Auctions, Parents and Moose Oh My!

Lots to talk about! Two visits and a Fantasy Auction later, I’m 3 weeks from coming home.

My dad visited a couple of weeks ago for a few days. We basically just bummed around a lot. I took him up to Mount Battie and Lincolnville so he could put his feet in the ocean. It was pretty cold. Still. We drove up to Belfast and had lunch too. We did a dining tour of Camden and had drinks at Brevetto’s, an Italian wine bar and kitchen, Smokestack grill, Waterfront Restaurant and others.

My mom and step dad visited a week later, the same week as our auction. They camped out at Camden Hills with Doug, Tracy and the boys from Friday to Tuesday before coming to stay with me for the rest of the time. During the first part of the week we drove to Bar Harbor. Apparently the Obamas had been vacationing there but left the morning we got there. We did some shopping before driving to Acadia National Park where we went hiking and took in the sites. We had dinner at a restaurant that was actually in the park and I had one of the yummiest things ever...a popover. I had no idea what they were at first but they’re basically nothing more than a roll. I had two as a bread before dinner and one with ice cream and chocolate sauce as a dessert afterwards. Delicious. I should have bought some of the mix and tried to make them. The next day we drove north three hours to look for moose. We spotted one on the side of the road. It wasn’t a big one but it was just starting to get its antlers. We also stopped at some beautiful spots along the way. After they relocated from the campground to my apartment we drove around and decided to try and go on a Puffin cruise because I’ve been wanting to do one since I got here. While we were waiting for our cruise we drove around and found some salt ponds. When the tide goes out it leaves little ponds full of salt water and sometimes wildlife. By the time we got to Pemaquid Point lighthouse the fog was starting to roll in so we ended up not going on the Puffin cruise because we didn’t think we would be able to see them.

I was supervising the putting up of the tent.

Hiking two hours to see "ocean caves" halfway up the mountain in 90 degree weather. Good idea Doug.

Moose!

Acadia National Park

Out on the edge of where the salt ponds were.

See em caught! Wicked.

Apparently my mom thought this looked like the forest from Twilight. She kept asking where Edward was. I told her it was the wrong side of the country.

Smalls Falls

In other news, do not ever open anything with your teeth. Last Friday I was trying to open a tab on a bottle of chocolate milk. It slipped and gauged the crap out of my gum. It was literally some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt and has lasted the entire week. I started rinsing with salt water and peroxide to take care of it because it was so painful. Lesson lerned. Won’t be doing that ever again. And also on the bad news front my guitar has died. I don't know if it was because it was cheap or the weird weather out here or a combination of the both but the wood actually warped and broke all on its own. I'm very sad about it's passing. The upside is that this means I can save up for a nice guitar that doesn't come from someone called The Guitar Dude on Ebay. Downside is that my calluses will probably fade and I'll have to go through all the pain again. Ick. R.I.P. Cheap Guitar.

Good news. Last night was our Fantasy Charity Auction finally. I’ve put a lot of work into it and so have A LOT of other people so it was amazing to see it all finally come together. I spent the better part of Thursday and Friday helping set up for the event. Once the event got underway I actually just got to sit in and enjoy it which was nice. I got to sit and eat dinner with a family whose daughter was just granted a wish. We sent their family to South Africa to see the World Cup Final! They got up and stage and talked a little about their trip and showed us some pictures. It never ceases to amaze me how grateful these families are for their wishes. We also watched some videos about other kids. The biggest moment of the night was the auction of the Shaq sneaker. We granted a wish several years ago for a girl who had brain cancer. Her wish was to meet Shaq. Her and her family were flown down to Florida to hang out with Shaq and the girl was given a signed sneaker from Shaq, if you can even imagine how huge it was. Unfortunately the wish girl passed away last year, after a 14 year battle with her illness. One of her last wishes was that the Shaq sneaker be donated to the auction to help other kids wishes come true. It takes on average $6000 for us to grant a child’s wish and we grant one about every 5 days. Guess how much this 1 sneaker went for? TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! The family of the girl was present at the auction and as soon as the man bid that much the mother completely broke down in tears. I was trying not to fall apart because it was such a great moment. Definitely one I’ll remember for a long time. People are so incredibly generous when it comes to this organization and it’s nights like that that make you realize how much people actually care. It makes all the work worth while. It was an incredibly successful night and we will be able to grant about 20 wishes just from this one night.

There's all your orange and your goldfish Amanda B!

Half of the room where the auction and dinner took place. I along with other volunteers had to personally put each and every chair cover on about 260 chairs as well as set the tables up.

My camera sucks but this is what some of the tables looked like. I chopped off the stems of all those leaves and did the fabric covering for the flowers.

Tiki Bar in the auction display room.

I’ve been a busy girl these past few weeks so I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend before heading back to work on Monday to follow up with all the auction stuff. Brynn is flying out here on the 14^th to drive back with me and I’m so excited. We’ll be stopping in Boston for a little bit before continuing home. I’ll be moving back to E.L. the next weekend and start work the next week. Pretty soon it’ll be time for school again. See you all soon!