The Sandwich Life

Changes

My Aunt died this week. I hadn't been in touch with her since my parents passed, probably. To my understanding, she had dementia and was in a nursing home. She was the youngest of my father's siblings. I think he was about 13 years older than she was. It threw me a bit, because now all of his siblings are gone and I realize Ernie and I are now the oldest generation of the family. He may have one Aunt still living....I'm not entirely sure. It prompted me to renew my Ancestry.com account for a month....and once again think about why we become interested in tracking our families as we get older. Looking for a little perspective to see our place in it all, I suppose.

In the same sort of pondering the passage of time, and the changes it bring, I've also been following the story of the brining shed in our beloved Lubec, Maine. It was was torn off its supports in a storm in early January and sailed over to Canada, landing on the Campobello Beach and causing a bit of local, yet international, incident. It appears there are now people from both countries working on salvaging it and plans are to recreate a miniature version of it. It makes me so sad. This is where my love of bedraggled things that are in need of restoration being more appealing to me than the preserved version wars with my common sense. Poor brining shed.

A few pictures  from when we saw it a few years back (look how young the boys are). I think this was the summer after my sister died, the first year we spent time in Lubec.

 

Random, Random, Random

Random thoughts because that's all my blurry head can come up with. I'm not quite back into the regular routine of life. The boys seem to have plunked right back in....Leo with his standard schedule of staying up half the night and doing all his computer/trains things....Owen with his erratic schedule of staying up all night occasionally and constantly starting new projects. Ernie, well he's with me...not quite back in the saddle yet. 

Yesterday afternoon I saw an orthopedist who told me, no surprise, that I have moderate to severe arthritis in my knees. I'd had x-rays done right before vacation and this was the follow up. He gave me cortisone shots in both knees. In theory this will take effect between 48 hours and 2 weeks....hopefully lasting a few months. The reality is that starting last night my left knee in particular is FAR more painful than it has been. It kept me awake in the night and is really hurting. A little googling tells me this is a cortisone flare and should resolve itself within a day or two. In the meantime....let's just say it's not doing a lot to help me plunge back in....

Something more positive. Some of my favorite moments of vacation:

Sitting on the deck in Lubec with the guys looking at the brilliant stars...oh, and they are so brilliant there. The sky was amazing. It was almost too cold to sit outside but it felt so good to be there watching the sky with my boys, hearing the ocean....

Our vacation tradition of watching of A Mighty Wind. We watch this every time we are on vacation with Debbie. Part of the pleasure is watching Ernie watch it. He is so amused by it that he is incapacitated with laughter. He starts laughing before it even starts and turns bright red....which in turn makes Owen hysterical. This was the first year Leo joined us for it and it was a great moment for us all when we got to the model train line....

 

We left on Wednesday because I have sworn that I won't do that thing anymore in which you get home from a couple of days of driving and go back to work the next morning. Besides...we were running out of money. I had wanted to take the guys to see Niagara Falls. They were distinctly uninterested however, the little jerks. On the way to Maine as we were driving through Bennington, Vermont, Owen had spotted a Volkswagon bug for sale. He is currently OBSESSED with getting a 1960s era VW bug. OBSESSED I tell you. All he talked about was bugs...he brought his library books on bugs....talked about bugs, asked his father constantly about his old bug. He desperately wants to get one. He's trying to figure out how to get a job to save money to get one to work on. I actually think it would be good so I am not opposed...we just have to be able to afford one. He talked about the bug in Bennington so much that I finally promised him we would drive through on the way home. He, of course, spent the rest of vacation researching trailer hitches, etc. When we got into Bennington it was after 4 pm and we searched and searched for it to no avail. Finally we checked into the hotel and Leo got on Google maps and found it. It was 4:30 and they closed at 5:00. Leo and I screeched at the two of them to hurry up and gave them directions. Then we curled up and relaxed in our comfortable hotel room. The two blondes came back and said it was way too expensive for the condition it was in ($2,500) so all thoughts of trailer hitches were put to rest. In the meantime...if anyone knows of a cheap bug ready for an aspiring 14 year old mechanic...please let me know.

