In Maine, lobster is a delicacy. When cooked, this seafood turns bright red.

So, we spent almost 2 full weeks in Maine. We split the time up between
my inland papermill-town home town (Livermore Falls) and the delightful
ocean-side charming town of Rockland. Livermore Falls is not all bad –
I get to see my family, eat my step-mom’s WONDERFUL cooking, and read a
lot. I mock it, but I did have a nice, quiet time in Livermore Falls.

Ahh,
but for Maine charm, Rockland is good for the soul. The weather cleared
up for us when we went to Rockland, and I could not have asked for a
nicer 5 days (a touch warm for my Mainer tastes, but I am picky).

Mer and I took the Vinalhaven ferry out to, well, Vinalhaven. I had
never been out to a Maine island before, and I really liked the 1 hour
15 minute trip out to the island. It was relaxing and very pretty.

There was a teenage boys baseball team on the ferry – I assume to go
play the Vinalhaven team. The ferry was crowded, and the whole team was
in the front of the boat. A couple of teenage girls were trying to make
their way to the front and were apologizing as they were going. In a
very happy moment for me, the coach saw the girls and told them not to
worry. He then yelled, “Hey, knuckleheads! Move! There are some ladies
coming forward!” The boys moved and spent most of the trip looking in
on the boat rather than looking out at the islands and water.

Vinalhaven
was nice. We made our way to a nature preserve near the town. Although
there are cars on the island, it is still pretty walkable. There is a
small family cemetery on the land, so I took a picture. I like old
cemeteries for some reason.

We made for a big rock on the ocean. I am also fascinated by big rocks –
I just HAVE to climb them. The walk over was muddy and rocky and not
the easiest thing to do, but we made it. While we were sitting on the
rock enjoying the sun and the water, a couple came up on a path that we
had not seen and walked by, continuing on the path that I had not seen.
They told us the path was scenic, so we decided to do it. The path was
very muddy in a few places, and the “path” was not much of one on
places (see Mer on the path we somehow missed on the way to the rock), but it was a great hike and was very worthwhile.

To this day, I am always surprised when I see a big sandy beach. The
coast of Maine is rocky, and to me, it is normal to swim where it hurts
your feet. What else would a beach look like? Although I did not go
swimming on this trip, I did like this stretch of coast on the island.

The last picture I’ll throw up from the island is this: it was breezy on the water side of the island:

Once we finished the trail, we made our way back to the ferry. What a
great few hours! It would be nice to be able to bike or moped around
the island someday – it is quite big.

On the Fourth of July, we went with Mer’s parents and grandparents to
Thomiston for the grandparents’ traditional celebration: watch the 5 k
race, eat breakfast at a local restaurant, watch the parade, and then
listen to the community band play for an hour or so. The added bonus
this year was I got to run in the race ($5 AND you still get a
t-shirt!).

I
was up against some of Maine’s most talented runners, so I was anxious.
Everyone looked lean while I just looked hungry (I put on 5 pounds on
vacation, 10 over the last 2 months). This was the first 5 k race I had
run in 5 years (I have focused mostly on marathons), so I was not sure
how I would do. I was pretty sure I could break 24 minutes since I had
been training at that pace. I REALLY wanted to break 21 minutes, but
that was going to be hard. I went out pretty strong. Unfortunately, it
was really humid, and the half-way turn around was up a long hill (not
steep, but really long). I was struggling by the turn around – I
actually had to get some water and walk for 50 or 75 feet while
drinking. I have never in 20+ years of running had to get water during
a 5 k race. Anyway,
the water helped (as well as the downhill), and I finished up pretty
well. As far as Mer could tell, I was near the back of the top 1/3. I
had a time of 23:17, which I was okay with since it was so humid.

At the finish line, they had a firehose spraying water, as well as cups of water to drink and dump on your head. After this, I went and found my family, but no one seemed too eager to hug me. How odd.

We then did the rest of the tradition – we ate in a restaurant, saw the
parade, and listened to the community band. It was a pleasant way to
spend the Fourth. The parade was an interesting mix of veterans,
churches, charities, businesses, politicians, and even a few war
protesters. It was a great reminder to me about part of what the Fourth
is about – free speech and freedom to assemble.

I’ll post more on our trip to Middlebury, Vermont and to
Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario later. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with
a picture of friendly Maine natives:

Whew. After 2 packed weeks, we are back in Ohio. I’ll try to post vacation stuff over the next few days.

So,  Mer and I went bowling today (real bowling – that would be candlepin bowling to those of you who were not lucky enough to grow up in New England). I was doing fairly well, and was on pace to maybe get a 90 (which is my oft-sought 9 pins/frame). After 6 frames, I had a 53 which was darn close to a 9/frame. Mer was struggling a little with a 31, and was saying she would be happy with breaking a 50. I, of course, dismissed her being able to make up 22 points in 4 frames, so I wanted her to do well, and I was concentrating on getting my 90. Needless to say, she was clearly sharking me. She got THREE spares in the final four frames, while I got two 9’s and two 7’s. So, I finished with a respectable 86, while my “I’m doing SO badly at this game” wife ended with a mere 93. Remind me to NEVER bet this woman.

Our final scores in two games:
Mu: 86 and 81
Mer: 93 and 67

I can only conclude we were both tiring in the second game from having to handle the two-pound ball.

One of the fun things about candlepin is that you don’t clear the pins between throws, so you can use the fallen pins (called “deadwood”) to help you out. I really like this aspect of the game.

Rest assured, even though candlepin is different than “big ball” bowling, you still get to wear the stylish shoes.

Wow. Mainers are absolute geniuses! Check out Wicked Whoopies, including the Whoop-de-doo, a chocolate covered whoopie pie. Wow.

June 28th update: We stopped at Wicked Whoopie and got several. The standard “Classic” was good, but Moody’s is still better. I tried a “Whoop-de-doo” (as pictured) and they are good, and Sonotmu called it when he thought they would taste like a Ho-ho. That is about right, although these have more creme. We got 4 more flavors we will report on : mint, peanut butter, chocolate mousse, and chocolate chip. They look good, but at the end of the day, classic chocolate whoppie pies are the best.

One of the most wonderful desserts ever invented was the whoopie pie. It is found in New England, mosly in Maine. Every little store carries these tasty treats. I grew up addicted to them. Happily, Amish and Mennonites also make whoopie pies, so being in Ohio does not deprive me entirely. Maine whoopie pies tend to be sweeter and MUCH bigger (I have seen whoopie pies that were almost as big as a dinner plate). While I have not had any of the HUGE whoopie pies yet, I have managed to consume 5 or 6 smaller ones (ones about the diameter of a normal cupcake). This is quite restrained of me. I will get some of the bigger ones when I can.

For those who may ever be in Maine, the best whoopie pies to be had are at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro. Boy, are those good.

In honor of Caribbeaner’s
recent postings about Harry Potter, I thought I would post this German cover that my brother and I saw in a foreign language book store in Chicago. I thought is was “Sprockets” meets Harry Potter…

“Ya, vit Harry we dance for you!”

Here is the picture Sonotmu talked about (and I have to admit it is rather German):

So, I went to Steve’s grad party last night, and most of the Fools were there. What a great time. I came to three conclusions:
1) The Fools are pretty darn cool.
2) I will miss these guys.
3) I really really suck at Guitar Hero. When did I stop being good at video games?

So, back in April we met my brother and his wife at my Mom’s place in
Michigan for Easter week-end. One of the things we did as a family was
play Shannon’s game “Don’t Be A Dork.” The game was almost 100% luck,
and you had to keep drawing cards that told you to do really dorky
things. It is some measure of how dorky (or competitive) our family is
that we took this game very very seriously (I at one time had to pull a
nose hair from someone besides me, or go back to near the beginning. I
did.). And yes, Mom played as well. Anyway, we ALL wanted to be the
King/Queen of the Dorks, and we all had a good shot at it, but Jolene
prevailed.

So, we just got back the (non digital) pictures, so here they are for your enjoyment(?),

Top: I have no idea.

Bottom: Jolene giving her best super hero laugh while Mom sits in mortal fear of so mighty a laugh.

Shannon Dork: Top: I have no idea.

Bottom: Shannon seducing the guard rail in an attempt to be sexy.

Mom Dork: Top: Mom resisting Jolene doing something (probably going for the yummy Scoops!).

Bottom: Mom’s children finally get to her and reduce her to begging.

Mu Dork: For much of the game, I had to play with a finger in my ear.

Top and bottom: Mu the body builder showing off his muscles(?!?).

Group Dorks: Top: Shannon and Jolene rocking out to a Queen-esqe tune.

Bottom: Shannon and Jolene back up Mu in a singing group.

As you can see, while Jolene was the Queen of the Dorks, we all were winners (read losers).

Every year, CVCA takes all of the seniors to a camp for 3 days as part
of the celebration of graduation. This year was my first year on the
trip, which was May 16-19th. I had a good time, and I was especially
happy to get to room with the male senior Fools. They really are as
nuts as I had suspected, and it is my sincere hope that I fit right in.

We
got to the camp on Tuesday. I got to drive my own car, and had a good
time driving the hour and a half chatting with the female mriordan and
a visiting Caribbeaner.
This was a good thing, since the rain and busy schedule of activities
kept us from visiting with Caribbeaner much the rest of the trip.

My cabin had 6 guys in it (not counting me). 4 of the guys were Fools,
1 was a former Fool and someone I knew fairly well, and 1 was a friend
of the Fools that I did not know, but was a nice guy. The cabin seemed
to get along really well, and I never saw any problems.

In case you are wondering, we are drinking IBC Rootbeer. We managed to drink 48 bottles in the first 24 hours.

We
ate very well on the trip. The first night, we were treated to burgers
by our master burger chef. The cabin kitchen was small, but the guys
managed to make pizzas, fries, omelets, and more in the 3 days we were
there. We also had soda, 4-5 bags of chips, 6 boxes of Little Debbie
treats, and 6 boxes of cold cereal. And that was just for the meals in
the cabin. We were treated to a breakfast in our sister cabin, a pizza
party in the main lodge, and a really nice sit-down dinner in the
lodge. Needless to say, I gained 5 pounds which continue to be a nice
reminder of senior trip, even 2 weeks later.

The
weather was fickle. It rained a lot, but either lightened to a mist or
stopped raining whenever we had outdoor things scheduled. Here, I have
to give the kids credit. I never heard any of them complain about the
weather, even when they ran all around the camp on a scavenger hunt on
Wednesday morning while it was actually raining on and off. Some of the
boating trips were rained on, but I guess if you want to get wet in the
lake, you did not mind the rain too much. When it stopped raining
(usually for several hours at a time), it could be very pretty.

Being
with a group of teenagers meant that you can have competitions that old
fuddies like me would never do, but can laugh at students doing them.
The best example of this was the first night’s Feats of Strength, which
included eating a can of Spam raw, fishing for olives in a pan of
pudding using only your mouth, and the mighty Drink Gauntlet, which
included drinking nasty things such as kraut juice, lemon juice, oyster
juice, birch beer, and other lovely concoctions. Why would students do
all these things? Because they got divided
into eight teams, and each event had points associated with it. So, you
would eat a whole can of spam because it would score your teams points.
Ain’t competition a wonderful thing?

Other
competitions included the (rather soggy) scavenger hunt that was
organized by the camp staff. (As an aside, the camp staff was AMAZING
and wonderfully helpful.) There was a team naming/team cheer
competition (which were quite funny), and the above-mentioned Feats of
Strength. Thursday’s competitions included games, suduko competitions,
horseshoes, and other things, but by far my favorite was the
tug-of-war. The kids were fierce in this one, and while size and
strength did matter some, there were still some upsets through the wise
use of technique and sheer refusal to lose (a few teams were helped by
the very slight downhill on one side, but that was luck of the draw and
the teams rotated sides every couple of competitions).

At the end of the day, the competitions resulted in the top three teams
(out of eight) got movie tickets. My cabin’s team came in fourth, which
I was pleased with.

There
were other activities to do over the three days. The lodge had a game
room (the female mriordan schooled me by winning over 10 games of ping
pong), a pool, a big-screen TV for the Cavs fans to watch the playoff
game. There was boating on the lake, and there was a soggy night game
of par-3 golf. There was organized paintball, “real” golf (as opposed
to par-3), and bowling (which included my 3 best games ever in
“big-ball” bowling, topping out with a score of 151. Of course, real
men from Maine prefer Candlepin bowling, but you can’t expect that in Ohio.)

We also could do individual things, like hanging out or playing games.
Mrs. mriordan and I played Cranium with some of our kids, and we won,
but at a cost. We ended up feeling old as we were the only ones to know
about songs by the Beach Boys, about Presidents prior to Clinton, and
other look-at-the-old-folks kinds of questions. Still, a win is a win.

All in all, I had a good time on senior trip. I am very glad the Fools
asked me to go. My cabin was well behaved, and in general the kids
acted great (as far as I saw). Nice job, guys!