Last week, I visited my parents and Maine house for the first time in 2 months. It was an awesome 3 days with pretty much perfect weather. I took lots of pictures, and pretty much every one of them was taken with my iphone, playing around with HDR. Good stuff. The drive there was beautiful, especially after 3 or 4 days of crappy rain:
I got home for the second half of the Patriots game, and this would be the first football I watched this year. Growing up, Sundays consisted of a house full of the sounds of football, and this tradition continues. It was nice to return to a world that hasn't changed much. Here's my house from the dock, in HDR glory:
Sebago Lake, on the rocks:
What's left of the dock that my dad just hasn't cared enough to bother putting in for the last few years (I can't blame him, it's a BITCH to do):
I really like this one even though the colors are impossible. I'm weirded out that the dock turned blue.
After the Patriots, we watched the Red Sox (probably my 3rd game of the season, the last ones being watched at home too) and ate a fantastic home-cooked meal of roasted chicken, stuffing and corn on the cob. It obviously ruled.
Dad was able to get out of work early the next day, so I pretty much woke up, ate a granola bar, and was whisked away to Point Sebago for 9 holes of golf, which turned into 18. I didn't mind- usually I hurt too much after 9, but I am much stronger after doing so much this summer and swung a bit easier, so 18 felt great. It was a gorgeous day, and even though I still stick by the theory that golf is a good walk ruined, it was still a very fun day.
Mom in mid swing:
Ok, the sky wasn't actually this blue, but it wasn't far off. I love this hole, and actually played it better than I have in a loooooong time. I was actually putting for par (of course I blew it):
What a day.
It felt like summer, but fall was definitely beginning to show.
Dad in a sandtrap:
Fall:
We went out to dinner at an awesome local spot, then got ice cream from another awesome local spot, and we went home and exploded while watching the Red Sox again.
The next day, I woke up with 1 goal: BUY SHOES. I have the worst shoes in the history of the world, and after buying nicer ones that I never really liked, and having the backs of them rip out and start digging into my ankles, I resorted back to the crappy shoes I only rode while mountain biking because I didn't care if they got covered in mud and destroyed. They became my everyday shoes, and they are absolutely horrible (but still comfortable). It was time to get some new ones, and there is a New Balance outlet store near my house, so, duh. I actually bought 2 and inherited a pair my Dad never loved (I don't either, but they're sure better than the crap I had before). Afterwards, my mom told me she had seen a Flea Market down the road. I told her we absolutely had to go. She agreed.
It was scary going in- the outside looked terrifying and it had a separate "adult" building. There were weapons everywhere at the front and I started laughing immediately at the trashy ridiculousness of it, and the fact that this is what I do when I visit my Mom. But I was wrong about this place. With every aisle I walked past, I slowly came to the realization that this was the greatest flea market/pawn shop/crappy antique store in the history of the world. They had EVERYTHING. They had the most ridiculous, hideous, incredibly sketchy and weird stuff everywhere, some actual amazingly cool things, and it was actually neat and organized, and clean- like, not covered in sketchy filth like the place I visited at the beginning of the summer.
Look at this dog table!!
Look at this Budweiser embossed grizzly bear beer stein!!
Look at this horrifying piece of art!!
The only bad thing about this place is that it's clearly run by lunatics who have never bought anything in their lives. The amounts they were charging for this garbage were incredible (that painting above is 9.50?), and would have been hilarious if I didn't want so much of it. If this stuff would have been reasonably priced, I would have left with everything there. For instance- the dog table? 75 bucks. The beer stein? 68. Yup. Instead, Mom bought me a brown ceramic duck with the top caved out, to put candy or dip or something. I called it "dipduck." It's awesome.
see? awesome.
If you're ever in Oxford, Maine though- go to this place and plan to spend a lot of time in there laughing. It's called Undercover Flea Market, and it rules.
We drove home after a solid day, and I turned around and drove myself 10 miles back to where we had just come from, much to the confusion of my Mom. The new Blink-182 album had come out that day, and I guess some people just don't understand my weirdness when it comes to music. I thought it was perfect that Blink had been there at every important stage of my life and I grew up getting every album and largely listening to them driving to and from the house I grew up in, and here I was, in Maine, driving home to the house I grew up in, listening to a new Blink album 8 years after the last one came out. I'm supposed to buy it when I'm out shopping with my Mom? No, this required a special trip and very loud volumes. It was pretty awesome, and in perfect super-emo-mike-blasting-music-with-the-windows-down mode, I even pulled over next to the busiest stretch of road in Raymond, Maine to get an instagram of this beautiful sunset. And then I drove past my house to see it from the perfect spot I went to earlier in the summer. We then had some pizza and watched Red Sox game number 3 in a row.
Here's the sunset I pulled over for:
The next day, I went golfing again. This time, it was just with Mom, which was a first. We went to Naples, and I tried to teach her some things to help her out and try to not get upset with her when she got upset for not being good (she's definitely a beginner) while I tried not to get mad at myself for not being a beginner but still sucking horribly, while she tried to ease my anger for thinking I'd be better than that... and we both just stunk anyway.
She did surprisingly well though, hitting the best shots I've ever seen her hit. I'd like to think that my suggestions had something to do with that, but who knows- I got a 13 on a par 4 and threw my clubs several times that day, so any advice I gave was probably taken with more nervous smiling and nodding than actual consideration.
We had a very fun time though, and ended up playing 18 instead of 9 again. We both had some great holes on the scorecard and if you caught us at the right time, we'd look like we knew what we were doing.
A few of the holes are right next to the lake, which is pretty awesome, obviously
There was a monster face in the clouds
Look at this hole. It blows my mind how pretty it is, especially since most of the course doesn't come close to this:
signature hole like what
Here's Mom after sinking a solid putt to finish off the round. This was right before a fist pump, but it looks more like a "praise the lord!"- apparently that's how she does fist pumps.
When we got back, we had to drive across the road to get back to the clubouse, and they apparently completely forgot about us. So, we had to just leave the cart and walk back to our carts. It was definitely pretty weird. We met the person in charge right when we got to the carts, where lots of "OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY"s happened, but not a lot of "here, have a free round on us next time"s. Oh well.
locked out!
I then decided to be extremely emo and use the guitar I had otherwise completely ignored for the whole trip. I decided to play Maine style, meaning I sat down on the dock staring at the lake and playing until it was too dark to see and too cold to move my fingers anymore. But I just sat down there, playing the notes I always seem to gravitate to when I'm staring at the lake. It was pretty perfect. We then ate pizza and watched the Red Sox for the 4th night in a row, which was the inevitable horror show of an end to a season that most people in Boston and probably very few who read this blog already knew about. I actually cared a little, just from watching for the last 4 nights, but oh well. At least basketball is coming up! oh wait...
Here's a pretty awesome video I made in my never-ending quest to film as many different activities as possible with my GoPro. As always, it looks better on the vimeo page (and you can watch in HD), go there by clicking the link below the video:
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