We took a long overdue trip to visit Geneva, Layne, Phoenix and Lennox in Bangor Maine last weekend (August 26th to 30th). It so happens that there was a hurricane (Irene) baring down on the east coast at the time. I was actually considering staying in NY to keep an eye on our stuff. I have been through a couple of hurricanes and am aware of the mess it could make. I put the grill and the umbrella in the garage just in case it got really really bad.

In the end, Lisa and i decided that the best thing to do was to get the hell out of town. So we did.The plan was to leave early Friday morning (6am ish) to avoid rush hour and possible evacuating traffic. It kinda worked.

The traffic was light so we got out of the city and were quickly on our way.

We stopped at this hole in the wall place for lunch. I grumbled the entire detour to this place but i have to admit that the food was very good. Checkout Lisas blog for a rundown of how the food was.

We arrived in Bangor around 4:30 5ish. Lisa had been in contact with Geneva via text, updating her on our eta. The whole family were outside! it was good to see them.

Maine is so different from Brooklyn (DUH). In Maine, the kids can play outside unsupervised!! i was floored and a little afraid. My Brooklyn instincts kept kicking in. It took a while for me to be comfortable with just letting Sienna go outside and play. i am envious of Phoenix to be able to do that. It seems so simple. I wish i could let Sienna do that at home. Too many fucked up people in NY for that though. I guess there are fucked up people everywhere but in Maine, i had the sense that the neighbors were keeping an eye on the kids too.

I was glad to see that Sienna and Phoenix got along as if they had just seen each other the other day. They played a lot that weekend along with another little girl from down the street. I didn’t get any pictures of her though..

Lisa and i slept in the game room.

This is what happens if you stay in the game room too long..

Phoenix is really into soups of all kinds. Anything can be part of a soup.

Sienna and her new sword. Here the girls are mesmerized by the TV. Sienna tried to get Phoenix into Shera. I don’t know if it worked.

We visited the river front the next day (Saturday), where there was a folk festival going on with music and food. it kinda reminded me of the big E that we go to every year.

lennox is so cute!! here she’s just chillin in the stroller checking out whats going on.

i love these little doughnuts!! i almost ate the entire thing by myself. Who am i kidding, i did eat the whole thing by myself..

On Sunday It rained like a motherfucker all day because of the hurricane. So we pretty much just hung out inside. Lisa and i tried to go to brunch but the downpour was just too much.

This is what i ate. So much for my cholesterol issue. The buffet was really quite good. I did what you’d normally do with a buffet and ate too much.

That night we took everyone out for dinner at an Irish Pub. The food was good there too. One thing i can say about the trip is that i ate very well.

Downtown Bangor.

Thank you to the Whiteleys for their great hospitality and a wonderful Maine weekend!!

We left the next day (Monday) after breakfast at a bagel place downtown..

We headed out towards Salisbury Mas. It was a little beach town that Star recommended. It was a cool typical beach place.

We had lunch at this place. Outside seating so the flies and mosquitoes can eat too. We were just bombarded with friggin bugs!! The food was good but the bugs kinda ruined the experience. We didn’t stick around too long after that.

The arcade was cool. Sienna kept wanting to play the big sit down games that cost way too much. Here’s Lisa enjoying a game of her youth.

We decided to stay at a Hamptons Inn so we could swim in the pool and just chillax before going home the next day.

The drive back sucked!! for me anyway. Lots of traffic everywhere!! Sienna got to watch Tarzan on Lisa’s iPad TWICE IN A ROW! ugh! at least it kept the whining down for a little bit. I think Sienna missed the freedom of running around and playing all weekend long. I miss that too..

I think this post takes the record for the longest post i have ever made. Its also taken too long to get up. Work is starting to get more and more of my time. The convention is just around the corner. Lots of visual elements to create…