All Things Zebster

Monhegan Island, Maine

2015-07-18T18:02:00.000-04:00

Shelly and I continued our adventuring of Maine last weekend with a boat ride out to one of the most commonly painted islands in the state, Monhegan. I work on a few islands in Maine and, therefore, had an idea in my mind as to what this one would be like. I couldn't be more wrong...it was not "a mix of Vinalhaven and the Cranberry Isles."
First of all, this island is a big rock sticking out of the ocean, whereas the others tend to be flat and more like the coast of the mainland. And this place really is just like an old fishing village, despite the fact that it's very popular with artists and tourists. Here there are very, very few big old grand houses or land available to build them. This place is just a step back in time.
We had a nice few hours out there just doing what we do, walking around and seeing the sights, which included a lighthouse, of course. We ate at a "quaint" little shack, where I had a very good fish chowder and Shelly had local crab cakes.
There is a smaller version of Monhegan (which is funny to say given that Monhegan is only .7 by 1.7 miles) call Manana, which nearly touches Monhegan. It is currently uninhabited but I encourage you to Google "The hermit of Manana" for a very interesting human interest story.
It's an hour-long boat ride out, and there are always seals to see as well as other little islands dotting the way out. On the way back we got a neat view of the Marshall Point Lighthouse that we visited last year. We finished our day with a lobster dinner at the Dip Net Restaurant right on the docks in Port Clyde. I hope you enjoy the pictures. And never hesitate to ask questions.

Lunch. Nearly every building here looks like a fishing shack.

There are just a couple of gravel one-lane roads on the island.

From Lobster Cove looking back at the artist Jamie Wyeth's house.

Library

Capt John Smith was everywhere apparently

It was a steep hike to get up here to the lighthouse. I'm getting better at taking selfies. Note the road.

From the lighthouse back down to the village. Yes, that's all of it. And the island of Manana

Nice dingy

Looking back up at the lighthouse

The white sign says to call Rusty on the radio in the box if you want to go to Manana.

Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention there's a brewery on the island with a tasting room. We stopped in for a cold refreshment on our way back from viewing the shipwreck at Lobster Cove, and the blonde ale I had was lovely. Please click on the pics...they're much better that way.

Covered Bridges

2015-06-14T19:25:00.000-04:00

Thought you might find these rare beauties as charming as I find them. Most of the following pictures were taken during our trip to the White Mountain area of New Hampshire a couple weeks ago, although one of these was taken in Guilford, Maine a couple of years ago.

If you'd like to see all of the pictures we took of that beautiful area, you can click this link to FB. You'll also see all of the pictures of these bridges and the areas around them.
I love old and simple architecture, and the older I get, the more I appreciate these relics of a time long passed. They're also a good excuse to get out for a little trip, and see some pretty areas that no one probably notices anymore. If you do, think about what it might have been like to drive a car over one of these decades ago when most bridges were like this. Remember to yield.

The Albany Bridge in Albany, NH.

This one in Bartlett, NH you can't drive through because it's used as a seasonal gift shop.

Jackson, NH.

These two of the Saco River Bridge in NH. If you could see through the trees, you'd be able to see the Swift River Bridge.

Swift River Bridge.
The next few are of an old, and now very rare, train covered bridge in Lincoln, NH.

The next one we saw on the way home in Fryeburg, Maine, and it was two miles down a dirt road, although still being used to go who knows where.

Lastly, we went to see this one in Corinth, Maine, about 30 miles from where I live.

As you can see, this one is rare in that it's completely enclosed on the sides. Thanks for indulging.

Bermuda 2015

2015-03-08T14:41:00.003-04:00

Some of you may know this already but my darling Shelly was born in Bermuda, the eldest child of a young Air Force enlisted man and his wife. She lived there in two different residences for three years but has not been back since -- until this past week.
You may also know that I work outside quite a bit and commute on crappy winter roads great distances. I barely got through last winter without losing my mind and so we promised ourselves that not only was I going to get a break from winter, we were going to do it in Bermuda.
We had an absolutely fabulous time. I fell in love with the place. She was already in love with it...she just didn't know it until she got there. You could see how strong the connection was for her. We were able to find one of the houses she lived in. We will be returning.
I'm not a beach and sand, lay in the sun kinda of person but there's plenty, plenty to do there for history, culture, architecture and foodie buffs like me, plus there's a couple lighthouses, which you know we love, and the caverns.
If you haven't already, please click through the pictures and fall in love with it too. Don't skip the video of the town crier and then one of me helping to dunk the nag. What great fun.
Our Bermuda photos

The above link is to the Facebook photo album, which is supposed to be able to be seen by anyone, even if you don't have a Facebook account. RJ, let me know if you can't view this album and I'll post them all on here as well

Apparently the vids are not within that album. So I've uploaded them to YouTube

Having issues getting the other one posted here because I didn't take it. I'll post this now and then post an update with the other video.

Pemaquid

2014-08-10T14:57:00.000-04:00

Our plan for yesterday was to take a "ferry" boat out to Monhegan Island, spend about five hours there, including seeing the lighthouse and having lunch. If we couldn't get on the boat, we'd fall back to plan B, which as you'll see became plan A.
It was only Friday night when we realized the boats that go out there require reservations. So we decided Friday night that we'd just go see the Pemaquid lighthouse and tick off three more State Parks from our passport. We had been to Pemaquid probably close to 20 years ago, but those pictures are long lost from an old hard drive crash.
We had a very good time, except for my frustration with the traffic and the fact that we couldn't get near one of the State Parks because of a damn wedding. So we'll make reservations to go to Monhegan Island another time and see the Colonial Pemaquid Historic site at the same time. So far we have seen 34 out of the 48 State Parks in this passport. We're having fun and hope you enjoy the handful of pics I took yesterday.

From inside Fort Edgecomb looking at Westport Island

Fort Edgecomb

Shelly at Pemaquid

Shelly at Damariscotta Lake State Park

As I was picking the pictures to post I saw a few I hadn't shared from previous little trips. So here's a little bonus. First, these next four pictures were taking in Camden a few weeks ago when I drove down there to see these exact replicas of the Nina and Pinta. It's amazing people sailed across the Atlantic in these little boats, and the crew slept on the deck. Whilst in Camden I had to stop at Cappy's for the best clam chowdah anywhere, washed down with an always-excellent Shipyard Ale.

