I used to be a Main-ah

Maine.  The way life should be. 

That was the tagline of the ad campaign back in the 90's to entice outsiders to come visit.

From personal experience I can tell you it's true!

So unspoiled.  So old-fashioned.  Kinda boring.  But in the very best way.

21 years ago, halfway down White's Bridge Road, my parents dropped me off and said goodbye.  All I had was what fit in the station wagon on the drive up, my best friend as a roomate, and a whole lot of tears!  I am not afraid to admit I was a big momma's girl (still am!) and I missed my Mummy!

Four years later, I left Saint Joseph's College  with my degree, a car filled with my worldly possessions, my (same) best friend, and even more tears!  We'd been sheltered and able to become ourselves in a place with so little of the trappings of the modern world - it was so pure, so "the way life should be" that I knew I'd miss it dearly.

And our circle of friends, the guys and girls who spent four years wtih me in the woods of Maine...eating meals in the cafeteria, attending events (or working the pizza oven) in The Chalet, cheering on the Monks in the Chamber of Horrors (also known as the smallest, saddest college gymnasium ever), hiding from RAs who were bent on enforcing the college's "Visitation Policy" (old school Catholic parietals - no opposite sexes allowed in dorms - ever!)...for us, making memories on the shores of Sebago Lake meant making friends for life.

Like my (same) best friend,
who I can call day or night and know we'll be laughing in under five minutes. 

Or my college boyfriend, who hasn't gotten rid of me, yet. 
(I'm pretty sure he's okay with that.)

Or my extended friends,
who were like family, and still are to this day.

When it came time to celebrate my birthday this year, knowing that I needed a weekend getaway to recharge, I couldn't think of any friends I'd rather 'get away' with, than my Saint Joe's crew.  

I set out to put together a "can't say no" weekend.  Something fun, inexpensive, and local for everyone (everyone but me).  And it worked!!  Miraculously, nearly all of my very best college friends showed up to make some new Maine memories, and revisit the place where it all began.

So I said goodbye to Lake Michigan...

Got to meet some of my favorite people at Logan airport for a (too quick!) birthday lunch...

Katie, Me, Mummy, and Patrice.

After lunch, driven by my (same!) best friend's lead foot, we made it to Kennebunk by sunset!

Through a stroke of amazing fortune, and our dear friend Gwen's kind offer to host, we were able to stay at an amazing, oceanview home with room for all of us!  To celebrate, we had a small welcoming reception.  As you can see, we were a bunch of sticks in the mud....

All of our old class officers (and apartment-mates) were accounted for!
Deb was President, Julie was VP, I was Treasurer and Missy was Secretary

The next morning we got up bright and early...

 We piled into Shelley's spiffy new minivan and headed northwest toward Windham.

The Blessed Mother, watching over campus - I passed her on the way to classes every day for four years and she's still there even though much has changed in the last two decades.

Saint Joseph's Hall is still there - then it was the freshman girl's dorm, and we were on the 3rd floor.  We had a huge room, with a giant window overlooking the woods.  We had matching floral bedspreads and I made a window treatment out of a queen sized sheet and some ribbon.  HGTV watch out!

The Chalet was still there, though the radio station attached to it is gone.

Xavier Hall is still there, stately and gorgeous, overlooking Sebago Lake.  And the LAKE!  Still as beautiful as I remembered, especially dressed in fall colors.

How many times did we make this walk over the years?  Hundreds I think.

How many gatherings did we have in the clearing at the beach?  Well, four years times 40 Fridays and Saturdays times four years equals...a lot!

Julie still has a scar on her nose from when she fell down these stairs in the dark one night.  In New England, we'd call this "taykin a heddah down the stay-ahs"  She did a full flip, bBut she didn't spill a drop of her drink, so the night went down in infamy.  If we'd had cell phones with cameras in them, I can't imagine what the Facebook status updates would have looked like!

Still my (same) best friend.  Even when I make her take seventy eleven more pictures than she'd like.

That big rock out there in the middle of the picture is Standish Rock.  You can get to it by carefully hopping the smaller rocks, but don't fall in because the water is freezing!  September 28, 1990 someone got a first kiss from her new boyfriend out there.  Must have been a lucky rock :)

We never got canoes!  These kids today are spoiled!

But we did get to spend our fall surrounded by some of the most beautiful stuff Mother Nature can conjure up.

I think for my New Year's resolution I have to find a way to say more in fewer pictures, because Blogger might implode if I upload any more!    But Maine is just so darn beautiful, how can you not?!  I'll save the rest for another post, as we head from the lake, back to the coast of the state that calls itself "Vacationland" (though perhaps Mr. Disney would disagree!).