The veranda at Khatadin Inn, York, Maine

Three days off? In a row?? Whatever would I do with three days off in a row?

Day One

Monday dawned bright and sunny, a true rarity for this the wettest summer in recent memory. It looked like the clouds might invade, but alas, they held out for one complete 24-hour period. Which was good, because we had tickets for the Boston Lobsters.

The Lobsters are the Boston franchise for World Team Tennis (WTT), a league that plays every year in July. Most players in the league are ranked somewhere between 20th and 50th, and are experienced doubles players, while some have had moderate success in singles. If you go on certain nights, they might even add a big-name player to the roster. No big names were present on this evening, but that didn’t diminish the excitement.

The Lobsters played host to the Kansas City Explorers, and all through the match both teams battled point for point. The doubles sets were particularly exciting as Lobster right-hander Raquel “The Hammer” Kops-Jones battled tough in both the mixed-doubles, womens  doubles, and womens singles sets.

The match came down to the final set, mens singles, where Jan-Micheal Gambill needed one game to seal the victory. That winner never materialized, as Explorer Mike Russell fought back from three games down to win the match in a tie-break, 21-20.

Day Two

Tuesday dawned just like every other morning for the last two months; dreary, overcast, with rain threatening at any time. The original plan was to take the bikes and do a mountain ride on Maine’s Mt. Agementicus. A quick check of the forecast altered those plans immediately.

We decided to leave the bikes, but headed north anyways. First stop was Lisa’s friend Nikki, who lives in a resort style home on a lake. We dropped off Bennie there to spend the night with his two new Schnauzer girlfriends, Willie and Asta. With Bennie all settled in, we headed east, for Maine, and the Yorks.

After a 40-minute drive, we found ourselves at the base of Mt Agamenticus, Southern Maine’s most forested recreation area. As soon as we decided on a hike plan and looked down the trail, raindrops started falling. They fell harder, and harder, and before you could sing “Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head,”  we were in a monsoon.

We instead drove up to the peak, where the clouds had rolled in, and visibility was about 30 feet. We read the information boards, tried to see the view (not happening), and felt proud of our five minute excursion up to the summit. While battling the rain and the rolling haze, we saw a porcupine, and decided to devote 10 minutes of video to its existence.

With the porcupine sufficiently documented, we headed down the access road to our final destination for the evening, the Katahdin Inn, in York, Maine.

When one thinks of Maine, certain images come to mind; rain, rain slickers, wooden adirondack chairs on well kept porches, rolling hills of green grass, happy dog-lovers walking their pooches regardless of the weather. We saw all of this in our first ten minutes in York, Maine.

The Katahdin Inn is an old-style “B&B” inn located just off Short Sands beach.  From its porch, you can look across the beach, past the playground and bandstand, and see the downtown district with its old-style bowling arcade and “Fun-O-Rama.” Downtown also includes several restaurants and clubs, as well as many family owned businesses that have served visitors for decades. The bright yellow moniker of “The Goldenrod”  clearly beckoned us from across the way. They’ve sold homemade toffees and other confections for more than a century in their classic wooden luncheonette style building.

We did the obligatory tour of all these sites, but kept settling in the same spot, the deck chairs on the porch of the Katahdin Inn. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks and beach was almost cathartic, and wine and cheese added to the mellow tone of the evening.

Day Three

Yet another overcast dawn. Coffee on the veranda; a parade of runners, dog walkers and morning-wave worshipers accompanying our morning brew. A walk up to the lighthouse prematurely ended when the heavy mist bordered on medium to heavy rain . We retreated once again to the car, and drove to the lighthouse. It was clear that today’s weather was going to match yesterday’s, so we cried “uncle” and made plans to head home.