Saturday was “my” day, and it got off to a bit of a late start, which was all right since I did not have an ambitious day planned. I took Mer over to the nearby Bike and Hike Trail, which is an old now-paved railroad bed. While I run on the Bike and Hike fairly often, Mer had never been on it, so I wanted to show her one of the more interesting parts of the trail that I had seen.

The Bike and Hike goes through some pretty areas – it is mostly surrounded by trees, which makes it appealing to run on during hotter weather. About three miles away from our house is a small parking lot where one can pick up the trail, and about a mile from the parking lot, the trail cuts through some rather dramatic bedrock. It was to this rocky area I wanted to take Mer, so we walked to that section. It was sort of new to me since I was wearing my glasses, which I do not wear when I run. We did not rush, but it was still hot enough for us to get a bit sweaty.

We turned back once we got to the end of the rocky area. After that, the trail continues to be pretty, but in a lots-of-trees sort of way. We headed back to the car.

In the afternoon, I took Mer down to Canton to the cheap theater. I was taking a chance on a movie that I had never heard of, but one I thought Mer would like. It was called Monte Carlo, and all I knew was it was about three girls who fly to Paris, get mistaken for someone famous and her friends, and end up in Monte Carlo. I thought Mer would want to see all the beautiful shots of Paris and Monte Carlo, and I was right. She loved it. As a bonus, the movie itself was cute. It was warmly funny, and was fairly interesting. I do not think it will be nominated for an Oscar, but it was a fun movie with wonderful scenery.  Not too bad for three dollars.

Friday was a day that Mer and I felt we had been training for all of our lives. Our friends Matt and Clarice are getting married next spring, and are arranging the details of the wedding. As part of that, they wanted to sample different possibilities for the cake, and to that end, they ordered three sets of one dozen cupcakes as samples. Since, for some reason, they did not feel equal to eating thirty-six cupcakes by themselves, they used it as an opportunity to invite friends over, and asked for our feedback. Needless to say, Mer and I did not need to be asked twice.

Matt and Clarice moved a few weeks ago to a new townhouse. Mer and I used the GPS to find it, so we had no trouble. It is in a cute townhouse development that has a pond, and a walking track, and a good number of trees. The place is a two-story affair, with a good-sized common room and a kitchen downstairs. Clarice and Matt were allowed to paint, so they repainted with fun colors, and it turned out well. They also found a great deal on a huge kitty condo/climbing tree that Mer and I were jealous over. It was at least five feet high. It is cute and strange to be staring eye-level at a kitty.

In addition to Matt and Clarice and me and Mer, I think there were five other people, so it was a festive gathering. Matt and Clarice had also set out chips and pretzels, and while I am not usually tempted by those foods, these were really good, and I had more than my fair share. There were also, of course, the cupcakes. Mer and I both had all three kinds, just as a favor to Matt and Clarice.

There was a strawberry cupcake. This was good, but was not a filled cupcake. Since the other two cupcakes were filled with frosting, this one never really had a chance in our book. The second one I tried was a coconut-creme-filled cupcake that was excellent. That would make a fine cake. The last one was a fudge-filled cupcake. I was reserved on this one as a decent cupcake, until I hit the fudge filling. It was wonderful, and put that cupcake over the top for me. Mer liked the coconut-filled one slightly better, but we both agreed that either one would be fantastic.

The party itself was also a lot of fun. I got to see two former CVCA students whom I had not seen in some time, and it was good to catch up with them. Matt had The Sting playing on the TV all throughout the party, so we watched that some during the brief lulls in conversation. With all respect to Robert Redford, Paul Newman is the man.

Should anyone else ever need help with cupcake tasting, Mer and I now have valuable experience.

On Sunday, we had a fun occasion – the second eldest daughter of our friend and colleague Lesa was getting married. Chelsea had even done some substitute teaching at CVCA, and she had been at the school during my first few years. Mer and I love weddings, so we were excited to get to go.

The ceremony and reception were at a city park in North Canton. The ceremony was held outdoors, and was set up in a shady field. The chairs were all full, many of them occupied by people who work at CVCA. Again, it is much fun being part of a community.

