Candlepin bowling is always a must when we come to Maine, so Mer and I decided to do that yesterday, and then go see Wall-e, which Mer had seen but I had not. Imagine my shock and dismay to find out that the bowling alley in Augusta is closed Tuesday-Thursday during the summer! Who knew? Note to people traveling here soon (and you know who you are!) – there is unlimited bowling on Mondays and Fridays from noon-three for $8.00! Still, we did not get to bowl yesterday.

That left us in Augusta with two hours until the movie started. So, we decided to explore around. I drove us along the river to downtown Augusta, and then we were forced to turn one way or the other, so I went down toward (and across) the river. We were coming up on one of Augusta’s two rotaries (roundabouts for some of you), so on impulse I turned down a road that I had never been on. It ran right along the river’s edge, and was not looking too interesting. I was just about to turn around when I saw a small gate with the sign “Augusta Arsenal – historic landmark”, and decided to investigate.

I’m glad I did. The Arsenal is a bunch of old stone buildings in the middle of a walking park, right on the river. The buildings are sitting empty, which made me a little mad. How could cool old buildings that look right out on the river and across to the Capitol Building sit empty – and for years, from the look of things? If I had a lick of entrepreneurial spirit and any capital, I’d open a B and B or a restaurant there – what a great location!

We drove around the complex area, and a few of the buildings do seem to be used for state of Maine government stuff. One end of the Arsenal complex appears to be a hospital, with a bunch of new buildings. We left the park area near the hospital, and went our way to the shopping area where the theater is.

We were still about an hour early, but that was easily remedied – there was a Barnes and Noble next door to the theater. I got a cookie and hot chocolate, and then set off to find a biography on George Burns and Gracie Allen. It turns out that the biographies on them appear to be all out of print. That is frustrating. In my humble opinion, when a book goes out of print, the publisher should make it available for download as long as it is for personal use, but I’m clearly dreaming on that front.

We did see Wall-e, but had to sit through about 5 tedious and awful-looking movie previews. I recommend Wall-e – it is a touching movie, and clever (it is Pixar, after all). It is fascinating to see how much body language Pixar was able to give the robots, who (mostly) don’t speak. If you do see it, keep an eye out for a satellite that hits Wall-e in the face – I’m pretty sure it was Sputnik (probably a Pixar tribute).

Wall-e is a sweet movie, and got me choked up in a couple of places. Not that I can relate to a devoted, single-minded, nigh-obsessed robot or anything.

Fun facts – the full-power noise that Wall-e makes is a boot tone from an old Macintosh, and the voice of the auto pilot is not a real voice – it was Macintalk, the voice simulator that has been on Macs for a long time.