Jackman.

Chris dodged another lay off, at least for the moment. He was sure that he was going to be sent home "to the couch" but instead was sent to Jackman, Maine to do some repair work at the Moosehead Lumber Company. I had never heard of Jackman and had no idea where it was so I turned to Mr. Mapquest to find out. Jackman is about 130 miles northwest of us and about 16 miles from the Canadian border. Jackman is a touristy town that hosts snowmobile riders and ice fisherman in the winter, campers in the summer and hunters in the fall. Oh and about 8 hundred gazillion black flies in the spring.

When I realized that Jackman looked like a fun place to visit and affordable accommodations at Sally Mountain Cabins were right on Wood Pond, I knew that the girls and I had to go too! Thank goodness a friend was willing to stop by and check on our dogs, so within about an hour we were all packed for a few days away!

The ride up was nice, we saw two young bull moose as we got further into the "country". Thankfully Chris saw them in plenty of time and they stood looking at us long enough to get some nice pictures. Both girls were able to see them too. They thought it was pretty cool to see a big moose up close!

We got to the cabin about 8 Tuesday night just in time to see a beautiful sunset. Since both girls took long naps during the day, they were wound up tight and excited to be in a new place. It took a couple hours to get settled down enough to get everyone to sleep.

Chris had to go into work at 7 Wednesday morning so the girls and I walked up the road for some gas station coffee and to see what we could find along the way. We didn't find much! So we headed back to the cabin to watch some cartoons and wait for it to warm up a bit. It stayed pretty windy most of the day but we did get to dip our toes into the very cold water a few times. The girls were very curious about all the boats lined up on the shore.

Chris came back to the cabin for lunch and then let us have the truck for the afternoon. We found a small playground and played until the black flies drove us back inside. We went to pick Chris up at 5 and got to watch him weld for a few minutes. Pie thought the sparks were very sparkly!

We spent the evening playing catch outside with a ball the girls found under the cabin porch. The girls were worn out and fell asleep pretty easily Wednesday night. So did I! Chris stayed up late watching the Bruins play in the Stanley Cup Finals.

We woke up Thursday morning to strong wind and rain. So we stayed in the cabin watching cartoons, coloring and reading stories. We tried to go out several times but we weren't dressed for the chilly wind.

Chris got done working about 4:30 and we decided to head back home. It wasn't a long trip but it was nice to get away and see something new for a few days.

Next week Chris heads to the paper mill in Jay for a few days, hopefully more work will come his way during the end of the week.

I both love and hate the traveling Chris does with his job. I don't like him being away from us, especially for more than a few nights but we have had some really great opportunities to travel with him that we would not have had otherwise.