A Maine Wedding….and a very busy June.

This will be my longest post ever…I believe. The day finally came for Dave and Stephanie ti tie the knot, and many folks couldn’t believe it actually happened–as everyone reminded me all night long.  Yes, a wedding day…in Maine…with spectacular late June weather.  After months as serving as the primary wedding planner, the day went off (mostly) without a hitch.  I wish I could say the same for the ferry to Monhegan Island the day before.  Very rough seas caused most of the wedding guests (and the rest of the passengers) to get a bit seasick on the 60+ minute ride over to the island.  When I say a bit, I mean quite a bit.  I have never seen so many pale faces and full barf bags in my life.  I genuinely felt bad for getting folks into this mess, but at least everyone’s stomach was empty for the wedding dinner at Primo the next day.  Look at the positive side, right?

This was the only opportunity we will ever get to get everyone together from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Maine.  Judging from the photos, I think everyone had a great time. 

We rented two Airbnb’s for family members and tried our best to give everyone a great introduction to Maine.  Visits to lighthouses, lobster shacks, islands, restaurants, and Acadia National Park filled everyone’s time.

The weather was absolutely fantastic with temps hitting 80 degrees for the wedding day with a cloudless sky.  After the wedding, we visited Bar Harbor where the temps hit the 90s–way too hot for me.

We had several sources of photos, so I’ll start with the photos from Tristan, the photographer we hired for the event:

And here are the photos from all of the guests that attended:

And finally, photos from my nephew Eric, who brought his super duper camera:

And here is a video of our first dance…also from Eric:

And here are all of the phone call recordings that everyone left on our faux phone:

But that was just a few days in Maine.  The week before, my Maine friends treated me to four days in the North Maine Woods, near Greenville.  We spent three nights at the Little Lyford AMC camp where all meals were cooked for us by AMC staff.  There was a large youth group there as well.  The AMC had an art contest each night for the youth group, and anyone could participate.  I am proud to say that I won the second night and, honestly, I should have won the first night too.  No, I am not a sore loser.  We had a great three days of hiking (10-mile hike of Gulf Hagus), gravel biking, canoeing, horseshoes and some restrained drinking.  Here are some pics:

And lastly, in early June, we went to the US Open practice rounds at Oakmont, near Pittsburgh.  My nephew’s friend was hit by an errant ball from Ashtay Bhathia (and got a signed ball as a result).  The weather was hot and the grounds were swampy from tons of rain earlier in the week.  Some pics from Eric:

I stayed in Maine for a week after everyone left.  When I returned to KY, I decided to pause my retirement and head back to the workforce for a little while.  Time will tell if this is a good decision.  Wish me luck.