The ceremony was simple – two musicians (guitar and violin), and one of Chelsea’s sisters sang some as well. Chelsea and her husband had met on “The Great Race,” which is a mission trip experience where the participants are in twelve countries in twelve months. Apparently, you get to know people really well, so the wedding party was huge – I think there were seven attendants on each side. Chelsea wore a very retro forties-style veil that I liked very much.

 The reception was held in the park’s enclosed pavilion. We got to sit with Craig and his daughter, Dubbs, Van, and two students. We ate too much and had a great time chatting. I had to get up early on Monday, so I left about 8:00. Dubbs said she would drive Mer home, so Mer stayed behind with Dubbs and got to laughing when the dancing started. Dubbs is not inhibited. Mer got home about an hour after I did, just was I was getting to bed. It is a little strange to see students getting married, but I’m glad we get invited. These days, there are not too many weddings of our peers for us to go to.

We left Maine Friday. It takes us about fourteen-plus hours to get home, so we break it into a long day and a short day. We said goodbye to Dad around 8:30 (Kellee was out of town at a friend’s house) and headed into Livermore Falls. That was not exactly on the way, but I wanted to stop by Food City, the local grocery store, and pick up a bunch of their excellent (and huge) whoopie pies to bring home. The idea was to eat some and to give some away. It was probably strange to the cashier to see someone buying fourteen whoopie pies at 9:00 in the morning, but it pleased me.

We headed over to Lewiston/Auburn, where we would pick up the Maine Turnpike. Before we hit the highway, though, we stopped at Roy’s restaurant for a late breakfast. Roy’s is best known for their stunningly good burgers and fries, but it was too early for that, so we gave their breakfast a chance. It was very good, and very cheap. Mer got an omelet special for $3.75.

We had a smooth drive in Maine, through New Hampshire, over Massachusetts, and into New York. We made it all the way to Holley, NY, which is a little past Rochester. We were staying at the Rosewood B and B, which Mer found online. Holley is a small town with a small main street, and the Rosewood was on a residential street. It was a huge old house, and very comfortable. It was in need of some paint here and there, but that was unimportant compared to the hospitality we received. We checked in, and then walked the three blocks to a diner for supper around 8:00.

After supper, we headed back to the room, where we broke into the whoopie pies and I put a DVD into my laptop. We watched the show and munched on dessert, and then turned in for the night around 10:00.

We were up and sitting on the expansive front porch the next morning around 8:00. We got to chatting with another couple. The man was a retired band teacher, and the woman taught accounting at a small college. They were very kind and asked after our school quite a lot. Breakfast was served at 8:30. It was excellent, and the chat at the table was friendly (there were six of us all together). We were back on the road around 9:30.

We got home mid-afternoon. The kitties were all fine, which was wonderful. We did have the typical welcome-home-from-vacation of cleaning up cat puke, sorting mail, mowing the grass, and other such chores that took up our first two hours home. After that, we did manage to relax some for the evening. We had a great trip, but it was good to be home again.

Thursday was our last day of touring in Maine, since we were leaving on Friday. It was still “my” day, so I got in the car with Mer and headed more or less due west, to near Bethel in the western mountains of Maine. We went to Grafton Notch State Park, and stopped at Screw Auger Falls just inside the park.

Screw Auger Falls is an impressive falls area with lots of trees and exposed bedrock. The stream is really small, and spreads out very much above the main falls so that it is really shallow. Then, it gets all crammed together and plunges into a pretty deep falls (maybe about fifty feet). The stream has carved out all kinds of fantastic rock shapes, and the stream below the falls is full of fair-sized rocks.

Mer and I made the climb down to the foot of the falls, which involved one or two tricky areas. Happily, we found another way out, since I was not sure how we would return the way we came, which involved a three-plus-foot drop that would have been hard to scramble up. The foot of the falls was really pretty, and we waded a little bit. The water was shallow but still really cold. We spent a fair amount of time down at the base, and then climbed back out by a steep but manageable path that took us to the main road, and we walked back to the car.