Then a couple of weeks ago we drove north to a part of Maine where no one lives and the only couple of roads are owned by paper companies. It is literally in the middle of the wilderness but there's a small State Park there. The only pictures I bothered to take were the two below of a new friend we made along the way.

Mount Kineo

2014-06-22T09:59:00.000-04:00

In our pursuit of getting out State Park Passport book stamped at all the State Parks in Maine, yesterday we struck out for one that has been on my bucket list my whole life...Mount Kineo. The biggest reason I'd never been there is because for all intents and purposes Mount Kineo is an island in Moosehead Lake.
In its heyday Kineo was a summer destination for the very wealthy, those who take the summer off and spend it at a New England resort. There are a few of those remaining like Mount Washington in New Hampshire. You can click this link to see what the Mount Kineo Hotel looked like and also so you can compare the area then to the pictures I took yesterday with the hotel gone. (Wish I could have seen it)
So our journey began by driving an hour plus to Greenville, at the bottom of the enormous Moosehead Lake. Arriving at lunch time we just happened upon a food truck selling authentic French crepes. Authentic? Yes, the lady making them had a very distinct French Canadian accent, something not so uncommon in Maine.
Then we drove another 20 minutes up along the western side of Moosehead to the tiny town of Rockwood, which sits about halfway up the lake and is where you can catch the shuttle boat over to Kineo. These first few pics are taken from Rockwood.

It's not as difficult to get to this beautiful place as I thought. It's 10 bucks apiece for a roundtrip ticket to the island, about 10 minutes each way. Yes, after a 15 minute walk to the bottom of the trailhead up the mountain, up indeed we did go. I am so proud of Shelly because she did climb this sucker with me. The following pictures are taken by yours truly at various vantage points along the rim looking back onto the spit of land where the hotel once stood and now has some very nice private summer residences and a little golf course.

Looking back at Rockwood

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention that we saw many Peregrine falcons soaring along these cliffs. Once I saw seven of them together. The last couple of photos were taken from spots where I was able to look down on the falcons flying. Alas, I could never get them on film.
The last picture from yesterday is taken from the deck of the clubhouse while having a well-deserved beer.

As a bonus for you, if you'd like more, go below the fold and see a few pictures we took last weekend at Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde. You may recognize this lighthouse if you've ever seen a little-known movie called Forest Gump.

Last being the quaint old general store in Port Clyde. When you see this, you're looking at the whole village.

Downeast

2014-05-31T07:20:00.000-04:00

If you've been following my travelogues, you know that what has precipitated some of these trips around Maine is that we (Shelly and I) picked up a State Park Passport, a little booklet that has the State Parks divided by regions of the State with a place to get each park stamped when you visit. You may also know that Shelly loves lighthouses...in fact, has a tattoo on her foot of the West Quoddy Light, even though she'd never seen it in person.
Well, there are five State Parks in what is referred to as Downeast Maine. So we decided to make a weekend of collecting those five and visit some lighthouses and Campobello (you've heard of Campobello, right?) So we packed our real passports, made reservations at a B&B in Lubec for Saturday night and headed out.
I'll start at the end first: On the way home Sunday we had planned on visiting the last two State Parks near Machias and taking a quick detour to Prospect Harbor and Winter Harbor to see another lighthouse. Well, there's also a lighthouse on a little island just offshore in Cutler. So I decided to take the scenic route to Machias via Cutler to see if we might be able to see that lighthouse from the shore. Unfortunately, I ran over something that cut a tire, which cut the rest of our weekend off right there. So we'll have to go back down there again. No bigs since Shel would like to go whale watching anyway.
So I'm just going to write a quick outline of our tour and post a shitload of pictures in the order they were taken. Our first stop was at Cobscook State Park in Dennysville on the western shore of Cobscook Bay. Nice spot for camping and I took a couple pictures there...nothing too spectacular. Then on to Shackford Head State Park in Eastport. We hiked a half mile to the head and took a few pictures with a nice shot of Lubec across the bay. Eastport and Lubec are about three miles apart as the crow flies across the bay but 35 miles apart by car. I took a few pictures in Eastport and we had lunch at The Happy Crab...the best lobster rolls ever.
Then back around the loop through Dennysville to get to Lubec and cross the international bridge onto Campobello Island, New Brunswick. There's a lighthouse, Mulholland Light, just on the other side of the bridge where you can look back at the village of Lubec across the channel. There's also a little lighthouse right in the channel, the Lubec Channel Light aka The Sparkplug. It's a caisson style lighthouse and you'll see a couple of distant pictures of it.
We hustled to the other end of the island because to get to see East Quoddy Headlight aka East Harbour Light, you need to go at low tide because at high tide it sits on an island and you can't walk to it. This is the Bay of Fundy, where tides change by 20 feet. You'll see from the pictures what an excursion it was to get to what is arguably the prettiest lighthouse you'll ever see. You'll see pictures not only of the lighthouse but also of all the ladders, staircases, bridge and rocks you have to navigate. Every picture of a staircase is a different staircase.
Then we headed back toward Lubec, stopping for a tour of FDR's family summer "cottage." Lots of history there and well worth a trip. We then checked into our B&B and went to the village to find some grub.
The next morning we went to West Quoddy Lighthouse and walked a trail along the cliff shore. You'll get a good perspective of the rocky coast of Maine and you can see the Island of Grand Manan, NB in the background. (Maybe another trip?) You already know what happened after that. I hope you enjoy these pictures. Make sure you click into them to really appreciate how beautiful this area at the easternmost area of the United States really is.
You'll have to click the following page break to get to the pictures.

You're looking at Lubec from Shackford Head in the next couple.

This is Eastport.

That's Campobello in Canada across the water behind the statue in downtown Eastport.

Crossing the International Bridge and that's Mulholland Light.

