Maine late-December 2010

After leaving Chicago on Tuesday, December 28, 2010, I stayed with my parents in Maine until January 2011, when I could move into my new apartment in California. I flew to California on Sunday, January 2, 2011.

Nothing much happened during my time in Maine. I didn't take any pictures. I mostly spent the days at the mall taking advantage of post-Christmas sales to restock my wardrobe. The most exciting part of this visit was Sunday, the day I attempted to return to the bay area.

Sunday
The flight I booked was supposed to take me from Boston to Chicago (with a brief stop there but no transfer) to Los Angeles to San Jose. But not everything went as planned. My Boston flight left late because someone who checked a bag didn't get on the plane. It took the baggage clerks half an hour to remove the baggage, find and remove the person's item, and reload the baggage. Then, because we landed late in Chicago, Southwest re-arranged the plane assignments so I had to transfer for my continuation flight to Los Angeles, which was now ninety minutes delayed. After I boarded that flight, it was then further delayed by another thirty minutes while we waited for baggage to load. The baggage carriers must have been short-handed in Chicago; there was only one loading baggage onto our flight instead of the usual two. Meantime, the captain entertained us by running a name-that-song contest over the announcement system. :) He'd play stuff from his ipod and the first person to identify the band would either get a fresh McDonald's cookie or a free alcoholic drink.

Eventually, we landed in Los Angeles under heavy rain. Obviously I missed the flight I was supposed to be on (which was scheduled to leave more than an hour earlier). I got myself rebooked on the next flight to San Jose, a flight on which I had to sit next to a sick baby. Luckily, after coughing a while, the baby slept most of the flight.

Finally in San Jose, I picked up my baggage and took a shuttle to my new apartment to meet my new landlords. They and the apartment are nice. The apartment in particular surpasses the expectations I formed from looking at the pictures.

This trip may sound like a horrible day, but things could've gone much worse: I might've not been able to check my bags originally (the self-help check-in line at Boston was so long that I thought there was a chance I'd miss the bag cut-off time; obviously I didn't), my bags might've been misplaced during the complicated journey, or I could've been stranded in Los Angeles. (When I talked to a gate agent in Chicago after I realized I'd be missing my flight from L.A. to San Jose, she said all the later flights to San Jose were fully booked. Being stranded in L.A. was a distinct possibility in my mind.)

Earlier Week
After eating relatively large, heavy meals in restaurants with my grandma, upon our return to Maine my parents and I wanted lighter meals. Hence we mostly ate at home.

On Wednesday for lunch I had leftover red chili chicken rice. For dinner we ate scallops (that tasted metallic) in a butter sauce with onions, tomatoes, and garlic, and served over pasta.

On Thursday, I made myself a turkey and avocado sandwich for lunch. For dinner we ate pork chops with an apple-onion gravy, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted mushrooms, and leftover pumpkin pie (which apparently freezes well!).

On Friday, New Year's Eve, I had a turkey and bacon sandwich for lunch. Our large dinner spread included brisket, kugel, potato pancakes, peas, carrots, and, for dessert, brownies.

Saturday lunch was leftovers from previous meals. Dinner was a roasted chicken from Market Basket, plus an Ethiopian cabbage, potatoes, and carrots dish that I made. As for dessert, my mom had made three different types of brownies. We had a brownie tasting! :)

Maine mid-December 2010

I returned to the states from London on Wednesday, December 15, 2010. I stayed with my parents until Sunday, December 19, when we all boarded a flight to Chicago to visit my grandma. Di Yin, who returned to the states via New York on the 15th, came up to Maine on the 16th to stay with me and my parents until the trip to Chicago.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures during this visit to Maine.

I didn't do much during these couple of days other than to rest and recover from the flu I caught the previous weekend. Thus, we ate at home a lot. Here are my notes:

On Thursday, we had bean soup for lunch and quite a spread for dinner: lamb chops, kugel, potato pancakes, and vegetables. I had pumpkin pie for dessert.

On Friday, for lunch Di Yin made us all sandwiches of fried pork, bok choy, and cilantro on baguette. Di Yin also cooked dinner: udon noodle soup, plus more pork, plus her oyster sauce eggplant dish that I love (this time it included pork). We sometimes ate the eggplant straight and sometimes ate it on toast. For dessert, we split some baked goods (a chocolate cake, almond macaroons) that Di Yin brought from Clear Flour in Boston. I was reminded again that although it's a shockingly expensive bakery, it's nevertheless worth the price. It's certainly the best bakery in New England.

On Saturday, we headed to a pizza joint, La Festa Brick & Brew, in Dover. I keep thinking this is the misspelled name of a Mexican restaurant, but it's correct. The decor feels like Round Table. The restaurant sells pizza by the slice in a large variety of styles. The pizzas are made in a brick oven. I tried the plain cheese, the bbq chicken, and I think something else, along with the (intense) garlic knots. The pizza, made in a doughy style, was respectable.

Afterwards, my parents showed Di Yin and me the most remarkable place in Dover: an amazing waterfall and rapids in downtown Dover! They're near an old mill. It's a shocking sight. We heard it before we saw it. I wish I had my camera. I'd have photographed especially the rocks with ice crystals that looked like fractals.

By the way, I looked for pictures of the waterfall on the web. Of the few I found, fewer still were taken during the winter, and none show the ice crystals. I would've been the first person to visually record the phenomenon! But I did not... :(

For dinner, we had more pork, eggplant, and another vegetable soup from Di Yin.

Maine Oct 2010

I was to spend two months of the fall in London. On the way there, I stopped in Maine to visit my parents from Tuesday, October 19, 2010, through Friday, October 22.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures during this visit.

Tuesday
I flew into Boston on Tuesday. On the way, I grabbed a turkey and avocado sandwich to eat on the plane from Boudin Sourdough Bakery's SFO location. While buying this sandwich, I noticed a woman who wanted rye bread and made a big fuss: "What kind of bakery doesn't have rye bread?" I wanted to shout at her and shake her. The employees, however, were too nice to point out this is a sourdough bakery. It's in the name. That's why they don't have other types of bread.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, my parents proudly took me to Hebert Brothers Seafood, the local fishmonger, where we ate good lobster rolls while sitting on a picnic bench in front of the shop overlooking the water.

In the afternoon, we went to the Wentworth Hotel to stroll through its gardens and along its marina. It's a pretty area.

After that, we headed to Fort Stark, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the Piscataqua River. I guess it's easy to find places that have views of water in this part of New Hampshire and Maine. Incidentally, walking around this derelict fort (much of it was fenced off), we saw places where branches struck out like artillery turrets through the fence around one building. Also, there were some rooms/buildings that I couldn't decide if they were meant to be prisons or barracks.

Later, we drove by more sights, including one place with a metal sculpture of a picture frame (on an easel, with a metal sculpture of a painter nearby) framing a water view. Finally, before returning home, we passed some nice houses in Newcastle, which I'm told is an expensive town.

For dinner, we headed to the York Harbor Inn, which has a prime rib special on Wednesday nights. We ate downstairs, the interior of which was designed to look like a ship and built from nicely glowing red wood. We ate watching the sun disappear through the hatch. We had pretty standard prime rib, not as good as what we've become accustomed to but acceptable nonetheless. The sides were good: mashed potatoes, battered french fries, grilled asparagus, and sauteed brussels sprouts in brown butter. (Yes, I liked the brussels sprouts, a pleasing surprise to me.)

Thursday
After I ran in the morning, we went to Shio in Portsmouth for lunch. It's a perfectly respectable Japanese restaurant; we had sushi (my last chance given London effectively has none) and teriyaki and tempura. I liked the restaurant's varied design, with regular tables, regular booths, and sunken floor Japanese-style booths.

We ate a Thanksgiving-inspired dinner at home: rotisserie chicken from Market Basket, baked sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, peas, and cranberry sauce.

By the way, for some breakfasts in Maine I ate my mom's banana bread muffins. Good stuff.

Friday
My flight from Boston to London left Friday evening. My parents planned to drop me off at the airport and then eat dinner in Boston so as to wait out the rush hour traffic. Happily, it turned out my plane was delayed--a fact we only discovered once we were already in Boston--and thus I got to eat dinner with my parents.

Dinner was an adventure, and we got to exploit all the restaurant research my dad had done. My dad had a number of suggestions for dining options; he was excited when he saw how many good restaurants there were near the airport.

On the quest for food, we spent some time confusedly driving through the mess that is East Boston near the airport (lots of blocked roads and that kind of thing). The first place we stopped at was a pupusaria. From the outside it looked more like a small, corner Mexican market than a restaurant. There were no customers inside, and the neighborhood was scarily empty. We decided to pass.

Our second choice was a cafe in a shipyard. We thought we were in the same situation again when we found the entrance to the shipyard dark (no street-lights) and guarded by a family of skunks. Slightly perturbed, we detoured and drove to the other entrance, which was marginally more welcoming--there was a guardhouse but still no people.

Once in the shipyard, we found the small restaurant we were seeking: Scup's in the Harbour. It's a cozy space with a couple of bench tables inside, that's all. One orders food from the door to the kitchen. It's funky, given character by exposed pipes in the ceiling, by Christmas balls hanging from the ceiling, by the large, fake spider attached to one wall, and by the paintings.

Soon after being seated, we were greeted by and chatted with the owner for quite a while. She and her husband previously ran Emma's Pizza in Cambridge (a shop I've been to before (though after they sold it) and enjoyed). By the way, it turns out they weren't the original owners--they took over from Emma the pizza Nazi. (Yes, she sounded like the pizza equivalent of the soup nazi.) After they ran and sold Emma's Pizza, they lived on a tugboat in the shipyard for a while, then were offered this place in the shipyard to run. (The previous occupants left.) Anyway, we talked about a lot more than her biography, but those are the highlights.

My parents and I split three dishes:

• Crab cakes. Decent. The crab was the texture of moist bread crumbs in a white cream sauce. I thought they were decent and relatively unusual; my mom thought they were the best crab cakes she's ever had.
• "Ultimate" BLT: house-marinated bacon, cherry tomatoes (sliced in half, which makes them really want to escape the sandwich), greens, cheese, and pesto. (Yes, it's those unusual ingredients that make the chef call it "ultimate.") I thought this was very good, especially when hot, with the bacon being better than most I've had. My mom disagreed, saying the bacon was average. Regardless, I thought the cheese and pesto added a lot, and I think this sandwich will get me to consider ordering BLTs again. (Normally in a sandwich shop my eyes skip over them on the menu because I didn't believe they were something I usually like.)
• Chicken rice bowl with grilled chicken, rice, peanuts, shredded carrots, and green onions, all in a funky Asian sauce (sesame mixed with something sweet?). There were also notes of lemon, chili powder, and ginger. Fine. Nice grill-marks on the chicken. Though I usually like dishes with green onions and/or peanuts, I felt there was too much going on in this dish and it didn't manage to come together harmoniously. My mom hated it, but dad convinced her to take the leftovers home. They said the leftovers were much better. Mom "loved" them. I guess I didn't mix the dish enough the first night, or perhaps the flavors blended better overnight.

After dinner, my parents dropped me off at the airport.

As for the flight itself, because it was an overnight flight, I worked hard to get comfortable and sleep the entire way. The Virgin Atlantic economy seat had too much space (!) between my seat and the window -- I couldn't easily jam a pillow in there to lean on, and if my head let the pillow slip, it would fall between the plane's shell and my seat.

It's interesting that this flight was shorter than the flight from San Francisco to Boston, but this flight crosses five time zones, not three. Can you figure out why this is? (I can.)

Ogunquit (Maine)

On Monday, October 26, 2009, my parents and I went for a mid-afternoon walk in Ogunquit. I took pictures.

We walked a winding path along the rocky seashore, watched the waves break, and admired the wide Atlantic expanse. We also walked through the town. The town's a typical New England tourist town, a mix of restaurants, including three ice cream parlors, and shops, mostly selling shirts with funny messages or selling tourist memorabilia. It's a bit like Bar Harbor but more spread out and possibly smaller. (It's hard to estimate its size while accounting for its lower density.) There are few stores such as markets, hardware stores, that kind of stuff that sell things only locals need.

The approach to the town is typical for an impressive seaside town: we drove up a hill and, as we reached the crest, the ground dropped away so we were looking down the street through town right at the ocean's blue expanse.

Portland, Maine

On Sunday, October 25, 2009, after a late start (and a tasty breakfast of banana bread muffins and fruit), my parents and I drove up to Portland, Maine. It was a perfect time of year to be driving in this part of the country: the trees were a panoply/cacophony/explosion of colors. In addition, the weather was great: sunny and 60s.

My parents hurried me around Portland, proud to show me the highlights in a packed day trip during which I took these pictures.

Portland looks like a nice place. It has many attractive streets, a variety of different styles of houses, and lots of trees. Most buildings are brick.

[I apologize that the rest of this entry is in brief, telegraphic note form.]

We began by driving on Commercial Street through the Old Port, along the water, passing many interesting-looking, non-chain establishments. We also drove through the West End. Parking by the Old Port, walked around. We spotted a food specialty bookstore, Rabelais Books, which had goats out front. (The store was having a book signing for a woman who wrote a book about raising goats.) We also passed the store Condom Sense, which, by the way, is surprisingly large. It had penis- and breast-shaped pasta in the window.

After lunch, we drove to the East End and walked briefly along the bluff overlooking the water. It looks like a pretty place to run/walk/cycle.

Proceeding along, we headed to Fort Williams Park in South Portland. It's a large, stunning park along the ocean, with many distinctive sights (forts, lighthouses, ruined mansions, etc.). Its coast is pretty like Acadia, with good wave action.

On Shore Road near the park are many grand estates (you know they're estates because each has its own name), all with views of the water. (We could glimpse the ocean across the grounds.)

In late afternoon, we went to my parent's favorite bakery for rugelach, but it didn't have any this day. Instead, we had an okay madeleine (a spongy pastry that's like a light version of a pound cake). We then headed next door to explore a pretty good wine and beer shop.

On the way out of Portland, we drove through Portland's downtown (not the old part of town). It was a perfectly ordinary downtown for a city of this scale, with a decent variety of restaurants.

Drive North (New York to Maine)

We drove north from Tarrytown, NY through New Haven, CT to Kittery, ME on October 24, 2009. Gosh, the drive was pretty -- I can see why all the leaf-peepers emerge in late October to view the trees changing color. Sorry, I didn't manage to take any pictures from the road.

Here are notes on the meals we ate this day.

Visiting Maine

On Saturday, October 24, 2009, Di Yin and I drove up to Maine, and stayed there until Tuesday, October 27. I spent the time with my parents; Di Yin spent the days at Harvard for a conference. It was a typical family visit, with my parents complaining that I'm too skinny and trying to stuff me with food such as banana bread for breakfast.

I hadn't previously visited Maine much during the warmer months. On this trip, I took the opportunity to see Portland and some of my parents' favorite places.

Pre-Tarrytown

I spent most of October 2009 living in Tarrytown, New York. I detoured a bit before arriving in Tarrytown. This post describes the places I visited before settling into Tarrytown.

I flew into Boston on Friday, October 2, 2009, and got picked up by my parents and Di Yin, and we proceeded back to my parent's home in Maine. (Yes, oddly, Di Yin went up to visit my parents before I arrived.) Slightly hungry, and having not yet eaten dinner, my mom and I pulled together a dinner for me of a tuna sandwich (tuna+celery+mayo+tomato), pretzels, and tomatoes.

On a rainy Saturday, we emerged for lunch at Flatbread Pizza, a fun, quirky pizza joint in nearby Portsmouth, NH. I'd been there before and liked it. This time we had the "coevolution" (olives, rosemary, red onions, roasted peppers, goat cheese, mozzarella, garlic) with added (nitrate-free, my parents emphasize) pepperoni, the "carne special" (peppers, onions, sausage, and more), and the simple "jay's heart" (tomato sauce, mozzarella, and grana padano (a cheese like parmesan)). I enjoyed the simple pizza the most. Di Yin liked the pepperoni pizza, not for the pepperonis but for its rosemary and olives. My dad also liked that pizza quite a bit. Incidentally, as before, the pepperonis tasted more like sausage than most pepperonis do.

The afternoon was many intense hours of shopping for pants.

My mom's evening meal was pork ribs, pan-fried/sauteed potatoes, broiled asparagus, and brownies and ice cream. We had two decent drinks: a zinfandel and a beer (the latter being Fisherman's Brew by Cape Ann Brewing Company, I think).

On Sunday, Di Yin and I drove through early autumn foliage to Tarrytown, dropped off some stuff, and proceeded to Queens to meet her parents. They took us out to a tasty Chinese restaurant for a traditional peking duck feast. We had Shanghai-style smoked fish (which tasted much like sweetened spongy tofu one can find at many Chinese joints), jellyfish slivers (eh), a tasty fried lobster (whose meat was surprisingly easy to extract), peking duck wraps (which we assembled ourselves from the spread: wraps, sprouts, Chinese celery, hoisin sauce, duck meat, and duck skin), sauteed pea sprouts (good), sauteed bean sprouts with duck (okay), duck soup (good), plus a sweet sticky rice dessert (ba bao fan = eight treasures rice) with strange fillings (ginko nuts, unusual berries, etc.).

On Monday morning, I proceeded to work, found a seat on the tenth floor with pretty amazing views of Manhattan and the Hudson, and got some stuff done. Yay! Then I headed to my new home in Tarrytown, a trip made more appropriate by a detour to a grocery store on the way.

Boston: South Boston, plus Mount Auburn Cemetery and more Flight Troubles

I flew to Boston on Friday, February 13, 2009, on Virgin America (very pleasant), met Di Yin, and proceeded immediately to Maine. We stayed in Maine at my parent's place for two nights, then returned to Boston. I stayed in Boston until Sunday, February 22, 2009.

On Sunday, February 15, 2009, my parents and I strolled around Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge in the snow. It's pretty, with some good views of Boston's skyline from the tower near the center. There were a few frozen ponds. I could imagine the cemetery being very nice when the trees have leaves and the ground has grass.

February 18, 2009, was another one of those clear cool days Boston's been having all week. I took some time to see a part of city I never previously explored on any of my previous visits: South Boston.

The day's plan was to explore Four Point Channel, the inlet that divides Boston from South Boston, and the area around it. By happenstance, I discovered that the Boston Harbor Walk, a series of trails along the various waterfronts throughout the Boston area, has two downloadable audio tours. I loaded them onto my mobile device, planned a route combining the tour that covered the area I wanted with the half a tour that covered an adjacent area I wanted to see, and was off on my way.

The audio tours were well done. They were recorded at a walking pace so I didn't often have to pause them and were complete with directions and walking music. The narration had a touch of humor which helped keep me generally interested, though in my opinion there were a tad too many new age comments ("take a deep breath; relax") along with new age music. I especially liked that the tour led me to historic places with no signs and down ordinary streets, just to get the feel of a neighborhood.

I took a few pictures while exploring.

I learned stuff. I learned South Boston was made from filled-in tidal flats. One company actually did the work of filling in this land and owned all the "land" for some time. South Boston grew into a factory-town, was later abandoned, and is now mostly an artists' district. The buildings, mostly still original, are all made of brick in various colors. This part of Boston has many bridges, all with different designs. Whereas one is a stone-weighted drawbridge, another bridge rotates to allow boats to pass.

The tour brought me to a building of artist studios where I saw some neat photographs by Gary Stubelick (more pictures). He draws light into photographs by taking pictures with prolonged exposures. (View the pictures and you'll see what I mean.)

I detoured from the tour to visit the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse. I didn't take a picture of it because the building was horribly backlit, but you can tell from the web page that it's a nice space with a modern glass exterior and an old brick interior. I glanced through the few art exhibits scattered around the building and liked the display of large-than-life-size sketches of police officers.

I also stopped by the Institute of Contemporary Art, mainly to see the building. (I knew they didn't have any current exhibits I wanted to pay the entrance fee to see.)

On February 19, 2009, a day that was slightly warmer than usual, I jogged along the Charles. How nice it is to jog while viewing the Boston skyline above the river! I think it's interesting that the Charles was mostly frozen over on the M.I.T. end, the end nearer to the ocean, whereas the inland part was clear of ice.

February 20, 2009, was windy, so windy that garbage cans and recycling boxes were scattered around the street (as I saw when I walked to lunch).

Like returning home from Chicago, I had plane issues. The plane to be used in my flight arrived half an hour late. While that may be irritating, it worried me more that they immediately pushed back the departure time eighty minutes. That indicated possible mechanical troubles. Then it got pushed back an hour, and yet another. Finally, they let us on the plane.

Then they discovered a warning light. We sat on the plane for thirty minutes while the mechanics investigated. It turned out to indicate one of the deicing mechanisms wasn't sealed properly. Given the late hour and the temperature, we'd need the deicing equipment. They said the repair wasn't easy.

Happily, American Airlines had two other planes nearby that weren't in use. We got off the plane, waited another half an hour for the flight attendants to clean and supply one of these planes, and boarded it. Finally, we took off, leaving nearly five hours after our scheduled departure time. I disembarked in San Francisco at 3:15am. This delay wasn't as bad as it sounds--I slept most of the way on the plane.

Later, American Airlines sent me a nice apology about the delay and gave me some additional frequent flyer miles to underscore the apology.

Assorted Cambridge Occurrences

I visited Cambridge (MA) from Saturday, October 24, through Monday, November 3. The leaves were changing, yet the weather was still warm enough that some days I could wear short sleeve shirts (at least the first two days after I arrived). A beautiful time of year.

Twice I went running along the Charles; once was inadvertently at sunset. Leaves, water, and light, oh my. Too bad I don't run with a camera.

On Tuesday morning, I thought about revising this statement ("a beautiful time of year") after getting turned around walking home after breakfast and ending up spending 40 minutes walking in a rainshower. Though not entirely unpleasant, it meant Cambridge probably didn't merit the praise I bestowed on it in the first paragraph.

That afternoon, however, I decided not to return to this post-in-progress to correct my initial impression. Perhaps because I'd just emerged from a shower, but while walking to campus, the sun was out, a cool wind blew, and the world felt clean, as if it had just emerged from the wash cycle and was now in the dry cycle.

I'd learn only later that I got a cold from wandering around in the rain. And then the weather in Cambridge turned cold as well. :(

Funnily, as I recovered from my 48-hour cold, the weather started getting warmer, cleaner, and nicer again.

One later evening, Di Yin and I ventured to Porter Square for some Cambodian food. We took the subway on the way back and noticed sculpted metal gloves, posed in various shapes and sizes, next to the escalator. They were fascinating to examine. I wish I had my camera--I don't think the pictures the sculptor provides (link above) do them justice (and I think I could've taken better pictures).

Later that evening, we had dessert accompanied by some leftover wine from a Harvard alumni event. I mention this because it was a very good quality red--I usually don't like reds--called Chateau Saint Maurice - Les Parcellaires from the Rhone region.

Over the course of the week, I stopped by two farmers markets. (I wanted to see markets in this area, and I knew when I returned to Cambridge around December that they'd all be closed.) The Harvard one was small and is not worth describing in any detail. I was in the mood to try cooking something new, so I bought a turnip (actually a variety grown only in this region).

The Harvard Square (well, Charles Square) one was larger. I liked it. It had a decent selection, including a wide variety of apples (not surprising given the location and time of year) and more unusual items such as beets, parsnips, and kohlrabi. There were also lots of gourds, squashes, and decorated vegetables, as appropriate for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Some produce vendors were no-spray. I also appreciated that some local shops such as Hi-Rise Bakery and Christina's ice cream were present at the market; from Hi-Rise, I bought a decent banana bread muffin. To accompany the muffin, I got some allen-something apple cider from a produce vendor. It was okay, not as thick as I prefer.

And those were the highlights from my week in Cambridge. Not much, I know. I was building up energy for my trip to Barcelona.

Camping in Acadia

I went camping with Di Yin in Acadia National Park in Maine for three days (two nights) over labor day weekend (Friday, August 29, 2008 through Sunday, August 31). It'd been a year and a half since the last time I went camping and I was anxious to go again.

Most things I want to say about this trip are in this blog entry. The pictures and videos I took add color to the commentary but should not be treated as a primary reference. Ditto with Di Yin's pictures. Note: she took many more pictures than I did, and many are substantially better. View them first. :)

Camping & Campsite
We were a tad worried as we drove to Acadia on Friday afternoon. It was labor day weekend, and all the campsites that allowed prior reservations were reserved. If Acadia was anything like Yosemite, then arriving on a Friday afternoon would be too late to get any first-come-first-served campsite.

We needn't have worried. Fewer than half the campsites at the campground we selected, Seawall Campground, were taken. We had our pick. Incidentally, despite the name, the water was a good half a mile away. We were camping in the woods.

I was disappointed to learn that the bathrooms, while being surprisingly clean for a campground bathroom, lacked showers. I'm sure I would hike/camp more if good showers were easily available.