The next morning I had hoped to spend a little time in Bennington....maybe eat at the Miss Benn diner or the like. It was not to be however...Leo announced that one of his favorite engines was just off the turnpike in Pennsylvania and that the train museum was only open until 4:00 pm. I googled driving times and started yelling "WE'VE GOT TO GO" and rushing everybody to the car. We could JUST barely make it. Minimal stops and lots of hurrying all day but we missed it by about 20 minutes. However, it was not fenced off so we were still able to walk around and Leo was thrilled and that made me floatingly happy. Ernie said to Leo, "I hope you're as happy as your mother is." And I think he was. He has now seen 2 of the 3 existing Little Joes. I love it when my boys are happy. I am such a sucker.

Onward.

Vacation Cooking and Beyond

After vacation I always do a post about what I cooked. Alas, this year the inspiration was not with me. I did do a pretty good curried lobster with coconut milk and fresh vegetables (beets, beet greens and corn) but it was damned ugly visually. I made some piss poor haddock, usually one of my favorite simple things. I did make a nice lobster salad in a basil vinaigrette but overall....eh. I did make good burgers with local ground beef and some chorizo from the organic farm we like up there. Those were pretty great...and some chicken thighs because hell, those are hard to ruin. We ate mind you, and ate fine, but wonderful meals just weren't in the cards this year. It's a shame too because we actually had a heavenly kitchen in our Lubec rental. The woman we rent from there has totally ruined us for other rentals...

I may have eaten the most lobster ever on one of these trips. We went out to breakfast twice and both times I ordered a lobster omelet. The first one was lobster but still lackluster. The second one was a restaurant in Lubec and was much better although I still find it odd to put cheese in a lobster omelet. Is that just me? The best of the three lobster omelets I had however was the one I made. I didn't yet have the hang of the pans and the stove so it did stick, but damn it was good. Just eggs with lobster, parsley and some chopped heirloom tomatoes with a bit of salt and pepper. It may have been the best thing I made the whole trip. 

Omelet 1 from Lobster Cove in York Harbor, Maine.

Omelet 2 from Inn at the Wharf in Lubec.

Omelet 3 from me.

first picture is in process because it fell apart in the end...probably too much filling but what...you're NOT going to use all the leftover lobster?


After Lubec we met up with my sister Debbie who had taken the train up from Boston. We picked her up in Brunswick and hung out in a house on Orr's Island for a few days. My poor sister Debbie usually looks forward to my cooking...this year I just didn't come through for her. Oh well...she loves me anyway (I think)! And she, as she does every time we see her, fixed traditional stuffed and broiled lobster just the way our Grandpa did. And, although of late I tend to prefer mussels over steamers, this year we had the best steamers ever. It was heavenly. Thanks Debbie!

steamers being steamed

dipped in clambroth, then butter, then devoured...reportedly I adored these even as a baby in my highchair....

stuffed and ready for the broiler

and after

Yesterday was our first day back and my birthday as well (thanks for all the birthday wishes!). We had a lovely, lazy day. A birthday drink at Fries and Peanuts, later I felt like cooking for once. Ernie had picked up some salmon and I made an avocado/spinach sauce (just pureed fresh spinach, two avocados, the juice of a lemon, some olive oil, a dash of water and some salt and pepper). Then the salmon, which was smoked (they were out of fresh) we warmed up and set on the bed of avocado/spinach. We added a couple of corn fritters to each plate (just corn off the cob, lots of black pepper, a bit of salt, one egg and some cornstarch) to the plate along with chopped garden tomatoes courtesy Heather and Steve, and topped the whole thing with a spicy basil oil (olive oil, red pepper flakes and thai basil from the garden). It was delicious. I was so pleased with myself. The picture is not great because I was lazy and the flash is too bright but just the same...you get the idea....

In the middle of the night Ernie suddenly shot up from the bed and raced the bathroom. He came back telling me he didn't feel too good. Sigh. Within the half hour I was also miserable. 

