Passion

Wow, Maine is awesome.

In fact, I've pretty much determined that I like EVERY state in New England except Connecticut. This is unfortunate. However, since you only have to drive 45 minutes in any direction to get out of Connecticut, I'm not going to worry about it too much.

Anyway, Maine. It was all snowy and fluffy and beautiful--you know, not the kind of snow you find in the middle of a city that's all churned and grey and evil-looking. It was the soft white untouched kind, piled up in mounds all over the state. It was gorgeous. The first day I stopped at a lighthouse near... York, I think. (I'll post disposable pictures and better descriptions later.) I think I pretty much fell in love with Maine the second I saw that lighthouse. I think I've developed a strange new love for lighthouses. I suddenly have the desire to collect lighthouse paraphernalia....

The beaches in Maine are really nice. They have the requisite amount of sand, so they're REAL beaches, but they also have neat scraggly cliffs and rocks. They reminded me of some of the beaches up Hwy 1 in California. In fact, almost everything in Maine reminded me of California. Maine is like a much smaller, snowier, lobsterier version of California. I wonder if it's cheaper to live there...
The biggest city in Maine (Portland) has 230,000 people, a quarter of the state's entire population. That blew me away. New England is just SO SMALL. I will never get over that. The whole region is just SO SMALL (it only takes four hours to drive from New Haven to Maine! Absurd!). Anyway, I stayed in a Motel 6 in Portland, and got dinner at an Applebee's (I know, the shame... but there HONESTLY wasn't anywhere else to get food, and I'd been looking for a restaurant for like three hours; NOTHING is open in Maine in winter), where the guy tending the bar noticed I was reading a guide book and came over to give me some tips and directions. He was chatty and helpful and gave me clear directions on driving in downtown Porland. This resulted in one of the nicest mornings I've had in a long time. I went to a bakery and bought a hot cross bun from a lady with an awesome accent, then, on the Applebee's guy's directions, drove to Cape Elizabeth (near Portland) to see the Portland Head Light, where I sat and ate my hot cross bun in the exact same place that Longfellow used to sit. THAT was awesome.

I drove up the coast a bit farther to Pemaquid Point, which in retrospect was sort of unnecessary. But on the way through Wiscasset I passed an alpaca farm, so I stopped and bought some yarn (OH MY GOD THE YARN) and got to meet the alpaca (alpacas?). I know this sounds dumb, but I was amazed to realize that the animals are just as soft as the yarn. Why had that never occurred to me before? Anyway, after that I became seized by the desire to move to Cape Elizabeth, buy an alpaca farm and a sailboat, and eat breakfast under the lighthouse every day for the rest of my life. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I'm gonna go try to scan my yarn, since I don't have a real camera. More later. :-D