the suspense is finally over…

Well, I am really back into the swing of things now. I spent the last 3 days working (not on my own stuff, working at the day job for what seems like a very long 40 hour week packed into 3 days). I’m planning on doing nothing this weekend. Not a single academic-related thing. I gather from my advisor that someone ought to celebrate turning in an article, so I think taking a weekend off is a good way to do it.

So that gives me time to write about my trip to Northern Maine! I know you haven’t been able to handle the anticipation of this long awaited post. Well, the suspense is finally over! Here’s a synopsis of our trip up to what is affectionately known as “The County.”

We drove up last Saturday morning– all 5 of us in one car for 5 hours. It wasn’t so bad, actually. I read Willa Cather’s wonderful Oh Pioneers! and watched the green Maine scenery role by. We couldn’t remember the last time we took the trip as a family, although we used to drive up to Fort Fairfield often when I was a kid to visit Grammy and Fa Fa. I remember it as being the longest trip in the world, but it didn’t seem so long this time.

As we got off of 95 and onto Route 1 (yes, the very same Route 1 that winds through the coast of Maine) the excitement grew. We reached Mars Hill. When we were kids we used to joke that everyone we saw in Mars Hill was a martian. As adults, we did the same thing. The road to Fort Fairfield looked exactly the same, although the houses were much more run down along the way. In addition to the rocket/space ship on display in the center of town, Mars Hill has added model of the solar system around town. I only managed to catch one such planet on our way by in the car– my dad is not one to stop for me to take photos! And here are some other photos of beautiful downtown Mars Hill.

After checking in to our not-so-luxurious hotel in Presque Isle, we drove to “The Fort.” Downtown Fort Fairfield looks pretty much the same as it always did, although I think there are less stores there than when I was a kid.

And I can’t forget to mention the big downtown tourist attraction– the Fort itself! It’s a replica of a fort that was here during the Aroostook War.

Anyway, after driving through the Fort, we headed to the Canadian border to visit one of dad’s old friends from high school, who lives literally right on the other side of the border. After a couple questions by the Canadian border patrol we headed in to Canada. Here’s the view of the border, and the U.S. from the hill we sat out on drinking Bud Light (yes, I said Bud Light. I have no shame, the guy offered me beer– what was I going to do, turn it down? It tasted like sparkling water to me anyway.)

So we sat on the lawn drinking Bud Light and watched this bastion of homeland security. In January they are starting to require passports to get back into the US from Canada. For the people living along the border this is a serious pain. They’ll have to buy expensive passports (even for their children) if they want to go to work, or visit relatives, or go for groceries. Everyone lives so close it might as well be one town, so this will be quite an inconvenience. Of course as dad’s friend told us, anyone can cross the border by going through the trees on either side. I used the zoom on my camera to watch people enter the US– I guess our host uses binoculars to do this pretty regularly.

After hanging out with dad’s friend (and listening to Johnny Cash who I do love, and hearing about how he doesn’t pay for satellite TV from both countries with 5+ dishes) we headed to my Aunt Nat and Uncle John’s house for dinner. Aunt Nat is my Grammy’s younger sister, and she lives in a log cabin on Munson Pond. I remember going here a lot when I was a kid. I hadn’t been there in maybe 15 years and honestly it was so much exactly like it was when I was a kid that it is a little overwhelming at first.

We had a great time getting reacquainted with family, drinking champagne and wine that definitely cost much more than the Bud Light I had earlier, and eating Nat’s amazing dinner. I even tried the chicken– because it was my grammy’s party chicken recipe and my Aunt Nat made it. I had one bite, and while everyone else raved about it, I thought the chicken taste was a little icky after 10 years so I guess it re-affirmed my pescatarianism. It’s amazing how after so many years we could all get along so very well– we had such a great time with dad’s cousins.

After a wonderful evening with family we headed back to our swanky hotel. My brother and sister and I decided to go out and check out the local Saturday night scene. We ended up at the club/lounge attached to the hotel listening to a band described to us as “terrible- but they make up for it by being very loud”. I could only handle standing there and listening to them cover 2 Queen songs before I couldn’t take it any more. We left and found a nice quiet bar with a pool table and hung out there until the last call– which was 11pm! Wow! Thoroughly bored of the Presque Isle night life, we headed back to our hotel room.

On Sunday, we had a great breakfast (blueberry pancakes, of course) and then we went to see where my grandfather (Fa Fa) is buried with my grandmother who died in the late 1980s. Then, we visited Celia who is an old friend of the families– she actually might as well be family. She babysat my dad when he was growing up, was good friends with my grandparents and took care of my grandparents house when they moved in town Fort Fairfield. She’s now 88 and she’s always lived next to my grandparents, and now there are 5 generations of her family, all under one roof. Pretty amazing.

Before heading back to Southern Maine we drove around and looked at some of the land my dad owns. Here’s what most of the roads in The County look like.

And here’s some of what used to be my family’s farmland when my dad was growing up. That’s Mars Hill, with the newly installed windmills on the top, in the background of the last photo.