I finally end up feeling a little inspired about cooking and we end up with food poisoning? Really?

Sigh.

Well, vacation is truly over now. 

Our Beloved Lubec, Maine

We hadn't been to Lubec in four years. Can that be right? No, we were there three years ago, but only for a day or two. There were, of course, a few changes. Nancy asked me for an update so here goes:

1. The building on 189 that used to have redemption center signs now has for sale signs.

2. Uncle Kippy's restaurant moved out of their building on the way into town and are now in the building next to the IGA that used to be a convenience store.

3. Sadly, Boldcoast Smokehouse, with the incredible smoked salmon from Captain Vinny is no more. I had read that it had closed but I was sorry to see that the old house that fronted it has been torn down. Now there is a business that says HD & Sons Seafood....it says retail and wholesale but it never looked open for retail when we passed. Glad there's a business there but can't help but be sorry the house and Boldcoast Smokehouse is gone....

from a few years ago

and now:

4. I thought Annabell's had closed but it is open again. I swear it's painted a different color but I didn't take a picture so now I'm confused.

5. The man who ran Bayside Chocolates downtown passed away...someone has bought it though.

6. There's a brewery downtown that also serves vegan/vegetarian meals and has music.

7. Work continues on the Lost Fisherman Memorial.

I'm sure there are lots of other changes but Lubec remains Lubec. I am so glad. It's good for my heart.

Our favorite spot, Cohill's Inn:

 

Random Notes from the Vacation Life

1. Every vacation should start with one long, quiet, rainy day. It was heaven. We stocked up at the grocery store in town, had a drink at Cohill's and watched the rain come down on the water. We came home and curled up and watched tv and read and cooked and didn't feel one iota of pressure to do anything else.

Singing along to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline at Cohill's

2. Does everyone else pack a bunch of clothes and then wear the same thing every day when they're on vacation? I always do. New black dress, new black thin sweatery thing, birkenstocks. Black hair tie when necessary. That's it. 

3. The first day Owen said, "I like this relaxed version of you Mom." I agreed.

4. We are supposed to head into Eastport today for lunch but sitting here nibbling on a hard boiled egg courtesy my husband the egg master, I'm not sure I'm feeling it. Sitting here all day sounds like a pretty good plan. I've got some gorgeous produce that was delivered from the Tide Mill Organic Farm. It's $10 for a bag of seasonal produce...the stuff I got is stunning....beets, kale, spinach, green onions, garlic scapes, lettuce and EDIBLE FLOWERS! Nasturtiums and borage...I can NOT tell you how happy this made me. We also got one of their chickens and some chorizo.

5. The morning starts with this view when I wake up.

 6. It's followed by something like this

7. Leo's lair. He does emerge occasionally.

8. I gotta say, my guys have good heads of hair.

 9. And then there's this. A sight that makes me very happy.

10. Eastport and a stop at the mustard museum tomorrow. Today? All I have to do is decide how to cook our lobsters and find another book to read. I just finished the newest Josie Prescott mystery (Jane Cleland). I'm a sucker because it's set on the seacoast and features antiques. Any suggestions??

 

Lubec: And We're Here

On Thursday we drove to Buffalo, New York. Long, but not a bad drive. Friday our drive was shorter....a little over 500 miles. We were hoping to arrive at our hotel around 5 pm but we spent about an hour and a half stuck in traffic behind an accident. Ugh. In past years we have taken the Massachusetts turnpike across the state, heading around Boston into New Hampshire....but on Saturdays in the summer traffic can be deadly so we decided to take the northern route. We cut north in Albany and headed through Bennington, Vermont and Keene, New Hampshire. Every time I set foot in Vermont I am stunned by its beauty. Wow. Leo drove the last five hours or so while Ernie and Owen giggled and drove each other crazy in the back seat. We finally arrived at our expensive hotel room in York. It was lovely and we had a view of the water, but I don't think I'm really a York kind of girl. Everything is lovely and in good taste, but Lubec is more my style. 

