Buena Buena

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Manchester: May 19 & 20

We flew in and out of Manchester, NH because it was amazingly cheap. We decided treat our selves with a stay at a posh B&B. I found this package, From Victorian to Usonian: History/Architecture Weekend Getaway, offered by Ash Street Inn and could not refuse. It included a night stay at Ash Street Inn, a very cute place with delicious breakfast; tickets to The Millyard Museum, for some Manchester History; dinner at Cotton, an amazing place to dine (My entree came with all you can eat mashed potatoes!! Can you say heaven?!?); and two tickets to FLW's Zimmerman House. A picture of the Ash Street Inn:

The Zimmerman House is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian architecture, a style he created for the modern, American everyman. The Zimmermans were living in a big, Victorian style home and decided it was just too much for their needs. They wrote a personal letter to FLW, and Wright personally got back to them saying he would love to creat a house for them. They sent him a detailed drawing of the land, and FLW designed from there, basically moving the house design to fit between two oak trees and a large rock (look for the rock in the first picture right by the front door). It is a very small house, around 1700 square feet, with a garden room, kitchen, master bedroom, and spare bedroom/sewing room. The house cost the Zimmermans $55,000, which sounds like a steal until you realize the larger houses in the neighborhood cost $30,000 at the time in 1950. I think the Zimmermans got a better deal. Since we couldn't take pictures of the inside, here is nearly a 360 view of the outside. The front of the house (large rock), the side with the car port, the master bedroom (part of one of the original oak trees is on the right side), full view of the back from the garden area, garden room.

One of the Zimmerman's neighbors liked their house so much, they decided to get their own. The Kalil House is located down the street and is privately owned. We drove by and the 92-year old owner happened to be fixing the roof. We did all we could to get his attention and chat, but he either could not hear us (he is 92!!) or was ignoring the annoying tourists. Either way, we snatched a picture:

Before we left for the airport, we ate lunch at the Red Arrow Cafe. Apparently, the celebrities love to come here while in town, including Manchester's own Adam Sandler. We randomly picked a booth and sat down. Halfway through our meal, we noticed Dj was sitting here:

So I turned around and saw:

Maine: May 16th

On Friday we were signed up to go deep sea fishing. We decided to instead be super lazy and spend the day at the beach. Dj bought a snazzy, two-handed kite in Portland and thought it would be the perfect time to try it out. After a few dozed Charlie Brown attempts, it managed to stay air bourne long enough for a picture. Becky spent the morning scouring the beach for a perfect sand dollar. She found lots of gigantic clams, still alive and not happy to be picked up. Also found: a perfect sand dollar, about the size of a half dollar--hurray!

We made one last walk along the Marginal Way. We made sure to walk extra slow and stop at many benches to savor the atmosphere. We also noticed a large influx of French speakers; a ton of Canadians were in town for Victoria Day. We walked from store to store trying to find the perfect souvenir to take home and decided on a jar of Wild Maine Blueberry Jam and a cute little Christmas ornament of a fishing boat that said "Ogunquit 2008".

But really all Dj wanted to do was sit in front of the TV with the remote...

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Maine: May 15 & 16th

While on our trip, we visited the towns of Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME. Unfortunately, we have zero pictures of Portsmouth, which is really sad, because I LOVED this town! It is full of cute, artsy stores, and tons of people just hanging out at cafes reading the paper and drinking coffee. My favorite part of town was Strawbery Banke, a neighborhood of about 40 houses, which, according to the pamphlet "traces 375 years of history in one of America's oldest continuously occupied neighborhoods". I loved walking past the houses, reading their name plates, and being amazed at their age and condition. Near one end is a graveyard, with graves from the 1600s in such good shape. We were able to read nearly all of them, appreciating their stories and intricate designs.

Next was Portland, also very artsy, but maybe not as homey as Portsmouth. We visited the LLBean outlet, shopped in the Old Port District, and walked along the port trail. We decided to hop on the mail ferry and tag along to some of the islands in Casco Bay. Can you imagine living on an island with no roads? With an hour and a half ferry ride to town? I can see myself moving there and becoming a hermit. This is what Dj thought of the ride:

But the whole story is that the person that told us to go on this little boat trip said that we would get a history of sorts from the crew about the islands and people..... they said nothing. It was kind of like getting on a bus and riding it around for three hours and getting off. But when it was all said and done it was a great little trip because we got to see a lot of beautiful islands. And the best part was seeing Becky's face when she figured out that our camera had zooming abilities (we have had this camera for 3 years). These are the pictures she took.

Maine: May 12, 13, 14th

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we decided to be beach bums and hang out in Ogunquit, drive up and down the coast, walk beach walks, and find sights to see. It kept us rather busy. This is the view of Perkins Cove, a nice walk from our cottage along the Marginal Way, the best beach path ever! We love Maine because they are so generous with benches--if something looks like a good spot to sit, they don't just put one bench, but three. We spend pleasant afternoons sitting here and watching the birds dive for fish during high tide.