The next few are taken at Mulholland Light, some looking at the bridge or back across the channel at Lubec. Can you find The Sparkplug?

From the ferry landing on Campobello looking back across to Eastport

A step-by-step tour of East Harbour Lighthouse in the Bay of Fundy.

FDR's summer cottage.

That's Eastport across the water from FDR's backyard.

Across the bay looking at Eastport from our room at the B&B in Lubec.

The Sparkplug

West Quoddy Lighthouse and State Park

I hope you like lighthouses

2014-05-18T11:41:00.001-04:00

I hope you like lighthouses because this post will be pictures of lighthouses that we visited last year, and also because we're going on a little road trip next weekend to the easternmost points in the US and crossing over into Canada to see Campobello. But you'll have to wait for that until next weekend.

I threw one in of the ferry that took us from Lincolnville on a 15 minute ride to the island of Isleboro, where the first thing you see upon arrival is the above lighthouse.
This is an island that's in the mouth of Penobscot Bay and apparently where John Travolta has a house.

This is Brown's Head Light on the Island of Vinalhaven. It's owned by the town and is the residence for the Town Manager. That land you see in the background is the island of North Haven. Some day I'll take the ferry there.

These four pictures are of the Bass Harbor Light on the southern tip of Mount Desert Island, where Acadia National Park sits. Shel and I were there last spring, I think.

Click on the picture of look between the trees.

These are of the lighthouse at Owl's Head near Rockland or taken from inside the lighthouse looking, one, back toward Rockland and, two, out towards Vinalhaven.

Taken of the Rockland Breakwater Light from the ferry on my way out to Vinalhaven. You could also walk the breakwater to get to this.
And these last few are taken of the Fort Point Light and bell tower in Stockton Springs last summer, with a Shelly cameo, of course.

Oops, and a Zeb finger cameo

Just sharing some pics around Maine

2014-05-08T18:19:00.001-04:00

So looking at the last blog post before Portsmouth and looking at what pictures there are on my phone since, I see a few you might like from little day trips last summer and fall, and a couple thrown in that I've taken while working.
I get to see some tremendous sights while working but I won't take pictures of views from someone's backyard, even if they're never around, which I'm sure you can understand. I'll describe each of these and where they are.

This is a work photo. Taken from Vinalhaven, an island, looking down the Fox Thoroughfare, which runs between Vinalhaven and the island of North Haven. This tiny lighthouse just sits on a rock. It can be rented for the weekend.

Speaking of Vinalhaven, how about a lobstah trap Christmas tree near the ferry landing.

Again, from Vinalhave, two pics taken of a tiny little private cove on a remote section of the island.

Taken at the Sunken Bridge and reversing falls area of Blue Hill. That's Shelly.

The Deer Isle/Stonington Bridge, taken from the Deer Isle side. The other side is Sedgwick. So you'd think it'd be called the Sedgwick/Deer Isle Bridge, but it's a bridge to the island of Deer Isle, which has two towns -- Deer Isle and Stonington.

Finally, for now (I've got enough to do another just of lighthouse pics), more in Central Maine. These four were taken around Skowhegan and the Kennebec River, including the wire walking bridge, the "famous Indian", the truly famous old Lakewood Theater with a Shelly cameo.

Portsmouth NH

2014-05-04T14:27:00.000-04:00

Sorry that I haven't been using this and will try to go back and do some posts filling in some of our other travels since the last post.
As you may have seen on BoSox Tavern, Shel and I finished our weekend with a Sox game at Fenway. You can read about that part of the trip on that blog post. The trip idea did begin with me deciding and buying Sox tickets but then we decided, since neither of us had spent anytime in Portsmouth -- a quaint little city we'd heard plenty about -- that we'd take a day off from work, drive down that far and spend the day and night before going to Fenway.
If you get the chance, do yourself a favor and spend a day in Portsmouth. It is a quaint, beautiful little city that has retained much of its history, from so many houses and downtown buildings built over the centuries, to Strawberry Banke, a living history city block.
There are a couple dozen buildings in Strawberry Banke with character actors in many, showing how life would've been there (the original name of Portsmouth) over the last few centuries.
Another piece of history is the Memorial Bridge, where we were lucky enough to see it in action from the city park.

We started our visit with a detour to see the lighthouse in Newcastle (she loves lighthouses), which sits inside a Coast Guard station that was part of an old fort protecting the area. This is where most, if not all of my photos were taken. We finished our sightseeing day with a fabulous dinner at a Latin American/Spanish fusion restaurant called Brazo and a wonderful rest at a boutique hotel made from an old downtown mansion called The Hotel Portsmouth.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.

took this one from one part of the old fort

you can see part of the old fort in the foreground

Look closely, that little knob just left of the lighthouse is another small one way in the distance on an island

Shel by a sign describing one of the oldest houses in NH

Memorial Bridge

Looking back across the Piscataqua River, across an island and you can see the Navy Yard and the old naval prison

Happy birthday to me

2013-08-18T15:32:00.000-04:00

Spent a nice day with my sweetie doing a little sightseeing, checking another park off our State Park Passport and getting beat at putt putt golf (by just one stroke). Now watching some Nascar and relaxing. Hope you have a great August 18 also and enjoy the pictures.

Old Fort Halifax in Winslow

Bridge plate and look at the Sebasticook River as it meets the Kennebec River

Train tressel across the Sebasticook

Fort Halifax from the train tressel

Across the Kennebec to the old Hathaway shirt factory

Closer shot with the Waterville/Winslow bridge on the right. Can also see the rapids and another train tressel

Bangor and Augusta

2013-05-22T20:31:00.000-04:00

This is really just a place to share some photos but to also share a little love for the 3rd and 4th biggest (using that term loosely) cities in Maine. So just a little background: After coming back from our great weekend in Providence, Shel and I wanted to go out to a nice restaurant in Bangor and WE FOUND ONE, a New American Cuisine place on lower Hammond Street called Fiddleheads. You may have seen my shares on FB and Foursquare, so I won't repeat it but the food was first rate, as good as found in a much bigger city; and the staff was wonderful.
Before our reservations we took a couple hours to walk Downtown Bangor, which I'm quite familiar with having worked there a lot but Shel had not really been.

