it's such a long island!

I'm currently a mess due to sunburn (there are multiple witnesses who saw me slather on the SPF, I swear). The skin at my hairline is peeling making it look like I'm in serious need of a medicated shampoo AND there's an interesting red and white color block pattern on my arms and shoulders making me look a fool when wearing tank tops. Of course, all I've been wearing has been tank tops. I look purdy.

I'm this burned because I spent a few hours at the beach, on Long Island in Casco Bay, with Ben and Jess (and Jess' parents)!

The always adorable Cushings.

These fine people were at their Maine house for the Cushing family reunion held on Sunday and they were gracious enough to invite me down the following day. It was about a 1hour 15minute drive down to bay where I got on a ferry(!!). I was on the "mail route," which is apparently a touristy thing to do: You take the 3ish hour "cruise" on the ferry to each island (it's only about an hour to LI) as mail is delivered. I guess this could be an enjoyable activity in itself, but at that moment I just wanted to see my peeps.

OH! There was this one guy on the ferry, though, that was quite the character. He was talking to anyone and everyone who would listen, which were really just the poor souls nearby that couldn't really get away. He's apparently building a place on Long Island, but really wanted to share his lifetime of ferry riding experience. He also had very few teeth. Ben later informed me, via text, that "this IS Maine, teeth not needed." Noted.

Ben picked me up at the dock and we jumped in his golf cart(!!) and headed to his house(!!). Now, some of you may have seen pictures of the construction process, but let me tell you, this place is absolutely beautiful. It's a great vacation (or you know, "real") house and I was thoroughly impressed with what Dan and Jean decided to do with it. And jealous. Really, really jealous. 

After the quick tour we went out the beach to meet up with Jess and her parents, who were no where to be seen, but Ben and I got a chance to catch up and climb some rocks as we were looking for them. [On some of the rocks there was this cabin where the author of A Tribe Apart lives part-time (ponder on, South Lakes).] According to many this was the best beach in all of Maine, and I won't dare disagree with them, but it's just such a different beach than the ones I'm used to in North Carolina. 

• ME: small stretches of sand ending in large rock piles; relatively no waves. 
• NC: long stretches of sand; waves. 

It's not so much a vacation-destination beach like the ones down south, but it was nice. We also had a game of pick-up volleyball going. As someone who has broken 2 bones (finger, wrist) while playing volleyball I was a little nervous at the prospect. I'm not saying I was any good, but it was definitely fun.

After the beach we went back to the house for lunch and then a tour around the island, which turned out to be a very long island (hah!1!!). For some reason I had expected a touristy island, but that was not at all the case. It's pretty residential (both seasonal and year-round) with a small school, library, coffee shop and general store. 

There was some weird name for this place that I can't remember: Nubble? Grubble? Fumble? Rumble?

After the tour it was a nice dinner of salmon with even nicer company and then off the catch the ferry back to Portland.  Highlights of the ride back: toothless building man was back and the gorgeous sunset:

And I also discovered that I may have missed dousing the SPF on my feet. Maybe.

A pretty fantastic day with fantastic people. Ben mentioned wanting to get the CC together at his place up here. I say, let's get on it. Next summer. Mark it down, people.