#120 Nomad Diary. 4-10 February, 2023. Arctic Blast in Portland, Maine. Meltdown. 2nd of 4 Weeks in Maine.
View of ice inside our upstairs bedroom window and the neighbor’s frozen upstairs window that is ajar.
Saturday. 4. Today the weather kept us inside for the second day. Friday night was our coldest night dipping down below 0 degrees with extreme negative wind chills. Saturday morning the temperature was -13 degrees and a -30 wind chill! Darrell made blueberry pancakes and I assisted by cooking the bacon and getting the table set. We all ate a nice breakfast together. The weather was only getting warmer all day and by Sunday morning was 30 degrees. We stayed inside, played, read, and I cooked some curry red lentils for dinner. After Quinn’s bedtime the four of us played a hand of Contract Rummy for the second night in a row.
Darrell’ picture from about 2am out our bedroom window! I slept through it. This is a non-through street that someone drove down and flipped their car in front of our house. Darrell’s pictures follow. The car across the street got creamed! Darrell saw the driver pulled alive and stand up from his car.
The flipped car with firefighters around. Damage parked car just across the street.
Sunday. 5. Darrell preached today at the Brighton Av church of Christ. We went out to lunch with the group and enjoyed getting to know each of the members of the two families making up this church. They asked Darrell to preach again next week, and he accepted. We spent the late afternoon and evening babysitting Quinn while Andrea and Jeremy went to throw axes. It’s a ‘fun’ thing to do for an hour. They came back and told us how much they enjoyed their axe date and dinner out. Darrell took off in the afternoon for a walk and in search of some pastries. Lol. It was too late in the afternoon to find any pastry shops open. He came back 3 and a half miles later with a few donuts from Dunkin Donuts! This chain is everywhere here!
Video call with Eric and Owen.
Statue of Longfellow in downtown Portland, Maine.
Decorative corbels all around downtown Portland, Maine.
Cappucinos and cardamom pastry at Bard Coffee.
Downtown mural next to Bard Coffee.
Monday. 6. Andrea went to the grocery as I was cooking dinner. She planned dinners through Saturday and invited guests for dinner on Saturday.
Quiche baked with gluten free crust.
Tuesday. 7. Today Andrea was in bed sick with an extremely sore stomach. I took Quinn to the library toddler reading time in downtown Portland. Darrell put Quinn’s car seat into our truck. It was an effort to drive just a mile downtown, find the parking garage, park, walk with Quinn to the library, carry the diaper bag, learn all the details of the library, etc. I felt very accomplished to get this done. Quinn was happy the whole time and helpful to show me where to go, hold my hand crossing streets, and going to potty as needed. Darrell read to Quinn at the house for over an hour. Andrea did not recover. I cooked Andrea’s planned quiche for dinner.
Mural art in downtown Portland, Maine.
Went to local map museum and saw “school girl map work”. This was especially beautiful!
Walking back home after dinner out.
Wednesday. 8. Andrea is still sick today. Darrell and I took Quinn to Walmart and spent considerable time looking through the toy aisle. lol. Jeremy worked in caring for Quinn’s nap and bedtime around his work at home schedule. We planned to go out for dinner. Around 4pm Darrell drove Andrea to a local walk in clinic. He was still there with her at 7pm when Jeremy, Quinn and I got back from dinner. I brought a takeout for Darrell’s dinner. Jeremy went to the clinic and let Darrell come to the house and eat.
Thursday. 9. Today Andrea is improving. I’ve done laundry, cooked and cleaned during these days. I made another quiche with some roasted veggies, mushroom soup, and almond butter cookies.
Inside Holy Donut. Looking at the coffee bar.
The pretty donut display at Holy Donut.
Selfie while walking around the Cove. Portland, Maine in background.
Quinn running to the playground.
Holding Chomp the dino stuffy while swinging with the icy and melting snow below! Lol.
Friday. 10. Mid-morning we walked ½ mile to Holy Donuts. The donuts were so incredible that I want to try some other notable donuts here! Lol! The coffee was really good too! Today Andrea was mostly better and able to sit at the dinner table with us. I cooked chicken, salad and bread with dipping oil. I bought tickets for a live music concert tomorrow night in downtown Portland. It got up to 50 degrees today and we went with Jeremy on a 3 mile walk around the Cove which is close to their house. It was a beautiful day! Before dinner I walked with Jeremy and Quinn to the playground. Quinn ran much of the way. He loves to swing. Jeremy says he’ll go 20 minutes or more on the swing!
Our computers on the desk in our bedroom, and the closet.
Most of our crates sitting in Andrea’s craftroom. We unloaded them from our truck when we arrived. The spray-n-wash was frozen after staying in the truck for a couple of days here. Lol. not surprised!
Nomad Notes. Because we are visiting Portland, Maine in the off-season, many of the museums and tourist places are closed for the winter. This makes the food and coffee places that are open some of our visiting highlights! Lol. Our kids here are hosting us for a month. We are purchasing groceries as much as we can to contribute to the expenses while we are here.
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