A trip to New England for some family gatherings

 

Date: 6/28/2014 – 7/6/2014

Location: Parsonsfield, Maine

 

In late June Julie and I headed up to New England, flying into Boston. We spent a few days in Marlborough which is the town that I grew up in. My father had moved back there several years ago and the family was giving him party for his 90 birthday. Here’s a picture of my dad and his sister Alice. They are both doing great for their age.

 

After the party had concluded and everything was cleaned up, then five of us made the 2 hour drive up to Maine where two of my brothers and wives own a large home on a very peaceful lake. This is a great place for family gatherings. But this was the calm before the storm. The five of us enjoyed our quiet days before the 23 (give or take a few) other family members joined us for Fourth of July festivities,

Here are s few pictures of the lake taken from their dock. A beautiful place!!

My brother and I got in some early morning fishing on the lake. I caught a few, but couldn't keep up with my him. Plus, I didn’t want to show him up!!

             

The days before the large group of family arrived was also a good time to relax and do some reading. Here’s my niece and Julie during some quiet time.

            

 

We also did a short day trip to one of the dams on a nearby river. We explored the rocks and areas below the dam, even though there were signs warning us of the dangers.

This lake is also great for canoeing and kayaking as there’s usually very little boat traffic. Here’s Julie and my sister-in-law during a late evening paddle.

Julie and I did a few paddles around the lake. Here’s the GPS track of one of those trips.

 

As the fourth of July rolled around, the amount of family at the lake place grew exponentially! At one point there were family members from Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont. We had a great time celebrating the holiday. 

Here’s the youngest member of the Whitney gang. Just joining this world several weeks earlier. He was dressed for the occasion.

 

And the tradition continues. Last year we had the first Curtis Cup Corn Hole Challenge. This was a full day of corn hole competition and finishing with the championship match. So, this year we continued on with the 2nd Annual Curtis Cup Challenge. Curtis is my father who donated some $$ last year to the winners pot. So, we decided to name it after him.

We have to use a chalk board to keep track of the score, since none of us can remember as the game progresses. Not sure if it is old age or the beer, but our memory sure is lacking during the tournament.

Here are some young fans cheering on the competition.

Here’s some not so young fans, also watching the corn hole matches.

My daughter and her husband even came dressed in their corn hole competition uniforms. They came to play and were determined to win and take home the money. Guess they’ll have to wait until next year.

After a long series of matches, the eventually winners were my brother and his wife. This cements the Florida hold on the corn hole tournament winners. Last year their son and his wife were the winners.

 

Another highlight of the weekend is the clam and lobster boil. Things get very quiet for awhile and everyone gets serious about digging into their dinner. Here’s a few pics of everyone chowing down.

 

 

Here’s a few pictures of the gang that had gathered for the family celebration.

 

We also did a few rounds of Thunderstruck, which is now becoming a family tradition. I’m just saying it involves way too much beer and can lead to some wild times. But this year we seemed to somewhat behave ourselves.

A few remaining random pictures.

          

Before we had to head back home we did one more short hike with my cousin from Vermont. We wanted to see if we could make it all the way around the lake. Luckily we were able to make it all the way since I wouldn’t have wanted to turn around. Here’s the GPS track of that hike.

 

A trip to Maine and a Whitney Family Reunion

 

Location: Parsonsfield, Maine

GPS Coordinates: 43.764000, -70.861800

Date: 6/28/2013 – 7/8/20/13

I was born and raised in Massachusetts and still have family up in the northeast part of the country. Myself and one of my brothers live in Florida and two other brothers and their families still live up north.  Luckily for Julie and myself, my Florida brother and one of my northern brothers, along with their wives, bought a cabin on a lake in southern Maine. So, this makes a great place for all the families to get together and spend some time hanging out. This cabin is on Long Pond near East Parsonsfield, Maine. I don’t know the difference between a pond and a lake, but it’s a very nice body of water. A beautiful location to spend some time!

This year, over the fourth of July holiday, we were able to get all four Whitney brothers and their families together for a reunion at the Maine cabin. I think we counted up about 26 family members and all staying at the same family cabin. Sure glad my brother added a second bathroom this past year!!

Early on in the week, before the big crowd showed up, many of us went to dinner one night in Krista’s Restaurant in downtime Cornish, Maine. It was an amazingly good dinner and we all enjoyed our time together. It’s hard to imagine having such a good meal at a place that’s kind of in the boondocks, but if you are ever in this area, it comes highly recommended!!

The first few days that we spent in Maine was kind of cool and rainy, but even with the not so perfect weather the views of the lake were sure nice.

 

Another outing we did was to visit the Allagash Brewing Company in Portland Maine. We’ve done many brewery tours in our travels, but this one was one of the best that we’ve seen. A very interesting and informative tour done by an entertaining tour guide. This is just another recommended thing to do if in this area.

Not sure what Julie is doing here, but the rest of us were enjoying our samples at the conclusion of the brewery tour.

 

Finally all the rest of the family joined us at the cabin and the party was on!  We had four generations of Whitney’s present. Here’s my dad with his great grandson Jet.

 

Here’s a picture of the Maine cabin. It’s a large place with plenty of room for these large gatherings.

 

Here is a picture looking across the lake on a clear morning.

Here’s what we spent a lot of our time doing, floating and swimming in the lake. This picture is of all the “Cousins” having a good time. It’s sure is fun watching them all get together and enjoying each others company.

For some reason my younger daughter (Allison) loves to fish. The first night she spent hours on the dock casting, but never had a bite. But finally we found a good spot to fish and she caught a nice sized bass. We don’t keep any of the fish and they all get returned to the lake.

My nephew Matt with his catch of the day,

With so many people staying at the cabin, we had to open a tent city to catch the over flow. Julie and I stayed in the far tent and slept awesome in the great outdoors. But one thing we found is that it sure does get light early in Maine in July. I think the sky started getting light at about 4:30am. So, no sleeping in for us!

We had a few puppies hanging with us. I think we tired him out!

Julie and I did some easy kayak trips. About a half mile down the shore is a loons nest. They sure do have an interesting call and would hear them many mornings as they headed to other parts of the lake,

 

Here’s my brothers dog Brady. He loves to stand on a rock under the dock. He just hangs out there and watches the water for fish to swim by.

The last day before we all had to head home we decided to have the first annual “Curtis Cup” corn hole tournament. My dad (Curtis) donated some money to be given to the winner. This lasted all afternoon and into the evening. It was a lot of fun and will probably be repeated during our next family gathering.

This last evening at the lake turned into kind of a wild time and will probably go down in Whitney family history. I think it was one too many round of Thunderstruck, a college drinking game, which  probably should not be played by anyone over the age of 25. But we did and we survived. There won’t be any pictures of what happened on this blog, but I hear there’s a few Facebook videos floating around out there. Just glad we all survived and didn’t have any complaints for the lake neighbors.

 

One last nice sunset over the lake.

Here’s a Youtube Video montage of pictures taken throughout the week, The music to this video is by a Portland band called Tricky Bitches. We saw them play a small concert while we were in Maine and they are now one of Julie’s favorite bands. You can see some of there videos on our Youtube home page.