Aliens Attack!

Written by guest blogger Nicky.


After spending Sunday in Portland -- where we toured the oldest cemetary in the city, climbed the Portland Observatory, and visited Maine Meade Works -- we headed to New Hampshire and the White Mountain National Forest on Monday.

The Portland Observatory (it observes ships, not the stars).

The view from the observatory.

Mead.

After an afternoon of hiking, we set up camp outside the park and built a nice little camp fire (Gaby's first of the trip, despite all the camping she's been doing).

Earlier in the day, Gaby had been talking about a series of books that she had read in which aliens come to earth and make first contact with people on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. As we were sitting around the fire, she then went on to say that if she had one wish, it would be that before she dies we discover definitive proof of life on another planet.

Nicky started the fire and kept it going.

Five minutes later, we started to notice an interesting phenomenon in the night sky to our east. Over the hills, the sky started to light up with a series of flashes. Our first thought was lightning, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then we thought it might be fireworks off in the distance, but the flashes went on for way too long. Finally, we determined that the only possible explanation was that Gaby's wish was coming true, and the aliens had arrived. The sky was still lighting up when we went to bed a little after midnight, but the mystery only deepend when we started to hear helicopters circling overhead. I can only assume that Will Smith was called in to control the situation.

Blueberry Beer and Fried Dough in the Minors

Written by guest blogger Nicky

I arrived in Portland this afternoon coming straight from the homecoming service for my friend and colleague, Charrise. It was a long week, and I was very much looking forward to these next few days.

I had visited Portland once about ten years ago, and only for one night. I remember really liking the city, and when I decided to meet Gaby here I imagined us spending a few nights in the historic downtown. But, thanks to my procrastination, by the time I sat down to book a hotel there was nothing available downtown for Saturday. This ultimately worked to our advanatage because we ended up staying just few blocks away from Hadlock Field, home of the AA Portland Sea Dogs. We decided to catch a game.

We strolled up the ticket window and lucked into two free tickets. The game was great--much more laid back than the majors, but suprisingly, almost as commercialized.

The highlight was the local delicacies that we enjoyed while at the game: blueberry flavored microbrews and fried dough.

Nicky really likes the beer.

Gaby trying fried dough.

Most of you are probably thinking, 'how is fried dough a local delicacy?' The answer: it's not, but Gaby thought it was. I learned something surprising about my sister last night. Somehow she managed to live for 35+ years without ever having fried dough, elephants ear, doughboys, or whatever-it-is you want to call dough that is fried with powdered sugar on top. How's it possible to travel the world but never have experienced something found at every boardwalk, amusement park, and fairground in the United States?

Leaving Canada Today

All I've got to say is... dismantling and packing a tent in the rain freaking sucks!

Oh, and Nicky, if you're reading... You warned me you might not look your best when you arrive at the airport.  Well neither will I.  Nor will my car.

Sad news about a follower

On Monday, I learned from my sister that one of my followers, Charisse Cecil (aka CSoulScribe) passed away that morning.  She was 32, and died fairly quickly.

I only met Charisse once, while stopping by my sister's office, but something about her really caught my attention and I knew we'd chat more when I met her again.  I was delighted when she started to follow my blog, as she was my first almost-stranger to do so.  And I especially liked that she decided to follow because she liked my use of the word "woebegone" in one of my posts.  I found it both cool and unusual that a single word would catch someone's attention like that.

This week my sister shared some of Charisse's writing with me.  I'll urge you to read these three short poems based on photographs taken by other artists.  And for those of you who knew Charisse better than I did, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Farewell, stairwell
Metro Outlaw
Lottie

Prince Edward Islanders are the shittiest parkers on the planet

All of these shots are from one small parking lot.  I didn't even have to search for them, I could see all 5 transgressions from my own car's location.  Which is why they stood out, and I took their photos.

Prince Edward Island: Attractions

There's quite a bit to see and do on PEI, although most of it is pretty simple fare.  The islanders seem to take a lot of pride in most of it, though, and everyone I met would recommend places I should visit.

A spooky old house that I liked.

I'll start by talking about the one major thing I didn't see, and that was anything having to do with Anne of Green Gables.  I suspect that when most Americans are asked what they know about PEI, they manage to stammer out the name of that book (well, at least that's all I knew about the island before my visit) and indeed, it seems to be the most famous thing about the area.  But I worried before I went that all of the Anne sites would be really cheesy.  So I asked the locals and other people I met in Canada who had been there, and they all agreed the Anne sites were both cheesy and too crowded with tourists.  So I spend my time on other things.

A spooky old, abandoned church.

One unusual stop was the Fox Museum and Hall of Fame, a donation-based, one-room museum dedicated to PEI's fox pelt industry of the 20th Century.  I somehow missed the inductees into the Hall of Fame ... where they foxes or farmers?  I'll never know.