Hannibal Hamlin statue

Public Enemy #1

I don't have any so-called skyline pictures but I did notice on Friday coming back home from Surry, driving up 1A and then 395, crossing the bridge on 395 between Brewer and Bangor that if you could get up there, you could get an awesome picture of the Penobscot River in front of the Bangor skyline. There's got to be another place. That would be a great panorama picture, which will be my segue to share yesterday's time in Downtown Augusta.
Yesterday we went to dinner at the Riverfront BBQ in Augusta, which has a great bar upstairs called the Gin Mill. We ate upstairs, had a drink with the owner and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Before we got to the restaurant I took a few pics of downtown, two of them with my new panorama app, which will explain the awkward nature of those pics.

Key Bank bldg. from one block above Water St

Kennebec River bridge from downtown

Old Federal building

There's a block of downtown behind this picture. That's the Key Bank building again on the distant left and there's another half dozen blocks of downtown beyond. The entrance to the restaurant is that glass area that goes all the way to the sidewalk in the left foreground. A great spot for a skyline shot of Augusta would be from that bridge and that one, unlike 395, has a sidewalk. Hmmmm.

PS I actually took a picture yesterday from that 395 bridge over the Penobscot River between Bangor and Brewer looking toward the Bangor skyline but it didn't come out well. Maybe because I was driving (shhhh), maybe because downtown is at least a half mile from this bridge and also due in part because of Todd's nose smudges on the passenger window. I'll try again. It would make a nice picture if it could be gotten.

Texas with the boys

2013-05-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, a very good friend and his family moved from NH to TX a year ago. This late winter he sent an email to four of us asking that since the Red Sox would be in Arlington the first weekend in May, how would we feel about coming down for that weekend. All four of us immediately said we were in.
There's a fair bit to tell but I don't want to bore y'all, so I'll try to summarize the highlights as briefly as possible. I need to start out by telling you that I personally had not flown since returning home from SoCal in 1988, partly due to my love of roadtrips and in equal measure since they banned smoking on airplanes but I wasn't going to miss this get-together and I couldn't roadtrip it with my limited time off in my "new" job. It's not that you have to go without a smoke for a 5 hour trip; it's that you need to add in the time to get through security before boarding and add in the layover since the vast majority of airports these days don't have a smoking area. So Ell and I get to Portland on time, get through security pretty smoothly (though he forgot he had a saline bottle in his bag LOL) and were off to wait to board the flight to Chicago. Well, we noticed one big band of nasty weather in the Midwest and soon heard that our flight was delayed, followed shortly by the announcement that we wouldn't make our connecting flight in Chicago to Dallas (nice way to help the smoker deal with his addiction!) So we got on the plane and were told they'd take our info and get us rerouted. When we landed in Chicago (a nonsmoking airport), folks lined up to try to get info about our leg to Dallas but we noticed that the screens were saying that flight hadn't left yet and we had plenty of time to get on it. So we made the decision to hustle way over to where that flight was board and made it in plenty of time. Luckily for us they had never taken us off that flight. End of airport and smoking stories...suffice to say I'm proud of how well I handled it.
We arrived in Dallas around the same time that TJS did and soon found AA and my brother who were there to pick us up. We proceeded to Ranch AA, after a short stop at Tom Thumb for critical supplies, where we commenced to catch up, drink and eat lots of cow and pig. AA grilled us some awesome burgers for a late lunch and we then awaited the brisket and pulled pork he'd been smoking all day. Man, was it worth the wait. Forgot to mention that we flew on Friday and the game was scheduled for Saturday night.
Saturday we had a relaxing morning and then struck out for Grapevine to eat some real Texas chili at a place AA was familiar with (hopefully the name will come to me as I write.) Grapevine is a tourist town, for lack of a better description, a town that's maintained it's old Texas downtown look and is littered with little artist shops and restaurants. Stevie Ray Vaughn played at the chili place when he was still a teen. I can't begin to tell you how good that chili was. "Real Texas chili" doesn't have any tomato base or beans, though beans are an option. It's just meat and spices. Good time to share a few pics I took in Grapevine. Tolbert's!

TJS searching for espresso

The next leg of our journey was on to the ballgame, Red Sox at Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington. I've already written about that on BoSox Tavern. So I won't bore you with that again. If you haven't read that, you go do so through this link where you'll find a write-up and pictures. What you won't see in that piece is that after watching the Bruins/Leafs game on the DVR and all the sissies had gone to bed, AA and I stayed up all night drinking, talking movies and watching "Django Unchained," which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
Now on to Sunday, our last day there since we were all flying out Monday morning. Our tee times at Champions Golf Club in Justin were for 9:00, which came really early for yours truly who got only a little over an hours sleep thanks to the above-mentioned night in AA's House of Pain. I had been dreading the golf to some extent because I don't play nearly often enough to play well enough to enjoy it. Well, I'm very glad I went. The course was pretty forgiving and I played well enough to have a very good time. Bro, myself and Ell played in a threesome and TJS and AA played with a couple of AA's new friends in a foursome right behind us. I'd share my scorecard but I didn't play THAT well. After an adult beverage at the 19th hole, we went back to AA's to relax for a bit before we struck out on the final leg of an awesome weekend.
We had reservations for 6:00 at the famous H3 Ranch Steakhouse in the old Stockyard area of Fort Worth but we left early enough to look around the stockyard area and have a drink at the historic White Elephant Saloon, where I took a picture and bought a cool-looking t-shirt. I'll let you decide whether to click the links to learn more about these cool places.

But it's the first time I've smoked inside a public place in many years -- had to have one just for old time's sake -- and we learned about the history of the saloon and took in lots of eye candy. Then it was on to H3, where we actually ended up eating in the saloon side called Booger Red's, where you'll see a much better picture of the place than the one I took. At the link you can better see the critters on the wall. I'll tell you, we ate lots and lots of cow at H3, yours truly and one other having rib-eye and the others porterhouse. Throw on top of that a couple of awesome appetizers and goblets of grog and we left well satiated.

