May 8. Trees are just beginning to leaf but it seems as if the season is already underway. Workers are arriving daily to open the Monhegan House, the Trailing Yew and the Island Inn. With town water on the cottage owners have also started to come and Sherm and Barbara Stanley have returned from their winter home in Florida.

Zoe Zanadakis is back after getting voted off "Survivor" a few weeks ago. My son, Wolfie, predicted correctly that she would be voted off on that episode so it wasn't much of a surprise in our house. We continue to watch the show and enjoy it. Zoe is finishing taking up her traps for the season and has been joined in the effort by a few other lobstermen. The season ends May 29 so they will all be finishing up in the next couple of weeks.

We have been busy with school activities. The kids invited the public to a folk tale festival a few weeks ago. The younger ones have been studying folk tales this quarter and all the kids had tales to tell. A good crowd attended. The adults also told a few tales of their own. Then refreshments were served. Each food came from the country of origin of that child's folk tale.

Last week we accompanied the kids and their teacher to New York City for a field trip. Gabe Church did not go along as he is in kindergarten, but he and Marian did go to California to visit Marian's sister. I never thought it would be so nerve wracking to keep track of four kids. But we all had a great time. Many thanks to those friends of the school who helped make the trip a success. We started in Camden where we saw the show Islands at Camden High School and thanks to the Island Institute and MBNA stayed at the Brewster Inn. Then we drove to Connecticut where Bill and Ruth Boynton were our hosts as well as Ivor and Sally Boynton Spectorman. The next day we drove to the Bronx Zoo and spent most of the day there. On the way out of the zoo trying to find Manhattan, Dave and I along with Wolfie and Kyle Murdock got lost in the Bronx for an hour. Thank goodness for a nice guy named Tony and my cell phone. It made me think that they should film a Survivor that has island people trying to survive in the Bronx without a cell phone or compass. We finally arrived at Josh Mostel and Kim Murdock's apartment. They were our hosts for the next three days. Sarah Confry, Billy, Jackie, Mia and Claire Boynton all stayed at a nice tiny hotel a few blocks from us. We took the younger kids to Chinatown the next morning where it had been arranged for them to visit a school there for a few hours. The older kids went to the Stock Exchange and had lunch in the private dining room after getting a tour. The next morning we visited the Museum of Natural History and also saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. On our last day we went to the Metropolitan Museum before driving to Sarah's parents' house in West Hampton for the night. Thank you again to all those who went out of their way to make the trip fun and educational.

On April 20 we went to Port Clyde to attend the wedding of Kristina Murdock and Clair Mitchell. They were married at Marshall Point Lighthouse by Rev. Ted Hoskins. A reception followed at the Ocean House Hotel. It was a lovely day and setting. They are both back on the island following a honeymoon in New Hampshire.

While we were gone on the field trip it turned into May. The boat now comes once a day leaving Port Clyde at 10:30 a.m. Ray and Dede Werbe are here as well as Tom and Josephine Martin and Norma and Jim Kaplis. Ray Stineford and Helen Prince were among the first to arrive as well as Tom and Kate Chappell and Judy Weber. The daffodils survived a late April snowstorm, tulips are blooming as I write. Our lawn needs a mowing while Jim Balano has already mowed his at Chadwick House next door.