The rest of July and August

Although our anniversary trip was our big adventure in July, we still managed to squeeze in a bunch of other travel. Somehow, we always start the summer thinking we'll have all these lazy days on the river, maybe hiking, maybe just playing lawn games with friends, and by the time it's over, we realize that we spent almost every weekend not in Boston. Part of me loves fall because it means more time at home--although this fall is not looking promising, between a wedding in Michigan, family visits, and a work trip to Chile. (First trip to South America, yay!) It's a good thing that everything we do is fun, or I'd be really tired! (Just kidding. I am tired.)

On the way back from our anniversary trip to Baxter State Park, we stopped at Colin's parents' house for a few days to shower and do laundry celebrate his dad's 60th. This photo is from a boat cruise through the Portland Harbor, where I saw a seal and a dolphin (I had no idea they lived so far north!).

A couple weeks later, we headed to the opposite end of the country to hang out Gwen and Will (and, okay, the rest of the family, too) in south Georgia. When not playing with the babies, we caught a bunch of fish. Here's Colin with the smallest one we got. 

And here I am with the largest. Delicious!

And then a week later, we were in St. Louis. First stop: Colin's favorite, Fitz's root beer.

We also spent one morning walking around the Missouri Botanical Garden. Other destinations not pictured: the zoo, Ted Drewes for ice cream, Newsies at the Muny, and Pappy's Smokehouse for the best BBQ in the world. 

When we finally returned to Boston from all our travels, I donated 11 inches of hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Seven years ago, I set a goal of donating three times. This was number 3 (goal accomplished!), for a cumulative 2.5 feet of hair.

Towards the end of August, we took a short trip out to Western Massachusetts to see John Williams conduct the Boston Pops at Tanglewood's annual Film Night. They played all the classics - Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Schindler's List - and many others. The weather and our picnic were perfect.

And with that, I'm basically caught up! The only thing not pictured is our recent trip to Turks and Caicos, which was slammed by Hurricane Irma only days after we left. It's hard to imagine the destruction on those idyllic islands, but we're just so grateful that we, and the rest of the ecologists working there, are safe and sound. 

Year One!

Last July, Colin and I made the Santoro-Donihue family official:

July 10, 2016

To celebrate our first anniversary, we decided to do something decidedly unglamorous, not fancy, and inexpensive--pretty much the polar opposite of a wedding. We decided to go backpacking in Baxter State Park, a remote spot in northern Maine that Colin remembered from childhood. We've hiked a bunch together, and backpacked separately, but never backpacked together, so I guess this was also sort of a test of our marriage. Do we still get along when dirty, smelly, tired, bug-bitten, and sore? I'm pleased to report that we do.

The trek to our destination, Russell Pond, was about 7 miles from the campground where we spent the first night. The scenery helped keep our spirits up:

Not much beats a cool stream when you've been carrying all of your food, water, and belongings on your back for five hours.

We had a choice of which trail to take to Russell Pond. We took Wassataquoik on the way there, and Russell Pond on the way back a few days later. Both have stream crossings--Wassataquoik was described to us by the ranger as deeper but with a sandy bottom, and Russell Pond as shallower but with large rocks for rock hopping. What the ranger failed to mention was that Wassataquoik actually involves TWO stream crossings, about 100 yards apart. Cue to us high-fiving each other after making it through the first one, putting back on our dry socks and hiking boots, then rounding the bend and discovering that we have to do it all again.

The second Wassataquoik stream crossing was pretty deep, up to my hips, so my backpack would've gotten wet. Poor Colin had to do the stream crossing twice to ferry both of our bags across. He would like to make sure you know that the bottom was not in fact sandy, except for the very edge of the bank.

We made it to Russell Pond! One of my favorite parts of the state park is that they have canoes at most of the ponds for whomever wants to use them. We took advantage of that and paddled every day. Being on the water also helped with the mosquitos, which were terrible and seemingly immune to our bugspray. I looked like I had chicken pox by the time we came home. One day, our actual anniversary, we saw a triple rainbow from our canoe!! Triple! I didn't have my phone with me at the time, so I didn't capture it, but you'll have to believe me.

We stayed at Russell Pond for two nights, which meant that we could do a day hike in between. We hiked several miles to Wassataquoik Lake, which was absolutely gorgeous and deserted. We didn't see a single other person on the lake or the hiking trail. We took out another canoe and paddled from one end to the other and ate lunch in a lean-to in a picture-perfect setting.

After lunch at Wassataquoik Lake, we hiked a couple extra miles to Little Wassataquoik Lake and up a hill to get an aerial view of our little piece of the park. Although we were tired and footsore, the view was worth it! It was crazy to think that we were probably the only two people for as far as our eyes could see.

This is a terrible picture, but here's proof that we saw a moose! We actually saw four, which was four more than I'd ever seen in Maine before. I'd been hoping to see a Maine moose! Colin got the best photos on his phone. While we were out in a canoe on Russell Pond, this moose decided to swim directly across the pond because, I guess, the grass is always greener on the other side. We had long before beached ourselves on a rock in the middle of the pond so we could just sit and watch. As the moose started swimming, it came within a dozen feet or so of our canoe, just casually watching us. We sat silently as it gazed at us, snuffling and dripping water from its ears. After a few minutes, it continued on to the island in the middle of the pond, where it munched on grasses for a few minutes before laying down for the night. We paddled back to shore and fondly looked back at the moose ears that were just barely visible above the rocky shore of the island. Moose Island, we called it.

After two nights at Russell Pond, we made the 7-mile trek back to the car. It felt wonderful to stop at the babbling brook again and air out our stinky socks and cool our feet. It doesn't get much nicer than that.

As it was our "paper" anniversary, we also treated ourselves to tickets to see Wicked! at the Boston Opera House. And we ate anniversary cake and drank mojitos in the spirit of our wedding. It's been a wonderful year, and I feel so lucky to have found the perfect partner and adventure buddy in Colin. There's no one I'd rather be hot, sweaty, smelly, and tired with. Love you, Colin!