 We left the state park proper, and looked around for a parking lot for Step Falls, which was supposed to be really pretty. Mer saw a small parking lot with no sign, so we tried it, and it turned out to be correct. There were several cars and even a school bus in the lot, so we figured it must be worth seeing. We plunged into the woods, and started following the trail. The trail went over a lot of roots and some rocks, but it was well marked with blue blazes. Or so we thought. We followed the blazes until they ended at a stream, and there were some little falls there, but no good access to the water, and no people about. We turned back to the car, and I was disappointed.

Once back at the car, I saw the driver of the bus sitting next to the bus, reading. I asked him about the falls. He said he had never been, but had heard good things about the falls. He said we should have heard people since he had brought forty kids on the bus. So, we decided to try again. This time, we stayed away from the stream, and we discovered there were blazes here as well. We followed them about three quarters of a mile into the woods, and we finally found Step Falls.

It was worth the hike. Step Falls is just that – a series of falls and plateaus, with lots of pools of water that range from a few inches deep to a few feet. The whole area is surrounded by trees, and the trees frame an impressive view of a mountain. Mer and I scrambled up the rock to the penultimate falls, which we had to ourselves. There was a small sheltered area around the falls, so it felt as if we were alone. Mer dangled her toes, and I waded a bit and sat on the rock. I wanted to climb up to the top falls, but did not see a good way up that also offered a good way down. After awhile, the sun came out. I burn easily, so I jumped up on a rock near some trees for the shade. It was high enough that I could see the top of the falls.

It was an unexpected sight. Almost a mile into the Maine woods, in a remote falls area, were forty young women in bikinis. When the bus driver said he had brought forty kids, I had thought he meant little kids. These were all late high school or early college girls. It was a surreal sight. I sat down in the shade a little lower down and told Mer to go look up top. She came back and admitted it was a bizarre sight. She hit it when she described it as a beer commercial. A man came up with his wife and teen sons, and the father kept climbing while the wife rested. We had much fun narrating the event to ourselves (“What Bob does not realize is that we have replaced his usual boring beer….”). The man got to the top and then beat a hasty retreat back to his wife. Smart man.

We stayed at Step Falls for some time. It is a beautiful spot – maybe my favorite on this trip for shear tranquility. Even though there were people around, the falls area is big enough, and the flow of the water loud enough, to make you feel alone. I hope we can get back there next year.

 Late in the afternoon, it looked as if some rain was coming our way, so we made an efficient walk back to the car and headed home. We had done very well in making this trip to Maine an adventuresome one.

Wednesday was “my” day, and one of the more high-stakes days, since it was a high-risk/high-reward kind of day. We started off driving Route 4 through Farmington up to Rangeley. It was a pleasant drive, but not unusually breathtaking, which I was disappointed in, since Rangeley is beautiful. The Rangeley Lakes region has the rather large Rangeley Lake as well as lots of other smaller lakes and ponds, and it is in the heart of the western Maine mountains, so it is very pretty.

We got to Rangeley and walked down to the public landing and park area and enjoyed the view. But we were hungry, so we did not stay too long, but walked the very small downtown, and decided on eating a late breakfast at Mooseley Bagels. We got a table on the back porch overlooking the lake, which is a rather nice way to have breakfast.

I had a 1:00 appointment, but we had some time after breakfast, so we got back in the car and headed back out of town. I had seen two intriguing signs on the way in – one was for a state park, and another was a small sign pointing to the Cascade Gorge Trail. I was not sure which one to go see, but in the end the gorge won out. The parking lot was a small lot at the top of a very steep and rutted gravel road, so I was not sure how this would turn out. The lot was mostly full with four or five cars, but we found room to park. There was a three-generation family there, filming baby’s second “hike,” so I figured the trail could not be too hard.

It was moderate – the trail was obvious, and in many places not too challenging, but there were a few steep areas that were made more challenging by roots and rocks. Boy, did the trail feel like the middle of nowhere – I would really hate to get lost in the woods. The short walk was well worth it – the stream was great, the gorge was impressive, and the falls into the gorge were beautiful. We stayed for some time at the falls, and although the trail kept going on to somewhere, we had to go back to Rangeley to catch a plane.

