When we left Maine last week for Topsail Island, North Carolina and a family wedding, it was almost 50 degrees. The next few days after our departure, so we are told, were very warm. In the 80s!

When we landed in Charlotte, North Carolina to catch a connecting flight to Wilmington, the temperature in the pathway between our plane and the terminal got our attention. We had anticipated the change from Maine but were not prepared. At Wilmington airport we went officially outdoors to pick up a rental car which had been totally closed up and sitting in the sun. I detected a subtle change in temperature and humidity.

We were attending my sister’s daughter’s wedding, which I joyfully offered to photograph. But, additionally, this was a family gathering. All three of my sisters and some of their children would be together for four days. It is difficult to describe this experience and impossible for me to convey what a gathering of Mitchells is like. Suffice it to say that our proximity to Ft. Bragg was probably not an accident! My sister notified the military. There were aerial surveillance teams on high alert with frequent helicopter gunship flybys.

It was a wonderful beach wedding and a fabulous opportunity to reconnect and catch up. We even got to spend extra bonus time with our daughters and son-in-law, “Andrei the Magnificent.”

Parts of my body, however, did not fare well. My legs have not been exposed to sun and ocean for many years. I used sunscreen but how I missed behind my knees, tops of my feet and inside ankles is a mystery. My legs look like Spaghetti-O’s on toast.

We returned to the Portland Jetport where it was almost 50 degrees again with a “refreshing” Northeast breeze. Which leads me to share this nugget of brilliance. The only true way to know that it is getting close to summer, for us here in Maine, is when beautiful sailboats show up at “Wotton Wharf” (now a Hodgdon facility) and the lilacs bloom. Not even a gathering of Mitchells can change that!