Maine – Steve's Blog

A New England Wedding

On Saturday we attended the wedding of my wife’s nephew. The wedding was held at Butternut Farm Golf Course near Stow in Massachusetts .

But of course we had to get there first.

So at 04:45 on Thursday morning we left the house
At 05:15 we took the Coach from Cheltenham to Heathrow
From Terminal 2 we flew to Reykjavík where we changed planes
From Reykjavík we flow to Boston
Then from Boston we took the Concord Trailways bus to Portland
We were collected in Portland by Rick and taken up to Augusta…. arriving about 24 hours after our alarm had gone of.

On Friday we collected our rental.

The rental - we'd booked a car but got a free upgrade — The rental – we’d booked a car but got a free upgrade

Then we drove about 200 miles down to the Golf course for the rehearsal (Rick was one of the grooms-men).
After the rehearsal we drove over to the Embassy Suites in Marlborough and checked in – we were in one of the premiium suites on the the 6th floor.
Then it was over to The Chateau (which despite it’s name is in fact an Italian Restaurant) for the rehearsal dinner.
Then a final trip back to the suite where we collapsed!

So the day itself dawned.. it was sunny but cool (well what do you expect – it is November after all). We had breakfast – it was a help yourself buffet and was quite good, and there was unlimited coffee which was very good – and then went out and dropped Diane off for her hair appointment – we then tried to find the post office and somewhere that sold alcohol (its all rather restricted in Mass), before going back to the suites and getting ready for the wedding.

Then it was over to the Golf course for the wedding – luckily the weather had held as the wedding was being held outside.

Even though the sun was shining it wasn’t the warmest of days and most of the guests kept their coats on. However the wedding party just had to grin and bear it.

By this time the sun was down behind the trees and things were starting to cool off. Luckily the ceremony wasn’t a huge long drawn out affair – just a couple of readings and a nice little speech by the local Justice Of The Peace. But by the end Ashley was looking a little chilled in her wedding dress and she looked very relieved when she could head back into the club house and warm up.

The wedding reception was held upstairs in the club house where there is a very large room and a bar. Matt and Ashley had asked people to request songs to be played so whilst people got settled and relaxed those songs were playing in the background. There was an open bar with some great bar staff who once I’d ordered a couple of beers just knew what I wanted, and a candy bar (each guest had a small Kilner Jar to put candy in) and a impromptu photo booth.

Once food had been served and eaten the dance floor was opened up and after the traditional first dance, grooms mother’s dancw and brides father’s dance the floor was filled with guests dancing.

At 9:15 the courtesy bus turned up and took everyone back to the Embassy Suites where we basically took over the bar until the end of the evening.

Thanksgiving

The weather was good with temperatures in the low 50’s °F – its often much colder at this time of year.

There were going to be 13 of us for Thanksgiving Dinner and as we wanted enough left overs to go round we’d decided to cook two turkeys. But how do you do that with only 1 oven? The answer is that you don’t

Instead you use two gas burners, two large “kettles” and more than 6 gallons of Peanut Oil.

Take your two “kettles” and having worked out how much oil to put in (by using water and your turkey) you fire up the gas and heat the oil to 350°F.

Once the oil is hot you carefully, and slowly, lower the turkey into the kettle:

You keep an eye on the oil temperature and adjust the gas flow as appropriate making sure it doesn’t go over 350°F

And cook for 3.5 minutes per pound.

So after 60 minutes we lifted the turkeys out and let them drain for a new minutes.

Then you take them inside, let them rest for 30 minutes and then carve and eat!

Coming to America

We’ve got a pretty good routine working for flying to America.

It starts with driving down to Heathrow the night before the flight and staying in a hotel close to the airport – usually the Park Inn as it does park and fly deals where you can get a room and 15 days of parking for under £120. Doing this has several advantages:

Doing it by coach on Saturday morning would mean leaving Cheltenham at some very silly time in the early morning.
If there are travel delays you are pretty much screwed
An early morning start doesn’t fit well with a day that involves landing in Maine at 5pm EST (so 10pm UK time).

So instead we leave town after an evening meal, and after the commuter rush has cleared, and if there are delays on route it doesn’t really matter. We still have to get up early but 5am is a lot less ridiculous than 2 or 3am. We then hop on the Hotel Hoppa and it’s 10 minutes to the terminal with no major dragging of luggage down miles of corridors.

The only real gamble is the airlines… usually they’re pretty good but this time United Airlines let us down a little – UA 922 on Saturday was a tired plane, and apart from the wifi streamed movies via their app or browser it was like flying in 2001… a fixed set of movies running on a fixed cycle on a tiny seat back display and pretty uninspiring food (chicken curry or a pasta dish) and they’d managed to heat the butter up so you got a pot of melted butter rather and a portion of butter … However the cabin crew were friendly and were very pro-active in providing soft drinks throughout the flight and the legroom wasn’t bad for economy class.

New Yotk Liberty has a slightly odd layout – you arrive at the International Terminal (B) and go through immigration and customs.. then you drop off your luggage before getting on the Sky Train and going to another terminal (A) where you go back through security to get to the departure gates. But when you fly the other way you get a shuttle from A to B and don’t have to go through security again… seems very odd but that’s how it is.

The 50 seater plane to Portland Maine was basic as you’d expect and the turbulence that had wobbled the Boeing on the way down through Maine shook the smaller craft round quite a lot and the final approach into Portland was a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

But now I’m here for the next couple of weeks:

A Thanksgiving Wedding

So what did you do on the Saturday following Thanksgiving on Thursday and the madness of “Black Friday”? Did you take it easy and watch some TV, or did you venture out to do some shopping hoping that things would be a little quieter.

Or did you go to a wedding?

Rick and Jill’s wedding was one of the reasons we’d flown back to Maine and with it being on the Thanksgiving weekend it all worked out quite well.

Having recovered from too much turkey on Thursday we all gathered at the church on Friday evening to have a rehearsal which went quite smoothly which I suppose is a good thing, and then we all went over to the Ground Round for the rehearsal supper where I think we almost ate too much food again.

Saturday morning seemed to roll round really quickly and Kathy headed out to get her hair done, having got her nails done on Friday afternoon in the middle of the Black Friday madness. Then the Groom’s party descended on the house to get ready which was slightly less chaotic than when Jen got married the other year, but not by much.

There had been an earlier wedding at the church but by the time we got there there was no sign of them and it wasn’t long before wedding guests started turning up and the ceremony started right on time.

It was a pretty good ceremony with some good readings and the deacon talked well and made everyone feel welcome and relaxed, and even made a joke or two.

There was one very funny moment during the service when Rick and Jill went up to light the unity candle from the two side candles and they’d lit it and were walking back and it went out, so the deacon called them back and they tried to re-light it but it just didn’t want to know. After a little bit of work, and two tapers which were really starting to flare up, they got it lit and made their way back to their places and the ceremony continued.

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I got caught out by the Roman Catholic version of The Lords Prayer which is several lines shorter at the end, and it seems that it caught everyone else who wasn’t RC out as well.

After the service was over and photos were taken we all piled into various cars and headed across town to the Augusta Civic Center where the reception was being held. They’d even put a message on the electric notice board at the Civic Center so anyone driving past it would know.

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The reception was being held in a function room in the North wing of the Center and there was a craft fayre being held in the main auditorium which some of us joked about crashing but I think the arrival of a lot of people in matching tuxedos and waistcoats might have thrown them off a bit.

It was a great reception and everyone seemed to have a good time. So to finish off this blog here is a picture of the happy couple

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American Customs

On Monday after returning from our weekend away in Kennebunkport I went to my first basketball game. It was a game between the Maine Redclaws and the Springfield Armor at the Augusta Civic Center.

I had no real idea of what to expect. I’d seen some games on TV, including a couple over at Sue and Jeff’s but watching top flight pro teams on TV is very different to seing a pretty new team in the D league. Probably like watching Arsenal v Chelsea on TV and then going to watch Cheltenham v Burton Albion.

I think what struck me most was how disjointed the whole thing felt. There were mad bursts of action with players running back and forth along the full length of the court and then there were whole periods of nothing going on with timeouts and penalty shots, and sometimes those penalty shots seemed to take forever to be taken. Of course with all the timeouts and everything else it’s surprising how long 48 minutes of play can be stretched out to, and having a ref who seeemed to love the sound of his own whistle and his own voice probably didn’t help, and the crowd of just over 3000 people didn’t think he was doing a very good job.

