We had a great dinner and a never-ending dessert table. All of the photos may be seen on our Facebook page by clicking this sentence. 

The three boys and I drove to Trenton just across the bay from Mount Dessert Island to spend Thanksgiving with Jen, Denny, Morgan, Caroline, and Otis Trevett at their summer home. Denny is my sister's son. The first day of our visit, the day before Thanksgiving, the boys went into town with Morgan and Caroline for a down-home breakfast at Jordan's restaurant and then took a tour of the island. Afterwards, they returned to work with Denny. As I write, I hear the tractor in the background as the trees are being ground up by a "chipper." Outside, the snow is beginning to fall as a Nor'easter makes its way up the coast of Maine. We're bound to get a good dump of snow. Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday. Jen and Denny are expecting 31 people for dinner. Click on the first photo below and then use arrow keys to glide through the photos. 

Thursday: Our flight to Washington was less than 2 hours and quickly we were in our hotel and wandering the streets of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We went to a reception at the Union Street Pub where some of the folks who use Rich's books were gathered.  We had fun pub fare (ribs, burgers, salads) at the pub and then headed back to the hotel where Rasmus and Felix went to the swimming pool and hot tub and Rich went to the bar. 

Friday: The hotel has an awesome free breakfast and then the boys headed off to the train station--picture below and Rich headed off to his conference. When Rich called to check up on the boys they had finished with the Air & Space Museum and were in the National History Museum watching a short movie (nice timing, Rich).  Next, some monuments.  

Meanwhile, Rich is at the Gaylord National Conference Center across the Patomac River (below). 

Simon's mom and a friend came by for a visit. Simon was here as an exchange student in 2011-2012. We had a such a fun evening. 

The boys enjoyed their high school sports banquet this evening. They picked up some hardware and enjoyed receiving their senior poster. As for Rich, he enjoyed watching his former players running the awards ceremony. 

We started the morning without electricity and the temps at 0 degrees C. When the electricity came on,  we watched soccer while eating eggs, bacon, bagels… then came the writing of Fall Greeting Cards to family and friends--we started the cards 10 days ago. Next, a room clean because…well… you'll see. Later today, we'll climb Black Mountain just to give the boys some fresh air and needed exercise. Then, it's back to the Rasmus's Presidential Research Paper on Lyndon Baines Johnson--the 20- to 30-page research paper is due in 9 days. For Felix, it's more Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat… I'd guess both boys are up to a minimum of 900 hours of social media time here in America. Nine hundred hours. It takes me about 5 years of research and 1200 hours of writing time to craft a book like Writing on the Bus.  Imagine if the kids of the world harnessed the time they spent on social media for something beyond themselves… for charity, research, or giving back? What an amazing world we'd have. But then, how would the kids communicate with friends? Perhaps they'd actually speak instead of flashing the 10,000th picture of themselves smiling… "OMG, no way!"  Call me old fashion.  

The better team did not win on Friday afternoon in Rumford. We played a brilliant game, but lost with 1:25 remaining on a counter-attack. As the former coach of this team, I was so proud of their play. Best match of the season in my eyes. The opponents' coach told our coach, my former player JT Taylor, that our team was the better side. We just didn't win. For the full album, click on this sentence. Rasmus and Felix were brilliant in this match… and all season. They taught their teammates well this season; everyone became better players because of their influence. It made me very proud and it is a season I will never forget.