As with all camping remote from cities, the stars were visible at night. However, we didn't see them from our tent: the first night, it was positioned wrong and only trees were visible; the second night, we moved the tent only to realize the fine mesh in the tent roof filtered out the stars.

As we soon learned, mosquitoes were out in force at the campground. Even with repellent and high-collared long-sleeve shirts, we both received many bites. Happily, the insects seemed to be localized near the campground and the trails by the seawall; the problem was much less severe the other places in the park where we went hiking.

We also learned neither of us was good at starting a fire. Our first night, we needed lots of advice and over an hour of patience to get one burning. The next night was a bit better. Di Yin is now good at making fires.

Our biggest mistake was forgetting to bring a camping lantern. We had a flashlight and made do, but a lantern would've been very handy.

Food
Deciding what to bring and how to cook it is one of the most fun aspects of camping. On this trip, we made ham and cheese sandwiches on French bread for lunch, accompanied by plums or peaches. One breakfast, we grilled toast with cheese (and sometimes ham). For dinner, we went overboard. (We also ate dinner's leftovers at other meals.) The most complex item we made involved wrapping chopped sausage, potato, mushrooms, and tomato in aluminum foil and cooking them in the fire. But we also cooked many other things (all wrapped in aluminum foil) in the fire itself: onions (one sliced in half), corn on the cob (four ears), and portabella mushrooms (two). Finally, it can't be camping without smores, and I make some good ones. In fact, everything turned out well.

Getting There
On the way to Acadia, we drove past many forests. We stopped by a funky old car shop (with many cars decades older than me) and a roadside market, where I bought my parents blueberry jam made from Maine's tiny blueberries (in this case, grown on "Henson's farm"). As the first of a few funny coincidences on this trip, it turned out the owner's wife's brother lives in San Mateo.

We wondered if it would be obvious when we reached Acadia. It was: as we turned by Seawall, the road opened onto a majestic rock beach and water vista.

Hiking
I imagine this section is rather boring if you don't look at the pictures at the same time.

The afternoon we arrived we hiked a short trail by Seawall. (I can't believe I didn't take any pictures there.) There, we met an older couple with a surprising number of commonalities with us. The husband was a Harvard-educated student of Chinese history. The wife was German or Polish (judging by the accent). They have a summer home nearby in Seal Harbor. Their son went to Stanford; he now lives in Chicago. The husband years ago thought about starting a factory in China, but his plans were foiled by the Sino-Japanese war. Later, he met the Chinese ambassador the U.S.--he's very proud of this--and tried out his Chinese, which he was told needs more study.

The next morning we stopped at a different place along Seawall before our main hike of the day. In the morning, Seawall lacked the afternoon's (low-tide) mosquitoes. Instead it had warm stones (!) and spiders.

We spent most of the day (five hours) hiking up and down and up and down around Acadia Mountain, St. Sauveur Mountain, and Valley Cove. A pretty, forested hike, it would contrast nicely with our seaside walking the following day. We almost missed one of the best views we had on the hike this day. It was behind us as we climbed; we only saw it because a young couple was there and asked us for a picture, thus making us turn around to see the background they wanted. Oddly, Mt. Acadia and Mt. St. Sauveur didn't have good views, but the hike between them (along the sound) did.

After hiking, Di Yin went wading in Echo Lake.

On our second day in Acadia, we drove Park Loop Road. Many of Acadia's best spots are along the road. We stopped near Sand Beach and hiked past Thunder Hole to Otter Cliffs and back, then waded by Sand Beach for a bit. Freakin' cold water! Later, we detoured to view Seal Harbor, which wasn't worth the trip. Finally, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a windy, panoramic stroll around the summit.

We didn't get a chance to explore the carriage roads on the island (which where, incidentally, financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr.). They sound pretty. Next time.

Bar Harbor
First let me get out this out of the way: I like Bar Harbor (the largest town adjacent to Acadia). It's cute and interesting.

Now, some context regarding our visit to Acadia. Di Yin and I wanted to bring back some local beers. When at a market buying a second round of food for camping, we spotted some and almost bought them. A staff-person, however, kindly suggested that they're cheaper at the local liquor store. The second (and last) morning in Acadia, en route to hiking, we detoured to stop by the liquor store. It was closed. Since we didn't have time to return to the market then, we simply hoped (and expected) that when we spent the evening in Bar Harbor we'd be able to find someplace that sold alcohol.

That evening, we drove into Bar Harbor and found parking. Our spot happened to be two storefronts away from the Bar Harbor Brewing Company brewery. This was the beer we'd been eying. And not only that, they were having a free beer tasting at that moment!

We tried a bunch of beers, most quite good, as the brewer spoke, telling stories about how little room he has to brew and how quickly his beers sell out. I tasted four and liked the Thunderhole and Lighthouse the best. We bought an assortment as gifts.

