Just got back from a fantastic week of vacation with a lovely bunch of bloggers: Martine, Ed, Patrick, Michel (and S, the charming and now renowned Milliner of ShakyLegs fame). Just the right mix of rain and shine led to just the right mix of active and vegging time at our seaside retreat. It was a week of lovely drives by the sea (bloggers are good chauffeurs), crisp September air, hiking, sailing, trivia games (bloggers are smart), video games (but bloggers allow themselves to be stupid on occasion), Shiraz, great meals (bloggers are awesome yet unpretentious cooks), engaging conversation, a crazy sky full of stars, and the easy company of wonderful friends. I felt blessed to be of their number (incidentally, bloggers are great masseuses).

A favorite highlight among many: taking Martine, Ed and Patrick on a hike which I remembered as “not really that challenging”. Of course, this was almost ten years ago when I was into rock climbing, and it turned out to be in fact the most difficult that Acadia National Park had to offer, a near-vertical 1000-foot climb over just a quarter of a mile! (No ropes!) Although we were, in the end anyway, happy to have met the challenge head-on, there were some moments where I thought some of my best friends might never speak to me again. But by the end of the day everyone had once more found their happy thoughts.

After all, bloggers are good sports, too.

UPDATE: Here is Patrick’s account of our little adventure, and here is Martine’s.