Pinewood Derby

I know you are supposed to be a boy scout to participate but the rules are different out on the islands (there are no rules, pretty much. and there are no boy scouts. well, there is one). So Little Cranberry (aka Islesford) hosted one and Samson participated. He loved it. Racing cars with other little boys for about 3 hours. Yeah, that's just his thing. He lost two races and won two which put him in 8th place among 23 cars.

With his car

Samson, sitting track side, at his first race.

An island, off an island, off an island.

Crow Island is a very small island off our island accessible only at low tide. But you don't have much time before the tide starts to come back in and if you don't watch out, you could get stuck til the next low tide (about 12 hours later as there are 2 high tides and 2 low tides in a 24 hour period). It's never happened to us but I've heard many a story about it happening to others. Crow is very small, no one lives there, there are no structures. It's just kinda neat to get there on foot when usually it is surrounded by water. And realize it's an island off an island which is also off an island (Great Cranberry is off of Mt. Desert Island, which is a bridged island off of the Maine coast).

The red line shows our walk over to Crow.

A side view of Crow and how it connects to Great Cranberry.

It's low tide and we have the tiny little bar to walk on. Crow island is behind them.

Within minutes, the tide is coming in and starting to cover our walkway. Which Samson thought was exhilarating and scary at the same time. I think he kinda wanted to get stuck.

Emergency!

My (big) baby boy waiting to have the foreign object removed. He said it "fell" in his ear. He didn't put it there.


I kinda figured it would happen one day anyway. All little boys seem to do it at some point. And why not in the late evening when there are no more mailboat (ferry) runs. So what happened? Samson put a bead in his ear then tried to remove it using scissors (yikes!) and by the time he came upstairs to tell me, he was already upset, panicky, and in some mild pain. Poor kid. We tried getting it out ourselves but could barely see it and couldn't get to it with tweezers without pushing it in even more. So, like many island emergencies before ours, this one would take place after the last ferry run of the day. Not to worry, though. Scott B. to the rescue. His lobsterboat stays in the water year round and it just so happened that he and Ric were working out together at the gym so Scott whisked us off island. They were able to remove the bead pretty easily in the ER and confirmed there was no eardrum damage or infection and also confirmed that the boat ride over was worth it, it could have led to an infection or at least very uncomfortable swelling if we had waited til morning. Whew. Glad it's over with. And I hope that's the worst emergency we ever have to deal with.

Hero and Rescuer, Scott B. Ladies, he's a cute, single, rugged Maine LobstaMan with a weakness for southern accents. And will ya just look at that smile.