Maine Vacation
Paul In NJ
>We had a wonderful vacation in Maine last week and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I wish we had more time as there were many places we didn't get to see. The weather was gorgeous, clear and dry, with no rain until the day we left. The night sky was a special treat for me, the sky so black and the stars so bright. No light pollution to obscure the stars like at home.
I managed to meet up with 'Mainely Bob' at the Salt River Artisans Gallery where I saw some of his and other local artisans work. I must say the pieces were exceptional and creative, a most talented group of people. I have always enjoyed reading Bob's posts on WC and it was great to meet him and talk about furniture and tools. The Gallery is a wonderful showcase for local work and I wish them continued success. It would have been great to spend some more time visiting with Bob but it was getting late and we wanted to see the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. We managed to also visit the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, a small museum in Northeast Harbor, and the museum in Isleford-Little Cranbury Island. I have a fondness for small wooden watercraft and the museums had lots of traditional designs that you could get close to. They had Old Town canoes, sailing canoes, dories, wherries, gigs, peapods, and on and on, it was fabulous.
I managed to get a bit of tool hunting in and found a few tools to buy. We stopped at a couple of flea markets and the wifey found a few items but I struck out. I visited the Lie Nielsen store in Warren and purchased a chipbreaker and a set of blades for my Stanley scratch beader. I was able to resist depleting my funds further as I was hoping to find old tools later on. During our stay I shopped at Liberty Tool, Captain Tinkhams, and Hulls Cove. While I found a few tools there I left with much of my tool budget intact. They had a fair collection of metal planes but I was looking for woodies and some chisels to round out my collection. I came up with a 26" jointer, a 3/8 Ohio tongue plane, a large Ohio Ogee, and an Addis carving chisel. These were fair users at fair prices.
I can't say too much about Acadia National Park, it was just awesome; you'll just have to go there and see it for yourself. Everyone in Maine was friendly and most accommodating with the exception of one waitress who was having a bad day. We brought or 70 pound, well behaved, dog Duke with us and he was welcomed most places. We were able to bring him on the excursion boat and ferry and inside quite a few antique shops. This was a long awaited vacation that lived up to expectations.
Paul Dzioba