With full bellies and having run almost nonstop for 3 days, we were mostly too pooped to do much more than go back to AA's, get to bed and get up early to catch our flights out. I can tell you that we'll have to do this again real soon...maybe Bruins at Stars this time?

Providence, RI

2013-03-31T21:29:00.000-04:00

We had been talking for awhile about doing a get-away weekend in Providence, a city I'd always heard about for its history and more lately its food but I'd never been (went to a ballgame in Pawtucket, which is very close). So when I heard the NCAA hockey regionals were going to be played there (another bucket list item), it seemed the perfect time to go.

We had a fabulous but way too short weekend there, which really amounted to about 24 hours. We walked around the city, which is small enough to easily walk around in three spurts over a 24 hour period. Like some other cities, Providence has some painted lines on the sidewalks that related to different trails of interest throughout the city. We walked a good bit of the Green Line, which gets you around to see many of the historical sites in the city.

The one thing we missed was being able to take a gondola ride (how romantic!) down the canal. It doesn't start running each year until the end of April, first of May. The weather was good enough Saturday (in the 50s) to have been comfortable on a gondola ride.

But the food (AWWW THE FOOD!) was the big story: The first place we stopped at was a place called Luxe Burger, where you can build you own. I was tempted to try to beat their challenge and earn a T-shirt (look at the picture below) but we had a nice dinner planned for the evening and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Around 4:00 we decided to go downstairs in the Biltmore (we stayed at the famous old Biltmore) where there was a nice seafood restaurant with a bar to have a cocktail. We ended up have Happy Hour appetizers -- I had mussels. Then we had a 7:00 reservation at a "new American" restaurant called Local 121, an upscale modern restaurant that uses all local ingredients. I would love to describe my meal but my entrée was a special that is not on the online menu and I can't remember the ingredients...suffice to say it had a few I'd never heard of. It was a porkchop (seems ridiculous to call it a porkchop) and it was devine, as was my bacon wrapped scallop appetizer. Shelly hopefully will describe her meal in the comments but I will include the restaurant links.
Finally, still being full in the morning, we didn't eat until brunchtime and we decided to go to a chain finally, one I'd never been to, The Cheesecake Factory. I was very impressed with my meal, an appetizer of Vietnamese tacos and a Navajo sandwich. Bought two slices of cheesecake as we left; one for more darling daughter, Kim, who dogwatched Todd while we were gone. She told me hers was yummy, a vanilla bean slice and mine is still sitting in the frig.

Then there was the NCAA Northeast Regional game last night. You can read about that at BoSox Tavern. Enjoy the pics below:

Out our hotel window at the neat old roof of City Hall

My darling, then the canal and then the Capitol

County Courthouse

The very first Baptist Church in the US

Across yet another canal at a neat building but I forgot what it is

City Hall with the Biltmore behind

Thought this was a neat shot down the canal of that bridge with windmills

From Luxe Burger...maybe next time but my Kobe beef bacon cheeseburger was excellent

State Capitol building

The Turkey Chaser strikes again!

2012-12-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

I finally had the opportunity and presence of mind to get my phone ready to videotape Todd chase turkeys. I was about to go outside and put away some firewood when I saw two of them at the back of the garden and another half-dozen in the back left corner of the backyard.

I apologize ahead of time for the fact that you can't really see the turkeys fly away. If there's a zoom on this thing, I didn't know where it was when I needed it. As the camera pans to the left, you can see one of them start to take flight but there's at least 6 more ahead of him flying towards the trees on the left. The dark background of the trees is why you can't see them, but some are a good 20 feet off the ground flying all the way to the trees at the back of the field.

He loves to chase them, as long as he knows it's okay and he'll stop when you tell him to if necessary. But as you can see in this clip, he doesn't have to see them to chase them. He takes off around the right side of the garden when the turkeys are elsewhere. And he wasn't as aggressive in his pursuit this time as usual, and you'll see why at the end of the clip. Hope you enjoy this nonetheless.

Zebster-1 Brambles-0

2012-10-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

before

After I'd hacked down 1/4

I've had this "mission" in mind for a couple of years, hacking down my mother's raspberry and blackberry patch. The raspberries have not been doing well lately and the blackberry bushes are getting so tall they fall out into the yard and grab my ass when I'm mowing. Seriously, some are as tall as 12-15 feet. And to complicate things more, the whole patch is "overrun" with a kudzu type vine that's intertwined amongst these very prickly stalks, especially the blackberries. Some of the thorns are 1/4 inch long.

So with the help of my trusty implement of destruction, I started after it at about 9:00 this morning. After about two and a half hours, I was pretty much done but the patch was only 90% cleared. So with the help of another friend, see pic below, I managed to bull through to finish it. One end of the patch was about 12-15 feet wide and the other end was 25 feet wide, and it was probably 50 feet long. I should probably say that we'll check the final score of this battle in the morning, just in case it took a toll on my back. Stiff right now but should be fine.

implement of destruction

done

Deer-1 PT Cruiser-0

2012-10-13T09:32:00.001-04:00

This is a misnomer since the poor deer did get the worst of it but this is how I was feeling about the following incident yesterday as I posted it to Facebook. What follows is my explanation of what happened after I got home last night, followed by a few pictures that I just took this morning.

The deer hit me instead of me hitting it, 5 seconds after I'd avoided her boyfriend who'd run across in front of me. She glanced off the middle passenger's side, then hit the rear part of the rear wheel well and bumper pretty hard. She laid in the road for 5 minutes trying to get up while I was directing traffic and calling the police. Then she completely laid down, thought she was dead; but when I got to her, she walked back onto the lawn she came from and stood there for 5 minutes, looking like she was going to give up at times, then she laid down and after a few minutes put her head down.. So I finally had a chance to walk back and quickly look at my car. I looked at it for 60 seconds, looked back and she was gone. I went to the tree line and couldn't see her. The officer came, and he and I and another guy spent 15 minutes combing the woods for her, to no avail. So I have a dented car and no deer meat. Hopefully she's in better shape than she looked. I'm thinking her hooves hit the side of the car, which caused her to fall towards the rear wheel well. Instead of a broken neck, maybe a concussion and shoulder injury. (probably wishful thinking)

You can see my squatting reflection taking this pic better than you can see the scratches from her hooves but they're there.

