Labor Day again

It's Labor Day again. That means my birthday has come and gone - I am now 55. Hard to believe.
We first went to Ferry Beach in 1992. Nick was 3, Alex 6. Gail had contacted Elizabeth about organizing a crew reunion, to be held on Homecoming Weekend, Labor Day. We talked about it, and thought it would be fun, and the boys would like the beach. So began a tradition. We have spent nearly every Labor Day there since.

Alex and Nick were so little when we first went. We stayed in Rowland Hall, ate at the Quillen, and mostly talked about the ways our lives had followed sometimes parallel paths, though seldom intersecting. The boys met Owen and Heather, Jack and Reed, others. The Labor Day weekends that followed charted growing up.

Our last time there together was 2007. Alex drove up and joined us on Saturday, I went up to Bowdoin to get NIck Friday night. I nearly fell asleep at the wheel on my way up, just outside Freeport. Very scary. I asked Nick to drive back to Camp Ellis. He was a good, competent driver. I woke up as we were getting off at the Old Orchard Beach exit.

It was like old times, being children on the beach again. For the sand castle competition, they sheepishly built an inverted "negative space" castle (a conical hole). This is Alex putting finishing touches on the "castle," and Nicholas "helping" by leaping into the hole (photo by Chuck S.):

This being Ferry Beach, they got a prize - ice cream certificates for the store.