Rockport, Maine

We woke up to torrential rain. There is a polar vortex hitting the region. We are skipping the sea kayaking for another day and doing some museum hopping. We are staying with Tom and Annie Gray. Tom and I were teaching partners in Morocco. Go back to March of 2012 and see our adventures. We got along splendidly, and I took Tom up on an invitation to come see Maine.

The Gray's home is charming. It butts up against the forest. I feel like I'm in the novel Last of the Mohiccans. 

Below is why we are museum hopping. Can't really see the harbor. 

Tom's high school, Camden Hills. It has about the same number of students as Star Valley High School, where I will be teaching next year. 

On the way to the museums we drove through Rockport and Camden, which are absolutely gorgeous little harbor villages. 

Below is a statue of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of of the 20th Maine, who held the flank at Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was a professor who joined the war because he believed in the cause. He was wounded a few times and later was governor of Maine. You can tell by the inscription how the war was viewed in the North. Statues can make great history lessons. 

This is Camden's public library. Right next to it is a beautiful little amphitheater. 

We then visited two museums with a lovely little lunch of local deliciousness at a little bakery in Searsport. 

Lobsters are definitely the rage in Maine. Looking forward to that tomorrow. 

The kids dipped candles at the Penobscot Marine Museum. We saw several boats and learned the difference between skiffs, schooners, ships, brigs, etc.

Tom is demonstrating how lobster fishing works. We decided the dead herring bait would not be a pleasant aspect of the fishing. 

The kids are learning how to band the lobsters. We learned how the lobsters have to be within a certain size and how the breeding females get notched and also have to be left alone. 

Drinking Maine blueberry sodas. 

At the transportation museum in Owls Head. Randall really loved this Ferrari, which was ridden by Shumaccher (sp?).

Randall took photos of many cars on the trip, as you will see.  He likes cars a little. :-)

The above Ferrari was driven by a famous racer. 

Sharolyn quite liked this Valentine on Wheels Rolls Royce, which was silver screen actress Clara Bow's for over a decade. 

And possibly the most gorgeous car in the museum...

This was the same model flown by the Red Baron. 

And the Ford Model T, the car that changed everything. Really, this was a neat little museum. 

We enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared by Annie, and watched a movie. Skunky liked Randall, and this is a cat who apparently doesn't always get along well with others.