Maine: Mornings on the Beach

I think we're back to normal around here since returning home from our trek to Maine.  Everything is unpacked and mostly put away.  I've put our pictures on Facebook and Shutterfly.  Now I should write a little bit about it.

The kids had a great time on the beach in front of the cottage this year.  Another year older means they can climb on the rocks better and explore more and find more treasures.  Casey did really well climbing around on the rocks although it's better to not watch her.  If you watch her, it looks like she is going to fall at any given point.  She doesn't seem to have any intuition that would guide her toward the flatter rocks or a simpler path.  And she wasn't interested in me trying to explain that it would be easier if she went for the flatter rocks.  She's a girl that's going to blaze her own path.  Luckily her path didn't inflict any serious boo-boos this year.

Both Jack and Casey were fascinated by every item that wasn't a rock and some items that were rocks.  They collected and collected and collected.  No one ever returned from a trip to the beach empty-handed.  To me, the best treasure is the sea glass...the sea glass that has been rubbed smooth by the tide and rocks and sand over many years.  Jack and Casey collected every bit of glass they found and were working on being able to tell the difference between the sharp (not ready) glass and the smooth glass.  They found mussel and clam shells, broken pottery, periwinkles, scallops, urchins and crab shells.

One day when the tide was low, there was a little crab hanging out on the beach.  Casey likes her crabs to be already dead so she screamed and panicked about the little guy who was at least 10 feet away from her even as she was backing away.  I decided that taking her out in the lobster boat wasn't going to work this year.  I thought she might end up swimming trying to get away from the crabs and lobsters in the boat.

The night before we left for Maine, I spread out all the treasures in a couple of boxes and told them to choose their favorites for their summer collection.  They each had a bowl and filled them up with various things that I haven't even looked over yet.  The rest went back to the beach, probably to be collected again next year!