On Saturday, we were fortunate enough to do something we've wanted to do for a long time; we visited an alpaca farm. Dave's brother's wife, Kirstin, gets eggs from Shadow Hill Farm, so she was familiar with the farm's owners, Tami and Bob, and knew about their alpacas. She arranged for us visit the farm along with her and the kids, Alex and Haley. 

Tami's father owns the neighboring farm, where he raises cattle. 

It was beautiful, rolling pasture land. 

When we got to the farm, we were first greeted by the donkey, who brayed a wonderfully long welcome to us. 

The farm has a pair of llamas, which help serve as guard animals for the alpacas in lieu of electric fencing or a guard dog. Apparently, if anything tries to get near the alpacas, the llamas and one of the mother alpacas will wake you up out of a sound sleep and let you know about the intruder. Also, the donkeys are great for keeping away coyotes. 

It was such a joy to finally see alpacas up close! 

This baby was just born earlier in the year. The little guy was so sweet and softly fuzzy. 

Haley making a friend. The alpacas enjoy having their necks scratched and petted. 

Shadow Hill farm also has about 40 chickens, mostly laying hens and a few roosters. Because of all the recent rain, this area was very mucky. 

The male alpacas are kept separately and live in this area of pasture with a few sheep and a rooster. 

These alpacas are raised for their high-grade fiber, which makes excellent warm, lightweight clothing. 

Here's a fun fact: Alpacas don't have hoofs. Instead, they have foot pads, like a dog, with two large toenails that require trimming. 

One of the most delightful parts of the day was meeting Imet (pronounced Emmet). 

Imet was the sweetest, most gentle mannered creature. He loved pets and snuggles, and if you stopped paying attention to him, he would come right over and nudge at your legs. 

Alex enjoying Imet's company. 

Some of the alpacas also love to give kisses! 

Bob had a wealth of knowledge to share with us. 

Thanks Bob and Tami! We really appreciate you both showing us around the farm and sharing so much knowledge with us. We had a fantastic time visiting with you and all the animals. 

I'd never been to Maine, and was excited to arrive; it was a state I'd always wanted to visit. Our first order of business was to spend a day in Portland. 

Portland was rainy, incredibly misty, and pretty chilly, despite it being late June, exactly how we'd imagined a coastal Maine city to be. 

The entire downtown seemed completely saturated with water from the weather system that's been pummeling the entire Eastern United States with rain this month. 

Everything from water to skyline completely disappeared into this all-encompassing fog. 

Near the waterfront, there were many old cobblestone streets. Imagine the work it must have taken to place all these stones by hand in the days before heavy machinery, and imagine how muddy and mucky  the streets must have been before the cobblestones were lain! 

"Most of the things folks worry about never happen." We found this awesome sign in a local downtown Portland shop. This saying is one of our mantras. 

Dave always loves capturing alleyway graffiti. 

Portland was chock-full of groovy local shops and restaurants, like the Blue Rooster and the Thirsty Pig, a bar from which we got an awesome bumper sticker for the collection. 

A really cool find by the water was this Fence of Love. Couples attach a lock with their names and perhaps a significant date, like their wedding, to the fence. 

No one is sure where the custom originated, though it seems to have begun in the early 2000's. It is quite popular in places like Paris and Russia. There's even a company in New York that specializes in making pretty rust-proof locks for this purpose. Here in Portland, the street art project just started before Valentine's Day this year. It was begun by a group of three women, who gathered about a dozen friends to install locks on this waterfront fence. The number of locks multiplied to 47 almost overnight. At some point, an anonymous person installed the Fences of Love sign. 

You can read more about the really cool evolution of this project here. For now, at least, it seems love and art will prevail, and the city does not have plans to remove the locks. We love guerrilla street art projects, so we were so excited to have happened upon this one so soon after its creation.

Also along Long Wharf were these three pieces from the Berlin Wall. 

After it fell, pieces of the Berlin Wall were distributed to numerous locations throughout Europe, Canada, and the USA. This is the first time we've come across a piece ourselves. It seemed right at home in the thick fog, like it fell out of the sky and landed here. 

If you're curious to know if there's a piece of the wall near you, there is a comprehensive list for the USA and Europe. 

Perhaps one of the best things about Portland was the sound and sight of countless seagulls flying overhead. It's been quite some time since we've been near the coast, and we love how seagulls always let you know your proximity to the ocean. 

