Gearing up for summer

It’s been only two and a half weeks since Susan and I first came to Winter Harbor, along the “downeast” coast of Maine. Yet somehow it seems as if we’ve been here much, much longer. It’s been very quiet in this small seaside village – and locals say it will pretty much remain so until about the Fourth of July. (photo: Joyce and her daughter Rachel.)

For the two of us, however, the action is at last starting to pick up.

I suppose Memorial Day weekend was a turning point of sorts. Susan’s sister Joyce and her husband Carl and two of their kids came down from Orono the Sunday before the holiday for a visit. (Orono is only about an hour away by car but at least two cultural zones apart from this section of Maine.) After we showed everybody around WH -- which took all of about five minutes and that was moving at a leisurely pace -- the six of us drove out to Schoodic Point to run around on the rocks. Although we didn’t see any whales from the natural world we did see a manmade whale heading east, toward Europe perhaps?
Anyway, it was nice to have family drop by to say hi and we look forward to more visits as the summer season picks up speed. Dick and Dorothy will be coming up next week shortly after the café opens and then in early August is a planned family get-together here for Susan’s mom’s 80th birthday!

On Tuesday, with the bulk of the Memorial Day tourist traffic pretty much gone Susie and I headed over to Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor and the main section of Acadia National Park, an easy drive of less than an hour.

It was a beautiful day for a road trip and we had a grand time driving around the periphery of this truly wonderful part of the country. The mountains –large hills actually – were starting to green out and we explored some of the small villages that line the jagged corners of “MDI.” In fact we stopped at Southwest Harbor for lunch at a small wine bar called “Sips.”

We bypassed Bar Harbor – we are presently in no need of T-shirts that say “We heart Maine” in sequins and rhinestones -- and headed back to Ellsworth where stock up on groceries for the week before returning home.

On Wednesday Patrick, the manager of Gerrish’s Café, drove to Bangor to pick up the three Russian girls who will be working the “front” of the café during the summer, and the following day we met up at the café for our first day of orientation. From that point on the momentum has continued to build toward, we hope, a grand opening next week, 12 June.

While Patrick has been giving four of us (Lydia, Elena, Guzel and me) training sessions on the finer points of running a café in a tourist village like WH, Susan has started prepping the various items to go into the freezer for the launch next week. With the hands-on help of the “three Russians” on Saturday Susan probably put up about 140 scones. She is also starting to test various peanut butter cookie recipes as well as getting chocolate chunk cookies ready for the freezer. In addition she is preparing her “launch list” of items she hopes to try out the first week as well.

Yesterday, Monday 4 June, was the absolutely worst day of weather here along the coast: mid 40s, cold, windy and rainy with the town and surrounding water pretty much socked in throughout the day. Tuesday morning the sun broke free at last but the wind is still fresh so we’ll see whether a return to Schoodic Point is in store for me later on.

In fact I’ve been going out to the national park section there for my daily walks along the coast – it is so close -- and have also been trying out the handful of trails that run hither and yon near the end of the point.

The NPS has done a superb job on the trails in keeping them open, clear and well-marked with both blue slashings as well as rock cairns so that even an amateur hiker such as myself can easily find his way around. Plus the views are absolutely stunning from both the Schoodic head and East Trail overlooks.




(photo above: lobsterman off of Schoodic Point.)

Before I go I’d like to say a word about these Russian girls.

They are probably university age, from central Russia, in the Urals I think, and are incredibly motivated, hard-working, determined to do as good a job as they possibly can, eager to learn as much as they can and at the same time funny and engaging. They have taken an instant liking to Susan (why does that not surprise me) and seem to be excited about helping her with more baking projects. Naturally they have been willing guinea pigs as well in trying out each and every new recipe that Susie pulls out of the ovens at the café!

Word is that two more Russians will be arriving soon; two young men from Belarus I am told. (Belarus is generally referred to in English as “White Rus,” or "White Russia.")

We received a bit of good news the other day. The agent handling our household goods coming from Paris called us and said they passed the intensive customs screening with no glitches, and our part of the fee is only forty-eight bucks! (That’s right the government charges you for inspecting you. Quite a racket there, eh?) Now we wait to hear from the folks who will actually deliver our goods about setting up a delivery date.

Piano, piano as they say in Italy, “slowly, slowly,” step-by-step we make our way.

Toward what end who knows? A question hovering over our minds every day.

Wish you were here,

Steve