Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

Things to do in the Area

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Yesterday, I was listening in on Tami’s phone conversation with a camper, and they asked her what there was to do in the area.

“Why would anyone want to LEAVE the campground?”  I grumbled, after she’d hung up the phone.

“Maxx, Maxx, Maxx,” she laughed.  “There’s more out in the world than just the campground you know.”

GASP! “Bite your tongue!” I said.  “Everything they need is right here!

Like swimming and kayaking and fishing in the lake

Wildlife watching too!  Especially the eagles, beavers, loons and herons.

What about races in the pool, huh?

and other cool kids activities like ice cream making, horseshoes, kids candy bar bingo, Wednesday night campfires with popcorn, pool tournaments, arts and crafts and sports and games and stuff

I mean, we’ve got lots of wicked fun themes and stuff happening every day, all day in July and August!”

I was on a roll now!   “And . .  and . . .  there’s spectacular shows like BJ Hickman, The Steelgraves and Mad Science . . .”

Tami held up a hand to interrupt me.   “All those things are fun Maxx, but so is going to the  Maine Wildlife Park just down the road.  I love to watch the moose, raccoons, mountain lion, lynx and coyotes, porcupines and black bears.

And you know how much we like to go hiking and geo-caching.  Especially on our two new favorite trails,  Mt. Apatite and Mt. Rattlesnake The views from the peaks were amazing,  and our customers will think so too.

exploring Portland’s  Old Port, is always fun, and so is taking a cruise around the harbor, spending time in the  museums, hanging out at the   Head Light

and exploring the rocky coastline of Two Lights.”

Tami shook her finger at me.  “Even David and I escape one day a week to play outside the campground.  There’s so many places to go and things to do, we always have a hard time choosing.  Beaches, museums, shopping, restaurants, tours  . . . I had to make a booklet for our customers about it all.”

I folded my arms.  “Yeah. Okay.  So, maybe your right.  But we have one thing that NONE of those places has.”

“Really? And what’s that Maxx?”

“None of them have ME!

Maxwell Moose!”

Tami patted my nose.   “You are one of a kind Maxx.  That’s why we keep you.”

Tami adds:  Click on the tags to the right: hiking, day trips or things to do to bring up blog posts about other fun things to do in the area.

Eagle gawking . . .

Hey! Maxx here . . .

So, you should have seeeeen Tami’s face when she found out Dave got pictures of the eagle first this year.  She was like, on a mission to get down to that lake and find them for herself.

Not only did she grab her camera, but she took an extra battery, the lens extension AND the tripod.  “I know I can get more pictures and better pictures than David,” she grumbled. “It just takes patience.”

Cookie and Ben followed along too.  Tami made them take the leash, even though Cookie’s tail drooped at the sight of it.  But it’s a good thing they did because the lake was loaded with people!   Normally it’s pretty quiet, even on the weekends.  But instead, we saw snowmobiles putt-putting up and down the length of it, ice fisherman  out with their families, dogs  yapping,  four wheelers doing donuts over and over again while they waited for their little orange flags to pop up . . .

and even a sea plane landed!

Tami was sooooo worried the eagles wouldn’t hang around with all that busy-ness.  But there they were, watching over everything like the King and Queen of the lake.

Tami set up her tripod, while B and Cookie hung out on the point.   When she had the camera in place she turned it on and snapped two pictures.

“Darn it,” she said.

“What’s up?”  I asked.

“The battery died already!  Wait! I have another!” she grinned at me and said, “Aren’t I smart?”

I made a face at B, and he rolled his eyes back at me  as Tami put her spare battery in the camera.  When she said a bad word, I thought she’d seen me, until she cried out, “This battery’s dead too!”

Just then, the eagle started squawking.  Tami said, ‘No, no, no, no, stay there! Please!”

A beautiful hawk came into view.  The way it soared . . . I wanted to trade my antlers for wings!  It passed right over our heads, and even though Tami didn’t have a battery, she tried to take pictures anyway.  Click, click, click.

She was pretty close to tears.  “Hey,” I said.  “Why don’t I run up and see if Dave has another battery, okay?”

She sniffled and gave me a little smile.  “Th-thanks Maxx.  I’ll stay and keep an eye on the eagles.  Hurry!”

Like . . . did she think she could get them to stay if they decided to go hunting?

Anyway, B, Cookie and I ran from the lake, past campsites, and all the way up the hill to the house.  After getting a battery from David, we ran down the hill, past the campsites and back to the lake, just to keep Tami from crying into her camera lens.

