Tag Archives: Maine

Favorite Shoes

I was tired. I needed new running shoes. It was hot. All in all, it was a bad combination, and I left the market feeling I had been ripped off. I paid too much for the shoes. It was the spring of 1990, and the market was Waterside in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. We had […]

Visions of Sunrise

Just some pictures today, taken at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, in August 2012.

Rocks By Any Other Name

Who knew they had a formal name? I’ve spent my life referring to them as “the rocks.” At high tide you can just see the tips, at low tide the rocks are the boundary between Ocean Park and Old Orchard Beach, Maine. They are a meeting place, and a reference point for those giving directions. […]

Sunrise Over Saco Bay

  Vacation. It’s a magical word. A time for rest and relaxation (for the most part), for re-connection with God and man. In my case, a trip to the Atlantic Ocean in Maine on the American East Coast. For me this is one of the few places where I can place the cares of the […]

Non Sequitur

I’ve seen this sign for 50 years and never understood it. I know what the words mean. But what makes it significant?  When I was younger, I studied some of the poems of Robert Frost. Every school child did. The man was an American icon, rightly celebrated for his way with words. I don’t remember though […]

Food For Thought

No, I didn’t eat this meal, but I want to. That was the intention of the sender. It came to me from an agency in Maine that rents cottages to vacationers. It was described as a Maine Christmas meal. Not my idea of a traditional holiday meal, but it does look like a feast. It […]

Lights In The Sky

As we walked along Old Orchard Beach at night it seemed every hundred metres or so there was someone or a group of people with sky lanterns. I had never heard of such things before. My first thought was that they are a fire hazard, an accident waiting to happen. There were two reasons for […]

Very Minor League

For the opening pitch there were fewer than 100 people in the stands, looking rather lonely in a stadium that seats 6,000. Welcome to perhaps the lowest tier of professional baseball. The Old Orchard Beach Surge play in the Empire League, a group of independent teams not affiliated with organized baseball. The Ballpark was built […]

Sandcastles

If you spent any of your childhood at any beach you probably made a sandcastle or two. If you are a parent who took your children to the beach you probably made a few more than that. Making sand castles was never my strength. Give me a bucket and shovel and I can make a […]

And Now There Are Two

For the past decade or so, on my annual trip to Maine every summer, I have thought about attending a Shaker service. Each year I talk myself out of it. It’s an hour-long drive and seems a little far to go, given that there are closer churches. It also strikes me as a little voyeuristic; […]