A Stroll Down Memory Lane

We have officially moved back to Maine! The truck has been loaded, unloaded, and returned; boxes packed, unpacked, moved, packed and unpacked again; the organizing is 98.9 % complete; and a few trips down memory lane taken.

One of those trips down memory lane includes visiting one of my favorite beaches - Higgins Beach. Where parking used to be on-street for free, but now costs $10 in the convenience store lot. Where high tide hits the rocks taking the whole beach with it. It's really a gorgeous beach and I'm jealous of the home owners along its shore. The memory lane bit isn't the beach itself, but the journey to get to the beach. The beach's entrance falls on Route 77 in Scarborough and as you head to the most perfect beach, you pass a quaint flower stand. It's a small stand, no more than five feet by three feet deep, but has always had the most beautiful wild flower bouquets. The owners live right behind the stand, and I've actually only met the proprietor a handful of times.

The bouquets are beautifully arranged and placed in vases (used to be metal coffee cans) along the inside of the stand and ledges. Each held tightly together with a rubber band and stems snipped neatly. The newspaper, to wrap the wet stems, was still neatly stacked and held down by a rock. I've seen upwards of 20 bouquets to choose from, but tonight there were only five.

As we drove up, Tim and I had bets on the cost. The last bouquet I purchased from the stand was well over five years ago and was $3.00. I bet him $4 - I was right. With just a few bouquets available, I picked the most perfect one, dropped a five in the unlocked till, and turned to Tim and thanked him for the best Anniversary gift ever - flowers from Maine.

Happy Anniversary, Tim.....and thank you for making the journey to Maine, with so many more memories to come.