a bike, a kid and a dog

FREE. And 10 year's old. That's exactly how I feel going down the Chebeague Inn hill on my rickety old bike with the wind rushing in my ears and the sun beating on my face. I gave up wearing a hat several years ago because it always flew off and left me with the crushing question of whether or not to stop, ruin my breakneck downhill ride and pick up the hat. No more dilemmas.

We had great weather, mostly, and great meals mostly. I tried some new dishes and Arnie also tried out some new recipes but his were far more radical in the style of Spanish chef Adrian Bulli. Arnie offered to cook steaks but who knew that he would cook them right on the coals. Really? Oh, yeah really this guy is writing a book on grilling and this is one of his secret recipes. Don't buy the book would be my advice. And oh yeah, don't eat the steaks either unless you enjoy gritty beef. And then he was driven to grill the lobsters that we bought from local lobsterman Wink Houghton. Everybody but Kate agreed to eat a lobster. Cause after all we were in Maine. But you know grilling lobster takes a certain je ne sais quoi...That was the end of Arnie's cooking career for this summer. I'm thinking more burgers will be a more satisfactory dish for him next year. We could actually eat the food as well.

Kate and Lile must have biked the entire island and know every small path on their way to and from. One of the great advantages of this vacation which I must have said before is the ability to give the girls freedom to come and go. I don't worry because the island is small enough that people know who they are and the girls don't worry because the island is small enough that people know who they are.

With reports flying about the end of the world from Hurricane Irene, we agreed that it was prudent to leave a day early without even making my final stop at the Standard Bakery for ginger cakes. oh woe. We drove like 60 and +just got back to the City on Saturday afternoon in front or behind the now defunct Hurricane Irene from Casco Bay -- hard to believe that this makes our 10th year there -- in time to seek shelter. But like all news junkies I wasn't satisfied with the quality of this storm. It came and left without making a dent in Manhattan. i even left the bedroom window open on Saturday night figuring that when the winds came that I would wake up and experience this greatest of all storms. I slept quite soundly and woke to a strangely quiet city. No subways and no buses therefore the people who actually make this city function were nowhere to be found and so stores were closed, small restaurants were closed, cultural institutions like the Museums were all closed and only restaurants attached to hotels were able to serve meals. But the rain which was very heavy on late Saturday evening moved out on Sunday morning leaving the city hot and muggy filled with people roaming the streets with nowhere to go. Many were tourists who simply didn't understand what was going on. Who did. We even had an e-mail from Anne Lagarrigue and her family in Paris hoping that we would survive.

Miss Murray was definitely not happy about coming home and refused to do what dogs do for more than 24 hours and also refused to eat. A not so subtle statement....