Two weeks

It's taken a few days to get the house back in order since our guests departed. We did a lot of activities with our visitors, which included not updating this blog. The first weekend of the visit was spent playing mini-golf and hiking around Gardiner with the Johnston-lings, which was pretty fun. The days were hot, but we had good meals in the evenings.

On the second weekend we went to the 25th annual Moxie fest, which is a celebration of a soft drink that tastes like RC cola and quinine. In the early 20th century, Coke and Moxie dominated the soft drink business nationwide. Moxie never really made it past the 40s, then Pepsi came along and relegated Moxie to cult status. Today you can only find it in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont (and a few hipster cafes scattered here and there). Coke bought Moxie about 15 years ago.
Abby's reaction to Moxie is typical for first-timers. Even with all the sugar Coca Cola's added to it over the past 15 years, it's still quite an acquired taste.
We invited Gillian and Evelyn along too, and they seemed to appreciate getting out and having fried dough in the sun. We took two vehicles so we could leave early to meet Scott, who was coming up to visit later that day.
The days between the weekends were kind of blurry. Both Ilana and I were doing our regular work routines so our hosting grace was limited to telling Ian and family where the bowling alley was, or how to get to the Discovery Museum, and whatnot.

It was great to meet Ian's family and to introduce them to all the exciting people and places Maine has to offer. Hailing from England an' all, they generated quite a lot of buzz 'round these parts. At the Moxie fest, a girl asked Ian if "he really talked like that". When his son Ben asked what she was talking about, she pointed and laughed at him. "Ha, he talks like that too," she guffawed. Yeah, rednecks...Some other little kid quipped that Ben sounded like Harry Potter. I reckon they made this years' Moxiefest the most international one yet. Don't believe me? Check out the Moxie Fest's leading-edge website to see what a classy event it was.