The next town up from Ogunquit is Wells, home of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. The refuges actually span about 9,000 acres along the coast to help preserve the marsh flats and the birds that live there. Rachel Carson is a big hero of mine, and is one of the reasons I chose to major in Biology. We enjoyed a nice stroll and watched for birds; mostly we saw Canadian geese.

This piece of paradise located near Kennenbunk Port is the home of George Bush, Sr. It was massive and heavily guarded, with ocean on three sides. We were one of the gawkers who stopped for a photo.

Next, we stopped for lunch at Two Lights State Park. We debated whether or not to stop, and decided to ask the ranger what was in the park. Her answer: Rocky Beautifulness. I think that sums it up rather nicely. We hobbled along the rocks looking for signs of life. The seagulls had a better eye than us, as we watched one walk right by us and gobble up a starfish.

Cape Elizabeth, the Portland Headlight. This had a really fun park, with seaside paths, things to read, abandoned mansions, and war remnants. Just for fun, here is the view from both sides.

Further south, in York, is Nubble Lighthouse. This one gets its very own island.

Our favorite way to end the evening was a dinner of fresh seafood: lobster, lobster rolls, haddock, calamari (actually tiny squids!), clam chowder, oysters, shrimp...I think thats all! So good! Unfortunatly, the food was so good, we didn't even stop to breath, let alone take pictures. Then, if our bellies allowed, we went for nice runs along the beach at sunset and stayed until dark. The picture just doesn't capture it.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Maine: Sunday May 11th

Sunday the search was on for the lonely grave, or the grave of Olive Stiles, the second wife of Becky's ancestor, Jacob Stiles. The GPS coordinates were plugged in and we were on our way. The GPS took us up a dirt road on which a path would take us on a two mile hike to the grave. But the GPS said that we were much closer to the gave than that so we decided to just plow our way through the woods to find the grave. Two snakes and a million ticks later we found our selves running out of the woods waving our hands over our bodies screeming "AHHHHHH lyme disease!!" Our search for the trail head was on! Just to note, we were covered head to toe in bug spray... Didn't work...

The name of the trail head was Horseshoe Pond Trail. We decided that the best way to find it was to go the White Mountains National Forest headquarters and find a park map. We seem to have gotten distracted on the way, and ended up hiking past Bricker(?) Slides (would be totally awesome in July with an intertube)....

...and up Blueberry mountain. At first the trail was nice and pleasant, but then it just kept going up, and up, and up, for about the next 2 miles.

We made it to the top and had the most amazing view. It was totally worth it!

We climbed back down, dying of thirstation, and continued our search for Olive's grave. Fortunately, the park had the most amazing well water to drink. We found the road we needed to be on and were exciting to get this done! However, we soon found the road was closed. More hiking, past gigantic moose tracks and questionable cat (mountain lion? bobcat?) tracks. Whew!

Then we spotted it, such a nice, normal sign for such a big adventure. We searched high and low for this! We headed down the beautiful, well kept trail. I'm sorry to say, but we somehow managed to completely pass Olive's grave. Dj happened to look back behind his shoulder and spotted it.

It really is a special place, just peaceful and quietly beautiful. We cleaned up the grave site a bit and wished Olive a happy mother's day. It was interesting trying to imagine what the Stiles family, all 11 children, would have experienced back in 1848 when they lived here.

The grave reads: Olive W. wife of Jacob Stiles died August, 1848 AE 51yrs 7m

We ended the day by driving to Bridgton, the town where Jacob's dad, Noah, moved to with his twin brother, Enoch in 1771. It was a nice little town, with a suprisingly yummy dinner at Ricky's Diner! We really enjoyed driving through the countryside and seeing all the farms (houses with the barns attached) and scenery. There were beautiful lakes everywhere! It was quite the adventure, but so meaningful on so many levels. I think we ended up hiking about 9 miles.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Maine: Saturday May 10th

Saturday, bright and early (3:30 am) we headed to the airport for our trip. It was nice to fly so early so that we could have the whole day to spend up north. We flew in to Manchester, NH and made our way to Robert Frost Farm. It was a nice little place with trails to walk and small bits of his poetry on display. Becky is trying to recreate one of his poems:

Next, we headed to Stonyfield Farms to visit their yogurt factory. We walked in and the nice lady let us eat whatever we wanted!! It was heaven!! We highly recommend their greek yogurt with blueberries--it may be pricey, but better than dessert, and only 120 calories. Dj with our smoothies for the road:

We stopped for a basket of fried clams on the way to Maine from Clam Haven in Derry, NH. When we arrived in Ogunquit, much to our worry, the GPS kept telling us our cottage located at this address:
But we drove a little farther and found our perfect place, and the right place: