38th Anniversary

(Nikon D70, 10.5/2.8 fisheye lens)

My mom and dad celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary on the 25th! The entire family went out to Krista's at the Cornish Inn in Cornish, ME for a most excellent dinner. (Some of the best coffee in the area as well.)

Here our entire group (except me behind the camera as usual.)

Sledding - PAW 2005 - Wk 7

This weeks PAW..."A Brownie takes a Cocoa break."
(All photos this week from Nikon D70 with 18-70 AFs lens. Click on any photo and a larger version will open in a new window.)

Our daughters belong to GirlScout Brownie Troop 128 here in Denmark. Thursday morning the troop had a sledding party at one of the girl's homes. Since sledding is an integral part of winter life in rural Maine, I took my camera and figured I'd catch up on my PAW project.


Dressing warmly to play in the snow is a good idea when it is 18 degrees out.



An excellent view of the surrounding hills and mountains while waiting to make a run down the hill.



Everyone can use a helpful push from mom once in a while.



It is a LOOOONG walk back up the hill when you are only 4ft tall.



Sledding is fun for adults too.



The snow covered mountain in the distance here is actually over the border in New Hampshire. It is a pretty good view of Tuckerman's ravine on Mt. Washington.
Mt. Washington is the highest point East of the Mississippi in the US and is where the fastest winds on the planet have ever been recorded. (231MPH!)

Casco Bay Lines

When I said that I didn't want this blog to take the typical cliche look at Maine, this didn't mean that I don't enjoy the Atlantic Ocean and Maritime aspects of my state. It is just that I think they are given way too much deference when people think of Maine.

Here is a shot of a car ferry in the Casco Bay Line. I just came upon it again in my system. I had made it with my then 'new' 10.5/2.8 fisheye nikkor lens on a location scouting trip that I made to Peaks Island in Casco Bay this last summer in preparation to photograph a wedding there at either the excellent Jone's Landing or the equally resplendent Inn at Peaks Island.

The Casco Bay Lines are a very affordable way to get about to the islands in Casco Bay or to just cruise the bay itself on a hot summer afternoon. (They are a bit cold this time of year.)

Our Valentines - PAW 2005 - Wk 6

I took the family out to dinner at Ricky's Diner on Valentines Evening.



Our friends Scott and Brenda own the Morning Glory Diner at the other end of town and we most often eat there, but Ricky's is now open 24hours while the Morning Glory is only open until about 1pm. A 24HR diner isn't a big thing to most of you probably, but it is huge in a tiny town the size of Bridgton, ME where most businesses are always closed by 9pm.

Upon returning home the snow from the incoming storm had begun. I took this shot of Nick and Beth by headlight.

(For those who care: Both images shot with Nikon D70 and 24/2.8. Toned in Photoshop.)

Dons Lunch

When I was a kid, my family had a seasonal fisheries business. Our primary product was the annual market for Anguilla Rostrata otherwise known as baby American eels or glass elvers. In the stage of their lives that we caught the eels they were between 2 and 3 inches long and transparent.

In late May and early April they have made it back to the brackish waters of Maine all the way from the Sargasso Sea on their way up river to spawn. We'd catch them, buy them from other fishers on the rivers, box them up in kilos and ship them out to the Asian markets where they would be put in farms and grown about 6 ft. long for the resaurant market. It was a good gold rush type market in the late 70s and early 80s before the State of Maine started taxing anything that moved and requiring a commercial license to catch them.

My point in telling you all of this is that you best dip for elvers on the mouth of the river that empties into the Atlantic on the rising tide in the dark of night. It is decidedly 3rd shift work.

When it was fishing season in the spring, my dad and I would routinely stop at Don's Lunch in Westbrook at 3AM on the way home. After a hard working, cold, wet night, nothing on the face of the planet is more welcome to a growing boy than a Big One (a double cheese burger that would put any chain burger to utter shame!) with mustard and smothered with cooked onions, two cheese dogs with raw onion and mustard and a hot coffee (all for small pocket change!)

When I was a kid, Don's "Lunch" stayed open something like 6pm to 6am mostly to serve the 3rd shift folks making tires at Yudy's Tire across the street from their old location.

I was pleasantly surprised a few months ago on my way into Portland for an evening with my wife, to notice that Don's is still on Main St in Westbrook (though at the other end of the strip) and that their food is EXACTLY as delicious as it always was.

If you ever get to the Portland area (Westbrook is the Western Suburb of Portland) I highly recommend that you drop in. Not cardiac friendly food, but in moderation, it is a small slice of heaven!

More Irony

I really couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to...


Books for sale. Only in America (probably.)

2005 - Week 5 and Musher's Bowl Photos

My wife Tracey and our grrrls, Nicky (7) and Beth (6) prepare to take a ride on a snowmobile drawn dogsled.

This weekend was the annual Mushers Bowl in our neighboring town of Bridgton!

Highland Lake has a foot of ice on it and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The hitherto frozen masses turned out for ice skating, hayrides, snowmobile (aka 'skidoo') rides and dogsled rides.



Snomobile, dogsled and skijouring races.


Pancake breakfasts, chowder lunches, hot dogs. Rescue ice dive team demonstrations, craft shows, ice fishing, a Moose Doo catapault contest, broomball tournament and the Winter Carnival Dance at the Town Hall!



One of the most fun events (to watch) is the "Freezin' for a Reason" Ice Dip at 1pm on Saturday. The 'jumpers' have all collected pledges to jump into a large hole cut in the foot thick ice of Highland lake. The pledges benefit the Harvest Hills Animal Shelter which all of the local towns Animal Control Officers make use of. Last year for the ice dip, the air temperature was hovering in the low single digits. (if that!) This year everyone had it easy (said the photographer who stayed warm and dry through the whole event!)...the air temp was a near tropical above 40ºF!

So basically, everyone lines up in a roped off channel leading to the water and they 'jump' into the water in teams....


Some plunge in to the water seemingly in anguish...




while others think that if they splash about a LOT it won't feel so cold...


But some take the time to revel in the adoration of the crowd...


All in all the whole weekend is a great time and luckily happens just when we all realise that there are 6 long weeks of bitter cold, snow, slush and ice left until the vestiges of mudtime begin to showup for sure here in Maine....then we get to complain about the black flies!

For those who care.... all photographs in this entry were made with a Nikkor 24-120VR lens on a Nikon D2H and sometimes with an SB30 flash for fill.