From the last 3 pictures you can see the back part of the wheel well is folded over, the bumper is knocked back and out towards the picture, and there's a hole in the inside wheel well. So the combination of those things is going to make that hole and back bumper act like a sail going down the road. There's also a piece missing out of the hub cap.

Popham Beach to Reid State Park

2012-10-07T08:11:00.000-04:00

Despite a weather forecast that predicted, at best, overcast and windy weather and likely rain in the afternoon, we (being yours truly and his two best friends) struck out to do some sightseeing at parks on the coast of Maine, specifically at the mouth of the Kennebec River. As it turns out, the weather was much better than predicted. It only got windy and a little cold at our last stop, which served to make the ocean waves more dramatic crashing on the rocky coast.
As I've done before, you can see all of the pictures I took yesterday at the link, and I'll share a representative shot of each place we went. Mixed in between we found a neat hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Downtown Bath for lunch (hole in the wall in the sense that the place was maybe 12 feet wide with a counter against one wall that sat four people and a two-person table in the corner) and finished our day with Blizzards from DQ on the way back through Bath.

Popham Beach State Park above at low tide. This shot is taken along the beach but I took others looking out toward the ocean but I've never been anywhere where the beach, meaning the sand, was so wide, upwards of a 1/4 mile at low tide.

Fort Baldwin, with three batteries and a tall observation tower. I took a couple of shots standing atop these batteries looking toward the ocean but the trees are now in the way. Back in the day you would've been able to see for miles. If the trees hadn't been in the way, I would've been able to take pictures of Fort Popham, which replaced Baldwin, that lies between this fort and the coast.

Standing on the site of the Popham Colony looking eastward over the bay. The first ship built in what is now the United States was built here, called The Virginia. The entrance to Fort Baldwin is behind me by a couple hundred feet.

Fort Popham, where I also took some pictures looking out toward the ocean. I think these old forts are kinda neat.

Reid State Park, where I took several pictures of the coast. They came out pretty good, I think, particularly of the little old bridge near the entrance. At the end of the pictures you'll see three taken at a place near Reid State Park called Todd's Landing, named after our furry, four-legged friend -- well, not really but it's a pretty place.

A trip around Franklin County, Maine

2012-09-24T18:07:00.003-04:00

I may have mentioned this in a previous post but Shel and I picked up a "passport" at one of the State parks when we were out sightseeing -- you find the lock box at State park, the combo is in the book, unlock the box and stamp your passport. So this past Saturday we struck out to collect three of these in the northwestern part of the state, with a few little detours along the way. Of course we brought our four-legged furry friend with us.
I shared these on FB but not all of my friends are on there and since this blog isn't used nearly often enough by yours truly, I thought this a good excuse to use the blog and share the pics. I'm getting better at taking pics with my new smartphone, which I love by the way and would highly recommend, especially to anyone getting one for the first time and already accustomed to Microsoft products. Mine is an HTC Windows phone. You can see all the pics at this link (let me know if you can't) and I'll share a couple samples below as well.

Small's Falls, near Madrid, ME.

Mooselookmeguntic Lake (yes, that's a place)

Weld General Store, about to get her first Moxie!

My two best friends, at Mt Blue State Park in Weld, ME.

Gentlemen of the Road

2012-08-05T07:59:00.000-04:00

Several months ago my daughter had turned me on to Mumford & Sons and it's no surprise I like this band given how much I like folk music, rock music and harmonies. Well, several weeks ago I just happened to get an email from a ticket service hinting that there was going to be a rare show coming to Portland around the same time I heard mention of a rumor that Mumford was going to be coming to the States. I mentioned this to my daughter, who was excited; and I told if she could get tickets when they went on sale, I'd pay for them.
Well, the rumors were true and the tour was rare, not only in makeup but in number of stops -- only four in the US. Click on this Gentlemen of the Road link to learn more about the tour. The tickets themselves are unique because they're like passports, with multiple pages describing the show and places to get stamps of each of the bands playing, and a beautiful plastic, almost holographic ticket inside. Best of all, when the tour is over, you have a code for a free download of an "album" created from the live performances of this tour. Oh, then to add more anticipation, just a couple of weeks before the show it was announced that the Dropkick Murphys would also be on this stop as well as headlining an aftershow concert at the State Theater. This tour selected unique cities and venues to do these shows; and the shows are like festivals -- outdoors with multiple bands on two stages playing all day and early evening, followed by multiple shows that evening at intimate indoor venues...in this case in the quaint and historic Old Port area of Portland. (We never intended to go to these but in my younger days, maybe)
On to the show: Shel and I get to Portland to meet up with my daughter and her boyfriend who arrived earlier in the day. The whole Eastern Promenade area of Portland was closed off. So we chose to park at a garage near the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, which was offering free rides on the line that runs up the bay to the Eastern Promenade and the show. As it turns out, immediately after turning onto Fore Street to get the parking garage there was a parking lot advertising $6 parking all day. Woo hoo! So we had a couple of blocks more to walk to the museum...no bigs, it was a perfect Maine August day.
At the museum we learned about the narrow gauge railroad history in Maine, looked around the museum and got onto a couple of cars...not a bad way to kill an hour waiting for my daughter to arrive, only 3 bucks apiece. Then at 1:00 we hopped onto one of the renovated old cars being pulled by these little engines and rode up along the beautiful harbor to the show. (there will be pictures!)
We arrive at the venue and what a gorgeous place for a concert...high on a hill that overlooks the bay. We had a great time listening to the bands and enjoying each others' company. My daughter is now 21 and these moments don't get to happen that often, which was really the whole point for me in going. The show itself was mostly secondary. Good thing because it wasn't managed well by whomever. The lines to everything were insufferably long. There weren't nearly enough vendors and the layout was not conducive to freedom of movement. So you had a situation where there's hours-long lines to everything with people having to walk through those lines to get anywhere. I don't know what they (whoever they were) were thinking when they laid it out the way they did. But the music was excellent and the company even better.

