This past weekend was very nice; Saturday we had weather in the 90’s and Sunday was more of a warm autumn day- 80’s with a crisp sporadic breeze from the North. If I could choose one season to live in it would be autumn. Fortunately, most Maine’s fall weather consists of crisp breezy days with enough sunshine to keep the daylight hours warm.

For most of the day on Saturday I stayed inside trying to stay as cool as possible. I caught up on some Xbox 360 game time, after I worked on a client’s website. Later in the evening Nate and I went to Pushaw Lake to go swimming. The water was very warm and calm. As we swam the sun began to sit behind the horizon, its rays being absorbed by the atmosphere and reflecting in the mixture of clouds and humidity in the most brilliantly beautiful sunset that I’ve seen in a long time, unfortunately I did not bring my camera with me. To remedy this issue I plan to take my camera everywhere I go from now on. Speaking of cameras, I decided to keep my Canon S3 IS., I just need to purchase or find a tripod that has a removable bracket so I can easily attach / detach the camera.

I went to Church on Sunday and headed up to Kokadjo to spend some time with dad. After eating we decided to kayak on one of the nearby ponds. When we arrived we spotted a young bull moose about 20 feet from the shoreline eating Lilly roots. I ran back to the truck to get my camera and was able to snap a few photos; unfortunately I did not have enough time to adjust the settings so the moose wouldn’t be as dark. The moose soon darted off into the woods and I followed quickly behind to snap a candid photo of it looking curiously at me. When dad and I returned to the truck we found that in our haste the doors were locked with the keys inside. We walked about a half mile up the road to another pond where he knew a lady that had some tools to open a door. The walk was nice as the cool air was filled with the scent of raspberries and pine; the skyline had a backdrop of mountains and the clear sky that went from dark to light blue.

After getting the truck unlocked we headed out onto the pond. I wanted to take my camera out but was unsure of how stable I would be on the kayak, I found that I was stable and next time I’ll bring my camera out. As soon as we were on the water we spotted 4 other moose spread throughout the shoreline. I quietly drifted towards one of the moose and was roughly 25 feet from it until it started to walk towards me. I spotted a few loons and attempted to get close to them but they dove under and swam away. Loons are beautiful visually and audibly, I didn’t realize they could stay under water for so long.

I had a really good time kayaking; I’m highly considering purchasing my own kayak from Old Town Canoe. I never realized that Old Town was so popular throughout the US and worldwide. Now that I think of it, I’ve seen Old Town canoes and kayaks in Virginia, on TV, etc. The name Old Town is actually a name of a town in Maine that’s actually 15 miles from where I live. L.L. Bean is another popular, high quality company that was started and based in Maine.

I wanted to take a panoramic photo of Mount Katahdin and was able to take a perfectly aligned photo. Mt. Katahdin is 5,270 feet high and is the last mountain of the Appellation trail. On the way back to the camp we picked about a quart of raspberries, I had to fill my camera case. I plan on baking a raspberry pie very soon. I left shortly after returning to the camp as it was getting late and I wanted to leave in time to take photos of the sunset over Moosehead Lake in Greenville.

The following photos were taken in Greenville: Candian Geese flying by, Almost there, So close, Tall shot, sunset and Sunset 2.

Today we woke up early and headed off to Duffield, VA to see the Natural Tunnel. The tunnel amphitheater is 400′ high, the stream ran very deep through this once ledge and carved a natural tunnel through the caverns. In the 1800’s railroad tracks were laid through the tunnel to save time transporting minerals. The railroad was and is still used to carry coal and natural materials from the mines. We road down the steep hill on a chair lift which carried us to the foot of the hill and the entrance of the natural tunnel, after looking into the tunnel we hiked up the trail that took us up the winding ledge until we reach the top, a point where you can step out on and look down the 400′. The weather was close to 100; needless to say we were very warm. We took an alternate path down that took us through a more wooded area.

After the hike we had a picnic mom and made for us, the food was refreshing, I always enjoy a good picnic. Duffield is not too far away from Tennessee so we decided to stop and pickup a magnet of the State. We all collect the State magnets of where we have visited.

The Appalachian Trail is very beautiful in southern Virginia; all you can see are the rolling mountains in a blue haze for miles and miles. On the hillsides there are hundreds of Black Angus cows just roaming the fields looking for grass to eat. The mountains look massive as you’re driving through the valleys winding around sharp corners.