My high-risk/high-reward event was a seaplane ride. There is a man who runs scenic flights from his seaplanes based off of Rangeley Lake. It is not cheap to do, so I was a little worried that the flight might not be worth it, but I had never been on a seaplane, it was in a beautiful area, and it was a tour for just me and Mer, so I thought it would be worth it. It certainly was.

We got to the dock just in time to see the plane take off. Keith, the owner, has fifty-dollar tours that go up, circle the lake, and come back in fifteen minutes. I figured that is what we were seeing, and I was correct. Fifteen minutes later the plane landed on the lake, and taxied up to the dock. Two little girls, a mother, and a grandfather got out of the plane. While I was talking with Keith, Mer overheard the mom ask, “Who liked the seaplane ride?” and heard the girls reply excitedly, “I did! I did!” It seemed a good start.

The plane was a five-seater, although the last seat was definitely in the way-back. Mer got in the front seat with Keith, and I sat behind Mer. We all put on headsets so we could talk and hear because the engine noise was fairly loud (the plane was a single-engine plane, so we sat right behind the propeller). We taxied out into the lake and took off. Mer and I were both surprised by how smooth the takeoffs and landings were – we expected them to be choppier, but they were very smooth.

Throughout the flight, we had a good chance to chat with Keith, who is a great guy (and fairly handsome, for any single twenty-somethings out there). He was born in Maine, in Leeds, which is only a few miles from my Dad’s house. He went to school in Florida and majored in aviation with a minor in meteorology. He is certified in several kinds of small planes and helicopters. When I asked him what he best liked to fly, Keith said he was fond of the plane we were in – he said it was fast, fuel-efficient, and reliable. The plane looked as if it would top out around 150 mph, and we cruised most of the time at about 120 mph. Keith said it had a range of about eight hundred miles, if I remember correctly. It sure made the Ohio-Maine connection look a lot more attractive when Keith said he flew to Ohio State in one long afternoon.

The flight did not disappoint at all. The scenery was amazing. I do not know how high up we got, but it was high enough to see everything – forests, lakes, ponds, mountains – it was everything I could have hoped for. We flew north for about thirty-five or forty minutes, passing Saddleback ski resort and flying over the Dead River lake and river for much of the way. The lack of civilization was sobering – there were very few roads and houses, and no towns to speak of – just trees and more trees, and although you certainly could see evidence of past logging in the area, it seemed to have been carefully done, and the forest was coming back strongly in those areas. We had pretty good weather, with just a few isolated rain clouds that we usually flew around (we flew through one small one).

After about thirty-five minutes, we came around to bear on a small lake called Enchanted Pond. It had only two camps on the whole lake – a hunting camp on one end, accessible only by logging road, and a small camp on the other end, accessible only by boat. There were mountains with exposed bedrock on either side of the lake, and we lined up and landed smoothly. Keith took us over to a shore covered in large rocks, and he tied up and let us out. Mer and I wandered around in some awe of the place – it felt really remote. Mer was not wearing great shoes for scrambling up what was basically a loose rock pile, but I felt the need to get up there and see. The trip was not too difficult, but involved a lot of heavy breathing. I had hoped that getting to the top of the pile would give me a grand view of the mountain above me, and it kind of did, but it more or less just kept going up after a slight leveling off. The view did give me great views of the mountain on the other side of the lake and of the lake itself and of the shore where the plane was tied up. I took some pictures and scrambled back down to join Meredith. We wandered around a bit more, and Keith was good enough to take our picture. We climbed back in the plane, and after an extended fast taxi to get us more room, we turned around and took off and headed back south toward Rangeley.

Keith took us back a slightly different way, more to the west. He had been trying to help us spot a moose, and after a few minutes, he found one drinking and eating in a small pond. The moose looked up as we flew by, so we got a good look. Keith spotted another that Mer and I missed, but we had one more sighting of another one eating in a shallow pond.

