Sunday, June 3 – Ed

Lise and I spent the past couple days in Maine for my nephew Zack and Nikki’s wedding. We gave ourselves a couple days to play before the blessed nuptials. The happy parents, my brother Rich and his wife, the good Saint Amy, scouted out some cool places for us. We stayed in Portland and explored around the coastal area from Portland to parts east. Really neat area. Lots of history and beautiful rocky coasts. Got some good birds too.

The happy couple, Nikki and Zack. Nikki is the pretty one. Look out Chicago.

The happy parents, Saint Amy and Rich. Amy is the pretty one.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.

Coastal Maine.

Portland is an interesting town. The downtown waterfront district is still a working waterfront, for fishing at least. The warehouses have been turned into shops and restaurants. There are several brew pubs. Great beer and seafood in little non-chain bars right on the waterfront. I had a haddock stew that was heavenly.

Ed as a tourist.

The area specialty is this wicked looking crustacean called a lobster. Excuse me, that’s pronounced lobstah. Unfortunately for these beasts they evolved to become rather tasty. Sweet meat that is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, low in calories, and no cholesterol. A weight watchers dream. Then we dip them in melted butter. Go figure. I wonder if you can make scrapple out of lobster?

Before.

After. Eating as performance art.
                           
People in Maine put forth some brutally frank self assessments. This is directly from the web page of the Maine Office of Tourism about the Petit Manan Point Lighthouse.  “Locally known as ‘tit Manan, this is one of the state’s tallest lighthouses, rising 123 feet, and also one of the least attractive. The high stone tower seems to have no relation to the charmless keeper’s house and outbuildings.”  (http://www.visitmaine.com/organization/5028/petit_manan_point/). Now that should really draw the turisticos in. Sounds like something a disgruntled employee would write on his way out the door.

Then there is the self styled “Mediocre Deli.” That’s gotta have them knocking the doors down to get in. I didn’t feel the need to see if this was a gimmick or truth in advertising.

An average kind of place? Still better than half the places?

The one place I detected a note of bragging was in reference to something called lobstah rolls. A lobstah roll consists of a lobster seafood salad on a toasted hot dog bun. Lobstah rolls seem to be in the same category as Indiana pork tenderloin sandwiches or scrapple and Lebanon Bologna. Food for the soul. Every shack along the coast has lobstah rolls and each one advertises their roll as “the best lobstah roll in Maine.”

Best lobstah rolls in Maine. This is not a copyrighted line. You see it everywhere.

We did our pilgrimage to outdoor wear Mecca, that high holy shrine of yuppiedom, the L.L. Bean flagship ship store in Freeport Maine. Open 24/7. In all fairness the store is different than the catalogs. It has everything in the catalogs plus much, much more. This place is a Yankee general store on steroids. They got the sow’s ears and the silk purses. You can buy everything from shotgun shells to a tasteful bedroom set that costs about the same as a trailer in Delaware. All firearms coming in for repair or trade in must be checked in through customer service. Coffee shop and cafe on premises. Puts IKEA to shame.

This all started with a pair of boots. There’s a statue of old L.L. himself and one of a boot too. I think we were supposed to lay a scrapple or lobstah roll offering at L.L.’s feet but I didn’t have any with me. No discounts for me I guess.

Ed and Lise on the alter. Lise is the pretty one.                            

We got some birding in too. I got six new species for the list; piping plover, black guillemots, Wilson’s phalarope, black tern, chestnut-sided warbler, and common eider. Black guillemot and common eider are lifers for me. Lise, got the same species plus about ten that I had already got in Delaware. We just missed the puffin tours though. They start next week.

Coming back we came through Ontario, Canada. The trip became part of a true North American big year when Lise spotted her broad-winged hawk in Ontario. We got on the Ontario highway at exit zero and had to go to exit 318. We figured that 318 miles would be about six hours of driving. Then the exits started flying by. I thought we found a window in time. Warp speed, Scotty! Give me everything she’s got. Turns out the exits on the map were in kilometers, not miles. The Honda was not going warp speed and we were being passed by a lot of Canadian drivers. Anyway, that really shortened the trip.

All in all, between Delaware and Maine it was a great road trip. Couple thousand miles of driving, good birds, good eating, plus a little culture thrown in. Now it’s back to the salt mine. The species counts now stand at 267 for me, 226 for Lise, and a family total of 272.