The second adventure was a whirlwind weekend trip in Maine to visit various relatives with my wife, Suzy. We had fun visiting with my Mom's side of the family, who all got together at my Aunt's. We even made plans to meet up with one of my cousins and his family at Disney later when the came down (which we did, and really enjoyed). But the highlight was visiting with my Dad and excellent Step-mom, which is always entertaining as they are wonderfully unconventional people!

My Dad lives in a small Downeast town and local legend has it that he lives in a cabin in the woods with with many chainsaws and a trained bear (well, the chainsaws part is true, anyway). Reality is just as interesting -- he owns his own personal fire truck (a ladder truck, in a county that I don't think has any building more than a couple stories!) and teaches math and computer science to sailors. My wonderful stepmom has been all over the world as a ship and tug captain, even fighting off pirates, and has interesting relatives of her own (stories include one of them mooning the QE2, I think it was, from an ultralight) So you can see where this would be interesting...

Because of the short schedule they came down and met us at a circus-themed diner, and brought us several items including a calendar featuring somewhat less-than-convincing photographic evidence of alien cow abductions. They also updated us on recent events in town, as well as upcoming ones including their impending (re-re-re-)wedding. They're getting married again, as they do periodically for the entertainment of the residents of the local nursing home. This time the residents have requested a biker-themed wedding. I am awaiting pictures...

Alas, all too soon it was over and we were jetting home. We hope to make an extended trip up this summer and have a real vacation for the first time in quite a while.