vacation

is there anything cozier than a crackling fire, a cup of coffee, a book, an overstuffed couch and floor-to-ceiling windows on a rainy maine afternoon? if so, i've yet to find it. and if not - well, i'm okay with that. we're on our first all-five-member family vacation in years . . . kayaking, bike riding, hiking, dinner parties and lobster and the atlantic ocean - which, for being the same sort of thing, generally, as the pacific, has an entirely different character - and a very ambitious stack of books on my bedside table. between the eight or so that i brought and the handful i purchased yesterday, i think i can already safely say that i am again guilty of book-optimism, that condition that afflicts each member of my family except perhaps my brother in which your brain gets you to thinking that yes, you can certainly finish anna karenina on the plane ride over and average two books a day while on vacation.

that aside, this vacation has already been one of the more relaxing and fun trips i've been on in a long time. there is something wonderful about having all of our family together on a trip like this, since we are almost all usually scattered all over the place. kennebunkport is fast becoming one of my favorite small towns - it reminds me a good deal of south haven, where we used to vacation every summer when we lived in the midwest. friendly people, outdoors lifestyle, delicious food, and a beautiful water front - although this time, it's not lake michigan. it does feel strange, coming from california, to be going north along the water and see the ocean to our right. kind of counterintuitive, like maybe the world has started turning the other way or clocks are running counterclockwise. i'll manage.

we've already seen some beautiful landscape; and the gardens alone here are scenery enough. it's interesting though, like i mentioned earlier, being on the atlantic ocean. i've always much preferred the pacific, which feels more, well, serene (hence the name) and less threatening. the atlantic, which always smells like it got an extra dose of salt somehow, is sort of angry and seems almost always gray, to the pacific's blue-green.
i think it has something to do with the craggy kind of rocks, and the contrast its beaches provide to the gently sloping sand in california, and the northern-ness of this area, and the way the ships are moored here, the thunder and the way the clouds meet the water as they never do on the horizon of the pacific. and, most importantly, it has something to do with florida. i hate florida. but that's for another day . . .

st. ann's episcopal church, overlooking the water about a half-mile from the bush compound, has got to be one of the most breathtaking buildings on one of the most breathtaking parcels of land i have ever seen. they have a eucharist service sunday mornings on a little landing built above the water, with pews and an altar. seems to me the best way to worship and take communion ever invented.

may have some pictures to follow . . . in the meantime, i'm hitting the books until dinner.