Maine roundup

Back home again from a nice little trip. Highlights of the visit to Maine:

• My first time swimming in the ocean since leaving Long Island.
  
• Perfect weather: it's been cold and rainy all summer, but the day we left it got hot and sunny, and stayed that way until we returned, whereupon it rained.
  
• I got enough sun to get some sunburn, which is not easy for me, my skin being as dark as it is.
  
• While there were times Socks was difficult, all in all she was quite well behaved and traveling with her has proved to be quite possible.
  
• That said, since she didn't like the waves, the reason to bring her specifically to the sea is kind of moot. Plus it meant we couldn't both go into the water at once. Maybe a lake.
  
• We didn't spend as much money as most trips. Some of our restaurant meals were overpriced but we also got some cheap take-out (mostly in interest in not leaving the dog in the car) and had leftovers.
  
• Unlike our last trip, we did very little shopping. Just got Socks a new collar since her old one was falling off, and a few other things at Petsmart while there to save our next trip.
  
• The only tummy distress we both had was last night, which makes us wonder if the perfectly innocuous Thai food we had was a bit off. We didn't even have the same dish, or type of dish.
  
• Isn't it kind of sad that we went out of our way to get to a Taco Bell... twice? We can't get that hereabouts, and I was curious about the new "volcano" menu. (It turns out it's spicier than their normal wares, but not really spicy. Still, pretty good, for Taco Bell.)
  
• Did a lot of reading, a lot of relaxing, a fair amount of swimming, and most of all, a lot of nothing. It was nice.
  
• My knee ended up about the same as when I started, no better and no worse.
  
• Our next trip isn't until December when we're spending a week in Washington D.C. That will definitely be a "doing stuff" vacation: lots of Smithsonian things to see and not enough time to see them! That one, Socks will be boarded for.
  
• Having a smartphone with a data plan is really cool.