Ah! New England

Welcome to Wentworth by the Sea, a lovely Marriott

in New Castle, New Hampshire.  We stumbled upon it

last year and returned on purpose this year.  

We used the lovely hotel as a base to discover the road less travelled in

Odiorne State Park.

                  And the road more travelled from Freeport, Maine, where LL Bean Home is open 24 hours a day (and the primary store has a very big boot outside)...



 To St Ann's Episcopal Church with amazing windows

And to, what one of my favorite people on Earth (and world-class concierge),

Mary Carey Foley described as "a very Massachusetts seaport"

Newburyport:

She was, as always in my experience, correct!

More about the FABULOUS Mary Carey can be found at

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090121-NEWS-901210381 and

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS/806160328

Momisms

Hello! Maggie here.  Eddie (you remember Eddie, my greyhound brother) says I should write about the things Mama says all...the...time.  She and Dad are going traveling for a while, so if you're in Asheville, NC or New England (is there an Old England?) and you hear a very pretty woman saying any of these things, you'll know it's her.  Okay, here we go:
   1.  How can you possibly spend that much at the grocery when you only went for dinner?
   2.  Setting the thermostat at 70 does not make it get cooler faster.
   2a. Setting the upstairs thermostat lower than the downstairs will not work...warm air rises!
   3.  Does anybody need to go OUT?  (Eddie and I always do!)
   4.  Sit, Maggie.  (Eddie NEVER has to sit)
   5.  Plastic goes in the recycle bucket!  (She says this when she starts to throw something in the trash and finds that Daddy has mistaken the trash can with the BUCKET) 
     I think that's enough for now.  Here's a dragonfly I showed to Mama: