The Common Ground Fair.....

Wordless images of our trip to the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine.

Well, almost wordless images...amongst all this back to the earth, green sh*t, Mr. Downeastdoingstuff aka Birdman had to text someone. Peace.

Monhegan Island weekend.......

Up at the crack of 5:00 A.M. Hitting the road at 6:00 A.M.  6:34 A.M. Heading to New Harbor, Maine to catch the 9:00 A.M. boat to Monhegan Island. The Hardy Boat Line takes us 10 miles through 100 foot swells (literally) slamming into our little boat every 4 feet and taking us into another world. (Literally)

 Shaw's Lobster and Fish Market is right there on the wharf in case you all would like to order some wicked good Lobstahs and other salty delicacies. These things were alive just minutes before. (Don't think about it.)

Boarding the boat from the front and past the little Galley serving coffee, tea, snacks and homemade cinnamon buns, we were able to choose sitting inside or up on the top deck outside. 
We I chose to sit inside. The captain said that the lower you sit in the boat, the less rocky it's going to be and since he wouldn't let me sit in the bilge, we sat in one of the inside benches. You see, I'm somewhat prone to motion sickness.....even just walking around on dry land sometimes.

 This was the view from the back of the boat, before we shoved off. Looks calm, huh? Well now, the captain announces that he can see the big buoy way out there somewhere and IT appears to be bouncing around somewhat. Quite a bit, actually.

"We have some complimentary ginger candies in the Galley for motion sickness.", announces the Captain. Help yourself. 

I took a handful.

Complimentary.

:-)

 Complimentary ginger candies. (Taste like putting black pepper into your mouth, but whatever....)

I have no photos of the boat ride there. Not a one.The swells were so large, scenes from the Posiden Adventure and Titanic were scrolling in my head.

 I could not move or take my eyes off of the horizon, which, btw, is what keeps one from puking. I sat like a zombie for an hour.

The boat literally fell from the top of one swell after another, I swear, a hundred feet.

(Captain says they were 4 foot swells, but what does he know....)

Mr. Downeastdoingstuff took a video of it on his i phone, but I don't know how to access that. 

(Me? I have one of the first cell phone ever invented. No apps.)

So we had reservations at the Monhegan House, pictured below. There were old and/or mini pickup trucks from the major Inns waiting for us at the dock. We gave them our bags and they were waiting right outside our room when we checked in. Our room was the two windows on the far right on the second floor.

Our room. All the rooms are basic farmhouse style rooms. There are shared bathrooms and showers down a long hall. At first that might seem yucky, but everything, and I mean everything, was spotless and it was maintained that way. Not a problem at all.
Toto toilets, lights that went on and off automatically, paper towel dispensers that gave you a paper towel. You didn't even have to wave your hand around at some unknown sensor to maybe get it to work. It just did. Nice showers.

We stayed at this Inn 10 years ago and since then it's been freshly painted, remodeled and updated. It's very, very nice.

This was a view from the window of our room toward the Black Duck establishment and the harbor.

This was inside the Black Duck establishment. Starbuck's type of coffee and lattes, munchies and gifts. I bought myself a couple of gifts. 

The Fish Market 'restaurant' provided outdoor picnic tables for it's patrons and seagulls.

Walking around, there were a million things to photograph. Now, I tend to exaggerate about things now and then, but this was no exaggeration. Notice the lighthouse on the hill!

How many photos did you take, Birdman??

The island just off the island is called Manana. The Manana hermit used to live there. Apparently 'Rusty' will take you there. Check out the asterisk at the bottom....."*Call Rusty on the radio in the box." Top technology everywhere you look! ;-) (Rusty needs to use spellcheck...he spelled Manana wrong on the poster!) We did not call Rusty. 

The Red House. Jamie Wyeth painted the Red House.

I thought these were cute.

The Shining Sails Inn.

The Island Inn from the top of Lighthouse Hill. Manana Island is in the background.

Jamie Wyeth also painted this bell.

After a walk to Lobster Cove, a sign on the ground pointed the way. 

"Town",  by the way, is our Inn, a Church, the Black Duck and the Post Office.

This is the main street in town.

We had our last lunch at this Cafe right next to the dock. Half a sandwich and yummy Clam Chowder.

This was not our boat, but ours was very similar. The ride back, at 3:15,  did not sport the monster swells we experienced going to Monhegan. BUT, it was very choppy and we still we rocked and rolled quite a bit. 

Took two more ginger candies and made it back to shore with my lunch intact.

It truly was a perfect weekend.

First Friday Art Walk......

We had the best time last night. We often go to the First Friday Art Walk in Portland, but last night was the busiest I've ever seen it.

It was a lovely, warm September evening and an absolute delight to be wandering around aimlessly on Congress Street. Art, wine and music everywhere. What more could one want??

Street bands were scattered about. The gentleman in the white t- shirt was not officially part of the percussion entourage, he simply picked up a pot and a stick and joined in. He was actually pretty good, but after several minutes of banging around, the original members politely asked him to STOP IT!! He did so without incident.

I love this shot of the flat iron building housing Starbucks below and a gallery above.

The orange hair should be wearing the orange trousers!

There was a huge line at Otto's pizza just to get pie by the slice.

No, we did not go into Strange Maine. Birdman and I don't need any more strangeness in our lives.

I wish this was more in focus. This kid was so cute munching on pizza.

 We walked from City Hall all the way to Longfellow Square and ended up at LFK's pub, an new establishment in an old book store.

We had met up with a friend at the Gleason Gallery where they always have copious amounts of wine and snacks and he came with us.

It was a rocking place and we nicely settled in on a settee and some overstuffed chairs in the back of the pub after greeting several friends that just happened to be there.

These Art Walks are always a lot of fun. 

I also think they have works of art hanging up here and there.

I'll have to look next time.