On Saturday I went to Old Orchard Beach to hang out with Judy, Aaron and Marcye.
I was stressed about it, for a number of reasons (see earlier post). When I got to the beach, I had no idea where to find them amongst the throngs of sizzling flesh-blobs, so I walked up and down the beach awhile, looking for them. Every time I tried to call one of them, I would get voicemail, and when they tried to call me, they would get my voicemail. I was getting extremely frustrated and on the verge of just getting back in my car and driving…somewhere, when I decided to apply a little logic. Marcye has pain when she walks a lot, so they would probably be near the boardwalk. I went back there and sure enough, there they were.
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We stayed on the beach awhile, walked on the boardwalk awhile, and walked around town awhile. My cheap-ass sandals weren’t doing it for me, so I left them at the blankets and was barefoot the whole time. Which wasn’t painful or anything, but did provide a perspective I don’t often experience. At crosswalks, for instance, the white stripes feel powdery and cool. Occasionally a sharp rock would poke me, or I would see a patch of broken glass, gum, or dropped ice cream to avoid, but it went ok.
I ate pretty much crap from the moment I got there.
I hadn’t eaten yet, so I was starving when I got there around noon. Aaron had a large order of cold french fries covered in nacho cheese, so I hungrily ate that. It wasn’t very good, but I was so hungry. Later when we went for a walk on the boardwalk, I had a soft pretzel (not bad) and saw “Fried Oreos” on the menu, which I had to try. They turned out to be a lot like fried twinkies, only with oreos. I ate about two bites, everyone else had a bite, and then I threw the rest out. They were not good.
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After that I was still a bit hungry, and looking about for something resembling food, all I could find was pizza. So I bought a slice and shared some with Judy. After that I was full of fat and grease and felt yucky.
After another walk on the beach, I headed out at around 4pm, and drove to Sarah’s.
Before I headed out, I called her to let her know I was on my way, and said “I need something green and healthy to eat!”
When I got to Sarah’s we had some tofu and rice in a whole-grain wrap, and a salad with sesame-ginger dressing. Yum!
I noticed my face and feet (my pale hobbit-feet usually never see the sun) were a bit sunburned, but not too badly.
The next day, we decided to go hiking, and so we headed out to Mt. Tom. We had tried hiking there once before, but got turned around on the trails, and ended up circling the base of the mountain instead of actually going up it. This time we were determined to make it to one of the observation points.
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We got a little mixed up once or twice, but quickly got back on track, we went up to some ruins, and climbed an off-limits observation tower (shhh!). We had a little picnic lunch of PB&J sammiches and strawberries.
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Then we went further up the mountain, to another open-to-the-public observation tower. After that it was all the way back down, to the car. None of the hike was particularly difficult, but we are both somewhat out of shape, so we were ready to rest after getting back to the car.
I thought I might have been stung by a bee, because my neck hurt, but when Sarah looked, it was just a sunburn. I had slathered my face with lotion this time, but had neglected my neck. Ow.
We went home for a nap, then out for some Mediterranean food for dinner.
All in all, a nice outdoorsy weekend.