Dreaming of Maine Summer

My Sista J is a really good gift giver. Due to our active Covid cases we had to cancel our Christmas Day together. My Mom just brought us boxes and boxes of gifts from my sister and my Mom. I told Janet not to bother wrapping as that is always the bain of her existence. She took me seriously and I opened a huge cardboard box full of many random and unrelated items, from gardening equipment to Mah Jongg gear. The best things were two actual books about Maine Travel.

Janet is a great listener and when she heard we were going to be in Maine for a month she took note. I would never buy travel books for myself since I just do research on the internet. On this, the coldest day of the season so far it was so much fun to read through these books to discover places I never knew about in Maine, but would love to visit.

The problem with the internet is I forget to take notes about what I discovered months in advance. Having the books it was easy to highlight and tab things. So far I have picked out about 15 museums we have never been too, 42 restaurants, 19 hiking trails, 22 light houses, 4 boat trips, and dozens of cute towns to visit.

Russ is probably going to have to limit the days we are going to go exploring or we won’t have the relaxing, reading and writing vacation we are planning. Our biggest limiting factor will be Shay since she is going with us. Either I have to find places she can go with us, like all the hiking trails, and outdoor restaurants, or we are going to have to not go so far from home.

I wonder if it’s too late to train her to be a service dog? She could never pull off acting indifferent to people around her. Maybe I will have to find a dog sitter. I hope I live long enough for America to become like England and just let you bring your dog everywhere.

One thing I should have asked for Christmas was a good car dog restraint system. I would love any recommendations on non-crate Dog car travel systems people have used. Shay notoriously likes to sit in someone’s lap and that is not safe. I need a restraint to keep her in the back seat that is safe for her. There are a lot of things out there, but I don’t know which one is best. So much to plan for I can hardly wait.