AND SHELLY TOOK THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS:

the conductor

Yarmouth Clam Festival

2012-07-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

The Yarmouth Clam Festival is one of the best known and popular summer festivals in Maine, and I've always managed to remember it was happening either the weekend of or the weekend after it happened. So I had never been until last weekend because I'd decided this year I was going come hell or high water.
To be honest, I'm not sure what the big deal is...it's a festival like most others -- yes, there's clams and lots of them but, other than that, it's just way too crowded. It's held in downtown Yarmouth, a small, quaint southern Maine town, which is great; the problem is that they don't close Main Street. So thousands of people are walking on the sidewalks because the street's not closed and the tents are on the other side of the sidewalk from the street. It would be much more enjoyable if it were held in a park or someplace a little more open so that you didn't always have to be wading into endless waves of people.
We did have a good time for a few hours (the shuttle bus service is a major plus) -- did I mention the clams? We looked at some nice artisan stuff -- loved some stuff by a guy who was reusing old wood from torn down old mills, for instance, and turning it into furniture; and I did buy Shel a nice picture of a lighthouse. (She has the particulars and maybe I can get her to take a picture of it to share) Basically he took a shot of a lighthouse with water between himself and the light, then made the whole picture black and white except for the reflection of the lighthouse in the water in the middle of the picture...very well worth the 50 bucks. And I did buy a t-shirt, which you'll see in the photos below. You'd have a good time but how good is dependent on how much you hate crowds...waves of them, and you'll love the clams.

Yours truly, waiting...

The street was closed for the parade only. New t-shirt, yellow and purple

A Day of Sightseeing

2012-05-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

Shel and I had originally planned on going sightseeing on Saturday, since the weather report was great for the whole weekend; but then the weather report seemed to show Saturday might be iffy, we were missing my cousin's daughter's graduation party and we could use a day to chill first. So we decided we would do our sightseeing on Sunday and that decision was rewarded with perfect weather -- in Maine that means sunny, in the high 70s and very little humidity.
We wanted to get out and enjoy the outdoors and also be able to take our furry, four-legged friend with us. So we chose to go to Fort Knox, Maine, to look around the fort and also for me to ride up to the observation tower of the new Penobscot Narrows cable stay bridge near Bucksport.

Observation deck at the top of one of the towers holding up the new bridge

Todd and me at the entrance to Fort Knox

The photos taken from the tower were taken by yours truly, the rest were taken by Shel, who got tired of taking photos. So I have none to share with you from the second half of our trip, which was to take her around some of the cute coastal towns I'd been working in lately, show her some of the great views of Penobscot Bay and visit Holbrook Island Sanctuary, a small state park in Brooksville, ME. I do agree though, how many photos of the beautiful coast of Maine can you share without getting boring.
All three of us had a very good time, one of the highlights being to grab lunch at a little seasonal stand called Bagaduce Lunch, which is located on the town line between Penobscot and Brooksville, overlooking an inlet of Penobscot Bay that becomes a little river separating the two towns. I do wish we had snapped a shot there. I had the obligatory and expensive (10 bucks) lobster roll and Shel had the haddock sandwich, which was basically a whole haddock between two buns. Great stuff!
If you would like to see the remainder of the photos we took and I encourage you to do so, you can see them at the following link. They include photos I took from the observation tower and those that Shel took of the fort and the area around the bridge, including this one:

Old and new bridges, looking from Fort Knox toward Verona Island

Oh, the Maine Park Service has this little booklet that's free that has a page for every state park, where you can add your attendance stamp. We crossed off two this day and plan on trying to visit many of the others. Maybe we'll share more photos later. Please let me know in the comments if you cannot access the rest of the photos. They're at Facebook but my account is open. You should be able to see them.

Looking Up

2012-04-08T16:49:00.001-04:00

The barn at the family farm --
symbolic and relevant

As a testament to the philosophy that, if you just keep grinding in life, good things will eventually happen or at the very least turn around for the better, I give you the first quarter of 2012.
After a completely horrible 2010, I never would have thought 2011 would be even worse but it, in fact, was, having spent the entire year unemployed. While there is a certain freedom in not working, it is not something I recommend. Not knowing when that job will finally come is a harrowing experience.
So enough of the past, which I've never had much problem forgetting luckily, and on to the future. The turnaround began with finding a job I could afford to take, which was doubly lucky given the fact I would've had to take it anyway since my WC was running out; but other than the fact I had to drive 60 plus miles to get to this job, it paid enough to pay my bills. In the midst of that happening I got the love of my life back and that relationship has never been better. If you know me, you know how important to my happiness that development is.
Those of you who know me know the bitter details of all the things that happened over the last couple years (and you all deserve thanks for the support) and so you know how far down that was and how far back up it is with just those two things happening. Now add to that that two weeks ago a much better job fell in my lap, which I will start tomorrow. Not only does it have a significant pay increase, it does not involve selling anything. I'm very much looking forward to it.
The icing on the cake is that I became a grandfather for the first time a few days ago (yes, I'm still not sure how I feel about that LOL), though I suspect I'll warm up to the idea -- having a grandson, that is, not the getting old part. Also, my daughter, son-in-law and grandson will soon be moving into the family farm that has been in my family for generations. Knowing that your children are healthy, happy and grounded in the family tradition is arguably the most important of all.

Me and PJ, taken at the family farm.

If you look to the left of the barn, you'll see a canopy of sumac trees. That was cut down last fall and yesterday I threw it all into one brush pile to burn later. I'll try to use this blog a little more often to update on my projects around the farm, which will include a family get-together area using the foundation of the old silo that used to sit where you see that canopy, and the progress of the next generation moving in.

