VOLLEYBALL!

Not a whole lot to talk about in this one, just a lot of photos. I've been busy with photography stuff on the business side since I've been back. Today I met up with some CSz-ers and their friends for some Volleyball. I didn't play at all last year. The year before that I played a moderate amount, but one time I didn't put sunblock on my feet and they burnt badly to the point of severe pain while walking. No more! Just FUN!

Prouty ready for action!...
...
...
...and then not so ready for action
The standard Whetham serve
Water break...
...
GAME ON!


Whetham ready to spike at any moment


"A" for effort. Sara flails for the ball as Clair and Gelbach observe. Let's see that flail close-up...


And lastly...the atomic serve. Right along the bottom edge of the image is the boundary line. That is how much air is being had...Canadian style!

Chicago, I am back.

Just as Canada wept at our departure, Chicago wept with joy at our return. And Chicago wept HARD.

But I have jumped ahead. We left London, ON around 10:00 with 411-421 miles remaining. We made very good time on the freeway. Then we hit customs.

The bridge to Michigan went from one lane into 5 for customs...as you can see above. Deanna pointed out a lane that we jumped into. YES!...then no. That was when we realized we were now in a solid line, and we watched all the other cars fan off from one line (that we were in) into the remaining four. We were in the slow lane.

Once we finally got up there it was not as easy to get out as it was to get in. The guy asked where we were from, and paused after every reply for what seemed like too long. IDs, where we came from, how long we were in Maine, why we were there for so long...and then my favorite. "Can I see your left hand, sir?" I didn't know why at first, but it was because he had our IDs and saw we lived at the same address. Good thing Deanna was wearing her ring. He asked when the date of the wedding was and we said we hadn't decided...probably winter, but that just matched our standard 4 months from now bit.

I guess it was really hot while we were away, but it started pouring down rain as we got closer to town. Very wet. Not necessarily what I would call "ideal unpacking conditions".

We waited a while for the rain to die down, and it didn't. So we unpacked.

Windows open, fans on. I learned how to use my new camera. I ordered it while I was in Maine and it was delivered here. It is awesome. Purely, awesome.

I don't know how much I'll be writing in this thing from here on out. Thanks for reading this far and I'll try to keep updating.

415 left to go

We are about to leave. Deanna is almost finished with Harry Potter.

I think Canada is sad to see us go. It was nice and sunny the first day, then we awoke to heavy rains. Same thing went for yesterday. It cleared up, and now...rain and Thunder.

Sorry, Canada.

Comments

If you read the comments...on ANY post, apparently...you've met Declan. Everyone, Declan. Declan, everyone.

Declan is the intern at IA. If you're going out there, he can teach you pretty much any Tenacious D song on the guitar.

French to English

We woke up to the sound of pouring rain...and our sunroof was open a crack. I ran down to close it and came back up.

Here's a picture of the Poullet Frit Kentucky from our rainy, eighty-deuce hotel room.

We went down to our free breakfast and I almost faked being french-speaking until the waitress asked (I assumed, because of her hand gestures) how I wanted my eggs. I said "par lez vouz Englais?" Which she did...so I said "scrammbled" and nothing more.

We ate, tipped with US $, and headed out.

After driving a long while we crossed into Ontario and saw ENGLISH!!!

This is a picture of what the Translation for Couche-Tard is...Mac's.

We drove over 500 miles today with approximately 415 left to go tomorrow. We drove through rain, French, and Toronto traffic to end up in London, ON. Tomorrow (hopefully) we are HOME!

Going back the OTHER way.

And we're off!

Deanna and I packed, cleaned, said our final fairwells and we were gone. We left around 3:00pm and headed for Canada...originally, for Quebec City.

I've only been to Canada once, via plane, and I had my passport. We were getting stories from everyone. Seth said we HAD to have passports. Marta said careful of truckers and moose in one part. Everyone was saying they could look through all of our stuff at the border, and we have a lot of crap in the trunk; the trunk is covered by a bike rack with two bikes; stuff in the back seat...everywhere. We way overpacked. People telling us not to say we're actors, but teachers. We're told to gas up everytime we see a gas station 'cause gas is scarce...and expensive. Master plans.

I went to a website that said you have to have picture ID and may be asked to provide a birth certificate. So still a chance, and perhaps the rest would be true.

We're prepared for the worst. The border is only a couple hours away, so we don't lose that much time if we have to turn around and drive through the states.

Finally, we get to the border. We fuel up on the States-side to get our last cheap gas. Side note, we realized gas would be more expensive in Canada, but it evened out with the price of tolls...for anyone who might be reading this and attempting the trip.

The actual border is right around the corner from the gas station, but you don't see it until you drive a few feet.

Boom...we're there. The Guard(? some guy with an accent) comes out and talks to us through the passenger side window. We see a car up ahead and they are getting everything searched. He asks where we're going, "Chicago". How long are we going to be in Canada, "out on Tuesday". He lets us go.

HE LETS US GO? He didn't even ask for ID! I joked with Deanna that I should have screamed "I'm a teacher!" right as he asked where we were headed. So we were officially welcome in Canada. The first sign we saw was the following:

Translated it says, "These Reindeer are the BEST! They dance and accelerate and LIVE because they are chivalrous." (as translated by me)

This is when I realized just HOW French Quebec was. I think it hit me when I saw a garage sale sign in French.

We drove toward Quebec City just barely before Deanna, who had the Atlas, chose a new route. We headed for Montreal. The drive was GORGEOUS. Long roads on rolling hills. Go through Quebec sometime.

We stopped off at a Cemetary to get a couple shots.

Along the way we never really stopped until we got into a town called Granby. For no other reason than it was a good time to stop, find a hotel, and eat. This was not one of those towns that had hotels readily by the freeway. We drove a long while through the town. We passed a store that had a name I'll never forget:

I told Deanna she was the Couch-tard and we kept looking for a place. We finally found a hotel right when I was ready to just turn around and go to one of the expensive looking places we passed. It was like a slightly more nice hotel on a slightly more nice 82nd ave in Portland. We walked up to the counter and Deanna braved the first "par lez vouz Englais". Everyone we talked to seems to know a little. We got our room, got some food and ate outside watching a beautiful sunset.

Of Walking and Leaving

Three days ago Deanna and I were supposed to meet Jen and Larrance down around Sand Beach to see a cave. We had to meet at a certain time because the cave fills up when the tide comes in. It wasn't necessarily the hottest day out here, but it was probably the muggiest. All along the drive we were getting blocked. Seth an Andrea went as well but left after us from the house. There are two ways to get to the island: the main route and the back way. Tourists take the main route and locals take the back way...we usually take the back way.

So we're starting off our adventure and it isn't long before we're blocked by an elderly gentleman in a truck driving very slow. He seems confused...traffic is building up behind him. Finally he is about to turn off the road, but not before letting a huge..no...HUGE construction truck onto the road. We're following this truck for a long time. It gets to where the back way connects to the tourist way and we see Seth and Andrea drive by...we're still behind this truck.

Now would be a good time to remind you that it is hot and muggy. Now would ALSO be a good time to let you know that I do not like the heat...AND, since we'd be climbing around in a cave, we were told to wear pants. Just keep that in mind for later.

The truck turns off...finally. Only to be replaced by an old couple who hits the gas to get into traffic, but immediately drops to below speed limit. I was already having a weird feeling, but now I vocalized it. I told Deanna I didn't think we were supposed to go to the caves today.

We finally get to where Deanna knew we were supposed to meet Jen and Larrance between 3:30-3:45. No Jen and Larrance...and no Seth and Andrea. 3:55...same situation. We figured Jen and Larrance got tied up in the festival stuff they've been doing, and Seth and Andrea mentioned wanting to go swimming...so we figured that is where they went.

So we decide to just go on the hike and see if we can find the caves. I should also mention I hate bugs...and hikes in heat with bugs while I'm in jeans.

Here is one of the cool views from the hike. I kind of spoiled the hike by being on it. Bugs love me for some reason and I was getting pissed off and fast. At one point we ran into this guy:

The boldest squirrel/stripeless chipmunk I've seen. He was sitting there by the trail and didn't even flinch as we walked up. Just checked us out.

The hike ended with more bugs...there were a few areas along the hike that had great views and no bugs...but not the end. We got back to the theater and Jen and Larrance were there...glad that we were ok.

We went to the wrong place. Deanna knew the directions and even gave the directions she knew to Andrea. Seth and Andrea made it to the caves based on our directions. However, my gut/fate was right. We weren't supposed to go to the caves. They said a lot of people were there, and everyone was being dangerous via stupidity. The cave is filled with tide pools and lined with muscles and barnacles...very slippery. They found one older lady there...all scraped up and covered in blood. They helped her up (she came to see a show the next night). Apparently she had very recently had both of her knees replaced. This cave isn't a good idea for awesome knees let alone newly implanted ones. She's lucky...and dumb.

