A Distant Memory

I am back from my trip to Maine. It's still a shock to have spent some time in a city that's very walkable and an island that's surrounded by nature, only to come back to a traffic-laden, busy city like LA. I drove for the first time in two weeks in a car that wasn't mine. The car had all the current technological features, where everything could be controlled by the push of a button. Driving was nerve-wracking and I was not used to the drivers on the streets, especially on the freeway. I haven't felt that nervous in a while. It still feels weird to be back. I can't quite snap back into reality just yet.

Lane's Island

Lane's Island near Vinalhaven is one of the special places in my heart. It meant a lot to experience a place like Lane's Island with Stef--a place that was once loved by his mom.

We stole a wish flower from the island. Following his secret wish, we proceeded to hike past the family building sandcastles in the limited amount of sand before the rocky shoreline. Our destination was the large rock at the edge of the island to see what was causing the waves to crash in the middle of the sea.

We made it to a point where we concluded the object in the sea was just a large buoy but could not proceed any further than that. It had rained the night before, leaving the trails too muddy to hike without proper attire. The weather still looked a bit ominous, and rain could have started coming down at any moment. Upon turning around, I noticed that massive amounts of black kelp dried up on the shore. I discovered that stepping on the mass makes a crunchy sound. I couldn't help but stomp on it some more.

There was nowhere else to go. Right before exiting, we backtracked and wrote our names on the sand. Stef drew a couple of hearts around our names and added a string, as if it was a heart balloon. When the waves are high enough, part of each our souls will fade into the island, only to become a distant memory to us immortalized by the picture above.