I ended up taking pretty much the whole of August off. We went to our summer house in Maine where Josephine and I stayed for more than three weeks. While Rich returned home after two weeks, we only came back this Monday.
We won’t even stay long in the City as we are finally flying to Germany in two weeks. I can’t wait. It has been three years since I last even left this country. But for now we get to enjoy the last warm summer days here.
Summer 2022 was great for us. I mean every year we are not moving is awesome (although owning our apartment hopefully means that we won’t move for a while). But this summer was extra special:
Summer 2022 with Josephine
After all it was Josephine’s first summer ever. There were so many first times. The first time we took her to the beach; the first time we took her to Maine; the first time she floated in the lake and when she sat in the water; when she ate grass and tried some beach sand (the former being much more popular); when she met the rest of Rich’s extended family and interacted with the kids; when she started trying solid (human) foods; when she moved backwards like a lobster and then hopped forward … On the day she turned six months, we took her for her first Covid vaccination dose, which I was super relieved about.
While many days are exhausting, esp. right now that Josephine has reached a new phase where she wants to be held all the time, I love to spend every day with her. This was the first summer ever where I didn’t have to prepare for a new school year, as in neither as a student nor a teacher. That also makes me not as sad about summer turning into fall I have realized. Although I loved staying in Maine so much that I didn’t want that to end.
Our Vacation in Maine
Rich’s family has owned an old inn in Maine for generations (basically since they built it in 1795) and these days they use it as a summer house. We all have our own rooms and there even is a lake house in the neighboring town. That part of Maine looks to me a lot like the region where I grew up in in Germany. Well, minus the mountains. There are endless fields and many cows and many small villages (which U.S. Americans call ‘towns’, probably because it sounds fancier, ha ha).
We arrived for the first August weekend because the little town there had their fair. I had wanted to visit it for the last two years, but something else always came up. When it finally happened this year, I was so excited. There was a small parade in the morning and a cookie walk, the fire department barbecued chicken, and there were lawnmower races in the afternoon. I am a huge fan of that race. It looks slightly dangerous, but also so much fun.
We spent the other three weeks mostly relaxing. Most days we spent the morning in the big summer house and then left for the lake house after lunch. Although we finally also stayed in the lake house for one night – that had been on my bucket list for so long.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with larger group meetings these days, Covid spread among Rich’s family. Both he and Josephine had mild infections. I seem to have gotten lucky this time. Then again I last had it in April and feel I deserved to be spared for once. Overall we were fortunate enough that nobody got seriously ill.
The one big decision we made this summer was to leave our car in Maine. It will hibernate in the barn. We learned over the last year that we hardly use it in the City. It was only expensive because parking and insurance are much more expensive here. But we use it a lot up there where distance are further and there isn’t any public transport at all.
A Look Ahead
As I wrote above we are not done traveling. We depart for Germany on 16 September, and Josephine and I again will stay longer than Rich. She and I will only return in October. Therefore I use the little time at home to get important tasks done like returning our NY license plates. This week I could finally request a baby bassinet for our flights and we felt lucky that the airlines could fulfill our wish. I also try to give as much attention as possible to our cats because, until this summer, I never spent more than three days without them.
Despite all our travel plans and Josephine’s demand for endless holding, I hope to post regularly on the blog again. I definitely have enough photos, stories and ideas to share.
I hope your summer was just as good as ours & see you soon,
Jana
