Well, we definitely aren’t in Kansas…er, Dallas
anymore. Based on how it felt when we
walked out the hotel door this morning, I’d say it was closer to the North
Pole. I remembered back to a brief
moment right before we left the apartment for the airport, that my wife asked,
“You aren’t going to take your coat?”
And I puffed up my chest in the manliest way and replied, “I won’t need
one. It’s going to be like 60-something
degrees.” And it WAS 60-something
degrees, just not at 9 a.m. this morning.
My phone read 37 degrees. So,
yes, I thought back to that moment when I scorned my wife's wussiness and her
pathetic need for a coat. I thought
about it, and as Ron Burgundy said when he jumped into the bear pen, “I
immediately regret this decision.” But
I’m a man, and gosh darn it, even if I’m turning blue, I will NOT admit that I
made a mistake. So, I flipped up the
collar on my short-sleeved shirt, and I trudged out into the frigid world! (And then I ran back inside and grabbed a long-sleeved
pull-over thingy.)
We decided to hang around Portsmouth this morning, seeing
the town, visiting shops, taking pictures (just like real tourists!), and
visiting some of the local attractions.
We went down to the water (I believe they call this thing an ocean or
some-such nonsense), and we toured around the piers and Prescott Park, which is
a flower garden that local gardeners take time to tend and maintain. After this, we intended to visit Strawberry
Banke, which is a collection of historical houses and gardens, complete with
re-enactors and storytellers to take you back in time and explain what it was
like to live in the 1600s and 1700s. But
we decided the astronomical cost of the tickets was not worth the pleasure to
be had, so we passed on it and went shopping instead (you can imagine whose
suggestion this was).
We had lunch at the Fat Belly Grill. I ventured out and tried their Cajun-spiced
Honey Burger, which I would only recommend if you like your meat burned to a
crisp and then cooked for another 30 min after that. I think the cook forgot my burger on the
grill while he was watching Patriots-Saints highlights on ESPN
Sportscenter. Oh well, you live and you
learn.
After lunch, we drove out to Maine. (Isn’t it weird that you can hop into the car
and in 15 min you’re in another state?
But I digress…) my wife was
being evasive about where exactly we were going, which started to make me
suspicious. I immediately understood why
when she pulled into the parking lot of Divine Chocolate. As I sat there looking at the sign, I started
to think back over the last few days. In
every place we’ve stopped, we have found a chocolate shop. I’m starting to wonder if the real way this
trip was planned was to follow some Chocolate Freedom Trail. Nevertheless, she was denied the
satisfaction, since they were closed for Columbus Day (Why exactly do we honor
a guy who got lost, erroneously thought he had discovered the other side of
India, and then claimed to have discovered a land that was already inhabited by
thousands of people? Anyway, I digress
again…)
After a very unpleasant episode tantamount to a two year-old
temper tantrum at the discovery that we would be driving away sans chocolate,
we headed to the Nubble Lighthouse in York, ME.
Again, I was reminded why having a coat is not such a bad thing. The wind was blowing ferociously, slamming
the water into the rocks and sending sprays of water ten feet into the
air. Being the artist that I am, I had
to climb down into the fray (or spray in this case) and snap some action shots. However, I quickly realized that I was a
little too close to the action when a wave slammed into the rock I was standing
on and completely drenched my pant leg.
The things I do for love of my art!
I was so enthralled with the storm of the seas playing out
on the jagged rocks on the coastline, that I almost completely forgot that we
were there to see a lighthouse. So, I
snapped a couple of quick shots of that too, and we drove off to get some ice
cream at Brown’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream.
(Yes, we ate a gigantic cone of caramel and vanilla ice cream while
standing out in the sub-60 degree wind.
The things we do for the love of our art!) Another must for the traveler stopping in
this area and wanting to freeze both inside and out.
