A trip to Bar Harbor but I did hear banjo's playing

We went with Cathy and Jeff to Bar Harbor. It was beautiful. We spent our time walking around the town and walking and driving around Acadia State Park.

We saw sand dollars



and seaweed



Crab...(ok, it WAS dead)



Ocean and trees



Took touristy pictures



Saw Thunder Hole



Views from Thunder Mountain



Flowers



A midget lighthouse that closed right when we got there so we couldn't climb up the 5 steps



A tourist shop filled with crystal that were really sparkly



Tall ships



and now for the banjo part (Cathy, turn away so you don't get reaggravated)



Meet our guide for 2 hours on a private boat cruise. His name is Winston. Read what the website had to say about him:

"Blessed with a healthy curiosity, Capt. Shaw has "never met a fact he wasn't interested in" according to his wife Joyce. And there is nothing he enjoys more than sharing the wealth of information he has collected over the past quarter century with visitors eager to truly "experience" all Acadia National Park and the Mount Desert Island area has to offer."

Sharing the information meant that he talked about himself (with his back turned to where we were going) and didn't shut up for 2 hours. He has done every job in the world as well as having lived in San Francisco. Imagine THAT. Problem was that he never told us about anything else about our surroundings (unless we asked which Cathy, bless her heart, kept trying to do). Luckily Jeff had his eye on the ocean so we didn't hit the 10 lobster traps that he was heading straight for.

I tried to get video but it wasn't easy to do it without being obvious. Here is a sample of what we listened to for 2 hours but I am sorry that I didn't get any of his stories about having to get his clearance from homeland security or the story of him passing out in Arizona, or his escapades in New Mexico, or being at Berkeley or you name it and he told us.



There was more (2 hours worth...) and every story turned into something about himself...



I didn't catch it here but I wanted to share. The worse part of this whole thing is that he was going about 5 miles an hour. It was just tedium. There wasn't anything to see and we just putted around. Problem was he charged us for the extra time it ran over because he talked so much and went so slow. Not to mention that he was 15 minutes late taking off because I was stupid enough to tell him that we moved to Massachusetts from the Bay area.

Argh...

So, on the way home I took a picture of a house that I saw on the way there that I loved. Check it out.



Ok, that is all...carry on.

Lets try this again

Ok, I know I have the attention span of a flea, but I started a new lace project. I like this one so far. Hope it doesn't suffer the same fate as the last. Crazy thought that I ever finished the Rose of England project (of course I never blocked it).



This is Magickal earth shawl from the book "Gathering of Lace". I am so not a unicorn person (yeah, it has unicorns on it) but I do want to see if I can knit them.

So, what have I been doing lately? Obsessing on cooking and cooking Magickal (just put that so that there was a theme to this post and because I detest when people spell it that way so I am being sarcastic...except if I have to tell you I am being sarcastic it isn't so funny anymore.

I been hanging out on my other blog. Sorry, cooking has my interest more these days.

Driving in the neighborhood

I just love the green and I want to remember it when the snow comes.




Oh and if you want to know where we were going it was to the CVS to get my antibiotic and Mucinex D for ANOTHER friggin sinus infection (California I want to come home). Mucinex D makes you kind of crazy in the head. No wonder it is behind the counter.

YOU DON'T KNOW ME...well maybe you do

I have been knitting on this shawl for about 2 months. Granted it has been sporadic because I have been knitting for "Designer X" and I have stopped to do that, but for the most part I put a lot of time into this. It is the aeolian shawl. Yesteday in a midst of knitting, a huge attack of boredom came over me and about 15 rows from finishing I ripped it off the needles.

Uh oh...I kinda like it. I should have finished it.

Making the best of life

Lobster and clam bakes are ok by me! This was my first.

