Old House and Tall Ships

On my way north to my parents' home, I took a slight detour east into Kittery to see if I could find the oldest house in Maine, the John Bray House. I'd tried to find it before, but had the mistaken idea that it would be a ways off the road, so did not realize I had driven right past it. Today, I found it easily, having double checked the house number with the historic registry.

The oldest part of the house was built 345 years ago and has been added onto over the years. Back in March, Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oates) bought the place in an auction and is in the early stages of restoring it. Anyway, I've been wanting to see it ever since I read about it, and today I had the time to look for it.

I didn't want to stop and take a gawking picture of the house, though. I feel funny doing that. Instead, snuck a few pictures out my window as I was driving by and then went down to the public docks next door to see what I could see from there. It was quite a lovely view, even though it was somewhat foggy after a morning rain.

A lady saw me with my camera and call over to me: "Are you looking for the ships?" "The ships?" Turns out there were four tall ships racing from Portsmouth to Nova Scotia and they had just passed by that very spot perhaps 20 minutes before I got there. One of them is the Prince William from Portsmouth, England. The others are US training ships. They were in full sail and quite beautiful, albeit somewhat lost in the fog.

I happily snapped some shots of them and other things within sight. Lighthouses, rowboats, an old fort, and scores of sail boats, all part of the vista of the John Bray House.

Like night from day

While Monday was amazingly quiet at school, yesterday was the complete opposite, like night from day. From the time I arrived to the time I left, an hour later than I planned, I had one visitor after another, and one phone call on top of the other, sometimes two and three calls going at once. It was crazy!

I wore my pedo- meter, by chance... well, not exactly chance. I planned to wear it, but had no idea how many steps I'd log. I put it on when I entered the building and checked it when I left: nearly 2.5 miles!!! And all I did was go back and forth between my office and the front door, my office and the office next door, my office and the office immediately above me. Three places, essentially, none too far from the other.

Today, it was quiet the first two hours, then busy the next three, then quiet the last one. It was beyond hot. Two girls stopped by and they were so hot, they were radiating heat from a foot away! No exaggeration.

I guess there's no such thing as a typical summer day at school.

Photos: A more calming scene from my life: Lake Quanopowit.