So it was a bloody mess that we didn't have to deal with. I'm sure I would have slipped and died if we went.

A reflection of the sign outside through the inside window. Tonight marks our last night here. We have three shows. Deanna is making the order for the first show, I'm doing the second, and the third show is the jam. It's been a blast, but I'm ready to get back and get things rollin' in the city. If you ever get a chance to come out here...take it.

Deathly Situations

I've been interested in the art used on tombstones ever since learning about it in Anthropology. Not only does the art work have symbolism, but you can date stones by artwork trends...especially back far enough to the point where people might be able to do art work on stone, but it didn't mean they were literate.

There are many cemetaries around here, and I decided I'd use my last day off to explore. About half of the cemetaries I went to were small family plots...like the Higgins, Jordan, and Freemans. We have a map of the island, and there were many places labeled "Cem". They varied in size from about 100 stones to one area I found in the woods with only two stones (that one was creepy).

I played around with this one in PhotoShop, but only to make the reflection color and everything else Black and White. I zoomed in on the globe and I have no idea where I am in the reflection.

This one was from the Deacon Oliver cemetary. It was in the woods off a small road and the sun was shining only on Alfonso.

Deanna and I had the same day off. I dropped her off to do some hiking while I was grave hunting. I took a road called Seal Cove Rd that ended up going straight through Acadia Park...mostly a dirt road.

Check out the sign...here's where the road got a whole lot sexier.

Somewhere in the middle of driving on this road my cell service kicked back in and I had three messages from Deanna. She had hiked to the top of the tallest mountain on the island...the one we saw the sunrise from. From there she took another trail then decided to take a trail to bubble pond.

I drove to bubble pond and went to meet her on the trail. The trail went almost immediately from serene bridges crossing trickling streams to this:

I don't think this picture captures the "uphillness" of the climb. I was holding a camera in one hand and a water in the other, and I had to put them away to climb up. Don't you get it?! I'm tall! I had to use my hands to climb! Anywho...

I climbed up until I could get a signal...then got through to Deanna. She wasn't on this trail, she said. So I went to wait at the car. Turns out she WAS on the trail! She said it was very scary...and I looked at it through the eyes of a short person and agreed.

No...We're Still Alive

I know you've heard all the rumors, but I managed to save our lives.

Deanna and I waited until the theater was all the way closed so we could give Larrance a ride home. It was Jen's day off and she took the car.

We're driving home. We're talking about netflix.com, and what movies to check out. Larrance asks Deanna if she put "Sherman's March" in the queue. I ask about it an as Larrance is explaining, I save everyone's lives. Details...

The car behind me is starting to ride me a little so I speed up. I have a habit of staring at the headlights of oncoming cars to determine if their brights are on and whether or not to flash mine at them. I'm staring at the car and I see something big and brown right in front of it...a moose. A HUGE moose. I would be looking up to look it in the eye if I were standing. I have seconds to react. The moose is fully in the other lane and about to cross into ours. It's in ours. I swerve hard to the right and then back into the lane. I see the car behind me lock up the brakes. Moose unharmed.

We were within inches of this thing. It was awesome. I felt like I was a driver in a car commercial avoiding that child running after his playground ball...or dodging that mountain bike that just slid off the cliff above me. The cool thing was that I kept my cool and never got an adrenaline rush. Larrance and Deanna were very...well..."WHOA!", and I wanted to hear more about "Sherman's March."

It hit me later how huge this thing was...and how screwed we could have been. It's as if I had some Felix Felicis before the drive.

Of Pigeons, Potter, and other Wonderful Things

A few different things. First an update on the pigeons. The nest you've seen is at the base of a roof. As I've said, pretty much anywhere a pigeon could land is covered in spikes to keep them from landing and crapping on everyone on the deck. At night the mother would usually sit on the chicks in the nest. Now they've gotten too big...and there is really only one place for the mom to sleep...

...the sprinkler head. You can see the spikes lining everything else. It's only a matter of time before the chicks will need to learn to fly.

On Friday night we realized that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out at midnight in most cities. Lucky for us that included Bar Harbor. They even had a costume parade at 11:15 that we missed out on. Seth, Deanna, Andrea, Sarah, Decklan, and Pat all went down to Sherman's even though only three of us were going to buy the book.

