Saturday
August 20, 2016
Overnight, the moon was huge and bright over Seguin, lighting up the entire yard around the house almost like daylight. We watched it rise, which quite a show. The moon was orange coming up, just like the sun is, but the sky was dark. In the morning, it comfortably cool with a nice northerly breeze and sunny sky. While Patty prepared fruit for breakfast, I worked on a blog post.
Immediately after breakfast, we started mowing the lawns at the top of the island and were about half way done when Patty caught her foot on the picnic table bench, putting a nice bruise on the top of her foot. We had campers last night, a group of teenagers celebrating the 16th birthday of one of them, along with the birthday girl’s parents and brother. Just a couple of minutes after Patty stopped to make sure her foot was ok, the campers came up the hill to see the museum. We don’t think they slept much because they were all pretty glassy eyed and zombie-like when I started telling them the history of the lighthouse on Seguin. I cut the spiel short and took them up to the catwalk where they pepped up a little.
As I was up in the tower with the campers, I could see fog building in the mouth of the Kennebec and also to the North towards the Sheepscot. Within a few minutes, fog developed to our east also and slowly enveloped the island reducing visibility to the edge of the island. The campers were hoping to spend the morning in the sun on the beach
and were disappointed in the change of weather. Patty’s foot was sore but ok so we both went back to mowing again after the campers toured the tower and shopped in the gift-shop.
When a family of four from Yarmouth arrived, Patty stopped mowing to greet them and I kept going with the push mower finishing a half-hour or so later. The family found a bottle on the beach at the cove with a message in it – it had originally been dropped in the water at Prince Edward Island and was found and dropped in the ocean again yesterday at Popham Beach. Patty gave the older daughter and her mom a piece of paper and they added their own note and plan to drop it from their boat when they leave Seguin. The girls, Maya and Anna completed more than enough activities to get their Keeper in Training certificates.
When the family went off to hike one of the trails, Patty finished the riding mowing and I cleaned up to greet any visitors that might arrive but none arrived before she finished. Afterwards, we had Brunswick
(Virginia) stew with bread & cheese. It’s a canned stew that we brought with us from our stop in Virginia on our way to Maine and it’s something I’ve loved since I was a child. I can’t believe we still had a can of it left.
Following lunch, with the fog still thick, two young women arrived together at about the same time as a mom with her son and daughter. None expected the fog today and the weather reports on the radio continued to say today would be sunny all day long. It’s kind of like hearing there’s 0% chance of rain when you are outside in the rain. But finally, by early to mid-afternoon, the wind picked up a little and shifted slightly to the NE and the fog lifted. It remained cool with the temperature around the mid-60’s.
An extended family of seven arrived in their own boat as the fog lifted and were happy to know they wouldn’t be returning in the fog. Most of the family was from Massachusetts but the grandparents live in Minneapolis. The youngest boy in the family, Xavier, completed the Activity Kit earning a Keeper in Training certificate from Patty.
Another family of four arrived here having last visited seven years ago when the Mom was pregnant with their daughter. I asked the daughter if she remember being here but she didn’t. They live in Richmond, Maine and suggested to us that we go to The Old Goat Pub there on our day off or after we leave Seguin at the end of the season. That works for us! Three more visitors (two women and a man) came into the museum while I was in the tower with the family and chatted with Patty for a while and she found yet another person that went to summer camp in our hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. That has to make a half-dozen or more people that have told us that this summer.
All of our visitors so far today were just the warm-up acts for our final two groups. Late in the afternoon, a church group from Brunswick, totaling 85, came to Seguin for their third annual visit. On their first visit, a couple in the group snuck away to change their clothes and then walked around the tower to where everyone else was sitting – her in a simple wedding dress and him in a suit. To everyone’s surprise except the minister, they were married at the top of Seguin Island with the sun setting beautifully behind them. Pretty awesome story. Now, each year on their anniversary, the church brings a large group out in the lobster boats of a couple members of their congregation work, to celebrate. The couple were funny telling both me and Patty that one year they would have scheduling conflict and everyone else would worry there was trouble in their marriage. That’s pressure.
The church group ate a picnic dinner and then most toured the tower in groups followed by a member of the group playing the flute in the tower which sounded really nice. The echo amplifying the music for everyone on the lawn to hear. Their minister had a brief sermon and then they started packing up to leave. Although they were an easy group and didn’t require much from us but we were still glad to have had forewarning of their visit. My aunt and uncle who visited last week happened to mention to someone (at the Hampton Inn in Bath I think)
that they were coming out to see us on Seguin and the person told them they were visiting on the 20th with a large group from their church. We didn’t know exactly how many people or what time of day, but we knew they planned to come and the time of day they chose was perfect.
Our final group of the day was a dozen or so guys here to camp for a bachelor party. As they were arriving, the church group was leaving and the sixteen-year old’s were long gone. As I wrote above, the timing was perfect. We met the guy that made the arrangements for the bachelor party camp out several weeks ago when he visiting Seguin
with his family (mom, dad, sister, etc.) and a friend who was also part of the bachelor party group. They set up croquet on the top lawn but it wasn’t normal rules – it was more like a combination putt-putt croquet game with natural obstacles like rocks and tall grass that had to be played around. We had a good time hanging out with them and as far a bachelor parties go, they were tame and respectful. An hour or so after sunset, they went down to the camping area and our work day wrapped up.
It was a long day and we were pretty tired but it had been fun with lots of interesting people visiting and a weeks-worth of weather packed into a in the span of a single day. With all the visitors, we even managed to get a good bit of mowing done. Best of all, Patty’s foot was bruised and sore but nothing serious.
Visitors – 134
Favorite Moment(s) – All of it. But to pick a few things…. Message in a bottle, having a prayer said for us (can’t hurt, right?), and hanging out with the bachelor party gang.
Sunrise – 5:40am
Sunset – 7:28pm
#Seguinisland #seguinislandlight #seguinislandlighthouse #maine #LifeOnTheRock