We landed back on Rangeley Lake and tied up. The entire flight lasted about one hour and fifteen minutes, and it was absolutely worth it. What a great time.

That was the major event for the day, so we headed back to the car. I had read that Route 17 was a scenic drive, so we went the slightly longer way around the lake and drove back on Route 17. We stopped at the Height of Land pull-off to look back at the lake, but we could only stay a few minutes, as it began to rain. We drove out of the rain as we headed southeast, and it was a very pretty drive. The road soon started following a shallow, rocky stream that kept catching my eye, and so I finally decided to pull off at a paved area. What a lucky find.

What I had stumbled across was Coos Canyon. It is an amazing place where the small stream gets hemmed in more and has carved out a channel though some very impressive rock. There are a lot of waterfalls, and the area is fairly accessible, so we were able to get down to the water in several areas. Coos Canyon is supposed to be the first place where gold was panned, and you can still pan for gold if you like. I think we saw one person doing that, but most of the dozen people we saw were enjoying the scenery or playing in the water. We joined them by dangling our feet in the very cold water, and we had a great time watching the waterfalls. What a lucky find Coos Canyon was.

We followed Route 17 back to Livermore Falls, and I stopped at the grocery store in town and picked up a few whoopie pies. These were great whoopie pies – huge, thick, and sweet. We were both big fans. But that was not the only treat we had – when we got back home, Dad made us fried bread dough, which is exactly what it sounds like. You take bread dough and fry it, kind of like what you can get at fairs. Dad’s are really really good. I eat mine with just butter – Mer added powdered sugar to hers. I’m sure fried dough is bad for you, but we only get to eat it every year or two, so what a great meal.

High-risk, high-reward, and high fat content. A pretty good day.

Tuesday was “my” day, and I started the day by myself. I went to Augusta to run along the paved Rail Trail, a trail that runs next to a railroad track from Augusta to Gardiner for about 6.5 miles. I ran out-and-back, for a 12.7-mile run. It was a tough run – very humid, and the trail actually had some fair grades along the way, especially out from Hallowell. I was pretty beat by the time I finished, and I was pretty close to throwing up for a few minutes (probably from dehydration, even though I ran with water).

I went back home and showered and got ready, and then with Mer, we headed back, once again, to Augusta. I wanted to tour the State House. We just beat a quick-moving but intense storm, and got inside the State House just before the rain started. We had to wait about twenty minutes for the last tour of the day to start (I was rather lucky with that timing). It was a good-sized group of about fifteen people. Our guide was a native Mainer who grew up in Lewiston. He was very friendly, had a good sense of humor, and he knew a lot about the State House. It was interesting. Some things I learned:
– We have a citizen legislature, meaning all the lawmakers have other jobs or are retired.
– The legislature is elected every two years, both houses.
– In a two-year term, the legislature meets from January to June, and then January to April.
– The State House was expanded to about twice the original size around 1911.
Since the legislature was not in session, we got to go in both houses. We also got to go out on the magnificent porch on the third floor, overlooking Capitol Park.

After the State House tour, I drove us to a bowling alley, only to discover it was not candlepin bowling, the Maine version of bowling where you use smaller balls and pins. I had never been in an alley in Maine that did not have any candlepin, and it had never even occurred to me to call ahead and ask. We turned around and left.

By now, I was hungry, so we drove to next door Hallowell to find a place to eat. We found a great little brewery called The Liberal Cup. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was nice – lots of nooks, lots of wood, and pretty quiet.

To show Mer a little of the trail I had run, we went back to Augusta’s Rail Trail and walked out about half a mile. We found a little path in the woods that ran to an overlook on the Kennebec river, which was pretty. We did not stay too long on the main trail since it was fairly hot, but we did get a good look around.

On the way home, I swung by Tubby’s ice cream stand in Wayne. We got ice cream, and then ate it in the car as it rained a little. By the time we finished, so had the rain, so we wandered around the Wayne dam swimming hole, which is where Shannon and I used to swim in high school and college. It had changed some because of some severe flooding about ten years ago, and the dam had to be partly rebuilt, but it is still more or less the same and still a great swimming hole. Since I had seen Mer’s swimming hole the week before, it only seemed fair to show her mine, especially since mine was now next to an ice cream stand.