Our drive yesterday was only five hours or so and we couldn't get into our house until 5 pm so we took it easy in the morning. We had coupons from the hotel for a restaurant a block or two away so we headed there for breakfast. Leo informed us that he hates going out to breakfast and Owen was silent and sleepy. Ernie and I had Bloody Marys! I ordered an omelet with lobster and tomato but when they brought it to me I spied American cheese oozing out of it. We sent it back. I'm usually pretty forgiving and accommodating about things like that but good Lord....if I'm going to pay for lobster in my omelet, you are NOT putting American cheese on it! It ended up being good but honestly...I could do a hell of a lot better...which perhaps I shall later in the week.

Today is is grey and foggy and rainy. Honestly...it's absolutely perfect. We have no plans other than to pick up a few things at the store. The house is WONDERFUL. Leo has retreated into his room. Given that it has its own bathroom we may see him only for brief moments of feeding throughout the week.  Although he told me hated the ocean, he did have to admit that Vermont was beautiful. For such a curmudgeon however, he is remarkably good company. Owen refused to share the king size bed with Leo so has taken up residency in a small room with a single bed off our room.

Thus far....

nice antique shop in Cherryfield, Maine....


 

The compote that called to us in Cherryfield is already serving us well. The kitchen is fantastic!

Low tide on a rainy day. My idea of heaven.

Heard from the backseat during the drive:

Please stop talking and never speak to me again.

What is that called? Nocturnal? Nasturtium? Oh, neuropathy.

I want to drive to California in an H pattern.

How much further?

How much longer?

For God's sake, stop talking like that.

How much further?

Feel feel to assign the above statements to the appropriate boy.....

 

Owen's At It Again

Now that Owen has basically searched throughout our basement for lost and forgotten treasures, he has set his sights on our garage. I will admit, although I'm not proud of it, that there are boxes in the garage that have never been upacked from when we moved in. I know. I know. Sigh.

Anyway, when Ernie and I got home last night we found him sitting at the dining room table with the detritus of a very, very old box spread across the table. His take on it all? "Dad, you were skinny, and Mom, you were pretty." Pause. "Wellofcourseyoustillare!"

Love that boy.

The pictures aren't great...this was after my good DSLR was stolen after a break in to our Rogers Park apartment. I don't know what I had but they're so-so. Still entertaining though.

First up---the beautiful Fink girls. Hard to believe one of them just got married.

Then some pictures of Ernie and I at an antique show when we hadn't been at it too long...we don't have any kind of shelves or much other than glass....I'm guessing 92 ish? Please note that yes, Ernie has ALWAYS made the weird faces when getting his picture taken. Some damned good flint back there...a bellflower celery, pillar molded pitcher and vase....I think there's a covered bellflower compote too. Sigh.

 

Look, it's back when I was innocent enough to still buy flowers for our booth....

 

 

Then from a trip to Maine. I remember each and every one of those cottages. Ernie hated them. The first one was on Route 1 and it was called Vacationland or something like that. It was a big semi circle of cabins surrounding a wonderful white Victorian farmhouse. It is long gone.

The next one was a little scary actually. Ernie REALLY hated this one. We had to wake up the old man who was sleeping at the counter to register. In the cabin the floor slanted and when you flushed the toilet, water shot up in a different spot from the floor. I had to buy Ernie a lot of drinks at Old Orchard Beach that night. I think they were all gone the next year we went back.

This one was further north....north of Camden I believe....Lincolnville Beach maybe? It was just across from the water. We ate outside at a restaurant...had lobsters and clams and the mosquitos bit me so badly on my legs that Ernie went and found benedryl for me. They filled our thermos with coffee at the little coffee shop attached to the office. I haven't been back there in years. Odds are they are gone, but you never know....

A few other Maine pictures....Moody's Diner and yes, they did indeed have incredible pie; the Humpty Dumpty potato chip factory that we used to drive by on the way to the beach when I was a kid; and the Saco Drive-In.