Shortly after we posted yesterday about our adventure to the Loon Center, we talked to my Dad on the phone and found out our Loon Center bumper sticker arrived. Thanks Loon Preservation Committee! That was speedy. We can't wait to put the new sticker on our van. 

After the loon expedition, we stopped alongside the road for these pictures. 

We loved this wet, marshy landscape, a regular sight along the byways of New England. 

The sounds here were incredible: the birds were singing, the frogs were croaking, and the crickets were chirping in a symphony quite different from the dusky grey landscape. 

A red-winged blackbird perching in the reeds. 

Another red-winged blackbird. 

We're not sure what these cute, fuzzy birds were, but they were very talkative. 

A bit further along, Dave spotted this gigantic beaver dam from the road, and we found a place to park and walk down to it. 

Beavers are one of my favorite creatures, and we've been on the constant look out for them ever since we first spotted one back in North Carolina. Unfortunately, we didn't catch sight of the beaver here, but it was neat to see how big a dam he built. 

It is incredible to think that a team of beavers chewed and placed each individual log. 

We were also lucky enough to spot this, the actual home of the beaver. It was so neat. 

On Thursday, we left Lebanon, New Hampshire for Auburn, Maine, where both Dave's brothers live. 

On the way, we couldn't help but stop for this photo since Dave was wearing his Smokey the Bear shirt, one of his best thrift store finds. 

Only you can prevent forest fires! 

When we stopped at this lake further down the road, we read an advisory sign about preserving the loon population. Loons swallow small bits of gravel from the bottom of lakes to grind up their food, just like chickens, and many of them accidentally ingest lead from fishing lures. The previous weekend, Jesse's wife, Kirsten, and I thought we'd spotted a loon when we were ahead of everyone on our river kayaking trip. We had never seen a loon before, so we weren't exactly sure what they looked like, but it turns out we were correct. The aquatic bird we saw exactly matched the picture the Fish and Game department supplied on the bulletin board warning us about loons ingesting lead. 

Dave and I mused about the loons as we drove on, wanting to learn more about them. Near sundown, we stopped at Meredith Lake to enjoy the beautiful view. 

We liked this island in the lake, and, as we watched, a group of about 10 water birds began flying overhead. At first, we speculated that they were ducks, but as we watched them, we realized their flying technique as well as their bodies were not quite right. Suddenly, it hit us: what we were looking at were loons! 

We quickly used the zoom on the camera to get a closer look. 

It truly was a tree full of loons. As we watched, more and more came flying in to rest in the tree. As excited as we were about our loon discovery, it turned out the best was yet to come. 

When we stopped a few miles down the road to take photos of this old steam shovel repurposed as a flower bed in Moultonborough, we noticed a Loon Center bumper sticker on a car. Even though it was getting late, we had to go. 

We loved the juxtaposition of the steam shovel's heavy metal frame with the delicate flowers.

We followed signs through Moultonborough to find the Loon Center. We were really impressed when we arrived. The Loon Preservation Committee Headquarters, a project of the New Hampshire Audubon Society, is tucked away in a gorgeous wooded area on a splendid piece of property. 

There are several trails open for public use on their property, one of which passes the June nesting ground of one pair of loons. The Loon Center was nice enough to offer up a basket of walking sticks on their front porch for visitors to use on the trails and return. The Center also offers many classes throughout the year, both on loons and other nature topics. 

The Loon Center was closed by the time we arrived, and we were disappointed about not being able to go in. Also, we really wanted a Loon Center bumper sticker for our collection. Dave got a brilliant idea. We left a self-addressed, stamped envelope along with a note, a few of our business cards, a small donation, and two of Dave's handmade bookmarks tacked to the front door of the Loon Center. In our note, we explained our story and asked the staff to mail a bumper sticker to my parent's house. We do hope they send it, and also hope they were delighted by the surprise when they arrived at work the next day. If you're reading this, thank you Loon Center for your work with the loons! 

We've decided to reclaim and change the old saying, "Crazy as a loon" that came as a shortened version of the word "lunatic," but now could be misread to make the loon sound crazy. We propose a new saying: "Happy as a loon." That's how we felt on this whole adventure. It was such a neat serendipitous series of events that led us to learn about the loon, and it will certainly ensure that loons are close to our heart for a long time to come.