TICK!!!!! and Portland, Maine

I guess not surprisingly, Sammy ended up with a fully engorged tick on his chin, near his mouth.  I was loving him up last night and found it, and it was really chowing down on the poor little guy.  I "googled" how to remove a tick from a cat (because how the heck would I know) and apparently I got good information and I did ok as I got it out and even got the mouth parts. I put the tick in a ziplok bag, and Sammy in his kennel, and we headed out to a vet this morning.  She washed his wound, pulled out a couple of tick legs that were still embedded, and gave me some "Frontline" gel that goes on the back of his head and neck (and Tawny's too) and is supposed to prevent more tick attacks.  So... fingers crossed that is was a harmless tick (they don't "analyze" ticks if they come off cats; just people) -so,  we're watching Sam for signs of listlessness and vomiting etc. that would signify something other than a harmless tick.
We got him all settled back in the trailer, and it turned out to be our second rainy day of the trip, so neither cat really wanted outside.  John and I headed out in the truck and went west today to Portland, on the Atlantic Coast.  It was foggy and drizzly but still quite warm relative to how it "looked"...

 We went to the “Victorian Mansion” – an historical site built 1858-1860 by Rudger Morse, a prominent hotelier of the time.  It was built as his summer home – he was from Maine but lived and worked in the New Orleans area at the time.  The house was quite a marvel because of Mr. Morse’s involvement with the hotel industry – he had contractors that created a home that had amenities only found in hotels of the period – like running water, dual porcelain sinks (!), a Turkish smoking room that is a sight to behold, central heating (in 1860!) and hand-crafted wood furniture for every room, about 95% of which has been returned to the home as a historical monument.  The house was sold by the Morse family after Mr Morse’s death to the Libbey family and it was the Libbey family that donated most of the original furnishings back to the museum.  It is really something.  The wallpaper is hand painted, the ceilings are hand crafted from plaster in an Italian styling with lots of cornices and cupids and painted frescos, and some of the wall accents and ceiling treatments are plaster, and painted to mimic wood from the area.  It was truly amazing.

The front of Longfellow's House

We went from there to the childhood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet.  It was built 100 years before the Victorian Mansion!  But unfortunately, there was a cruise ship in port today and the tours were all booked by the time we got there.  We went through the adjoining museum and walked the gardens outside the house – and were able to view and take pictures of the exterior.  It was really something too.  We walked around downtown Portland after touring the Longfellow Gardens, and found a really cool used book store where I bought a book on architecture of the American colonies, as well as a fabulous coffee table book on the Civil War. I think that will come in handy as we make our way south down the eastern seaboard.

A wall along the historical library, skirting the Longfellow Gardens

A store parking lot in Portland, before heading back to campground.

We got back to the campground just as the drizzle turned into a downpour. 

We were happy to “be home” with the kitties for the nastiest part of the storm. We head out tomorrow for Quaker country and central New Hampshire.  The weather is supposed to be better there.  For tonight, we put up with really loud rain on a trailer...