There are a few more but I'll save them for another time.

Lowell Innes: The Gift of Memories

Thinking about Lowell Innes yesterday made me pull out my Pittsburgh Glass book. My copy is pretty worn. I still think it’s one of the most finely written books on glass ever published. There are plenty of others that have impeccable research and valuable information, but for a book that you can just sit and read and enjoy, I still think it’s the best.

A few years ago when we visited an antique dealer friend in Maine, he mentioned that the old Innes house had burned down awhile back. It made me inordinately sad. I wanted to have that tiny little bit of my life still sitting there on Jenkins Road in Saco, across from the marshlands, tucked away in time I suppose.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my parents took me to visit meet him in Michigan (see scan of article below). We met him after the talk and he positively crowed to the Ford Museum folks sitting around him, “All of you with your  Ph.D’s, but I bet you never got a letter from a 14 year old girl!” After chatting, my mother innocently said, “Oh, we often visit Maine in the summer because my parents live there,” so he of course invited us to his house. My mother was good.

We visited him that summer. I have no pictures. These days we’d have everything photo-documented but those were different times. I recall the house being an old federal home, with a few later Victorian touches, but I might be mistaken. He had glass laid out on tables for me to look at, and his wife Ethelinda, who was so charming, had taken out her collection of perfume bottles for me to see.

I went back one other time, it might have been later that year. My grandmother was ill and we were all in Maine. Judi and Debbie went with me that time and Lowell gave me a nice little scroll flask and several lacy salts. I wrote once or twice more but went off to college the next year. He died in 1986.

Yesterday I found myself googling him and looking for pictures and comments. I found a few. It’s funny. I feel as though I have these old memories of him that are important, but I don’t know that anybody really cares. I still feel like my memories of him are a gift though, a wonderful gift that I carry with me.

 

I even liked his directions----using the "garish yellow roofs" as a landmark. Those cabins were there for years and years...I think the roofs changed to a garish orange, but now they are gone too.

Some of the words I found about him yesterday:

Lowell was headmaster of Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, and taught English there for some 40 years.

Lowell Innes, the ultimate teacher of English literature and writing, said again and again, as a guide to writing, "Don't tell me, show me." Don't tell me someone was a mean old miser, show him being a mean old miser. As words to the wise go about writing, that's pure gold.

The closest I ever had to stern direction from Mr. Innes happened after I returned from a spring vacation visit to Charlottesville, and I told Mr. Innes that I was thinking I might go to the University of Virginia. He looked me in the eye, put his finger to my chest, and in his never-to-be-forgotten Maine accent said, "You're going to Yale, McCullough, and I don't want to hear any more about it!"

Mr. Innes I should add had gone to Yale. (from David McCullough Address, Shady Side Academy's 125th Anniversary Celebration, Saturday, May 2, 2009)

I see Lowell Innes and Shady Side Academy are synonymous. More than anyone else on campus, he typifies the spirit of the Academy. His three button sack, striped poplins, and pastel shirts have set campus styles for years. The green book bag and thermos of coffee have become fixtures around the halls. His "bon mots" pass from boy to boy. Kindly imitations of his "down East" accent are part of every junior wit's repertoire and each year brings a new crop of caricatures for NEWS and ACADEMIAN, Long after we are graduated, Mr. Innes will be remembered for the days in Room IO when Shakespeare and Johnson came alive, for the curriculum and college conferences in his office, and the cryptic notes on the reports to our parents. His forty years of experience with boys and his close association with the universities aid each boy in choosing a college fitted to his special needs. The master-student relationship is much more than business to Mr. Innes, who keeps abreast of the boys' current interests in and out of school. To this friend and educator, we, the class of '56, dedicate our ACADEMIAN. (Shady Side Academy Academia Yearbook class of 1956)