After the tasting, we explored Bar Harbor. We spent a bunch of time in In The Woods, a wood shop whose products ranged from walking sticks and mini helicopters (those things you twirl and they fly up) to kitchen utensils and lots more. All good quality stuff. Also, we glanced at some real estate listings, noting that most houses included substantial lots. In addition, we spent a while gazing at the large ice cream selection at one local specialist. Finally, we ate a fairly good dinner (at Cafe This Way), had some ice cream, and began our trip to my parents and then Boston.

New England Vacation

I went to Massachusetts and Maine for an extended vacation (Thursday, August 28, to Sunday, September 7, 2008) over labor day weekend. I visited Di Yin and my parents. The focus of the trip was a three-day camping trip in Maine's Acadia national park, about which I'll write a separate post.

This post is more for my own benefit, to record for future reference what I did besides camping.

I arrived on Thursday night. Friday morning Di Yin and I drove up to Kittery (say hi to parents) and on to Acadia. We stayed there until Sunday. Sunday evening we returned to Kittery. On Monday we drove down to Boston. I stayed in Boston/Cambridge until Wednesday, then returned to Kittery. On Thursday, I drove down to Cambridge to pick up Di Yin and returned again to Kittery. We celebrated a birthday dinner (okay, it's not precisely the correct day) at a surprisingly, delightfully good prime rib joint. On Friday, Di Yin and I returned to Cambridge. On Sunday morning, bright and early, I flew back to California.

During my time in and around Kittery (Wednesday the 3rd to Friday the 5th), including my birthday dinner, I took these pictures and notes. Some pictures included my parents; I moved these into a separate collection (password protected).

I stayed in Boston/Cambridge on Monday the 1st, Tuesday the 2nd, and Saturday the 6th. Whereas on Monday and Tuesday I didn't do anything worth reporting here, on Saturday I explored a bit of Boston and Cambridge.

In Boston, Di Yin and I explored the Boston Public Library. We systematically walked through the century-old building, seeing ornate rooms, marble staircases and tables, murals and paintings (some on the ceiling), and a fancy courtyard (where a couple was taking wedding photos). I spent time examining a special exhibit of WWI posters. The library also had an amazing exhibit of dioramas of scenes of famous painters as they painted famous scenes. The detail was striking. (I would go to the library just to see this, if it's still there in the Wiggin Gallery.) Also, we viewed an art exhibit by an artist who drew lots of birds and lots of waves. His pieces really showed the similarities in form (and, indirectly, meaning) between the two.

In Cambridge, we stopped by the neat Harvest Co-Op Market in Central Square. Although a small market, it was replete with unusual ingredients, many sold in bulk food bins, and rare foods--in short, the market where Cambridge gourmets shop.

I have some pictures and notes that record these events, especially the meals I ate, during those days in Boston and Cambridge.

New England: Change of Scene

For a change of scene, I spent nearly three weeks, February 28, 2008, to March 18, 2008, in the northeast. It wasn't a vacation--I worked remotely. Including the two days I spent traveling, I only took three days off work.

My activities during the trip are documented in my photo repository by a smattering of pictures and fair amount of picture-less commentary.

Boston and New England: Saturday: Returning Home

I flew out on Saturday. These pictures and comments document my few activities of the day.

Boston and New England: Friday: M.I.T. and Vicinity, Part II

Friday was similar to Thursday. I went to work in the morning. (This time I got there by a direct bus.) I worked. Then I disappeared to meet my friend Brian for lunch at a tasty, distinctive pizza joint, Emma's. These pictures cover my lunch experience and a few other minor items from throughout the day.

After lunch, I explored the MIT List Visual Arts Center. Its current exhibit, Sounding The Subject, has many strange, experimental short videos.

I returned to work.

Incidentally, I don't have a walking map for the day because I visited roughly the same places as the previous day and thus didn't think it worthwhile to create one.

I failed to manage to coordinate to re-meet with N, the friend I met up with the previous night.

Around 5:00pm, I cut out of work to take the train to Harvard. There I grabbed dinner with Di Yin in Dudley House and then we joined some people to head to a free concert given by Juventas at the Boston Conservatory. It was a bit too much new music for our tastes, so some of us left at intermission.

We walked all the way back across the bridge, down Mass Av to Harvard, then home. It was a cold night.

Boston and New England: Thursday: M.I.T. and Vicinity

I split Thursday between working and exploring MIT, which, although I'd visited a few times previously, had never done properly. I walked this route from the T to work to around MIT campus to work to dinner to the T. Although I documented the whole day's narrative in pictures and notes, I figure I should add a few high-level observations here.

I spent some of the day at the M.I.T. Museum. It had a number of exhibits with varying degrees of coolness:

• advances in the biological sciences.
• cool robots.
• holography. Very cool. I couldn't photograph anything in this exhibit. Some holograms change as one moves one's head. For instance, in one portrait, a man scratches his nose. The effect reminded me of the magical photographs in Harry Potter.
• kinetic sculptures by Arthur Ganson. This exhibit was awesome; I must've spent most of my time in the museum here.
• strobe photography. Has some neat facts.
• history of MIT education.
• stackable, lightweight small urban cars.
• sandscape. This small exhibit was simply a box of sand. One could push the sand around and the light projected onto the sand would change to make what appeared to be a topological map. Neat! I'm not sure how it worked. Like some other exhibits, it was not feasible to photograph.
• hybrid illusions. These holograms looked like different people depending on the distance one stood from them. Obviously, they're impossible to photograph.

