A fun part of traveling

is getting to meet your friends in the computer face to face (or meet them again in this case). This time it was Maribeth. She lives just a few miles from my parents but it took nearly the whole month before we were finally able to meet up. We didn't have much time but we crammed a lot of visiting into that one hour as we walked and shopped. She even got to meet Itai, who decided at the last minute to tag along. (Actually, he'd announced much earlier that he'd like to come but I didn't take him seriously and nearly left without him. Sorry kid.)
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Here's a picture of the two of us that Itai took, with a bit of creative cropping by me (cropping out the hips = easy weight loss, though I did end up with one freakishly large looking boob. No idea how that happened, I'm not exactly well endowed). Head over to Maribeth's blog for a few more pictures of Itai and I, and a whole lot of pictures of the world's most adorable puppies, born just the other day, and then head over to Mary the Teach's for more ruby red shots.
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Rock Cairn

Click to enlarge

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Taken somewhere in Acadia National Park during our recent trip to the States, probably by the Seawall tidepools given the sailboat in the background. Some of these cairns mark the way for hikers, but I think this one was put together by a passing family. Hopefully since it wasn't directly on a trail no one will confuse it for one of the official ones.
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Look here to see who else is viewing the world in black and white this week. It's Monochrome Monday's one year anniversary, come join the fun.
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Summer Stock 14 - Festival Food

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Our 14th Summer Stock Sunday. So. Here we are. Wasn't it just a few days ago that we were gearing up for our very first edition, and now here it is the end of August already. I figure we'll have two more Summer Stock posts after this one, ending the weekend after Labor Day (which is 7 September this year for those of you out of the US and Canada), since that heralds the traditional end of the summer for most of you, and after that it's time to pack it in until next year. (I'd suggest continuing with some kind of Winter Wonderland theme or something, but I suspect many of you would be tempted to send out the cyber hit men if I posted shot after shot of green fields and bright blooming flowers all winter long. Probably safer for me to avoid that ;-). There's no sense in a Fall Follies theme for me either, since we have no fall colors to speak of, and it's only the falling temperatures and approaching rain that delineates fall in any meaningful photographic way, unless of course I photograph things like the hysteria you find in the supermarket the day before Jewish New Year.)
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For this week's Summer Stock post I'm focusing on food - festival food in particular. A few weeks ago we headed over to Gunstock, one of New Hampshire's (smaller) ski areas, for the Rockin' Ribfest. The Rockin' part was a bit mediocre (though a face-painted, airbrush tattooed Maya danced her little feet off on the dance floor) but the Ribfest part was top quality all the way. We had a great time digging into those amazing ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, side dishes, and of course the sweet potato fries. After eating ourselves silly we spent the next few hours visiting all the various booths and attractions (many of which were free(!), something this city kid definitely did not expect and a really nice treat for parents not to have to limit their kids to just this or that because this or that is astronomically expensive at a festival), and then took the chairlift up to the top of the mountain for fabulous views of Lake Winnipesaukee in all its glory.
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I've said it before, but it bears repeating (mainly to myself) - if New England winters weren't so awful it would be very hard to tear myself away at the end of the summer...
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Ok, enough blather, it's the photos you're all here to see, so without further ado (click to enlarge any photo):
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Tell me you're not starving now. I know I sure am. I'm sorry I can't offer you actual food, but I can at least offer this food for the soul instead:

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I can't wait to see what you've all been up to this week - now that I'm back home in Israel I'll finally have time for some proper bloghopping again!

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You know the drill, here's the linkie, please leave your permalink, link to Around the Island, yadda yadda, you're all old pros at this by now so let's just skip right to the fun part and share those great Summer Stock photos:
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Sunset - Rockland, Maine

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Click to enlarge (shot is straight out of the camera - still haven't reinstalled Photoshop, not that this one needs it particularly but it does look a bit naked without the border. Reinstalling all my photo-editing software is on my to-do list for tomorrow.)

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I just got back from a month-long trip to the States a few hours ago and am about to collapse from total exhaustion, but this shot just needed to be shared, and what better way to reenter regular blogging after my near-hiatus than with a Skywatch Friday post. I love the way the light shining out from the side of that cloud looks like a lightning bolt streaking from sky to sea.
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Enjoy, and may all your skies be equally bright.
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Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Made it back safe and sound, albeit without my daughter's sparkly new sneakers which were apparently left in the closet. They won't fit her until this winter so hopefully by then we'll have managed to retrieve them. So much for saving money by buying them in the States, it will all go for shipping now.

Now the challenge is to stay vertical for a few more hours. It would be a Very Bad Thing to fall asleep at just six in the evening. A very bad thing indeed.

My Dream House

Update: Lilibeth saw this post was kind enough to tweak my overexposed picture for me and bring back some of its rightful glory - how's this one for wow factor? Thanks Lilibeth!
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Straight out of the camera - I can't reload Photoshop until I get home but don't let the lousy picture quality and overexposure stop you from dreaming. Click to enlarge.

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(Oh wow, that looks a lot more washed out than it did in the viewer. Ick.)

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