The Bob Column

Vacation '96

August 19, 1996

We have just returned from our first trip in six years. We traded our timesharing in Cancun, Mexico for the nearest (and available) resort we could get. So, we piled the kids in the car on Saturday morning at 5 AM and drove 11 hours to Vacation Land Estates (Maine is the VACATIONLAND STATE!) in Island Falls, Maine.

The resort is built just off of a golf course. I don't play golf so the first thought was, OH-OH, what do we do. Well we found our way to Baxter State Park, where we saw a mountain lion cross the road. (Why did the mountain lion cross the road? WHO CARES, JUST LET HIM CROSS!) Any way, we were in search of moose. Big, ugly, stinky moose. So we took a pontoon boat on the lake with Darrell. He and his wife Gail run the Dairy Bar/Tackle shop in town. We were on the lake for 4 hours but didn't see any Moose. We did see some American Bald Eagles in flight (truly awesome; I never thought in my whole life that I'd ever see an Eagle in flight.) and a Red squirrel swim across the river. We also went to Woodstock Canada for a day. Beautiful country. One of the high ponts of our stay was a visit to Goldenrod Farms. They have a wondeful collection of goats, sheep, llamas and a beautiful cow named Buttercup. I fell in love, but couldn't bring her home. Oh, by the way, the best restaurant there was the Horn of Plenty. gracious dining at reasonable prices with LOTS of good food. Thanks to chef Richard and Princess Nancy.

We left Island Falls on Thursday and ventured south to Bar Harbor (pronounced BA HAABA). We found a lovely motel called the Cromwell Harbor Motor Inn and were able to get a room for three nights. We ate lobster on Thursday. We ate lobster on Friday. We ate lobster on Saturday. Chris usually ate a lobster and a half. Stefanie wanted crab and it took us over two hours to finish dinner.

We did a whale watch on Saturday. (Friday got cancelled due to fog.) We almost got fogged out on Saturday, but made the trip. In spite of the fog, we got to see three humpback whales, 2 seals and a misplaced loon.

All in all a great trip.

Why am I rambling about a vacation that was all too short and all too average? Well, I had a lot of feelings stirred up that have been dormant for a long time. There are no city lights in Island Falls. In fact, there were very few crickets and the nights were very dark and very silent. But, the stars are just magnificent. We drove out to the turnout (scenic overlook) on the local lake. It is located in an open area so you can see the vista of the lake and the mountains. On the other side of the road is a mountain with ski trails and a ski lift. It, too, is fairly open, so I knew we would have a wonderful view of the sky at night. The night was clear and cloudless. And the sky was stunning! for the third time in my life, I saw the stars... not the diluted, dissipated stars of the NY metro area, but the bright, crisp stars the way God meant them to be seen: the band of the Milky Way across the center of the sky; and with binoculars, more stars than you can count in a night. It made me regret the fact that I love the city so much.

Oh, on the Connecticut Turnpike, every rest area had a McDonalds. Now while you can depend on the fact that at each location, the food will be consistant, I'm sad to think that America has come down to that!

Also, we stopped at a Christmas Shop... you know, the kind that has decorations priced from 98 cents to hundreds of dollars. They had trees decorated in many motifs: Disney, cowboys, Santas, and a Maine tree with moose and lobsters. They also had various Olde English villages and Santa figures dressed in lots of different costumes. Santa the woodworker, Santa the Mailman, etc. Of course, there were nativity sets depicting the Birth of Jesus. As I was walking through the shop, I thought about how commercial it all was. And a lot of people hate Christmas for that reason. But, I realized that while the basic premise of Christmas is the Birth of Our Savior, it is also a release for most of us. It is a time when the world sort of sighs and takes a break from the cut-throat bustle of every day life. Whether a farmer in the fields, or a stockbroker on Wall Street. People get a friendly attitude and join in a common feeling of good cheer.

At Bar Harbour, we experienced many shops run by local artisans. It's the kind of place that made me want to hark back to my college days. A goatee, life filled with music and art, and a mind and heart filled with ambition and idealism. Playing my Sax, driving my Opal Cadet and looking ahead to an easy-living, worry free life. Now when I listen to cool jazz, I feel like I have to live an urban, yuppie existance which is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Now that I've grown up, life can be kinda sad. I know what Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy laws are for.

So, dear reader, you know How I spent my Summer Vacation. Now here I am back at the PC writing this Web Column. I'll try to keep up weekly, but time won't always allow it. Chris is asleep on the sofa in his clothes. I've got to put him to bed. Bitsy, the dog (a mini-dachsund), is sitting in the open suitcase that Rita is unpacking. She's gotta be moved. So I gotta go.

By the way, here's the motivation for writing this column. I know a woman here in the Babylon area that writes a column for a local newspaper. In it she tells us what to do and how hectic her life is. She paints her husband as an idiot most of the time. At one time, she was a friend, but betrayed us in a crisis situation. My thought is: If she can do it, so can I; and BETTER! So I'll try to write in a friendly, conversational way. Write so my words will slither along, like a lime green neon snake skimming along three inches above the pavement, with no friction to slow it. The best example of this feeling is David Sanborn's Benny on the Upfront CD. Listen to it and check it out.

So stay tuned and check in with me weekly, on a Tuesday or Wednesday. See ya.