The line was huge...until we found out a majority of the line was for people who had reserved the book. This was great, and in our favor. They had one line for reservations, two lines for people buying.

Here's me giving Seth the gift of Reading!

We were only in this line shortly when an employee came to grab us and said there was a shorter line. She was right. I think the worst wait was for the people with reservations.

We were in an out in no time (Deanna, me, Sara, Seth). Coincidentally, we took wayyyy to many pictures of this with way to many people's camera's. They're books....books.

The next day (Saturday...technically the same day as the Harry Potter purchase since it was after midnight) Deanna and I went to the Mt. Desert Oceanarium. It was kind of rickety, but interesting. They had a touch tank with a guy who told all about everything in the tank. We got to hold sea cucumber, star fish, sand dollar, sea urchin, horseshoe crab, moon snail, and this thing called a Sea Squirt. Probably the most interesting thing to me was when he was talking about sea urchins. Urchins are use in sushi, but seagulls like them too. Seagulls will grab an urchin, fly up, and drop it on rocks to break it open. That isn't the interesting part. The thing that intrigued me was how to stop them from doing that...

...just do this. Apparently there are a lot of urchins AND seagulls near the Oceanarium. The seagulls were smart enough to know that the parking lot and cars were hard surfaces and would drop urchins down. There was probably a lot of crapping in the process as well. Apparently though, seagulls can't see that well. By simply painting that simple silhouette, the seagulls stay away. They won't drop anything in the lot because they actually think it's another seagull waiting to steal their food.

OR...you can go with the story an old lobster fisherman told me. When a sailor dies untimely, his sole is sometimes brought back by The Gull. Where the sailor goes, he leaves his mark. I think this story is true.

Not-so-baby Pigeons

Well, here they are folks. The baby pigeons. I should have snapped some shots earlier...they have almost gotten rid of all their yellow feathers (like the ones that are still kind of on their heads). This is pretty much what they looked like once the mom stopped sitting on them long enough for us to see them.

I didn't really notice until I looked at the picture, but there's a lot of poop. The pigeon on the right is the boss of the nest. I've seen it peck at the other one and walk all over the other one.

Here are what I assume are the proud parents. There isn't enough room in the nest for the mom to linger anymore, but she goes back and sits on the chicks at night.

That's the pigeons, folks.

Sunset Kayaking...and all it brought

If you've read in order, you've heard of the early morning sunrise, but not the end of that day with the sea kayaking sunset.

After going up to the sunrise and getting breakfast, Deanna and I came back home and slept...we lazed around until about 4:00 then headed back into town with plans of dining and kayaking. One perk of working on the island is that a lot of places give discounts...probably more than we know about. The sea kayaking place we went to offered free trips if you were on standby. So we called around 2:00pm to check...there were 11 out of 12 spots left. Check in at 3:00pm...11 out of 12 left...AWESOME! We get to go for free! Call at 4:00 right before we leave and there are 3 spots left. Oh well, we reserve them as paying customers. It's $30 each so it's not too bad.

We head into town to eat at McKay's. Great food. If you're coming out here, eat there. Walk back towards the kayaking place and stop in a recreation store to get some "gear". I buy a fleece vest and some water-resistant pants. Deanna buys a top and pants that are both non-cotton. We were told when we first checked the place out that it can get cold out there and that cotton is bad to wear...so we were very concerned. We get to the kayak place at 6:20 and they say "we were going to give you 1 more minute"...there were two people waiting for our slots. Good thing we said we'd pay.

The people joining us consisted of a guy by himself, six 10-16 year-olds who were all together, and a mother and son who had seen us in a show the night before. The son gave the suggestion "101 ways to use throw-up" for our Dimestore Novel. He kept staring at me like I was a god while we were sitting there getting our gear.

Speaking of gear, everyone else was wearing shorts and T-shirts. They gave us aqua socks, a PFD, and a windbreaker. I would have been fine in any of my other clothes, but now I have a vest. The one kid's shock and awe wears off and he moves on to "bit phase" where he makes clever little comments about everything...to kind of show "hey, I'm one of you guys, right?" We get our safety training and go down to load.

The kayak that Deanna and I end up with turns out to be the first to load. I'm thinking "Cool! We can paddle around while everyone else is loading!" Wrong. We are told to paddle out to another dock and hold on until we're all out there holding on to each other's kayaks.

Then...WE'RE OFF! Since we were the first ones to get to the dock, we were the last ones to push off.