A potential fox hall-of-famer.

Another unusual stop was the Bottle House... well, actually three houses made entirely of bottles held in place my cement.  Some guy several decades ago decided to build these building out of abandoned bottles, then locals and visitors starting bringing him more bottles to help his work.  There's something like 10,000+ bottles per house.  Kitschy, but fun.

The alter of the bottle church.

The Potato Museum was another stop.  Potatoes were (and still are I think) one of the major industries of PEI.  In fact, it produces more potatoes than any other Canadian province.  Among other things, I learned that the potato originated in the Andes and were used and worshiped extensively by the Incas.  (I also just learned that "worshiped" has only one P.)  All along my international trip, I liked seeing how the culture of one country would blend into the next country, through things like religion, art, food, clothing, etc.  So I unexpectedly got to see how the culture of my last stop on the world tour (Peru) merged into the present day culture of PEI.

Is the exhibit or the potato the amazing thing?  Or both?

Incan potato pottery.

I lucked out on the day I went to the Potato Museum.  Its city, O'Leahy, was hosting its week-long Potato Blossom Festival, and I arrived in time to watch the parade!  O'Leahy is a small town, so I figure half of its citizens were in the parade, and the other half were watching along the route.  I was told it's pretty common for all the little towns around the island to have festival days, you just have to ask around to find out which town is holding a festival in any given week.

I heard she performed the same talent as the girl in Little Miss Sunshine.  Only with some potatoes thrown in.

Look out, D.C. Cowboys!

Um... yeah.

That same day I stopped at the Acadien Museum.  Have you heard of the Acadians?  I had not, until my visit here.  They were colonists from France who settled in the three maritime provinces in the 17th Century, then were treated very badly by England when the provinces became English-governed.  Many of them (or their descendants  more likely) returned to the area many years later, and they continue to speak in French and maintain many of the traditions of their ancestors.  I'm writing out of turn here, but the town I visited today in Nova Scotia -- Cheticamp -- also has a large Acadie population.

The Acadie flag.

Finally, I popped into a few graveyards around the Island.  I unknowingly (at the time) stopped at one of the most famous Acadie graveyards.  I liked it, as it overlooked farms in one direction, and the water immediately behind it.

Oh, last tidbit about my travels around PEI.  There are still lots of unpaved roads (which were a bit harrowing when wet from the rain!) and they are all this same shade of copper-orange.  The same color as my car, in fact, which prompted a local to note he couldn't tell if my car was clean or dirty, because it was the same color as the island mud!

From now on, I'll tell people the color of my car is "Prince Edward Island."

Three nights on Prince Edward Island: Lighthouses & Water

I spend three nights on Prince Edward Island, which I think is Canada's smallest province.  One could drive between the two furthest points on the island in about 2.5-3 hours, so I was able to see a lot of the island in a short period of time.  I'll break my blog into two posts, because I took a lot of photos and saw a number of things.  Too many for one post.  So not everything will be in order.

Being an island, one is never far from the water on PEI.  Most of the island feels like one huge farm, and there are maybe 4 areas that most people would call "cities," although they are more like "towns."  It also felt like I was at the end of the earth.  Even when I was driving or walking places where I couldn't see the water, and even though PEI is not the furthest eastern point of Canada, it felt very remote and isolated.  That might have been psychological, as I'd been thinking of PEI as my farthest northeast point of my trip, and I'd been looking at the map a lot.  /shrug

These are seals playing in the water.

And, being an island, PEI still has several of its old lighthouses (and a few new ones).  I think lighthouses speak for themselves, so I won't go on and on about them.

From the 1860s.  Furthest point from the mainland.

This is a "range light." Ships follow its steady beacon into the harbor.

Finally, being an island, there is water all around.  I stopped at one of PEI's more notable beaches:  home of the "Singing Sands" where, if you walk properly, you can hear the sand "sing" back at you.  Well, it really sounds more like squeaking or a dog yelping or something.  But I guess Singing Sands sounds more alluring than Squeaking Sands.

While the southernmost part of the Singing Sands was a pretty popular beach (and by popular, I mean by standards of the island, not, say, Florida or the mid-Atlantic beaches), by walking a few hundred yards north, one can have the beach all to themselves!

And in my final bit about PEI and the water... I left the island and went to Nova Scotia via ferryboat.  It's a faster way than driving to the eastern side of NS, and at $70 was only a little more expensive than the toll back across the PEI bridge to New Brunswick ($43!).  It's free to get onto the island, but you have to pay to escape.  I wonder if the high toll keeps PEI more isolated than it would otherwise be, as people wouldn't want to leave and return too often.  I also wonder if I'm getting over my motion sickness, as I've now taken a few ferries recently and haven't felt queasy at all.

Pulling away from the dock.

The view out to sea.