This year marks the termination of Lowell Innes's notable career as an educator and administrator at Shady Side Academy. A teacher for forty years and headmaster for two years, Mr. Innes has also placed many Shady Side students in college. Known for his green book bag, a warm, toothy smile, and a Maine accent, he will retire this year to his home in Saco, Maine. Mr. Innes had been a contributing factor in the intellectual and material growth of Shady Side Academy over the years and will be missed by the teachers, students, and alumni of Shady Side. (Shady Side Academy Academian 1960)

Bowdoin College honored him as well:

LOWELL INNES, native of Biddeford, graduate of Thornton Academy and Yale, for many years able Assistant Headmaster of Shady Side Academy – the early home of many Bowdoin men – a vigorous proponent of precise and disciplined thinking. He has seasoned his scholarship with wit, warmed it with humanism, inflamed it with idealism, never warping it with sentimentality. An outstanding schoolmaster, he has guided youth with sensitive touch, adjusted to the particular needs of the particular boy, gaining respect, affection, and admiration, not only from his students and their families, bur from all colleges to which he has entrusted his boys. For just such qualities we honor him. Honoris Causa, MASTER OF ARTS

Damn We Were Cute

Yesterday afternoon we emptied a huge drawer in our dining room sideboard that is full of pictures. Most of them came from Ernie's Mother. After she died we started sorting them with his brothers and then they got put in that drawer and there they've sat. I need to use the drawer for something else though so we attacked it again, sorting it into piles for each brother, and tossing many of the extraneous things, pictures that friends had sent them of their kids and grandkids, etc.

I must admit that I kept this picture because I found it so oddly creepy....

I came across some pictures of when Ernie and I had visited my sister Debbie in Boston, and my grandfather in Portland, somewhere around 1983. I look at them as though they're someone else and then I remember, "OH, that's me!" 

The other day I was looking at something and moaning about how old I looked. Ernie told me we had to stop saying that. I sighed and said, "I know, but then you see Kristi Rose...." He started laughing and said, "Well, don't go by her....she NEVER ages!" And we laughed because we love her enough not to resent it.

And with that....a dash of 1983:

And Debbie....these are just for you because they show Grandpa and their house....

THE Lobster Roll

I got my copy of Food & Wine right before we left for Maine and it listed Bite Into Maine, a foodtruck that operates outside of Portland, on its list of best lobster rolls. Most of the time it is at Ft. Williams Park, home of Portland Headlight. Ernie and Debbie and I decided we had to give it a try so off we went.

Well, first there's the scenery:

So you know it's going to taste pretty good no matter what....

Then there's the food.....AMAZING. The hot dog bun...perfectly toasted...the lobster was as tender and flavorful as I have ever had. Ernie and Debbie went with the classic Maine version---just a little mayo and a few chives. They have six varieties: Maine, Connecticut (warm butter instead of mayo), picnic style which has coleslaw and celery salt and then curry, chipotle and wasabi.

I decided to go with the curry and it was delightful. The curry flavor is sweet and a bit hot but done with great restraint so you mostly just taste the lobster meat. Next time I might go with the picnic version.....

They also sell Moxie which I remember my grandmother talking about. Honestly I don't recall if she liked it or not but it made me think of her so I got one. Now I generally don't drink pop much so I may not be the best judge but I loved it. I even made Ernie get a 12 pack to bring home with us. One got punctured in some kind of unpacking accident but I still have 11! As per Wikipedia,

Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was an early example of mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today.

Moxie's flavor is unique, as it is not as sweet as most modern soft drinks and is described by some as "bitter." Moxie is flavored with gentian root extract, an extremely bitter substance which was reputed to possess medicinal properties.

Moxie is closely associated with the state of Maine and was designated the official soft drink of Maine on May 10, 2005. Its creator, Dr. Augustin Thompson, was born in Union, Maine, but Moxie was invented and first produced in Lowell, Massachusetts.

All in all a perfect Maine lunch. It makes me wistful just to think of it. We did bring back multiple bags of New England hot dog rolls (including supplies for Sue and Mel) but after sitting in the hot car for all those extra days we ended up with most of them going bad. Sigh. Perhaps I need to invest in a special pan......but then I'd still have to come up with the lobster....