Kris Meets My Family and we go to Maine Part-1

Kris Meets My Family and we go to Maine Part-1

The view of  our cabins on Thomas Pond as we arrived

It was 1987, the year Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down the wall in a speech in West Berlin. The big song for the year was “Faith” by George Michael, the Movie: “The Last Emperor”, TV show: “The Crosby Show”. That year Kris and I were either both at my place in SF or at Kris's studio apartment down in Mountain View.

My Mom called me and said that she was organizing a mini family reunion vacation that summer. She rented two cabins for a week that were side by side on Thomas Pond in Maine. When I was growing up our family had taken a number of vacations renting cabins on ponds in Maine's Sabego-Long Lake Region. Sabego-Long Lake is a little West and slightly North of Portland, Maine's largest city. Thomas Pond is between Raymond and Casco and the Thomas Pond feeds into Lake Sabago, the 2nd largest lake in the state of Maine after Moosehead Lake that's up north. That is likely more than you needed or wanted to know. The point is Mom rented the two cabins for a week and we all, my parents, my sister and her family, my brother, and myself, were all going to spend a week together in Maine. I was now with Kris and I let my Mom know that she would be coming with me. Kris and I had been together for a number of months but due to us being on the West Coast and the rest of my family on the East coast they had yet to meet each other. Now it's one thing to meet you romantic partner's parents for the first time at a dinner or some sort of family function but agreeing to spend a week with them sight unseen is not really for the faint of heart, but Kris was all in.

Our plans were to fly back to New York and drive up with them to Maine the next day. Kris did know my brother as he had moved out here with me for awhile and was living in Sunnyvale, but that was it.  Pete had attended a few Consilium functions with me. He later decided to go back to New York and go back to school. My sister and her husband Ron, like my parents, lived on Long Island so we would all be driving up to Maine from Long Island. As my Mom often said, it was pretty brave of Kris to agree to spend a whole week in close quarters with a family she did not know.

We got to New York early in the morning on the red-eye with the intent to drive up to Maine the following day. We arrived at my parents' place mid-morning after not getting much sleep on the plane. Everyone met each other and then we had a little something to eat before heading upstairs for a nap. Of course my parents immediately warmed up to Kris. After the Donna, my first wife, fiasco they were level set and geared be welcoming to whoever I brought home and they were thrilled after meeting Kris.

My sister Babs her husband Ron, and their 3 boys were scheduled to stop by my parents place around supper time to meet Kris, drop off a car for Kris and I to use, and maybe get a little something to eat. They were only planning a brief stop before driving up to Connecticut. They wanted to get though New York City in the evening when there would be less traffic to avoid driving through New York City traffic the next day. That would cut down on both the drive time and stress of tomorrow's drive to Maine especially with three young boys in the car.

OK - Now, if you've been reading this blog you may remember my story about my meeting Kris's family. At the time I found it startling that all her family members showed up at the exact same time which was also the starting time, for the planned family gathering. With that in mind, Kris was about to find out why that seemed so amazing to me. Babs and Ron were supposed to be at my parents' house between 6 and 6:30. That time came and went. Babs did call to say they were running a little late. So, we sat down and ate dinner, not waiting for Babs and Ron. We then cleaned up and moved back to the living room. Babs then called again to say they still hadn't left yet. She later called a third time with the same message. We continued to visit in the living room and now it was after 10 and still no Babs and Ron. Kris and I were now thinking about going to bed as it had been a long day for us and we needed to get an early start in the morning. 11:00 came and went. It was approaching 11:30 when they finally showed up. So, here we are, we have Kris's family where everyone is extremely punctual. Now there's my family. Kris's first experience with my family, my sister and her family arrive 5 hours late. I'm pretty sure that was an evening Kris will never forget. Of course that was a rather extreme example even for Babs and Ron.  While my sister does tend to run late, her husband Ron, my good friend from way back in Junior High School, moves at his own pace and so you do have to factor in Ron. When we were teenagers there were times when I was send to get Ron moving as the rest were all waiting on him. But Ron aside, in my family showing up on time for a social engagement was considered rude in general. It was considered polite to show up 20 to 30 minutes late, to give the host extra time to prepare for parties and general social gatherings and it was rude to show up on time.  Hence, being a half an hour late was pretty much normal. The outlier in my family was my mother's mom. She would not only show up on time but usually early. We were all instructed to add 30 minutes to the start time for any family gathering when talking to her. My family is good at showing up on time for things like meeting somewhere or appointments.

Ron, Babs visited briefly, left a car for us and went on their merry way through NYC to Connecticut for the night, or what was left of it. Early the next morning those of us still on the Island, packed up and left for Maine. As I recall Pete drove with my parents and Kris and I drove up with the car Babs and Ron left for us. Huntington, New York, where my parents lived, to Portland, Maine is over 300 miles and from Portland to Thomas Pond is only about 30 miles from Portland. I guess I could look it up but I'm certainly in the ball park. So the drive, in terms of driving miles it's roughly the same as driving from Sacramento to Los Angeles. The big difference is going from Sacramento to LA you never leave California. Driving from Huntington to Portland you travel through 5 states (NY, CT, MA, NH, ME), assuming you don't go through Rhode Island as that would make it 6.

We had a very pleasant drive but we did hit some rain along the way. I had told Kris stories how the rain in the East and Mid-West is very different from the California rain all day with the net accumulation being something in the order of a quarter of an inch. Well on the way up we hit a rain storm where it rained so hard we could barely see the front of the car. The wipers were completely useless as they were unable to keep up. We had to pull off the road ,as did all the other sane and semi sane drivers, and just wait it out. It took 10 or 15 minutes but the rain stopped and we continued on our way. Pond and lake rentals generally rent by the week Saturday to Saturday in Maine. Everyone who is renting is either coming or going on Saturday. So while Maine is not all that crowded the roads in high season were always plenty busy on Saturdays. Driving up traffic is reasonable until you get close to New Hampshire. From there and into Maine, at least up to Portland, the Turnpike is packed. So, while Portsmouth, NH to Portland, ME is only like 45 miles it's usually a very long 45 miles. Once you get off the turnpike the traffic is more reasonable but still a bit heavy.

Our cabins were on Thomas Pond Terrace Road off of route 302. It's a dirt road that weaves around on the east side of the pond. The drive in is quaint and very pretty. Our two cabins were side by side with a dock and a small beach front between them. We all arrived safely in the afternoon. Pete was waiting there to greet us as Kris and I drove in. We were actually the last ones to arrive. Pete, Kris and I stayed in one cabin with my parents while Babs and Ron and their 3 boys stayed in the other. The cabin we were in had a large table on the covered porch facing the pond where everyone joined together for a family meal as the sun was setting with the loons cooing (or is that wailing?) in the background. We were all together in Maine for a full week of family vacation.

Thomas Pond from our cabin's dock