This view is right after we left. The three kayaks you see closest to us in the picture are the 6 10-16 year olds. One boy, who is the youngest. The rest are girls all at least 2 years older than the boy. They were all over the place and not paying much attention to anything around them...kind of like a 2 year old child running full speed while looking to the side. They were a blockade at this point and a pain in the ass. When we would try to go around them they would either think we were racing them or they would start racing each other. More on them later.

So we head out to go around the right of the island. Kayaking is awesome. I would do it again if I could find a bigger kayak (more on that later as well). We saw some cool wildlife while we were out. As we got closer to the island we saw some birds that were related to Puffins (can't remember the name). Right next to us, floating along gracefully was a Jellyfish. That was a first. Later on, as we came around the mountain, we saw a Bald Eagle. This was only the second time in my life that I've seen a Bald Eagle. It was great. Apparently there is a nest on the island. We also saw a seal pop up, and later...harbor porpoises. That was pretty damn cool as well. As we were paddling along a larger boat came up to watch the sunset as well...tourists. We're everywhere.

Our guide leading the way.

The like of kayaks.

All the boats getting along together.

Best shot on the roll.

All of the pics were taking on a Kodak waterproof disposable I bought before we left...not too bad.

So...back to the kids. At one point, about half way through the trip the boat with young boy from the six kids ran into our boat while we were all clearly stopped. It wasn't the first time he had run into any one. Each kayak had two people, the rear person steer the rudder, but anyone can stop the boat. When he ran into us I turned and said "hey, if you see something bright and yellow in front of you, it's probably another kayak." I didn't say it too angrily, but it definitely wasn't friendly. We kind of steer clear of them then stay behind them for the rest of the trip. I have to do a lot of hard stops as they weave in front of us absentmindedly, but atleast I can control it. Deanna tells me I made the boy cry when I told him that thing...I felt a little bad, but it's better for him to cry than for any one to get capsized because of him.

The whole trip my feet are killing me. My feet are big, and there isn't any padding in the slightest on the aqua socks. I couldn't wait to get out. It wasn't until I got out that I also realized my knees were trashed. I had my knees popping up in the hole because I couldn't get them in the hole...thus the need for a bigger boat. Still though...I would definitely do it again...with no kids there.

Sunrise...the film version (35mm, not a movie)

Below are the pictures I took on film of the sunrise. When I checked my film at around 1:30am I realized I had 3 options:
1) Slide Film
2) Black and White
3) 3200 speed color (I would have to shoot very fast shots...this stuff is for shooting in dark settings)

I went with slide film/cross-processed. Slides are only used in movie theaters pre-movie (maybe a few other places). When they are developed it causes the positive image to show up right on the film instead of the negative image like regular film...that's what it's designed for and it uses different chemicals than the developing of regular 35mm film. Slides use "E-6", standard uses "C-41".

BUT! You can cross-process slide film for a special effect. If you develop slide film as regular (C-41 instead of E-6) it creates a negative, but the colors won't be quite correct when prints are made. That's what I've done with the following pics. Cross-processing tends to lean heavily towards one color (one time I did it and blue was the strong color...another time green)...this time it was yellow.

This is one of the best photos I got from the 2 rolls, and it still could be better. It was a little misty up on the mountain at this point...just a little. That's Bar Harbor down in the left hand corner. A lot of the sky at the top of the photo was actually blue. THAT'S THE MAGIC OF CROSS PROCESSING!

Here's the sun as it just started to peak over the edge of the horizon. It's in the red circle labeled "SUN"...which I added to the photo...that label doesn't mysteriously appear in the sky to let you know the sunrise is starting. The picture is slightly hazy, but the weather isn't...more on that in a few.

Here's the sun all the way up and a little more hazy.

And finally the last and most haziest shot. See...I mentioned in the last blogs how I was tired and didn't think to check the level of mist on the lens...this is the effect. If all the other parts of your camera have condensation on them, chances are the lens does too. Now you know and knowing is half the battle.

Tomorrow: pics of Sunset; the story of Kayaking; and if we're lucky, the baby pigeons!

Sunrise: Storyboard

Cadillac Mountain. Before 5:00am

"Oooooo! The sun is almost up!"

"Curses! Fog!"

"Hey! That's a little piece of the sun! Why isn't my camera focusing?

Ahhhh! The SUN! Hmmm...not focusing."

"Drat! Digital camera wouldn't focus. 35mm camera's lens is fogged over...
I'll have to make a kid cry while were kayaking now (see future post)."