Between the dam and home, I stopped at a farm stand and picked up some corn. Maine corn is really sweet and good, so I wanted to have some at least once before I left. We ate it for supper along with some very good pizza Dad picked up.

After supper, I played Mer at the word game Snatch It. I was competitive, but not too surprisingly, I lost by the score of 33-25 or something like that.

Monday was Mer’s day again. We started the day by driving to Augusta and going to AHOP (Augusta House of Pancakes). We both ordered breakfast, even though it was about 11:00. AHOP has great hot chocolate, and we both got enormous amounts of food.

After breakfast, we headed to the Maine Veterans’ Cemetery. It is the “middle” cemetery of Augusta’s three veterans’ cemeteries – there is a really old one, and then the Maine Veterans’ Cemetery that was in operation from about 1970 to about 2000, and then a newer one. The Maine Veterans’ Cemetery is still active even though it is full – all the spaces left are reserved, but the cemetery still averages three burials per day.

The cemetery is a lovely place to walk – well groomed and well kept. Some of the building architecture is unfortunately very “look, concrete!” 1970, but it is still a pleasant place. Mer, being the English teacher she is, found a misspelled word carved in granite within about ten minutes. All of the gravestones are flat for ease of mowing and for aesthetic appeal, but there are some memorials that are above ground.

We bumped into a very friendly groundskeeper, who was probably about thirty. We chatted for about twenty minutes, talking about how graves are dug (by backhoe), and about how he called the police on some kids partying on the grounds, and about a little history of the cemetery. It was interesting. I like to know how things work, and this was a good chance to find out how a cemetery works.

We then continued with our walking tour by driving over to the Viles Arboretum, which is just outside Augusta. The Arboretum is still fairly new (about twenty years old), so some of the trees on the grounds are still growing to maturity. It has two major trails – an inner loop and an outer loop. Mer wanted to do the inner loop, which had more shade (the day was hot). It took about forty-five minutes to walk the entire thing. We saw a rock-based garden, lots of hostas in bloom, a small pond, the ruins of an old pig barn, a grove of pine trees whose seeds had been flown on a space shuttle mission, and lots of trees. They have a good-sized grove of lilacs, but those had passed bloom for this year. It was a mellow walk.

Mer continued the outdoor theme by having us drive to the remote-feeling Jamies Pond near Hallowell. The pond is a state park, so there are no buildings on the water, and it is a decent-sized body of water. We walked along a trail we found, uphill to a stream, but then the trail ended. We sat on a rock and watched the water run by for a few minutes, but then we had to go since Mer had time-specific plans.

We finished the day driving up to Waterville to the Railroad Square Cinema, which shows art films. Mer wanted to see the film Buck, which is the story of a horse trainer who uses gentle methods to “break” horses, with some remarkable results. The film follows Buck around for a few months, and tells his story, along with the story of his family, and some of the people and horses he comes in contact with. It was a very good film.

We got back home about 7:30, where Dad was good enough to make supper again.

Sunday was Mer’s day again, and she had an interesting take. Since it was Sunday, she figured many things would be closed, and she also wanted to be mellow. So, she decided we should visit several towns and just wander in them.

We started by heading back toward Augusta, and we stopped in the small town of Winthrop. We were both surprised to see a large building housing Tubby’s Ice Cream, which we thought was only a small ice cream stand in Wayne near my Dad’s place. We parked the car just past Tubby’s, and we wandered down main street and looked around the town. For the return trip, Mer wanted to walk back roads toward the large lake that is next to Winthrop, so we did that and found ourselves at a small beach. We sat on a bench and watched people swimming, and we watched the lake, too. After a time, we went back to the car via back roads, and continued to head toward Augusta.