Bad Bad Blogger

I must apologize for not posting here very much anymore. I must admit that I have been spending more of my time over at Bite Me New England I just have not been that into knitting these days. Yes, I am knitting on some lace that I will post when it is done and I am also going to be knitting for "Ms Designer" but I just have not been real into it. My heart has been with canning and cooking and stuff like that.

So, I did go out into the rain to retrieve anything that still might be alive in my garden...



whoopie! four small roma tomatoes....



5 puny tomatillos...



a handful of fava beans




Best of all Mr UPS came and brought me the food processor that I won on Foodbuzz

I also got my electric gizmo to make Injera on.

Sorry I just don't have that much else to tell you...

Ready for more?

So part II of sis visiting was New York. God, I love New York. This was my first trip there but I fell in love. I won't get into the food aspect of the city but I did do so on my blog Bite Me New England

There was so much to see. We started off with Grand Central Station



We walked on over to Rockefeller Center



The hotel room was nice. We stayed at the Radisson and the room was small but clean. It was a reasonable price but VERY noisy at night. City was digging from 12:00 until 4:00. Oh well.

I am a number 35 on a sleep number bed in case you were wondering.



Next day we were off to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.



The view from the ferry was incredible



Ellis Island got to me. To think that my grandparents landed there put a personal perspective on it.



This is the hall that all the immigrants came to so that they could be processed into the system. When they came it was crowded and people were all speaking different languages





Through this window you can see the Statue of Liberty in the distance



Next day we were off to explore the city more. We went to "Ground Zero" but didn't stick around too long. I felt ghoulish even being there. It was a tourist attraction with a museum and something was really creepy about it. I felt sort of disrespectful being there.



We took the subway all over the place



We went to Times Square





We walked to Washington Square park



I made everyone walk to Bleecker street. I wanted to see what Simon and Garfunkel were talking about:




Fog's rollin' in off the East River bank
Like a shroud it covers Bleecker Street
Fills the alleys where men sleep
Hides the shepherd from the sheep

Voices leaking from a sad cafe
Smiling faces try to understand
I saw a shadow touch a shadow's hand
On Bleecker Street

A poet reads his crooked rhyme
Holy, holy is his sacrament
Thirty dollars pays your rent
On Bleecker Street

I heard a church bell softly chime
In a melody sustainin'
It's a long road to Canaan
On Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street




We walked and I took pictures





Walked through Central Park



Ate at Katz Deli



One of the coolest things we did was take a tour at the Tenement museum.



I think that this museum was my favorite.

We did go to the Guggenheim. There was a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. It was amazing.





There was also the Empire State Building





and after walking and walking and looking and all of that....



There were a few beer stops in the 4 days we were there.

Vacation time

My sis and my brother-in-law came into town and the vacation started with a trip to Shelburne Falls. This is one of my all time favorite places. We went for a walk over the bridge of flowers



The day was really perfect. On the way home we stopped at one of my favorite farms. Nubian goats and great cheese no less.



I got to pet my pals



I wanted to take one home but you know where talking about that gets me...



Next stop was an Indian trading post. Ok, politically incorrect but it is the Mohawk trail for gods sake.



I got into the photo op



My personal favorite



I guess they didn't want the threat of a law suit if the bear bit someone.

Oh and here is one that I couldn't resist.



This was the first part of the trip.

There was also a trek to the Grist Mill (another favorite)



and some drinking involved at the bar who invented the first cocktail



There was also Walden Pond where I really was excited to go to...



Got to see Thoreau's itsy bitsy one room "house"



and this was just part of the trip. Stay tuned for "Lucy, Ethel, Ricky and Fred go to New York"

Yes indeed, I do knit and this blog is named "Yarn!"

I finally finished the Mandarin Jacket for my mother. The pattern was by Nadine Shapiro and the jacket is made entirely out of Koigu. I had the old Koigu stashed or else this jacket would not have gotten made. The new colors are garish and awful.

I have now moved on to do more lace. It is summer and it is humid. I don't really even feel like knitting. I need a job.