Cold, sharp and naturally surreal; the incredible color redeeming this chilly and windy November day…

First at Bearskin Neck:

and later at Halibut Point:

Cold, sharp and naturally surreal; the incredible color redeeming this chilly and windy November day…

First at Bearskin Neck:

and later at Halibut Point:

(originally written on 9/23/07)

Breakfast is to be taken seriously while on vacation, and we did our research, Cafe This Way being high on the list of many on Chowhound. So there we headed for our first breakfast in Bar Harbor – not completely unprepared as we had a dinner in Cafe This Way the night before and were quite pleased.

The breakfast was nice too especially pancakes bursting with wild main blueberries…

The plan for the day was to take a rest from two days of riding and do some hiking instead. Cadillac Mountain South Ridge 7 miles trail seemed like a great idea, though sudden clouds on the sky looked suspicious. H. assured me that radar looked good and we got into the Island Explorer shuttle bus to Acadia exactly at the time when the rain started. The bus slowly proceeded through Acadia picking up rain-soaked people at each stop. We got off the bus at the Blackwoods Campground, rain not stopping We didn’t have a map but H. checked the web and seemed to know the location of the trail start. We got off the bus at the general store and bought a disposable raincoat-poncho. Then we trecked about half mile to the entrance of the campground. No signs of the trail so we asked the ranger.

She explains but then asks if we’re camping here. After our negative answer she says that we can’t do hiking on the campground territory here and need to go back to route 3 where we can pick up the trail, 50 yards after the campgrounds entrance road. We agree, but proceed to the campground trail start.

After hiking about half mile we’re starting to wonder why the trail doesn’t seem to climb and at this point we start to hear road noise. Yes we made back to the route 3 and to the general trail entrance – ai little consolation that we were walking through the woods and not asfalt road.

At this moment the rain pretty much stopped: and another short but this time steep hike through somewhat spooky woods brings us to the broad ridge.

I can imagine that usually there are a lot of hikers here but they all got scared by the rain and we have the trail completely to ourselves.

At this point it’s about 2 miles more to the peak, and unfortunately we don’t have enough time to make it. Well, as a compromise we’ll be riding to Mt Cadillac next day on a motorcycle. 

With that smell of wet leaves in the air it’s common for russian expats to get nostalgic about mushroom hunting. That’s why last Sun found us wandering through Cape Cod woods (in reality small patches of public land squeezed among private No Trespassing properties) . But the weather was beautiful, the foliage pretty and we even found some mushrooms, just enough for a pic.

Called mohovik in russian and apparently mossiness in english, it’s not a particularly tasty mushroom. At this point we abandoned the idea of pick your own mushroom themed dinner and just continued walking and enjoying the warm afternoon.

And then we got back on a motorcycle and had a very nice long ride through Cape Cod, with a stop in Chatham to see the lighthouse and the beach.

Gorgeous afternoon in Boston – oh the splendor of indian summer. We actually came to the city to explore couple of craft galleries (I’ll post about it separately) but it was a shame to leave right away. "Btw can i finally see the Trinity Church? Do you know where it is?" "Oh sure" – my typical H. – often wrong never in doubt. He has a different building in mind but nonetheless we find the Trinity Church near by. And not only it is magnificent we have a not-to-be-missed photo setup.

Apparently we’re not the first to notice and make the shot as a quick search on flickr would reveal. But i still consider ours to be one of the best LOL.

Finally set aside some time to finish long ago started post on our motorcycle trip to Bar Harbor, Maine: to relive these several magical days in August.

To beat the traffic we started Sat afternoon and made it to Portland, with a detour to Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery for lunch: terrific fried oysters.

Nothing special to report from Portland – we got there pretty late and had a trouble to find a decent place for a dinner – every place suggested on Chowhound had a long wait so we crushed at Gritty McDuff’s brewpub for a so so burger and awful fries. The beer was not much better. Was too early to go back to hotel and we wandered a bit but there was nothing much to see – boutiques and galleries were already closed for the day. Fortunately we stumbled on Sebago pub, another brewing company in Portland. With no high expectations (had Sebago’s beer before and were not impressed) we ordered Frye’s Leap IPA, and it was ambrosial: A perfect wind up of the day…

Skipped breakfast at Portland in anticipation of a substantial lunch at Sea Basket, Wiscasset on the way to MTI. But the address on GPS brought us to the middle of nowhere. Back to Route 1 passing Red’s Eats, another notable shack w/o stopping turned off by a very long line. And then we noticed a road sign inviting to Glidden Point Oyster Farm just within several miles off Route 1. We pulled in and got some fresh oysters just to realize that not only they don’t shuck them, the farm doesn’t have any place outside for DIY. Refusing to give up we buy an oyster knife, and start riding around looking for a spot for an impromptu picnic. We end up in a small marina of some unknown town, and eat our oysters on a narrow stone beach pretty much on a parking lot. With a tiny bottle of tabasco as the only condiment, these are nonetheless the best oysters we ever had!

Back on the motorcycle now to our final destination with a short stop to admire the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.

Stay tuned for the next installments…

We went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see couple of new craft exhibitions – on jewelry and fiber. Instead we spent all the time at just opened Shy Boy, She Devil, And Isis, Conceptual Craft from Wornick Collection. More than 100 objects, mostly three dimensional with some wall art. Wood pieces were especially eye opening… No wonder – it occurs that Wornicks were initially collecting what they would call "sculptural wood vessels" (the interview and some wood works from their collection are available at youtube here).

Art Knowledge News has some pictures and an excellent description of the exhibition (not so much so on the MFA site itself).

Couldn’t resist getting the exhibition catalog – besides excellent photos of all presented objects it contains essays on several interesting subjects – craft vs art, the materialization of arts, the role of private collectors…

And i keep thinking that exhibitions like this seriously raise the bar for craft artists: it’s hard not to measure works we will encounter on the next arts and craft fair we visit against it. 

What makes a perfect weekend ride? As i see it from a back seat, three things are essential (using our recent ride as an example):

1. Destination – this particular ride was to Wachusett, a mountain that Thoreau called "the observatory of the state" in his essay A Walk to Wachusetts.

2. Route – curvy roads around the eponymous reservoir

and thickly settle new england country side

that brought us to the other side of the reservoir:

3. And last but not least Weather – it was relatively hot but cloudy and the wind was nice breathing out cool air from woods and lakes around…

Thinking about what to do on the rainy weekend i googled for glass museum in Massachusetts. The first several hits pointed to Sandwich Glass Museum, and off we went.

The collection itself won’t dazzle you with masterpieces but it’s very interesting from the historical point of view and enlivened with a multimedia presentation as well as a live glassblowing demo so make sure you don’t miss those. Rounded up with a stroll along pretty streets of Sandwich it was a very pleasant trip.

This Sat we decided to go to Laconia and rent a boat at the Winnipesaukee lake. To our utmost disappointment the NH state law requires a boat license. Though one can take a computer test and get a temporary permit, it’s very hard to pass the test w/o any preparation so no surprise that H.failed.

Not to waste two hours drive we took a turn to Canterbury and visited the Shakers Village.

And we’re so glad we did. A visit to the past in a breathtaking and serene milieu.