Downeast Downtime--August 17-25, 2007

Day 1--Friday, August 17, 2007


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After a drive out of Manhattan, our trip begins with a stop at David's (John's brother) to pick up a kayak courtesy of John Sr. See his most excellent kayak instructions here along with video shots of David, Heather and Hanna:

Day 2--Saturday, August 18, 2007

A day later we arrived in Hancock, Maine with the kayak strapped to the roof and the bed filled with food, wine, water, and bags from the outlet shops in Freeport. Our short (in my view--long in John's view) excursion to the outlets resulted in my acquiring a pair of flats from Cole Haan, two t-shirts and a belt from Banana and aquatic shoes from LL Bean.



The house is perfect, with a direct view of Acadia National Park's Mt. Desert Island and Cadillac Mountain out the front windows. It is the sole property on a three-acre island. The house sleeps nine, but it is just us for now. The walk over to the island is WINDY and amazingly cold, but the bridge is rock solid and the handmade wooden wheelbarrow helps transport all of our stuff. The house is adjacent to a lobster farm and is completely serene. I predict my shoulders dropping 2 inches and returning home well rested.


Dinner: Cajun baked haddock with peppers and onions. John said it was the best fish I ever made. I attribute it to the freshness of the ingredients rather than to any culinary expertise I might have acquired in the last 24 hours.

Day 3--Sunday, August 29, 2007

After a second visit to the local LL Bean store (I can feel myself getting preppier by the minute) and a fuel stop at the local snack shack where I had my first Maine lobster roll*, we went for a 3-hour hike up Acadia Mountain. My idea of a hike is flat terrain with the biggest challenge being an occasional rock or root to climb over.


Our hike was 2 ½ miles with a vertical rise of 500 ft. It took us 3 hours to do the 1 ½ hour hike. The top of Acadia was beautiful with spectacular views.





The view of the fjord Somes Sound was breathtaking... but the descent from the mountaintop was less than fun and I did half of it inching along on my butt. My problem was the areas that inclined down with nothing to hold on to and an open ledge on the other side. One slip and I was sure to break a leg, lose a toe or worse. My biggest sense of encouragement came from the Amazon-woman with a newborn strapped to her chest. If she could do it without fear of squishing her new offspring, than so could I. I felt slight justified in my fearing for my life when I learned the second half of the hike was consider “difficult”. Does John not realize who I am?? We are almost a year into marriage, you think he would know that I am better suited for a nature walk than a black diamond type of hike. We headed for Southwest Harbor where a beer was well earned and slightly necessary.

Dinner: Cheeseburgers and yams. Does everything taste better when you have spent the better part of the day in the great outdoors?

*Lobster rolls are the local fast food of choice. It consists of a lightly toasted and buttered hot dog bun stuffed with fresh sweet lobster mixed with touch of mayo – it’s my new favorite thing.

Day 4--Monday, August 20, 2007

Woke up to a perfect day. The wind died down and the temperature seems ideal for doing just about anything outside. Walking down steps was a bit painful, but a couple of Advil’s later, we decided to take the kayak for a spin. After the hike, kayaking seemed a bit tame. We considered paddling over to Bar Harbor – its an hour by car and 15 minutes by boat – but that might mean by speed boat. More research needs to be done first. Note the new aquatic shoes.




Dinner: Lime cayenne chicken and Italian peppers. I wonder if we could put a grill on the fire escape of our apartment?

Day 5--Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Coffee and blueberries on the porch, the sun is warm and the air is cool – another perfect day.

After a quick stop for another lobster roll we set off for a second hike. John wants to climb Cadillac Mountain – but at a hike of 7 miles with a vertical climb of 1,250 feet, I flat out say no. I understand the concept of expanding my comfort zone but I have the feeling Cadillac Mountain would not expand anything but my lungs as I scream at John for talking me into it. So instead we do Sand Beach and Great Head... 2 miles around and a vertical rise of just 200 feet. It was nice, but somehow I missed the challenge of something more difficult. Maybe my inner hiker has been coaxed out of hibernation.







Dinner: Leftovers and homemade wild blueberry pie. We picked up some berries from the many roadside stands specializing in blueberries, blueberry jam blueberry honey, blueberry syrup, etc. Wild blueberries are small and sweeter than the conventional kind you and I buy are the store. I think my lips are turning a permanent state of blue. I feel like a giant blueberry.

Day 6--Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Its warm with almost no wind. This fact is made even nicer by the knowledge that it is cold and raining in New York. Unfortunately without the wind, we are much more aware of our neighbor – the lobster pound. It’s the largest lobster pound in the state of Maine, Maine being the largest lobster producing state in the US... and the largest the world after New Brunswick (according to the guy that runs the Pound).