Boston and New England: Wednesday: Gardner and Fine Arts Museums

Wednesday was a full day. I planned to visit the Gardner Museum, finish exploring the third of the MFA that I didn't get to explore previously, and attend a film festival screening. I took a smattering of photos during the day. This blog post describes most of my reactions to the sights I saw. The pictures simply augment it in a few areas.

Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is eclectic. Designed by the eccentric Gardner, its collection includes chairs (scattered around the museum), tapestries, sculptures, architecture, paintings, bas relief, books, and stained glass windows. Most artwork is European, though the museum also has some pieces from Greece, from elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and from Japan.

I don't lightly call Isabel Gardner kooky. Her will still controls how the museum is run and how and where pieces are shown. Indeed, she prohibited moving any object. She also requires that mass be held in the miniature chapel in the building on her birthday. Furthermore, some of the pieces are unlabeled because Gardner never recorded where she acquired them or from whom. Art historians have been able to determine the creator of only some of these items.

I didn't like the museum and ended up only spending an hour there. One major reason is that most items are presented without commentary. (I think that's part of her will as well.) I borrowed a guide from the information desk--it helped me explore the collection, but looking things up was a pain. (Incidentally, I think all museum information desks should allow patrons to check out collection guides to carry while wandering. It's a great benefit!) The only worthwhile feature of the museum is the stunning courtyard, modeled after a Venetian palazzo. But what a feature it is! It alone made my visit and the entry fee to the museum worthwhile. Sadly, cameras were prohibited in the museum and there are no good pictures of the courtyard on the web that I could easily find.

The museum had a few empty frames, accompanied by signs about stolen paintings. I asked the information desk about them and they gave me a little binder to read. The thieves dressed as Boston police officers and made off with multiple Rembrandts and Degas, and a Manet and a Vermeer. Knowing the particulars is neat; one normally cannot learn details about art thiefs. The information desk comes through again!

Museum of Fine Arts
After the Gardner Museum, I explored more of the Museum of Fine Arts. I went through its exhibits on Egypt, Greece, Rome (which has many busts), the Himalayan region, the Medieval period, and European masters (including many religious works displaying gruesome scenes). The Roman exhibit had an interesting video about how the museum restored an old Roman courtyard mosaic. I also finished my previously started viewing of the Chinese and Japanese exhibits. These covered a variety of eras. The Japanese exhibit surprised me by the quantity of its Buddhist content; I had forgotten Buddhism was popular there.

In addition, the MFA had a special exhibit on a Berkeley professor who experimented with textiles and basket weaving. I was amused I traveled across the country to see something that came from so close to home.

Since it was Wednesday, after 4:00pm, the museum became free and many students appeared. Most sketched.

Dinner and Movies
I had a light lunch and, despite having two mid-afternoon snacks, was nonetheless hungry at dinnertime. A short walk across the Fens brought me to Brown Sugar Cafe, a Thai restaurant with a number of re-imaginings of Thai dishes. After dinner, I walked back across the Fens to finish seeing the last few rooms of the MFA. I then killed a few minutes until the Turkish Film Festival screening began. (It happened to be conveniently located at the MFA.) I saw Forsaken Paths and The Housekeeper.

Boston and New England: Tuesday: More Kittery (Maine) and Vicinity

Tuesday was clear and bright in Maine. In the morning, the wind gusted strongly. It was fun watching the leaves blow from inside the house.

In the afternoon, we saw sights; these pictures document our drives. Unlike Massachusetts, Maine's trees, aside from the evergreens, were mostly bare; the leaves on the few remaining deciduous trees with leaves were brown.

This part of Maine (and perhaps all of Maine) is very sparsely populated. It's mostly single family homes, spread widely apart. Many people refer to this type of area as the sticks.

A frustrating aspect of visiting Maine (or most places in the northern hemisphere) this time of year is the early sunset. If we start sightseeing after lunch (say, two p.m.), there's only two hours before the sun begins to set and three hours before it's completely dark.

Boston and New England: Monday: Kittery (Maine) and Vicinity

I spent most of a rainy Monday in my parent's place in Kittery (Maine). In the afternoon and early evening, we left the apartment to see sights for a bit, during which time I took a few pictures.

Boston and New England: Sunday: Beacon Hill

On Sunday, I met up with my parents again and we wandered among the bricks that make up Beacon Hill. (Practically every building and sidewalk is brick.) Beacon Hill is filled with federal-style homes. Many were done by Charles Bulfinch, a famous architect who effectively started Beacon Hill. Yet, after we saw houses designed by him, we realized many are less attractive than those designed by other people.

I led as we followed this route. I took these pictures of the day's sights.

After Beacon Hill, we headed up to my parent's newly rented condo in Maine. On the way, we passed through Portsmouth, at which time I noticed it had many major retail stores located conveniently close to the highway. Not only is it a nice town (as judged by my previous visit, it's a good shopping destination for normal shopping needs as well.