I am now sitting on the swing on the front porch waiting for the fireworks in the surrounding towns to be fired off. Sharp Top is starting to fade away into the night; the lightning bugs are coming out to perform their own little fireworks.

I’m taking in the scenery, noises from the birds chirping, cows mooing and thinking about how mom as always tries so hard to make vacations fun and worth while- I must say that she always succeeds, I’m very thankful for such a loving mother.

My mother had been planning on coming up for Mother’s day weekend to visit me and her parents. Her parents did not know she was coming up visit as it was a surprise. Her flight was due to arrive at 11AM but actually got in twelve hours later due to massive fog in Boston. I picked her up at Bangor International and we headed home.

The next morning we went to her parent’s house in Dexter. She went up the stairs and said, “I’m here to pick up my donut cutter”. My grandmother’s jaw looked like it hit the floor she was so surprised. We visited for awhile and headed to Bangor to do a little shopping. We went to the Orono Bog Boardwalk but arrived too late. We went home and watched Pirates of the Caribbean.

The next day we got up early to go to Denny’s for breakfast, which was packed due to it being Mother’s Day. After we ate we attended Church than proceeded to my grandparent’s for dinner. My grandparents finally got a DVD player; it’s one of the VHS / DVD combo players. Their children had converted all of their home videos to DVD for them and the rest of the family. After a few hours of visiting we dropped off some candies at Jack’s mother’s apartment and went shopping at the mall.

On Monday we went back to the boardwalk, there were a lot of people there. The walk was very interesting; I learnt that Pitcher plants and Sundew plants actually grew in the wild in Maine.

Mom went home early Tuesday morning with only a few delays in Bangor due to the weather. The only days we had rain was Friday and Tuesday which worked out well. I had a very good time with her this past weekend.

I decided to take today off to sleep in and relax. I read an article on Yahoo! stating that President’s Day came about around President Nixon’s term and that it was created to consolidate President Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays since they are in the same month and to celebrate all of the other Presidents in the US.

I had a full breakfast this morning. I made hash browns and an egg & cheese muffin. It smells like a Saturday morning breakfast.

This morning I heard a Chickadee and another type of bird call. Black-capped Chickadee’s normally stay year-round so that wasn’t as much of a surprise as the other roll call that I heard. Hopefully this means spring is right around the corner.

I finished watching all 8 seasons on Stargate SG-1 on DVD last night. It took me nearly a year, but I have finished them. I am saddened but am looking forward to watching them all with someone so we can share the events.

November has been so far has been very nice, weather wise- although it is only 3 days old. The leaves in Bangor are still clutching to the Oak and Maple trees. They are so yellow that you would like the sun spilled a little of its flare onto the surfaces of the leaves. The side street that I drive to work is lined with Maple and Oak trees on both sides, their branches stretch out over the power lines, covering the road like a canopy. Every leaf is vividly colored with orange and yellow and at times seems like they are gleaming with light especially in the mornings. At the base of the massive trunks are grey-squirrels instinctively collecting the Oak’s spoils of Acorns, at the same time crows are scurrying away in the roads pecking and picking away at the stiff bodies of squirrels.

One of my favorite things about working at the hospital is its setting. The scenery around it is beautiful. I start my day off walking on the side of State Street up towards the hospital. On the right side there’s a curvy stream that has embedded itself into a thicket of deep green grass that rests at the foot of a large hill covered with Evergreen trees. On the sides of the stream are man-made stones and natural stones that the water relentlessly erodes day after day.

Further up the ascending road the Penobscot River is shown to the left. At this point the river is shallow and wide. When the Ocean tide goes out, the water recedes and a bed of ledge is revealed. I wonder at one point if the whole area was ledge and is now worn down by the river. This morning the tide is in and the water is sparkling in the sun. On the left side of the river a wall of ledge runs abreast, on its ridge is Pine trees mixed with Maples overhanging their foothold. It’s really pretty when the water is calm and the tree line is reflecting in the water and steam is rising from the water. I am going to start bringing my camera to work with me so I can capture the image.

Today at work I had to go into one of the operating rooms and fix a computer that they use to view X-Rays on. I had to suit up in the blue bunny suit, mask, booties and lead suit before I could work on the machine. When I got into the OR I first saw a man lying on the table with the back of his left leg sliced open from the calf down. It appeared as though his ankle was getting reconstructed, later on after I had repaired the machine (HDD failure), I confirmed my notion. It was interesting to experience this first hand.