An Evening with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

2011-11-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

If you're unfamiliar with Gillian Welch, go back and listen to the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou," and you'll hear her throughout that soundtrack. I have always been a fan of bluegrass but really never completely fell deeply in love with it until I heard Gillian's dark take on the genre.
I saw her and her longtime partner, David Rawlings, at The State Theater in Portland last night and enjoyed myself immensely. As always seems to happen when I go to events, there's a funny anecdote to tell, which I'll get to in a bit. The above song is one of my very favorites of hers and they did play it last night. Their version of "Long Black Veil" is my favorite, amongst many great versions of this classic song. I love Johnny's and Lefty's too but her haunting, dark voice always does it for me. I would also strongly urge you to listen to "Orphan Girl" as another example of their style, her voice and her dark, intimate lyrics; or "Sing that Rock N Roll" for an example of them at their Appalachian rockabilly best.

Yes, these are often passionate songs of religious devotion and I'm an atheist, always will be, but she touches me deeply nonetheless. I like gospel music also -- surprise, surprise.

The anecdote: I went alone, spent 30 bucks on a ticket that put me at the very back, dead center in this intimate little theater that is familiar to every small city in the country. My seat was the center one of five and when I sat down for the first time, I couldn't believe how little room there was between my seat and one in front of me. I'm not quite 5-10 and I had to have my legs in a V to keep from having my legs severely scrunched against the seatback. Well finally along comes the couple who'll be sitting to my left, a nice couple who drove down from St. John, NB, to see the show. We'll call them Nancy and Paul, short for Paul Bunyan. There was nothing short about this guy. He was 6-7 at least and the only way for him to get in his seat was to have his V so wide his knees were halfway into my spot. I sat for 3 or 4 songs with my left leg just below the knee resting on the top of the seatback in front (luckily the lady in that seat was leaning forward the whole time) and it quickly cut into my flesh. The theater was sold out, so Paul was unable to go lay down in the aisle. Finally after those first few songs I had the brilliant idea to sit on the top of my seat in its collapsed position. It was as uncomfortable as it sounds, with the seat front cutting into my buttocks but I can tell you it was enormously more comfortable than actually sitting in the seat. Paul did the same and was very thankful for my idea. After intermission we stood up behind our seats against the back wall.

The State Theater has been renovated since the last time I was there and it looks great. One thing you don't often get at a concert venue of this type and size is a full bar. So I had myself a little nip of Johnny Walker Black as I enjoyed the show. Don't think about going out for a butt during intermission though...no re-entry. Oh, and I had a couple of slices of pie before the show at Otto Pizza just a block away...quite yummy, though I did notice a tapas restaurant right across from the theater after I'd already eaten. I would have loved to have tried that.

Ode to the Maine Italian Sandwich

2010-06-10T11:01:00.000-04:00

Since it is universally accepted that the Maine Italian sandwich's origins are in Portland, ME and Giovanni Amato, I've included a link to Amato's website, which has a great picture of the sandwich (you can leave the olives off mine, thank you) on the front page and a link to the history of the sandwich. So I won't bother to repeat it here; but it's called an Italian more because it was invented by an Italian than what's in it, which wouldn't necessarily strike you as Italian food.
My purpose here though is to baptize the uninitiated and to swap stories with the choir about our favorite version of the Italian and where we fondly remember getting the "best one around." It is true that you'd be hard pressed to go anywhere in Maine and not be able to find a very good one on the menu of any "corner store," as we tend to refer to mom & pop and general stores here in Maine; but we all have our favorite place, usually one near where we grew up. It is one of those things when we're away from Maine that make us think fondly and eagerly about returning.
A couple of childhood memories: I can remember my Aunt Polly in the '60s making dozens of Italians that seemed like they were going to a store for sale. I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old and that's my first memory of the Italian. I will have to do some research and find out what that was all about. The other memory is as an adolescent and teenager. I used to bowl in youth leagues in Pittsfield at Frenchy's and then at Pittsfield Bowling Center after school, and whenever I had the money I'd be over at Richie's getting a bite to eat, quite often an Italian. A couple of other places that may bring back memories is Sonny's and Whipper's in the Waterville Area.
Currently my favorite place is Franchetti's here in Livermore Falls (amazing how many places don't have websites!) -- it's actually just across the town line in Jay, and I have to say I've always been impressed with how fresh and abundant and tasty their food is, at the top of my list of great corner stores, right below The Maine Store in my hometown of Detroit.
Finally, for those who are unfamiliar, I'll tell you what ingredients you'll need to make an Italian of your own. Having just made one a few days ago, I wish I'd taken a picture to include here but alas that sandwich is long gone. You'll need a 12 inch soft sub roll sliced about 2/3 deep to stuff the ingredients in. Layer generous helpings of sliced ham or salami (or both), then American cheese, chopped onions and bell peppers, tomato slices, dill pickles (optional Greek olives) and then drizzle some oil on top, add salt and pepper. That's the traditional "recipe" but I'd love to hear about your favorite version.
Enjoy! Anyone want to suggest a favorite beer to wash that down with?

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T10:04:00.001-04:00

First off, let me ask all who read this to join in the National Moment of Remembrance today at 3PM, to honor in particular those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect this country and our freedom. Go to http://www.remember.gov/ to learn more.
Secondly, for those on Facebook, the White House has a great application where you can honor a random fallen soldier. I've been updating mine about every hour to honor another. Go to my profile to find the app.
You all know me to be not much of a "flag waver." I prefer to show my patriotism and respect in my own way, which tends to be with 100 percent sincerity and in my own words, as opposed to doing what others have made and decided is the right way to show patriotism. On this Memorial Day though please take some time to think about what sacrifices have been made, what it's meant to the families of those who made that sacrifice and what it's meant to our country. Also, try to take time to personally thank anyone you know who has served because without them as well this country would not be as free as it is and the ultimate sacrifice could have easily been theirs to bare.
Memorial Day is also a day to remember loved ones who are no longer with us. I tend to do this myself by remembering all the good times shared with them, what wonderful people they were and how much they meant to my life. I won't list all those I miss but will say a special remembrance to my daughter Jennifer Lee, who I never had the opportunity to get to know. Miss you, sweetheart. So while we remember and honor those who've served and those we've lost, let's cherish the time spent with them but also take advantage of the time we still have with those who are still with us. So how about just letting them know in some personal way that you're glad they're in your life.
(cross posted at Inside Zebster)