Maine Event: Day 76

Whew, long travel day. We were up at 5 am to head to the airport. We had wonderful help getting to the airport with support from the most wonderful doorman. The block around the hotel was closed down for parade purposes and it was raining. He encouraged us to use a taxi not a ride-hailing company as taxis to the airport are a fixed rate. The subway is packed these days and we didn't feel like getting up even earlier to take it. We walked out to 6th Ave and were debating if this was possible it was completely dark with homeless people fighting and garbage waiting for pickup. Every cab drove by without even a glance and when I was ready to give up and get an Uber or Lyft, out of the darkness the doorman from our hotel (a block away) came down to 6th Ave and taught us about faith and catching taxis in NYC. 

The flight was also packed. We made good time (it's always faster coming this direction). Baggage claim took over an hour - staffing issues. Then we took BART home and walked through a decked-out neighborhood gearing up for Halloween and Día de Los Muertos. 
It's early and we are spinning pretty hard and tired. We checked and the car started. We also made sure we had food for breakfast and the ingredients for cooking class and some dinner. 

Goodbye NYC, Washington Square Hotel. I love the 8th floor and the tile art that is all around.

Leaving NYC in the dark (our flight was changed to 4 hours earlier than the one we had originally)

Rain was just stopping as the sun came up.

It is fun to look down and see the clouds below you.

Dry mountains of Colorado.

Dry landscape of Nevada.

Farmland of California.

Home.

Yay... our funky thermos that we make coffee with.

Here is a link to a halloween video Rosemary took in Maine at our house in the backyard. It is an MP4 but doesn't work in browsers so you'll have to download it and watch it if you want.

Have a wonderful homey evening and a superb halloween.

Signing off of this blog for a while. Feel free to unsubscribe or ask me if you want me to remove you.

Sending oodles of love,

Tawnia

p.s. Here is our birds and trees list.

Birds

Back and white warbler
Broad-Winged Hawk
Blacked Capped Chickadee
Herring Gull
Ringed Billed Gull
Northern Cardinal
Chimney Swift
American Crow
Double Crested Cormorant
Osprey
Blue Jay
Starling
Peregrine Falcon
House Sparrow
Purple Finch
Golden Eagle
Pidgeon
Mourning Dove
Mockingbird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Eastern Phoebe
Mallard
Spotted Sandpiper
White Breasted Nuthatch
Red Shouldered Hawk
Bald Eagle
White Breasted Nuthatch
Common Loon
Common Eider
Downy Woodpecker
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Semipalmated Plover
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Sanderling
White throated sparrow

Trees

Green ash
Norway maple
Red maple
Yellowwood
Japanese zelkova
Silver birch
Common ash
Eastern cottonwood
American sycamore
Narrow-leaved ash
English oak
Littleleaf linden
American beech
Beaked hazelnut
Shagbark hickory
American elm
Common buckthorn
European beech
Horse chestnut
Buckthorn dogwood
Northern bayberry
Sugar maple
Fragrant sumac
Japanese cornel
Swamp white oak
Northern red oak
White oak
Halberd-leaf rosemallow 
Southern catalpa
American sycamore
English oak
Silver maple
Ginkgo
Honey locust
Japanese pagoda tree
Black walnut
Eastern white pine
Japanese cherry
White ash
Norway spruce
Cucumber tree
Bigtooth maple
Common chokecherry
Pin oak
Northern white cedar
Pitch pine
Sweet cherry
Blue spruce
Black locust