John woke up this morning smelling overwhelmingly like garlic – I shouldn’t have let him eat an entire roasted garlic bulb at dinner last night. I dare a vampire to come within 10 miles of the house. He wants to go kayaking today but I fear the close proximity when he begins to break a sweat. I encourage him to go for a run while I go for a walk. The perfect house is beginning to lose its charm and is taking on a certain 70’s Brady bunch quality. Is the test of a good vacation one that reminds you how perfect your home really is or is it one that makes you never want to leave?

We headed back out to Ruth and Wimpy's for our daily dose of lobster roll and were joined by our friends Terri and Jim. John and Jim went out on the kayak, and I could see how paddling for them was a much smoother process than it had been for me and John. I’m not sure if it’s a guy thing or just a non-Alex thing.



Day 7--Thursday, August 23, 2007

Day is a bit overcast. A consensus decision was made to check out the local vineyard (thank you Andrew) where the specialty was blueberry wine. After sampling eight different fruit wines, blueberry, pear and apple, we left with semi-dry bottle of blueberry that we are unlikely to ever drink. Our wine pourer was such a character that I felt obligated to buy something. We headed off for Schoodic Point - rocky coastline along the Atlantic where the waves crashed with such a force that water shot up 30 feet into the air…and that’s on a calm day. You can see a video of the waves crashing at Schoodic Point here:
Dinner: Acquiring the ingredients for tonight’s feast was an adventure of its own. “Clams from the digger” was the sign on the side of the road on our return from Schoodic. What we pull up to is a trailer and a slightly stoned guy selling clams. We sat in drive ready to peel away if the transaction went sour... see Jim buying the clams...





The final ingredient - lobster. The four of us made a trek over to our neighbor in hopes of learning a bit about the business. We were in luck – Mr. Lobster was in a chatty mood. I wonder how many finance types from city have come up here and asked the same questions we asked. My guess from the semi-automatic responses he’s been though this before. He should advertise “Surfside cottage with an incredible porch, spectacular views of Cadillac Mountain and for those interested, a crash course in the lobster business”

Lobster 101: The operation yields 10-15 millions of pound of lobster each year and accounts for 20-25% of the total Maine lobster production. The business brings in $75-100MM annually with a net margin of 2-3%. That would mean our neighbor (in his teva’s, shorts and ratty sweatshirt) makes $3 million dollars in a good year. It also seems like Mr. Lobster is a risk taker. Last year he held on to 300 pounds of lobster at the end of the season, and then when all the other lobster suppliers were dry, he was able to charge $13-15 a pound, a 30-50% premium over the season’s average wholesale price of $10/lb. At this point in the season his cost per pound was $5. Holy crap – I might need to rethink my career in small cap biotech. When asked if Mr. Lobster still eats lobster, the answer is “I love ‘em”. That of course is the right answer, but I suspect a freezer full of kobe steaks (now I know who can afford them) and free range organic chickens. Note to the I.R.S. (a.k.a. the "revenue man")--these numbers are "representative" and should not be considered accurate or binding...

Jim and Terri made a fresh seafood dinner of clam stuffed calamari and rigatoni with lobster and fresh berries and biscuits. Most of dinner was spent discussing how John and Jim were going to set up a lobster futures market to help mitigate some of the risk. Big plans like that makes for fun dinner conversation, but often fade in the light of day. After dinner we turned down the lights, lit a candle and watched computer generated graphics on John’s computer set to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I felt like I was in a time warp and had been thrown back to 1990 in my dorm at Syracuse.

Day 8 (last full day here)--Friday, August 24, 2007

It's raining. I look outside at the beautiful pine trees that line the shore – they come right down to the waters edge and I wonder if we will come here again. The concept of a summer home is an interesting one – when will the comforts and familiarity of going to the same place begin to outweigh my wanderlust instincts? Will it ever? I have yet to see the Grand Canyon, the Greek Islands and Tahiti.

The evening began with cocktails on the porch and decision was made to spend our last night at Ruth and Wimpy's. We head out expecting to see a handful of locals but apparently this is the local hot spot on Friday nights. Ever see Animal House when the boys enter the bar expecting Otis to give a shout out to them and instead the needle scratches across the record, dead silence ensues and everyone turns to stare? Well that’s what it felt like entering R&W’s that night – we were clearly not local. We might have well been wearing shirts that said "City A**es”. Thank God they went back to ignoring us in a few minutes, only to give us dirty looks when they heard a cell phone ringing. Note: the cell phone wasnt ours.

Day 9--Saturday, August 25, 2007


After a great brunch we all packed up and headed home. It was a great week. I feel like it was what my soul needed. There is little, if anything, that I would have changed about the week. I look forward to doing it again next year... well, only if we don't go to Tahiti.