But not for long. Mer had me swing onto a side road that I had never been down before. It was supposed to be a scenic route to Augusta, but we must have turned the wrong way because we ended up being near Monmouth. That suited Mer fine since she wanted to go there to tour the theater building which houses some offices and a library. Sadly, the building was closed for Sunday, so we wandered around in the cemetery next door. The cemetery held up our observations from Maine cemeteries, that you die before forty or after eighty – there do not seem to be many sixty-year-olds dying in Maine.

After Monmouth, we went to Gardiner, which is next to Augusta. The downtown is very pretty, with cute shops and eateries, but they were mostly closed. We still enjoyed wandering the town, and we found our way to the boardwalk that runs along the river (the Kennebec). We walked along the boardwalk, which is probably normally pleasant, but this was one of two hot days we had in Maine, and the boardwalk was radiating heat back up at us. It was a pretty view, though. At the end of the boardwalk was a trail through the woods. We walked along this in the shade, and the trail went about a mile into the woods before it looped around on itself in a pretty little garden area.

After Gardiner, we went to another next-to-Augusta town, Hallowell. Hallowell is really small, but pretty. We found an open bakery and got whoopie pies. Sadly, they were just okay – they were very mild (not sweet), but we needed the rest and a little food, so it was not a wasted stop. We walked down by the river a little here as well, but the riverfront was small.

Finally, we went into Augusta and found Capitol Park, which is right across from the Capitol. It is a good-sized park, with lots of trees, and we wandered all around it. We saw an impressive sculpture that commemorated the veterans of Vietnam. We also found a very small graveyard that held just four or five Maine politicians who seemed to have died in office in the 1840s. Capitol Park is not Lincoln Park in Chicago, but it is still a good use of green space in Augusta.

We went back to Dad’s for supper, and then headed back to Monmouth to see King Lear. Lear is Mer’s favorite play, so we were pretty excited to see it. It was a good production. Many of the actors were the same actors who had been in Much Ado the night before, and that is always fascinating to see – how one actor is the bad guy one night and the good guy the next. The actor playing Lear was excellent, as was the actress playing his eldest daughter, Goneril. They both had great voices and presence on stage. Lear’s middle daughter, Regan, was not so strong, and I’m not sure if it was her choices or the director’s. She was crying early in a scene and then ice cold later in the same scene. I’m not convinced the actress knew who she was supposed to be, so much of the performance came out flat. The rest of the cast was very solid, although Mer wanted to see the blinded Gloucester express more sorrow and repentance for his foolishness at doubting his good son and trusting his evil son.

The director made some great choices and some really poor ones. He had Lear’s fool come back on the stage in a flashback late in the play (the Fool was dead at that point) that has Lear remember some of the Fool’s accusations against Lear’s conduct. It was very effective. The director had Lear curse Goneril with sterility, and  actually had Lear touching her stomach as he cursed her – it was chilling.

Then, oddly, the director made some astonishingly bad choices. He cast a woman in the role of Oswald, who is a cowardly steward to Goneril. I have no problem with gender-changing unless it messes with the plot, and this did. Oswald is a cowardly man and a braggart who wants to kill a blind old man because he thinks he can do it safely. Lear’s trusted servant, Kent, draws a sword on Oswald when Oswald insults Lear. For Kent to draw a sword on a woman in twelfth-century Britain is ridiculous, and even to my modern eyes made Kent out to be a bully. When the female Oswald wants to kill the blind Gloucester, instead of being a completely cowardly act, it comes across as the only way a small woman could kill a large man. Then, when Gloucester’s good son attacks Oswald to defend Gloucester, the ensuing difficult fight was unconvincing, since a trained nobleman would not have had much trouble with a woman who weighed about a hundred pounds.

The really jaw-dropping moment, though, was the ending. Normally, Lear mourns the passing of his good daughter. In this production, the bodies of the two older sisters are laid out on stage also. That was fine – it showed that Lear had lost everything. But one of the most moving lines in the play is meant for Cordelia, when Lear says she will come no more – “never, never, never, never, never.” The director had Lear kiss each of his daughters and say “never” over each one, saving the last three for Cordelia. Yes, it could show Lear forgiving his older daughters, but to me it undermined the forgiveness, love, and sacrifice of Cordelia. Lear’s older daughters were monstrous to him, and it did not make sense to me that he would forgive them when all of his concern to this point in the last scene has been for Cordelia. In the director’s defense, the text allows for what he staged (all the nouns in Lear’s last speech are generic), but it simply did not work for me.

