I’ve never been to Canada but am well acquainted with their geese.
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Seriously, these birds don’t play.
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We love the noisy little devils and see them often in our part of Maine.
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Because honestly, who needs ICE when you have geese?
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A photo of our local ice fishing camp at sunset.
I have no desire to sit on a stool in a frozen shack and stare at a hole in the ice waiting for tiny, oily smelt to swim by, but it’s hard to argue with the optics.
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Okay, I admit it. My husband came home from the “gift store” … aka the dump… with a treasure.
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A brand new Star Wars Death Star cheese cutting set that we’re going to give to a friend who’s obsessed with the movies.
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$86 at Macy’s and the husband got it for free.
He was grinning from ear to ear…. while I was horrified at the dangerous precedent this is going to set.
There were two things I couldn’t ignore about Newport, Rhode Island when we visited last month.
First?
The wind. It blew a gale force, every minute of every day, everywhere we went. Seriously, it put Chicago to shame and must be the windiest place on earth. Temps were in the 50’s but rarely felt like it. I brought one scarf and wore it every day. My hair spray screamed uncle. It was nuts.
Second?
The Canada geese. In every field, on every lawn, by the edge of all the highways and on every median strip. You might see three, or three dozen, or three hundred, but see them you will. And watch where you walk, because where there are geese there is … well, goose 💩.
Copious amounts of goose 💩.
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After we settled into the resort, the first thing my husband wanted to do was tour his old duty station.
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I’d never been there, so after clearing the security gate… we drove.
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Past a lovely marina.
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And the Admiral’s quarters.
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With the ever present bridge in the background.
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Did I mention there were geese?
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We drove past a giant anchor.
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And the Naval War College.
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And yes, more geese.
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The husband was searching for his old Marine Corps barracks, where this picture was taken in 1976.
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Husband is on the right, receiving a commendation for saving a young man’s life.
❤️
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We found a big red Marine Corps ball, but couldn’t locate the barracks.
I know he really wanted to chat with someone about his time there in the mid ‘70’s, but there were no Marines to be seen. The office was closed, as was the military museum.
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He recognized a few buildings.
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But so much had changed.
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Vowing to go back again another day, we made our way to Newport’s famed waterfront for dinner.
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The sun was beginning to set on The Reef and we were more than ready to relax.
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The restaurant looked nice…
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And even from the bar where my husband always wants to sit, the view was lovely.
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My spiced cranberry Sangria was perfect.
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As was the husband’s local beer (Whalers Rise APA) and butternut squash soup.
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My coconut shrimp appetizer was tasty but things went straight downhill with our entrees.
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I opted for the wild mushroom risotto which was beyond horrible and literally crunched. Not what one looks for in a risotto. I didn’t photograph the husband’s salmon but it was equally as awful and sent back as well.
I’m not sure my vocabulary contains enough adjectives to properly describe how sublime Boneyard Beach at sunset can be….
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Mysterious.
Spectral.
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Otherworldly.
Striking.
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Wondrous.
Captivating.
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Preternatural.
Glorious.
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Exquisite.
Magical.
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In other words… fan-flippin-tastic!
We really didn’t want to leave but the tide was rolling in fast and there are warnings everywhere about being trapped, so we headed back down the marsh land path.
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Where the sunset was also pretty sweet.
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As we left, I knew if we had the time I wanted to come back at low tide and walk the whole beach.
Since we still had a little daylight when we got back from Charleston, we decided to go back to the Botany Bay Preserve and check out the beach we didn’t have time to explore on our first trip there.
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It’s a half mile walk from the parking lot…
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Through marsh land with some pretty funky driftwood.
We were driving alongside Cobbosseecontee Lake last night on the way home from dinner.
The sun was setting and casting a fiery reflection on the water …
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But I could never manage to get a decent photo of it from the road.
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And as much as I wanted to pull into someone’s private driveway, get out of the car, climb up on their porch and take pictures… the husband wouldn’t let me.
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Eventually we crossed a little bridge and caught a clear view of the sun…
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But by then it was too far down to be truly magical.