Finally, pictures from my practically perfect weekend...

For some reason I was unable to upload pictures to the blog for a while.  I tried disabling things, enabling others, blocking pop-ups, allowing them... tried it all.  I googled the error message I kept getting and eventually found something that said upgrade your browser to firefox..which is, I believe a mac thing... when it comes to computers I am a PC!  I have to use apple computers for work, but I prefer my PC.  So I refused to do firefox... and instead installed Google Chrome... and it worked... and I like that I can upload multiple pictures at a time... so I guess it is a win win.  

So here are some pictures from my fabulous weekend!  

First up is Miss Maria and I.  Isn't she AMAZING?  She is such a beautiful baby.  I am so glad that I got to spend some time with her and Sara.  Sara is battling Bells Palsy and it has been a long battle for her.  I was going to go back up tonight, but I have been sick this week and the last thing they need is for Sara and/or Maria to get my cold... so I stayed put.  It was so fun to visit.  

Last Saturday I went kayaking and it was beautiful.  The leaves had not yet peaked... apparently they are peaking now, but it is rainy.  I may get up early in the morning however and if it is not raining, see if I can find some pretty colors on the river.  

Here are some pics of that adventure.  I have posted pics of some of these sights before, but the color and light are different so I am posting again... 

This tree... I love this tree... I am worried it won't survive the winter.  It is literally split down the middle... 

I found two different birds nests along the river that I had not previously seen.  I love that I can paddle someplace and see new things each time.  

The stone bridge/tunnel, again...  

This is a picture of the ceiling of the tunnel.  I was taking a picture of the water reflecting and realized you could see the outline of my kayak and paddle.  

This is one of the cows that were grazing along the river.  It was pretty cool to see cows while kayaking.  A definite first for me.  

Mooore cows! 

This picture makes me think of a kaleidoscope for some reason.  

So calm... so peaceful... my serenity... 

This is me... a self portrait, taken in my kayak... the background, apparently is a little confusing... the trees are reflected in the water so it is hard to see the water, but if you look closely you can tell... It's me, doing what I love! (With, as Jill's daughter would say, pirate hair!)

The power lines that cross the river.  I love the blue of the sky in this picture! 

Approaching another bend in the river... you know I don't think of that symbolically... HA! 

The next set of pics is from Sunday.  I kayaked 11 miles with some coworkers.  It was AWESOME.  We went to a place I had never kayaked which was a lot of fun.  

We put in on one of the ponds before heading to the river where we spent most of our day.  The pond was pretty big and had a lot of boat traffic and PLANES! 

Still not prime foliage...

But there were glimpses of color... 

I like the sun in this picture! 

This is a cool thing... the river where we kayaked has a set of 'locks'.  This green bridge has to be turned to allow people in and out of the locks or to allow cars to cross the river.  It was pretty cool to watch the process of going through the locks.  This is stage 1, going past the bridge... 

This was phase two, entering the locks... Boats have to pay $6.00.  They gave us kayakers a deal... all 5 of us for the price of one boat!  (Price is round trip.)  

This is us inside the locks when the water was high.. in front of us the water level drops significantly.  So they slowly lower the water level as we are in there, and let us out on the other side when the water is low enough.  

The guy cranks this thing by hand to change the levels... It's science and mechanical... an engineering wonder... but to my mind... it's just plan COOL! 

You can see that we are getting lower... (That's Anton in the green hat... a fellow teacher... quite a character! Love working with him!) 

This is a sign explaining the history of the locks.  

We are getting lower!!!  That's Terri talking to Anton.  She is great too, also works at my school and has become one of my kayak buds! 

After we went through the locks this blue heron flew in and landed.  After all the boats had left the locks and my friend started paddling, I stayed put.  I got some great pictures of this guy and a great video of it catching a fish.  (I will try to post, but have not had good luck with videos here... )  I was so excited.  I have never been so close to one of these amazing birds.  

After taking a bazillion pictures of the heron I caught up with my friends who had pulled off to the side and waited for me.  They know I go a little crazy with my camera and they know I will catch up eventually.  

It was an AMAZING day.. October 9th and temperatures were in the 80's!  Crazy!  I got sunburned.. my only burn of the summer!  (well, fall...) 

It was beautiful... I am so lucky to live in Maine.  

I wonder how long this tree has been here... the roots are so cool! 

After paddling through the river we paddled out to Sebago Lake, the biggest lake in Maine.  There is a sandbar there and this log was there.  

This was taken looking out at Sebago.  There were a lot of people on the water! 

This is the sand along the sandbar.  I loved the ripples in the sand.  Anton teased me for taking a picture of sand.. but I love the texture! 

Another tree... 

Roots can be complicated... 

We paddled to Sebago State Park to use their facilities.  I like the picture of the kayaks lined up.  

The return trip through the locks... it was a bit more crowded this time... 

A self portrait of me with some cool coworkers... 

This is looking back at the lower part of the river we were on as the water was rising in the locks... 

This was looking off to the side of the locks, part of a dam.  

I wanted to show the difference in the water levels... we were down there, now we are up here... that's Linda.. another co-worker.  

This is the last leg of our trip.  Headed back across the pond... I had my feet out... nice and relaxed... 

It's days like this I need to think of when it is snowing...

This loon was swimming in the pond... not too far from us.  I loved watching the loons this summer. I felt like he was saying good bye to me... 

Monday... Before my cold hit really hard... I went to the ocean.  I didn't stay long because while I was there my head suddenly felt like it was in a vice.  

Here are some ocean pics... it was almost too hot to be there... not much of a breeze... but beautiful.  

I love Maine... I hate winters in Maine... but... this is the kind of stuff I LOVE... and this year I have been so lucky to really enjoy it.  I am grateful.  

I will try to post some videos soon... if I have any luck!