Still, that is being a bit nit-picky. The overall production was very good, and the minimalist scenery (four birch trees and an abstract silver-and-black background) worked really well.

After the show, there was a talk-back with the director and actors. I love talk-backs, but I am beginning to dread the talks after academic plays. They seem to bring out the worst in clueless social behavior in professors and educated people. In this case, one professor talked AT the actors repeatedly, never asking any questions, and even answering some questions meant for the cast. At one point, he even plugged a book he had written. It was discouraging that he missed the opportunity to learn from the cast, or to at least let other people ask questions. I did get to ask if the minimalist staging was inspired by the repetition throughout Lear of the word “nothing.” The director said that was part of it, but that some of it was of practical reasons – there was not really anywhere to put scenery backstage.

Of the two plays we saw, I thought Much Ado was the stronger play, but that Lear was still worth seeing.

Saturday was a transition day. It was the day we were to leave the Rockland contingent of the family and the day we were to drive to East Livermore to Dad and Kellee’s house. We were in no great rush, so while Mer visited with her family, I looked at Dale’s printer. He had not been able to print, and I found out that it was because he had left the power cable at home. It was a special non-standard cable that I guessed was going to cost twenty or thirty dollars to get and not be easy to find. I recommended buying a new printer instead and leaving it in Maine. To that end, I want out to Office Max in town. They were not open yet, so I drove down to the breakwater and walked along it for a few minutes before heading back to the now-open store. I was looking at cheap inkjet printers, but I came across a sale on a twenty-four-page-per-minute Brother laser printer for really cheap. I could not pass that up, so I bought it. The salesman warned me that the printer did not come with a USB cable to hook to the computer, but I had seen that Dale had two in his computer bag, so that did not worry me.

I got back home, unpacked the printer, and powered it up. I hooked up Dale’s computer, and it “saw” the printer and started to load the software. It then had an error. I tried a bunch of things, and after a long and frustrating hour, I tried Dale’s other USB cable, just out of desperation. The computer saw the printer and loaded it just fine. That was kind of how my summer with computers had been going.

We then packed up the car, took our leave and then Route 17 to Augusta. Once in Augusta, I decided to try to find the Maine State Library, which I actually managed to find after a little hunting. I wanted to see if the archives had the old newspapers from the late 80s so that I could look up my old cross country race times. The library had the Lewiston Sun papers on microfilm, so I spent about forty-five minutes looking through old newspapers while Mer read. Although I seem to remember seeing race results in the paper, I found very few of them, and those tended to be large races where only the top twenty spots were reported. So, sadly, I gave up without finding too much more than a few stories of old friends who played football.

We got to Dad’s in the mid-afternoon, and we sat and talked out on the back porch. Dad made some burgers for supper. The, in a surprise to me, Mer announced she wanted to take me to the Theater at Monmouth. I had heard of it before, vaguely, but I was game to go. It turns out the theater is only about twenty minutes from Dad’s house, and is located in a wonderfully strange building with bright colors and turrets. It is also home to a professional theater group that this night was doing Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing.

I was fairly astonished that there was a classical professional theater so close to my house, and that I had never been. I was eager to see how it was. It turned out to be excellent. Much Ado is a fun play, and the leads were very strong. In one scene, the male lead “accidentally” overhears how the lead female is supposed to be in love with him, and it was great fun watching him “hide” behind a bush, under a bench, in the audience, etc. The set was basic – just a backdrop of a terrace, and on the stage were a few benches and shrubs. It was a very well-done production. They were doing several plays in repertoire, one of which was King Lear. Mer indicated that we would be returning the next night to see that play.

We got back to Dad and Kellee’s around 11:00, and the stars were out and were amazing. We stood in the driveway and just started. You could even see the Milky Way. I forget how much light pollution we have, even when we don’t live in a major city like Chicago. It was great to see the stars so clearly.