Today was of course, Thanksgiving, so that meant a lot of good food and family time with Kathy’s family, and everyone ate too much, and that was before we started on the various pies for dessert.

Now everyone is just sitting round relaxing and trying not to fall asleep, and talking about plans for Black Friday, and working on wedding programs for this weekend.

What’s in a name?

There’s just something about the names of places in Maine: Perkin’s Cove, Nubble Rock, Cape Neddick, Cape Porpoise, Goat Island..

They sound like places out of a pirate story, but they’re all very real and we didn’t see a single pirate at all which was a great pity.

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend down at Kennebunkport staying at the Nonantum Resort . Although it was a bit odd when we came back on Sunday and found that the main part of the building was in complete darkness and that there were only 4 cars in the Portside Lodge parking lot. I can’t remember when I was last in a pretty much empty hotel, and we were torn between running round the place causing havoc or holding a ghost hunt – but I suspect the main hotel building is the place to do that…. even if its a bit a long hike for Parasoc!

Some of the other big hotels were also locked up tight, “The Colony” was all in darkness apart from some outside lights, and there was no indication of any caretaker there for the winter, so at least there wasn’t going to be a Shining style incident, even if the hotel did look similar to The Overlook in some aspects. But we all agreed that being the over-winter caretaker in a hotel would actually be quite interesting and fun. So if you own a Maine Coastal Hotel and want some winter housekeepers……..

We ate a couple of times at The Maine Diner which does really good food in a very uncomplicated way, in very simple but comfortable surroundings. So if you’re ever on Route One near Wells then I really recommend pulling in and eating there.

I nearly called this post “Goodbye Marginal way” but decided not to (which I’m sure is something you’re really grateful about). We’d been for a walk along Marginal Way after going down to Cape Neddick. The last time we’d been down to Cape Neddick the weather had been rather bad and getting out of the car was not something you really wanted to do, but this time the weather was a lot better and there were quite a few people there. There were quite a few people on Marginal Way too, taking advantage of the good weather to enjoy an afternoon walk along the coast and we took our time and took in the scenery and the sounds and Jeff and I didn’t even get splashed once in all our rock scrambling.

The Rain in Maine…

…was mainly on the Interstate.

The weather was pretty lousy when we drove down to Heathrow on Friday night and we took it steady on the M4 but several lunatics in BMW’s steamed past us at speeds that must have been in excess of 90 mph. We stopped at Reading services for a coffee and loo break before heading back out and getting to the hotel at a not unreasonable hour.

Saturday morning the weather wasn’t much better and the hotel hoppa took us to Terminal 5 through some pretty lousy weather and flooded roads. The bus drive nearly drove into the back of a broken down car, and I think he was the only person who hadn’t seen it.

We left Heathrow about 30 minutes late in very heavy wind and rain and the take-off was pretty shaky and the pilot didn’t waste any time in getting above the storm and most of the flight was quite smooth, apart from the annoying kid in the seat behind me who kept kicking and hitting the seat and whose parents didn’t seem to give a toss. I’d like it if when you book airline seats and they ask if you have special dietary requirements if you could also specify that you don’t want to sit next to, directly in front of, or behind, snotty little brats.

The captain told us that the weather in Boston was pretty much the same as in London and he was right, it was muggy and raining and despite us leaving Heathrow late we actually landed a little early. As we were walking away from the plane I noticed that a lot of the stands were empty and that there hardly seemed to be any planes around. The immigration hall was pretty much deserted and we were only standing in line for a couple of minutes. The immigration officer told us that it was “just a lull” but when we got down into baggage claim the place was pretty much deserted with no other carousels running and our luggage came out pretty quickly.

Then the fun began. We’d brought two bottles of alcohol into the country and the immigration officer asked us if we’d got foodstuffs etc. We said no and he scribbled things on our customs form. After we’d collected our luggage and we headed towards custom we were intercepted and the form looked at and the same questions asked and our form marked again. We were told to go over to one side where they asked us the same questions about foodstuffs etc. and then we had to put all our bags through a scanner.

But even with that we were still outside in a record time. It felt odd to be in Boston in daylight as we usually seem to arrive there late in the afternoon. The bus turned up and we got on and soon we were heading North.

