BEST one so far. by far.

we ventured to vinalhaven again today. this time with bikes. joe, andrew, chris, gideon and i jumped in a boat from brown's boatyard, bikes, backpacks, babies, and all, and rode the 11 or so miles to the largest of the "perfectly refreshing" vinalhaven quarries. joe was a hero, riding an ergonomically problematic granny-bike, complete with a handlebar-mounted child seat filled with a fussing -- then flopping and bobbing-- brick hunk of a boy. the positioning of this child seat (i would strongly discourage ANYONE from getting one) is such that it can't be used on a road bike, and, on a bike whose awkward design CAN accomodate it, well, the rider needs to pedal with their knees splayed out like a... like a... bicycle-riding pregnant duck? anyway, both my boys were good sports... it was at least 90 degrees and quite humid.



getting to the quarry was like coming upon a cold glass of water in the dessert. and finding a cool, fresh water swimming hole underneath the glass of water. and then suddenly being surrounded by ice-cream wielding unicorns whose only wish is to take you on scenic flying tours of their magical home. in other words, the water was absolutely perfect, and surprisingly clean and clear. we put gideon's life jacket on him at one point and even HE went in! and we ate cherries, and bread and hummus and cheese.



in the late afternoon, we rode back. and again, the boy slept. and flopped. in his dapper new vinalhaven thrift-store threads.





i wanted to get a cheesy picture of all of us at the end of our adventure, but i suddenly couldn't figure out how to turn on the timer on my own camera. honestly, that's ridiculous. i have only used it 15 THOUSAND times. i think i was distracted by andrew's burgeoning grumpiness...



we had arrived back at the thoroughfare just a few minutes too late to get a ride from anyone at brown's, so.. we had to 'borrow' a row boat. the borrowing-without-asking made andrew nervous (probably because on vinalhaven people do crazy unspeakable things when they get angry), AND it meant he had to row us all back (cuz he's the best rower-- well, i mean, except for me, but i had the baby and the camera). at least he looked good doing it.