made it home and changed our clothes it was very windy.

But not scary windy so we decided to head the 2 miles to ocean.

On our way we saw a limb that brought down a power line. I changed my mind and thought maybe it was a good idea that they dismissed the kids early. We walked out the opening of the dunes to see the surf – the waves were amazing! It was really angry surf. I snapped this photo

and all of a sudden a huge gust of wind came along and pushed down Alec and knocked him right over.  He promptly had a full blown panic attack. I think he finally understood what the big deal was. He kept saying ‘don’t let me blow away’ over and over.  He was literally dragging me off the beach.  Poor thing was traumatized. 

But, as they say, timing is everything and as soon as we got to the car the first of the torrential rain opened up.

We headed home- got dry and cozy – we planted ourselves in front of the tv and the power went out.

D’oh.

I went to the junk drawers looking for our flashlights. NONE. NADA. NOTHING. Alec has a (bad) habit of stealing them so I ask him where they are. He says he doesn’t know. We look around a little more and I light a candle to get us by until Erik can come home and start the generator.  I am still off-handedly searching – I walk into Alec’s room to grab his little soccer ball nightlight flashlight thingy. Mind you – he is still slight traumatized and is following me around closely- like so closely I can’t stop quick or he will be right up my ___ ….anyhooo….we walk into his room and he yells that he remembers where they all are.  He opens up his tool box that is sitting on his dresser and there sits any and all flashlights we have ever owned. Seriously I bet there were at least 10 –12 flashlights in there.  I give him the stink eye which he could barely see because it was getting darker but he still gets the point. He shrugs at me and says “what?! I was being prepared for an emergency”.

Seriously?

So, I just asked that the next time he gets ready for an emergency he remembers where he puts the supplies.  Aye!

Did I mention he got an award for Safety at school last week? Apparently they had not yet covered flashlight hoarding.

We brought Nanny to our house for the night to keep her safe and warm. Erik went out for gas for the generator and came back with chinese food. Can’t complain about that. We got our electricity back shortly after 6:30 and spent the rest of the evening listening to the wind, snuggling and watching storm reports.

We were lucky- minimal power outage, only 1 tree down and a ‘snow day’ off for Alec and I on Tuesday. Alec was kind enough to go out and document the damage after the storm. 

Sort –of.

You know you did something right when….

you child hops out of the car for a walk in the woods, takes a deep breath and says “It smells so good. I love this smell.” 

And as you are walking through the wood he says ‘thanks for bringing me here mom. It just smells so good. I forgot how much I like it here”.

If I were twitter person I would hash tag it  #bittersweet# (not sure if I even did that right?!)

Bitter because it had been so long since we had been in the woods that he forgot how much he liked it.  Ooooh. My heart hurts with that statement.

Oh so sweet because he loves in the woods as much as I do and at 5 he loves the smell of damp leaves and pine. Mmmmmmmm.

 

  

It was a foggy overcast day – not really too conducive for taking pictures but I did the best I could. I always love peak colors because I am always amazed that trees have leaves that can produced such vivid colors that it actually hurts my eyes but my favorite colors of autumn are the muted tones of past peak. They provide a more peaceful feeling for me. And this walk was prime for those colors.

Foggy-oh so foggy.

Usually standing here, on this side of the pond, the only thing you can usually hear is the traffic from the road across the pond. Oh this day, we could hear the waves crashing at the beach. It was really pounding the shore. This was a first. I could not believe how loud it was! So, of course, our next stop was the ocean access.

While we (or rather Alec) was playing in the sand, we met a couple from Boston who were in the area for the day. They were originally from Turkey and relocated the Boston to open a pizza shop in the North End. I took a bunch of photos of them for them. So cute they were – only married 4 months. They had a million questions about the area and such. That is something I really like about the beach in the off season – it levels the playing field – and the folks you find at the beach are people who love the beach for the ‘nature’ of it all – not just the summer/tan/swim thing. Almost everyone you run into is happy to chat and there is a knowing smile you all share- like you are sharing a secret that not many people know…the beach is just as awesome off season as it is during the summer season.

And of course I must document the first time I saw Alec spontaneously write his name in sand! I think he has done it before at our urging but this was just from the his own desire. Much more fulfilling that way!

It took some whining on my part to get him to come to the woods with me but as it was well worth the poor example I set.

As you can see, we had a great time.

And a few days later he was whining that he wanted to go back.

I’ll take that whining any day! :)

Sunday Ride

This past Sunday we decided to take a little family bike ride

 

 

 

We pulled out the bikes –dusted them off-pumped up the tires and then decided to head off to the Eastern Trail with no real plan in mind. It was such a beautiful day that we were all happy to be out and about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After going up Ferry Rd and past Thornton Academy – we hit the trail behind the school.

We were having fun so we kept going. Onto the next section that takes you by Sweetser and onto the Saco/Old Orchard section.

Once we hit Cascade Rd – we took stock…how much farther did we want to go? It was just so nice we decided to keep going and explore the newer part of the path.

From Cascade Rd. – we went right through Miliken Mills Rd. and just kept going to Blue Point Rd. It was in the back of my mind that we were going farther and father away from home and we were already in Scarborough. Yikes.

We crossed over Blue Point and carried on to Pine Point Rd. until we hit the marsh.

Alec really wanted to keep going over the marsh but at this point we decided this was the end of the line and we would just make a giant loop instead of riding the trail back. There was also discussion about crashing at Noni’s house but since neither of us brought a cell phone (poor choice) we decided not to risk going to her house and not having her there. We took a break and shared the Clif bar I grabbed and stuffed in my jacket at the last moment (good choice). I fully admit at this point I was in a bad state. The thought of going home along the beach made me want to cry…it can be such a wind tunnel on windy days and this was a windy day. Maybe it was just low blood sugar cause I was much better after a break.

And then it was time to continue on……

Down to the beach and along the beach into Old Orchard.

Through Ocean Park and into Saco.

At this point we were a few miles from home and Erik thought it would be a good idea to take this trail he use to take when he was younger. It was not well groomed and was killer on the legs (and other parts) after having been on the bikes so long,

 

Almost home!

And finally we were home.

I was so happy to be home I didn’t take any pictures. :)

After all it was:

17 miles and 3 hours later.

OH MY!