She put the battery in and added the lens extension.  We sat on the point while she took a million thousand a few dozen pictures.

When we got home, she settled at her computer with a silly grin on her face.  B and I were playing bowling on the Wii when we heard that bad word again.

“Now what?” I asked.

“The pictures are all blurry!  There isn’t a good one in the bunch!  What am I doing wrong?”

I ran to get David before poor Tami had a total melt down.  B and Cookie hid behind the couch.  When David showed Tami what she was doing wrong, she reached for her coat and boots.   I grabbed my scarf.

“It’s okay Maxx, you don’t have to come,” she said, blowing her nose in a hankie.

“But I want to!”

So we trudged down to the lake again.  Thank goodness those eagles were still there, ’cause I don’t know what Tami would have done if they weren’t.   An hour later and she was all smiles again!

“Whoa!” I said, looking over her shoulder at the computer screen, “those pictures are gorgeous!”

“It just takes patience,” she said.

Uh-huh.   Whatever you say, Tami . . . whatever you say.

Eagle Sighting

Hey!  Maax here!

Guess what??

C’mon, guess!

Dave walked through the campground and down to the lake yesterday . . .

no . .  wait . . . that’s not the surprising part . . .

He saw the eagle soaring over the lake!

I snuck up on David down on the point as he was trying to focus the camera through tree branches and snap photos, but that eagle flies fast!

“Hey Dave,” I said.

He bobbled the camera and yelled,  “Maaaax!  Don’t do that!”

“Soooooo-rry Dave.  Hey, where’d the eagle go?”

“Over there, on the island with the house.”  Dave pointed and shook his head.  “Wish I’d brought the bigger lens.”

“Yeah.  Tami says that every time too.”

That eagle sat on the pine tree branch, staring down at an ice fisherman under him.

I think he was hoping for handout . . .

We still haven’t seen them sitting on the nest, even though we stared at it and stared at it.   But I’m thinking I can twist Tami’s arm to take a walk tomorrow and we’ll let you know!

Book your campsite early!

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Hey Maax here!

Don’t worry, Tami doesn’t know I stole the blog back.  She’s too busy doing this  . . .

Poor, poor Tami.  She’s been soooooo busy taking new reservations and processing deposits to hold existing ones, that she fell asleep at her desk!   I took a little peek over her shoulder while she drooled all over her lap top and I saw 28 confirmations ready to go out in tomorrow’s mail.  Yesterday, she processed 22 and the day before that 25!

Sites are going fast I tell you . . . fast!

So I visited with Ben instead.  He’s more fun anyway.  We  wrestled jumped on the couch celebrated the beginning of February vacation, and I asked him if he had a clue what theme weekends were booking the quickest.

“Well,” he said, while digging into a carton of ice cream,  “I heard Mom grumbling about Memorial Day almost being booked and wishing she had double the sites.”

“That one has fun kid’s activities” I said.  “Remember the  awesome Pots and Pans Parade!?  There was red, white and blue all over the place.  They decorated wagons and bikes and clothes  . . .”

Ben waved his spoon at me, splattering my antlers with ice cream.  “Oh, and she said there were three calls, back to back,  for Super Hero weekend too.”

“Da, da, da-DA!  Mighty Moose!”  I said.  “Good times, good times.”

Ben nodded.  “That one’s pretty cool, but I like Halloween best. You know, all those games and prizes and 132 sites to trick or treat at.  Hey!  I still have some candy under my bed!”

We were just unwrapping our fourth mini snickers when the camp phone started ringing.  Ben threw his candy bag  back under the bed.  “Fun’s over.  Mom’s gonna wake up to take that call.”

From down the hall we hear Tami snort, stretch and answer the phone, “Poland Spring Campground, can I help you?   Labor Day?  Three families?  Sure!  I can do that . . . ”

Take it from me . . . this is no time for a siesta!  Book your camping vacation early!

Can You Help Us “Think Spring”?

Hi!  Tami here . . .

A little bird told me I’d better check out the blog, and it’s a good thing I did!  That Maxwell!  He’s always sneaking on  to post something.  Even when I ask him to do the posting, he never does it like I tell him to.

I say: Tell your camping friends, the Calendar of Events will be out in the mail soon.

He posts: Hey!  Guess what?  I kind-of-sort-of- got a sneak peek at the 2010 Calendar of Events and here it is!

I say:    Maxx, post a little blurb about our Medieval Weekend.  Throw three or four pictures in there too.

He posts: Twenty pictures and two pages about all the fun medieval recreation games we had that weekend.

I say: Don’t post that picture of me in a gas mask!

