Saturday, July 21, 2007

SWcon't

****before you read this one ..scrolled down to get the first half of the story*****
This is the view we had at dinner!! MaryEllen, Jack and daughter Jenny, Thom and Karen, and Ed and I all went to this little great seafood restaurant. We sat out on the deck and watched the fog as it rolled in. This is a ferry landing, and it was also a scene in a movie!!! For those of you who may not know.. the Stephen King movie "Storm of the Century" was filmed mostly in Southwest Harbor. On top of that,Thom went to college and studied in film and has worked on many, many films as a camera man!!! Storm of the Century being one of those films (and no wonder that he owns and operates the only video shop in town!!!)... if you are looking for a scary movie that has very little in the way of blood and gore... check it out. But, back to the story. I had lobster for supper (first one of the summer) and everyone had a variety of things, but more importantly was the company and catching up with friends. It was pretty late when we got back to the motel. Moxie and Cammie were great guests, you would never know that we had two dogs with us.
Saturday morning we met up with everyone for breakfast, here we all are.. that's me with Thom, Karen, David, Tracey, and son Dillon. We ate at the restaurant that Pam (cole's owner) owns and operates. Got a huge breakfast, and just more in the catching up with old friends.


Then we went back over to the fire station, because Ed had been promised that he could take a little drive in the new firetruck. As I said earlier, this was Thom's baby, he was the planner behind this truck. That's pretty special to any firefighter, Ed has been the master mind behind some of York's pieces and its a great thing to see all your work and planning come "to life". This new SW truck is number 113... in honor of Thom... he was born on the 13th and the number has followed him on many occasions, Thom might be one of the few people that 13 is a lucky number for!!!

Here is MaryEllen and Jack, they had plans for the morning, so didn't have breakfast with us, but caught up with us before we headed out.
After all this visiting and "fire stuff" it was off to get Cole, which was our main reason for the trip. We went back to the restaurant and met up with Pam. I felt so bad, because it was easy to see how she had wrestled with this decision about Cole. But, I too feel she made a brave decision on his behalf. He looks wonderful!!! For a 13 year old dog, he is in great shape, excellent, weight, shiny coat, and certainly well loved. He was a little confused and sad when we loaded him into the truck and headed out of town. It's going to take him a few days to get settled in here again, but I think he knows that he is safe and I think he does remember being here.
So, that is pretty much the story of Southwest Harbor, and I certainly hope it won't be another two years before we get back there again, and spend some time with all our friends.



Southwest Harbor

So, what's the deal with Southwest Harbor, well, next to Williamsburg, VA and Acton, ME... it is our most favorite place to be!!! Ed and I have been going there (off and on) since 1980. It all began when we were much younger and used to attend all the firemen's musters down in Mass. There was a whole "herd" of us youngester that weekend after weekend went to the musters. This is where we met up with Sam Chisholm who lived in Littleton, MA . When Sam joined the coast guard, he was stationed to this wonderful little town, Southwest Harbor. Sam joined the fire company up there, and told them all about the musters that we had here in the southern part of the state. So, the SW fire company thought they would like to try and have their first muster, and once all their plans were made, Sam called all of us and asked if we would come and support their first muster!!! We were thrilled to do so and for many years after that, we would go to SW and then they would come here. We made many good friends, and over the years (as it goes in life) kids that came as Jr. firefighters, grew up, brought girlfriends, that became wives, and babies that grew to be teens.... etc. etc. etc. We also made other trips to SW other than fire musters, and just enjoyed watching our children grow up "together".



It's been a number of years since we've done the fire muster thing, but we still stay in touch and our SW friends are as near and dear to us as they have always been. SO... when Cole was adopted out two years back, (and completely by luck that it was a couple who lived in SW!!!!) it was a good excuse to drive him to SW and get the chance to visit, and now when Cole needed to return to us.... it was again... a good excuse to drive to SW and see everyone though I can't believe TWO years has gone by since we were there last!!!!

We arrived mid afternoon on Friday, our first stop was at Thom's video shop. We knew he was working and we could catch him there for sure. We hadn't been there more than a few minutes when Burton arrived (Thom's uncle) and wanted to show off the new SW fire station. Course, Thom wasn't about to miss out on that, so he closed his shop for a few minutes and we all went to see this beautiful new station!!! They have been in dire need of a new building and this one is grand!!! Very modern with lots of room and you can easily see the care and planning that went into it. Just as we were starting our "tour" Sam showed up (he is now the chief of the department - having never left SW) and so did Shirley (Thom's Dad). I told Ed I felt like we were celebraties!!! He are all the guys, talking things over and showing Ed all around!!! The truck they are standing in front of is the newest piece, this is"Thom's baby"... (more on that later!!!)


While the men folk chatted for a bit, I took the "girls" up behind the station for a little run. They certainly enjoyed their freedom after being in the truck for such a long ride. As you might see, the weather was a bit on the grey side, but just being back in SW, I could care less what the weather was like.

The "crowd" to see us continued to grow.. David dropped in, and then came Alberta (Thom's Mom) and after we chatted with them, we went to our motel. Pam (the lady that was sending Cole back) had made (and paid for) reservations for us. I thought this was very nice of her to do this for us... giving Cole up was a very difficult decision for her to make, and to think of us on top of that, just shows the kind of gal she is. After we got checked in, it was off to find MaryEllen (who was still at her work) and we made plans for dinner.