Project 365 - W20

Week 20. I'm in Falmouth/Portland, Maine, visiting my family. Fun times!


Some of the beautiful foliage that we have near my parents' house. The forests, etc., are one of the reasons that I love Maine. It's nice to be able to walk down the street and go on a hike. Columbia's like that, too, with lots of parks and trails, but Maine has pine and birch trees.

This is a picture of my brother, (step)dad, and cousin Mark's feet. Mark and my Aunt Collette were in town and we decided to go out to this "delicious" Italian restaurant, Paciarino, in downtown Portland. Mom made reservations for 7:30, which we were a few minutes early for. Did we sit at 7:30? No, we got to wait until 8:15 before we actually got a seat. Around 8, this one party, who we thought was who were waiting on, left, and this other table decided that they liked that table better, so they moved and another party took their old table. Where I was mildly annoyed before, now I got downright mad about how another party that came in after us got to sit down before we did. I had to go into the bathroom and pray because I was so ticked and I didn't want to be rude or ungiving to my family. I think my bad mood may have also been linked to the fact that I was very hungry, because when they brought the dipping bread, I started to feel better. In their defense, my mom thought they were down a server and every other time they'd been there the service was excellent. So maybe we came on an off night. Because my parents are my parents, they ended up overtipping (because gratuity was included and they tipped on top of that) and from what I calculated in my head, they didn't even bother to comp us a couple of meals for our inconvenience. I find *that* annoying.

To the Lighthouse

A book I did not enjoy the least, but my trip to Maine's most photographed lighthouse was quite enjoyable.


They are finally planting a church in Portland and today there was an outdoor service at Fort Williams Park. (Didn't realize this until I got to the USM campus and no one was there.) I forgot how small 30 people felt. But it was nice remembering what it was like 10+ years ago when we started the church in Columbia. I felt a little envious of them all... But not in an evil way, but in an excited about it way. So how can I transport that to when I get home?

Sunday morning, my brother offered to take me to church - which I thought meant he was planning on staying for service. Nope -- butthead. He just planned on dropping me off.

Greetings from Maine

My step-dad is in the States and my parents were nice enough to pay for me to travel to Maine to visit.
The traveling there was crazy! I've flown Delta airlines several times before and was very satisfied with my experience, but after this, I am very reluctant to fly them again. I originally loved them because taking Riley with me would only cost me $100-150 for the trip. That's now $250 - ridiculous. That's half a plane ticket...

Anyway, I drive up the morning of, visit with my dad and step-mom for a few hours and then it's off the airport. I go to pull up my electronic ticket and there's a problem with my flight to Detroit (it was leg one of two of my flight to Portland, Maine). It seems that there are mechanical problems and it is stopped in Chicago. There's a nice long line to the counter and it's from all the people on the Detroit flight. When I finally reach the counter, it appears that, due to said mechanical failure with the plane, my flight has been canceled. The kicker is, according to the woman behind the desk, there is no flight that will get me to Portland, "because there's reduced flights on Saturday." I asked about other airlines and no luck, supposedly ("the first thing [she] checked"). So the earliest flight would be 6am the next morning. I was really psyched about that one because I *love* getting up in the morning.