New England revisited (III) - along I-95

Few places we stopped along the trip:

PORTLAND
It has a nice downtown with brick roads and familiar smell of sea. We stopped and dined at a nice porch along the sea at a local restaurant "J's oyster". The food is not good and the service is very slow. I had the worst lobster roll there, which reminded me the delicious lobster rolls at Cape Cod in the year 2003. The coast along the water is nice - some scenes look like mid-south part of China.

The coast of Portland

OGUNQUIT
Small P-town. We arrived in the evening. The small downtown is crowded with people. There are several gay bars and we stopped at "The Front Porch". Nice but very crowded bar with live piano playing.

PORTSMOUTH
The town was built in 1762 - probably one of the oldest town I have ever been in the U.S. It has several bridges, old iron style with part of it being able to be lifted up for boats to pass by, as well as modern hanging bridge. It was Sunday afternoon, people were hanging out everywhere. We walked around Strawberry Banke where a lot of old houses still exist. It is a cozy town of New hamshire.

Piers at the waterfront

New England revisited (II) - Acadia National Park

"Acadia was never overwhelming", with the voice of Jack Perkins coming up in the introductory video of Acadia National Park, I already sensed it was going to be an unique trip.

In spite of being the first National Park east of Mississippi River, Acadia is not as popular as places like Niagra Falls. "In it heart, it offers solitude"Jack Perkins said. I guess that's what Maine is. The Taiwanese journalist San Mao once talked with her friends about where in the USA she can stay. She said, " Only Maine, cold and deserted, is just where we belong to". The lonely woman, she has been so many places, but finally couldn't bear with her life and commited suicide with her socks. It was showering when we visited - just fit the mood that the park offers.

A lonely bird

In the visitor center, the ranger recommened several hiking trails. Both Precipice trail and Beehive trail attracted us since they are "not recommended for small chidren - trail brochure". They both have iron rungs on ledges of exposed cliffs. Precipice trail was closed, however, during that time due to possible attack from agressive birds. George visited the park in 2000 after being impressed by the introductory video shown by his advisor Richard in his class. He enjoyed moutain bikings in the park but never got a chance for hiking. Therefore, we were aiming for the Beehive trail.

It starts with an easy trail - but soon, we had to use both hands and feet to climb on the steep iron rungs. It looks so steep and dangerous that one moment I was thinking maybe we should go back. There is really no way to go back - all the iron rungs were designed for climbing up only. We encouraged and helped each other - and at some points we even took pictures! Finally, standing at the top of the mountain, nothing could really describe our pleasure and joy.

A view from the trail

Beehive trail is very close to Sand Beach. Sweaty and tired, we both wanted a refreshing. The Sand Beach is only sea water beach in the park, with highest temperature only at 50s. We stepped in the cold water, with foot in freezing pain. I couldn't stand it and stepped back for a while and George had the guts staying in. After accumulating some energies, I stepped in again and swimed in high waves. It was like a refreshing cold coke runing through all my blood vessels - COOL!

Sand Beach

After Beehive and "Atlantic bath", we felt that we experienced so much joy and gained much more curiosity about this park. We finally stopped at Jordan Pond and took a hike along the shore. It was close to evening and still cloudy. The pond, the hills, the cloud, how nostalgia!

A man enjoying his solitude

Jordan Pond shore trail

Next day, we went to Bar Harbor and rented two bikes. The moutain biking trails in the park are one of very unique features. No cars, no traffic lights, miles and miles up and down. We biked through Eagle lake and Jordan Pond, finally got to bike up to the top of Day Mountain. It was windy at the top of the mountain, that reminds me the woman who lives at the top of an island in Maine. She was the lover of Louis Kahn, a famous architect, who deserted her after deserting his wife before her. She still believed that he loves her. It was similarly windy when Nathaniel Kahn, Louis's son, interviewed her around her house in the documentary film <my architect>. She looked pale and lonely.

New England revisited (I)

July 13-20th, 2006

This summer has been successful for us. George got his dissertation well written and defended on July 14th. Several days later, while at Vermont Academy, in Saxtons River, for a science conference, I was notified that my green card application was finally approved. Both happened in just one week - like people say "when it rains, it pours".

Vermont was surprisingly hot in July. We stayed in a room with no AC, no private bathroom, no telephone, no TV, no cell phone signal and no full-size bed. Only a fan was running all the time. Although quite different, it was not bad at all. No matter what, it is New England!

Early afternoon was free for conference attendees. We took a few trips to swim in West River, Saxtons River and Spofford Lake where George used to swim when he studied in NH. On Saturday night we took a drive along Route 5 to look for a gay club George visited a long time ago to the north of Brattleboro. It was not there anymore, instead, we found it has been remodeled and now is a country club. We stayed for few hours listening to a local band playing. I found it quite interesting in that it did not look too much different from a gay club, except that people there really didn't know how to dance!

There are many historic towns around that area. East of Saxtons River is a small town called Bellows Falls. Unable to find any bars in Saxtons River, we discovered a Cafe at Bellows Falls on late Tuesday night. In the Cafe, there were only a rude mid-western looking guy and a weird lady, who apparently were drinking too much. We didn't stay long. The Long Trail draft is good, I must say.

West of Saxtons River is a very old town Grafton. We took a few hiking trails - the beautiful New England hiking trails! We didn't forget, however, to buy some famous Grafton 4-year chedar cheese. Very yummy!

Covered bridge at town of Grafton