He posts:    That picture of me in a gas mask.

Sigh.

This week, Maxx was really worried because one of his facebook camping friends told him they couldn’t “Think Spring”, no matter how hard they tried.

“Tami, Tami, what do we do?” he asked.

“Did you mention the cracklin’ campfire?  Remind her of the sad loon calls?”

“I did, I did!” he said.

“Really, Maxx, she’ll be fine,” I said.

Maxx wrung his hands.  “No, no she won’t.  She needs some spring NOW!“   And he ran off into the campground to find spring.

I don’t think he’s going to find it, do you?  Even the groundhog insisted there’d be six more weeks of winter, no matter how hard Maxx tried to get him to change his mind.

But maybe these pictures that the Snowdon’s sent in will help.

They camped with us last August and caught these beauties

There’s three generations of fisherman there!

So what about all of you?  Can you help poor Maxx out?  If you have any pictures from your stay at Poland Spring Campground that can help us all start Thinking Spring, e-mail them to us and we’ll post them here!

What a beautiful day!

Hey, Maax here!

I was heading up to the house today to see if Tami wanted to go for a walk, and it looked like she had the same idea!

Great minds think alike!!

“Heading to the lake?” I asked.

“Where else, big guy?” she said, patting my antler.

So we started down the main road, and tromped into the middle of the playing field.  Tami checked the seasonal sites on both sides of the field

before we walked under the basketball  hoop into the woods. As always, Cookie had to be in the lead

She’s such a five year old!

Tami stopped a lot  ’cause she said she wanted to take pictures.  She thought I couldn’t tell, but she was really getting winded from the wicked bad cold she has.  I asked her if she wanted to go back, but she really wanted to see if the eagles were down at the point.

When we first stepped into the woods, four huge ravens started squawking and shrieking.  They swooped low over us

and landed on a branch where they kept taunting us.  They didn’t worry me at all . . . really!  But Cookie was so freaked out, she ran back to walk next to Tami.

“Never mind them,” Tami said.  “They’ll stop.”

It was so pretty outside today.   The sky was a bright blue, and the sun was shining down.

The animal prints above came all the way across from the beaver hut to the campground point.  Then it followed  our marked trail alongside the lake and up  into the 20’s.  Tami tried to take a picture of the prints so she could look it up, but they just looked like blobs in the snow.  They weren’t big like mine, so they weren’t moose.  But they didn’t look like Cookie’s either, so they weren’t from a dog. I guess they could have been from one deer, but deer usually travel together, don’t they?

When we got to the point, Tami called Cookie back off the ice and made her sit.  “I thought I heard the eagle cry,”  she said.  We stood quietly,  looking up and down the lake.   Tami even used the telephoto lens.  We saw some ice fisherman down by the state park.  We saw some snow mobilers out on the lake.

But we didn’t see the eagles.

“Did you hear that?” Tami asked.

“That squeaky, squawky sound?” I said.

We listened some more.

“Um, Tami?”

She held up a hand.  “Shhhhhh!  I still hear it.”

“But Tami-”

“Maax! What?”

“You’re making the squeaky, squawky sound.  When you breathe.”

Tami just looked at me for a minute, and when she squeaked again, she started giggling  . . . which made her cough . . . which made her decide it was time to head for home.   We took the path alongside the lake that lead us out of the woods across from site 29, and we walked up the hill through the 30’s

Tami’d like to go out tomorrow too.  I sure hope her cold is better, and not worse!

Guess What??

Today, I accidentally on purpose,  kind-of-sort-of,  peeked at the papers on Tami’s desk while she was helping David do some outside work.  And you know what?

I got a really, really good look at the Theme Weekend line up!!   Tami hasn’t even given it to David.  It’s not on the website. It hasn’t been mailed out to anyone.  That’s how new it is!!

You wanna know what’s happening?  Huh??

Do you??

Huh?

Here it is!  Just for my little camping buddies.  But don’t tell Tami I showed you . . . okay?

Apr 30 – May 2     Clean Up Weekend

May 7 – 9            Mother’s Day Champagne Breakfast

May 15th            Bouncy House with ME!

May 21 – 23        Ice Cream Party with Pot Luck Toppings as an entrance fee

May 28 – 31        Memorial Day Weekend (3 night minimum)

June 5th             The Bouncy House with YOURS TRULY again!

June 12th           Ice Cream Party with Pot Luck Topppings

(Hey!  Why aren’t I going to the ice cream party?)

June 19th           Father’s Day Chicken B-B-Q

and Father/Child Horseshoe Tournament

June 25 – 27      Chinese New Year weekend

July 2 – 5             Fourth of July

with BJ Hickman magically appearing Friday night.

July 9 – 11           Pirate Weekend featuring The Magic of the Steelgraves!

July 16 – 18        Christmas in July with Santa!!

July 23 – 25      Super Hero Tryouts Weekend

with Mad Science and their Up, Up and Away show!

Jul 30 – Aug 1      Fiesta Weekend with Pinatas

and a big party in the playing field

Aug 6 – 8                 Medieval Weekend

Aug 13 – 22            Halloween Weekend . . . two times!

Aug 27 – 29           Adventurer Weekend!

Sep 3 – 6                  Labor Day Weekend

Debbie and Bryant have come up with some new games and stuff too!  And as always, all the recreation at Poland Spring Campground is free . . .

FREE!

FREE!

And you know what else I saw?  They have new discounts for campers who want to stay longer.

No, really!!

Stay one week and get 15% off.

Stay one month and get 30% off

Stay two months or more and get 35% off!

Can you believe it?  And it includes your electric usage too.

I fell over when I saw that . . .

Maybe all my little camping buddies can stay a little longer this year!

WooHoo!

HAPPY 2010!

Hey everyone!  Maxx here!

Did you all have a great Christmas season?  How about your New Year’s celebrations?  Things were crazy around here, what with Tami directing the church youth play, baking cookies, wrapping paper flying all over, and celebrations with family and friends.  Tami says it just wouldn’t be Christmas without a little bit of craziness, though!

And I’m sorry it took so long to post a blog entry, but you see, the laptop cord to Tami’s computer started to smoke one night, and even though she didn’t freak out for tooooo long . . . and they ordered a new cord right away . . . it was so close to Christmas that it took forEVer to arrive.

Guess what??   Tami and David invited me up to the house to celebrate New Years!  We had a blast playing a  game of double twelve dominoes.  Tami kept telling me how good she was at playing it . . .

but the rest of us were just a little bit better!  She came in last place!  HA!  So she made us all switch to Tumbling Tower

where Ben, David, Alex and Bryant stacked the tower so well, Tami came in last again.  She tried telling everyone that they’d ganged up against her, soDave suggested a different kind of game.

He put four chairs facing each other in the middle of the kitchen.   Then he told everyone to sit sideways on the chairs with their feet firmly on the floor,  and to lay their heads on the knees of the person behind them.  Then I pulled OUT all the chairs from under them, and Ben snapped this picture

It was wicked cool!  They all stayed up in the air for about a minute . . . till Tami fell on her butt from giggling so much!

THIS is what Tami says about her non-winning streak

After everyone FINALLY woke up this morning, I dragged Tami and Cookie out for a walk in the woods.  The snow was falling gently, and it was so quiet and peaceful.

Tami said it was just what she needed ’cause starting Monday, she’s got a lot of work to do!  There’s over 250 advance reservations to enter in the computer and letters to send to those campers.  Then she has to send her “Think Spring” letter to the seasonals and the 500 families who camp with us year, after year, after year.

Oh!  And she’s got to write up her 2010 Calendar of Events!  Tami said all the entertainment is booked, including Santa.

While Tami was out Christmas shopping, I took a sneak peek in her files.  All our favorite theme weekends are listed!    Pirate Weekend, Adventurer Weekend, Super Hero Weekend, two Halloweens and many, many more!

I can’t wait to see all my camping buddies again so we can make some 2010 memories!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Hey everybody!  How’s your holiday season going so far?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!   Do you know how I know?

Well, it’s not because Cookie stole my Christmas hat

It’s not because we got 12 inches of snow this week AND had a snow day off from school

And as yummy as it smells, it’s not because Tami is spending more time in the kitchen baking things like banana bread and canning apple butter.

Nooooo, you know what tells me Christmas is near??

This!

Last Saturday, the Wight’s headed out to the tree farm for their perfect Christmas tree.

Like he has every year for the last 20, David tried to get them to pick the very first one they saw . . . the one closest to the car.  But Tami and Ben were having none of that!  It’s not a hunt for the perfect tree if you don’t hike all the way to the other end of the farm, is it?

The annual tree choosing agreement is that everyone has to like the tree for it to be considered perfect.

It takes hoooooooo-ours.   Okay, maybe just one hour.  But you know why it takes an hour?

Because Tami chooses trees that would never, ever, fit in their living room.

David chooses the smallest trees he can find

And Ben chooses trees that will hold the biggest, and the most-est gifts under it’s boughs

I always knew that Ben was one smart kid!!

Eventually, they all agree.  Or one of them gets their way, anyway.

That’s not the part that had Tami in a tizzy though!   No . . . it was the decorating part.  And that’s where I walked in last Saturday.   The tree had fit perfect in the stand  , . . and it had stood grandly in the great room, too.  Even David had declared it a great find before he’d said, “My work here is done.” and disappeared to let Tami decorate it.

She’d already strung two sets of lights, and had done half the third when  *POOF*  half of that third string went totally black.

She tried changing fuses . . . and bulbs.  Nothing worked.

And she had no spare lights.

Sooooo, the crazy obsessed silly person that she is, she headed out at 7pm on Saturday night to find five color lights, with random colored twinklers.   Because it was snowing, she decided to head to the Oxford Walmart.  They’d surely have lights, she said.

Oh, they had lights all right.    Just not HER lights.

And neither did anyone else in Oxford.

It was snowing pretty hard by then, so she bought some twinkling stars, brought them home, strung them up, poured a glass of wine and stewed all night with those stars twinkling and her tree half lit.

I told you she was silly.

Sunday morning, she went to church (she swore she didn’t pray for lights though) and then headed into Auburn.  After going to two stores, she finally found some five colored lights and the box said, “Random Twinkle”.  She was so excited, she bought THREE boxes!

When she got them home and plugged in the first set, they were half out too!

“Good thing I bought three sets,” she said, plugging in another.  It was then that I snapped the picture above.

Because it was then, that she realized . . .

only the pink ones twinkled.

The PINK ones!

Everyone in the house went to hide while she stewed some more!

I’m not exactly sure what she did after that, ’cause I didn’t come out of hiding until she declared it done.  I can tell you though, that I really don’t see a lot of pink twinklers and there’s two sets of lights by the back door ready to be returned to Lowe’s.

And don’t tell Tami, okay, because I’m afraid we’ll lose her to the funny farm if you do  . . . .

but I noticed a dark spot on the back side of the tree yesterday.

There’s a stretch of 10 lights out in the back.

She isn’t gonna like that!

Happy Thanksgiving

I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving!  Everyone here is waiting for that big feast of squash, mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple-raisin salad, rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate creme pie . . . . and of course the turkey.

But not this kind of  turkey . . .

THIS kind . . .

On Sunday, I started to beg Tami to take me for another walk.  But I didn’t have to whine for very long.  She said taking a walk before all the “turkey-day-craziness” got here, was a pretty good idea.  So, we headed down the main road past Big Joe’s site to check out the water front first, ’cause we could hear the geese honking away down there.

I noticed right away that things are a lot browner now, but we still found a bit of color here and there

When we got to the lake, we couldn’t find even one goose!  Or a duck.  Or a eagle.  Or a turkey.

Tami said it was because I kept kicking up the leaves all the way and I had to learn to tip toe quietly through the woods if I wanted to see wildlife.

Have you ever tried to walk quietly through the woods in November?  Sheesh!  Crunchy leaves and snapping twigs . . . I’d liked to see Tami try to tip toe around them with four hooves!

We did see lots of squirrels.  This one wasn’t afraid of us at all,

In fact, he sat there, looking me in the eye, twitching his tail and yelling!  Every now and then, he’d scratch his back feet on the tree too.  It kind of made me nervous.  I thought he was gonna, maybe, jump on my antlers or something, so I begged Tami to stop taking pictures and dragged her down the trail, along the lake, toward the beaver hut.

Those beavers have been busy again!  There were lots of birch trees cut down

and guess where we found them?  Yep!  On top the hut

Can you see all the branches, grasses and twigs they put on it?  Every time we go down to look, we see more stuff dragged on top and then

They drag mud up and smooth it down over everything.

There’s the top of the beaver’s hut just beyond that big log.

Tami was surprised to see dragonflies out and about.  About four of them landed on her during our trek.

And I was surprised to see boaters!

Brrrrrrrr!  It must have been chilly out on the lake!    My antlers were shivering just watching them!

While Tami and I were walking along, I asked her what she was most thankful for.

“Well, my family of course,” she said, as she took photo number 4324 of the lake.  “I’m always very, very thankful for them, and our health.”

“Me too?” I asked.

She smiled at me over the camera.  “You’re family, aren’t you?”

“What else?” I asked.

“I’m thankful for all my friends, and our campers and to be able to work at something I love doing.   I’m really, really thankful that we can take nature walks right outside our backdoor.”  Tami lowered her camera. “What are you thankful for, Maxx?”

“All that stuff!” I said.  “And my little camping buddies, too!”

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!