Blogs from Maine, United States, North America - page 42

I am finally back home in Maine.The return has been somewhat anticlimactic,since the weather here has not been very nice for spring skiing-especially after being out west.During my last week in Ketchum,my world class skier friend Crystal came out.She seemed to thoroughly enjoy Sun Valley,even though it does not have the extreme skiing available in places like Jackson Hole.But then JH doesn't have the other attributes of SV,like an opera recital we went to-a wonderful soprano and tenor singing in front of a huge fireplace in the new touring center lodge for about 100 people!It was unlike any venue I have ever experienced. WE left SV on the 5th of March and drove to Bend ,Oregon to visit my brother Jim and his wife Tina.About 100 miles out of Ketchum,on a very deserted road-the RV ... read more

Enter the Pumpkin Chucker Here was a learning opportunity if there ever was one. At Poland Regional High School we had a half day and decided to combine many different learning areas (Math, Physics, History) in one fun filled event of Pumpkin' Chunkin' glory. Jonathan Doughty, a very energetic and awesome science teacher at PRHS has a good friend who constructed a large trebuchet and was willing to transport it out to the school! Through out the whole day we had students measuring projectile distances, time from launch to landing, and the masses of pumpkins and watermelons. There were exercises in mathematical modeling ballistics to find the initial velocity of the projectiles and their highest point. All and all it was a bombastic ballistic bonanza and it was made possible by teachers... read more

As fall is fast approaching I wanted to take some snap shots to send out to the folks "from away" as we say here in Maine (also known as the 207 according to a fairly popular radio station in the state). I haven't had a New England fall in a long time and do to the large quantities of water received this sumer, the foliage was rather super duper. So over this last weekend I took a nice drive through New Gloucester and up into Readfield and took some snap shots of the spring foliage and of Sabbath Day Lake and Maranacook Lake. On a side note, I took a 35 foot jump off a large train trestle into the VERY cold water of Maranacook Lake (refreshing after the fact, frigid at first). I also got ... read more

This week has been our first week of our new itinerary, so we’ve been getting used to the new schedule. It was also a SUPER easy week work-wise, as we had 5 youth onboard - bit of a difference from last week’s 60! We each worked less hours in Kids Korner, but also performed extra duties as cruise staff (hosting karaoke, helping with crowd control during immigration, swiping passenger cards as they exit ship, etc.) I’ve had lots of extra time on my hands so I’ve been doing lots of knitting, as well as watching the first season of “Heroes” that I borrowed from the crew bar. (GREAT show for anyone who watches it!) Steph, Nicole, and I have been in Basic Safety training all week, so every day we had a couple hours of training. ... read more