The rain, which had been consistent but light turned heavier and heavier and it wasn’t long before the bus was the fastest thing on the road. I’m not sure how the driver could see where we were going but we got to the bus station in Portland about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Our cases were dragged off the bus and one of them was a little damp, which given the weather was hardly surprising.

The rain backed off a little bit but then came on a lot harder just in time for Rick and Jill to turn up to collect us.

The rain got heavier and heavier and the drive north wasn’t much fun and there was a lot of standing water on the road. We’d got wet getting the suitcases into the back of the truck and we’d not actually dried out much by the time we had to get out and unload the cases again. They said that it did just over 2.5 inches of rain but I guess we must have been travelling with the heaviest part of the storm because it felt like a lot more.

Everything was a little wet when we unpacked it but we soon got everything dried off and the weather has been pretty good since then.

Look out Maine…. here we come!

Well not until some time on Saturday but we’re on the taxi-way.

The house is pretty much cleaned up and de-fluffed and the parents will be here later this afternoon to house and cat sit whilst we’re away.

Cameras are just about packed, and I’m sort of half done on my packing, which I suppose I should finish off so that I’ll be ready to drive us down to Heathrow on Friday night. We’ve got a good deal on a hotel room with parking, and its a lot less stressful driving down the night before than getting up at something like 4 am to get down to get the coach from the bus station over to Heathrow when you always end up clock watching and every single slow down turns into a minor panic about getting there on time.

We’re flying with BA from Terminal 5, so it will be interesting to see if its really as impressive as they claimed and as it looks on TV. We’re actually arriving in Boston at a sensible time and we’ll see if my electronic visa paperwork has actually made it through the system: they say you don’t need to keep a copy of the confirmation that its valid or take it with you, but we’re not risking it. Then its just a matter of hopping on the Concord bus service to Portland where we’ll be picked up and taken up to Kathy’s mums.

We’ve not got a lot planned: A weekend in Kennebunkport with friends, Thanksgiving with Kathy’s family, and hopefully just a lot of time relaxing, well relaxing for Kathy, I’m hoping that I just wont be sitting round the house all day, I do enough of that at home.

Of course, I nearly forgot : there’s a wedding to go to as well 😆 Rick and Jill are tying the knot the Thanksgiving weekend. Its been a far from easy year for both of them but things seem to be getting better and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to it and all Jill’s planning will all come together.

Weatherwise : well its Maine so everything from bright sunshine, through rain to frost and snow, so we’ve packed hats and gloves and a mixture of clothes, but I don’t think I’ll bother packing the sunscreen or my shorts… but now I’ve said that 😆

Right, that’s enough for now, I think I probably need to go and finish off the vacuuming!

Life, and stuff

Well this weekend is the Friends of Cheltenham Samaritans beer festival. This is their third annual beer festival and if the other two were anything to go by then this too will be a great day out and with a very worthy cause. I’ve never needed the Samaritans myself because I’ve had people I’ve been able to talk to but its got close a couple of times.

So we will be there just after noon on Saturday and we will, what ever the weather throws at us, have a great time drinking good beer in good company.

I’ve still not uploaded any photos from Maine to my Flickr account. I guess I need to upgrade to pro as I’m still on the free account and I need to do some serious re-organisation and categorisation of my photos.

Kathy got a phone call on Monday night saying that Jen had been in a car accident. The news made the Kennebec Journal They flew her to Bangor as Augusta doesn’t have facilities to land a helecopter. In the UK the Air ambulance doesn’t care about landing pads – they’ll use car parks and playing fields as temporary landing pads. She had exploratory surgery on Tuesday as she said she had pelvic pain and her pelvis is cracked in two places. She is in a lot a pain and we’re waiting to hear if they will be able to move her nearer to home as Bangor is quite a way from Waterville (where she lives) and Augusta where her grandmother lives.

Here are some photos of her car. We all think that two cracks in her pelvis is a very lucky escape. The maroon car is the car that hit hers.

So its been rather a stressful week for Kathy who has spent most of her evenings on the phone talking to people and keeping people up to date with what is going on.

Back at Home

Well we got back home on Friday. Had a couple of minor problems with luggage but its sorted now.

I will be writing up some posts about the rest of the time in Maine when I’ve got some time… like next week at work!

And I’ll get some photos uploaded onto Flickr too