penn

Hiking +

On Sunday of Matt's visit, we headed up to Freeport to see the amazing LL Bean store, do some hiking, and eat good food. We first went to Wolfe Neck State Park on the lovely Casco Bay:

It was a nice park but really small. I imagine it would be simple amazing in nicer weather, but it was a cool, damp day with an ocean breeze. After an hour or so of hiking, we beat it into Freeport to warm up and get lunch.

For lunch, we split a lobster roll and a lobster BLT. Let me assure you, bacon makes everything better, and lobster is even more divine with it. Plus, the benefits of not having to clean a lobster cannot be overstated.

More sights of Maine

From Matt's visit a week or so ago . . .

Some of the lobsters we caught

A Civil-War era fort in Casco Bay. It never really saw any action, but it's still cool.

At the base of a lighthouse we visited

Us at the lighthouse, which you tragically cannot see because we're in the way. But it's still a cute picture, so I'm posting it.

Lobster

I'm just now getting to it, but Matt visited last weekend to celebrate my birthday and explore a little bit of Maine. We decided to stay close, so we spent most of our time in and around Portland and Freeport. Today, I'll just cover the lobster boat tour we went on out of Portland. We went with Lucky Catch Cruises and had an excellent time. Our boat tour was an hour and a half through the lovely Casco Bay. We learned how to bait lobster traps, put them in, pull them out, and evaluate the lobsters. I learned a lot, and it was excellent to be out on the water.

Of course, now on to the important part: pictures!

all suited up

Learning how a lobster trap works. Lobsters climb in the big hole to munch on the rotting fish. They then fall into the first (on the left here) part of the trap. They won't climb back up the rings, but they will climb up the ramp to the right where they then fall into a larger holding area in the trap. There are vents to allow small lobsters out.

You can only keep lobsters between 3.5" and 5" in Maine; this helps maintain a sustainable catch. Once you've got a keeper, you get to rubberband its claws so that it doesn't fight with the other lobsters in the tank. Here, Matt is rubberbanding the lobster we just caught.

Fun Videos

Fun video to share with everyone! It's exercise + enjoyment, so it's double fun. It's also a good reminder to actively seek out stairs when possible. Yay for piano stairs

found at Get Fit Slowly

Also, a lovely cover of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" by Pomplamoose

via Kottke

Salt Marshian

or maybe martian? hard to say.

raaaar!

Julie & Julia

One great benefit of my 101 things list is that it I often continue doing things even after I've crossed off the goal. Getting myself out to three movies alone has made me appreciate the act of viewing a movie; it's no longer just a social experience.

Today, I needed a little alone time to refresh, recoup, and just be away. So off to the movies I went! I was able to enjoy the fabulous Julie & Julia, which is a sweet movie about Julia Child, her cookbook, and the women who decided to cook all the recipes in it.

My favorite part of the movie was actually Julie's part, so I'm looking forward to getting her book out of the library at some point. Most appealing to me was Julie's dogged pursuit of her goal even in the face of personal difficulty; over the course of the movie, we were able to see her confront challenges and grow as a person.

And, of course, I loved seeing the food. I certainly won't cook everything in Julia Child's cookbook (I have no desire to make aspic), but it is always enjoyable to watch people cook and get some new ideas for what I could make. I've never looked at Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and now it's also on my library list.

Overall, I liked the movie, and it provided me with a great mental break from work. I'm now ready to get back into teaching (6th graders this week!) refreshed and ready to go. We're going to be "eco-detectives" this week, and I'll be presenting all sorts of melodrama and dilemmas to be students as a framework for learning about ecology. Should be fun!