Dear Friends, Relations and Those Who Prefer Door #3......
Virgin Airlines seats are so closely packed that you have to get off the plane to change your mind...my forehead was almost pressing against the back of the chair in front of me. My neighbors on either side, however, were not nearly as close due to the remote controls stored in the arm rests for the screen on the back of the chair in front of you. Yeah, that's right, the one my forehead was pressing against. You can also play video games on them - one round of Mah Jong was all it took for me to go cross-eyed.
The FAA has passed a new law against consumible foodstuffs allowed on planes - there aren't any. If I hadn't brought a tomato sandwich I would have starved on that five hour flight, sandwiched as I was between two Sox fans. Im hoping to hear a Brahmin accent. My linguistics professor said Boston Brahmin is a dialect which has been studied, noted, dissected, analyzed und so wieder... I've heard none of the above but much of the linguistic variety aspired to by the cast of "The Perfect Storm" while I'm surrounded by men swilling ginger ale. Attention Samuel Adams: your Boston Lager isn't being lagered on this plane!
I was expecting total madness from Logan but it was much cleaner and calmer than I had expected. I made my way to the luggage claim area and retrieved my suitcase (singular) then began looking around for the Concord Trailways bus to take me to Portland which was when I realized that the Entire Airport I had walked around was really only a teeny-tiny corner. Oh my goodness. I bucked up my courage and hoped the bus could find me amidst Loganmetropolis. (Where the hell am I????) and the blue-white striped monster drove me to Portland and showed me a movie on the 2-hour drive about a wholesome African American choir girl who meets a handsome gospel-singing player, joins his troupe and goes on the road with him.
Portland's routes look unfamiliar to somebody who grew up with California freeways, but are similar to Bozeman, Spokane and St. Louis. The air was BRACING when I got off the bus and couldn't find Pepsipal straightaway (where the hell am I???) but he was parked in front whereas the bus parked in the back. Hence the confusion. This was Saturday.
Day Two: Escape from SFO to Boothbay Harbor
Yesterday I arrived in Portland after 10pm with an mild case of excessive g-forces absorbed from flying across the country and an extreme case of sillie-willies. We bought cheap champagne and stayed up late talking and sipping Andre from plastic cups. Who says travel isn't glamorous? Sunday morning before coffee kicked in we set out for Portland Light, located at the old Fort Williams at Cape Elizabeth on Casco Bay. Portland Head Light, or Portland Light, is the beloved lighthouse maintained by the city of Portland.
It's located at Bug Light Park in South Portland (no, Drew, that's not Bud Light but BUG Light). The entemologists among you may take a moment to explain this to the etymologistically challenged. The site was established in 1855, the lighthouse built in 1875 (ahoy Captain Ahab) automated in 1934, discontinued in 1942, relighted in 2002 as a private service. Its original optic was 6th order Fresnel glass (pronounced Freh-NELL) currently its 250mm. The tower is 25 feet, its characteristic is a flashing white every 4 seconds. The parking is free, you hike in and of course I hadda see the fort first (kind of reminded me of Sutter's Fort without the scary mummified figures lurking in the darkened rooms....) There is a wonderful stroll/view, a sidewalk of sorts with a wall, you look out over the ocean/vista and there are rocks, tidepools and far far out in the distance a cruise ship, kind of like a BIg Duck Turd. What's wrong with this picture? You can visualize yourself here amongst the 18th/19th century stage props, baking bread, mending fishnets, running back and forth in the invigorating sea air, then there is that big lump of DT like an excessive jolt of reality, kind of makes you believe in alien abductions..I digress...
There is a gift shop, so small you have to go outside to change your mind. I bought a pack of Maine lupine flower seeds, Pepsipal bought a lighthouse flashlight. The lighthouse tower is humongous, I looked it up and down, trying to mentally calculate how many bushels it could hold were it a silo. The lighthouse is a very bright white, shiny and thick-feeling, like there have been hundreds of layers of white enamel paint applied since 1855. You can't go inside the tower. Im looking forward to Pemaquid, one of the few lighthouses you can go into and climb up inside.
Which pretty much brings us up to date. I flew into Boston today, caught a bus to Portsmouth while my friend crisscrossed his interline self across country. Tomorrow, Kittery (is it an island or a lighthouse? depends on the tide) and Boothbay Harbor, a LOBstah roll from Phil's, a pit stop in Kennebuck, and Lighthouses 101, my 2011 version.
There is a gift shop, so small you have to go outside to change your mind. I bought a pack of Maine lupine flower seeds, Pepsipal bought a lighthouse flashlight. The lighthouse tower is humongous, I looked it up and down, trying to mentally calculate how many bushels it could hold were it a silo. The lighthouse is a very bright white, shiny and thick-feeling, like there have been hundreds of layers of white enamel paint applied since 1855. You can't go inside the tower. Im looking forward to Pemaquid, one of the few lighthouses you can go into and climb up inside.
Which pretty much brings us up to date. I flew into Boston today, caught a bus to Portsmouth while my friend crisscrossed his interline self across country. Tomorrow, Kittery (is it an island or a lighthouse? depends on the tide) and Boothbay Harbor, a LOBstah roll from Phil's, a pit stop in Kennebuck, and Lighthouses 101, my 2011 version.
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