Hello from Vinalhaven Island, Maine. The good news is I didn't have to use the emergency barf bag (a big zip lock I found in my purse) as I conscientiously sucked down three pieces of hard candy ginger - expired, who knew? - as we were ferried to this island off the coast of Maine. The ferry was small, and the weather was overcast and rainy. I was not hopeful. However, like everything else about this trip so far, the rainbow which appeared in Holbrook, Arizona over Joe & Aggie's Mexican Restaurant (our favorite), on the very first day of the trip was a definite omen immediately seized upon by the superstitious (me).
We had our first trip interaction last night with the local population. We ate at the local bar and hangout which was an obvious institution. Upon arriving, there was an uproarious bar scene following every pitch of the Red Sox game against the Angels. Walking into the dining room, and I'm using the term very, very loosely, there were only a couple of empty tables. The rest were occupied with extended families as well as a table of young people. Smart enough to know the one waitress we spotted, who was running between the bar and the restaurant, wouldn't have time to seat us, we grabbed a couple of menus and seated ourselves.
Immediately, the busy waitress appeared with an Ipad. I'm thinking, "Wow, how impressive is that in this burg - a waitress taking orders electronically." However, instead of asking for food orders, she began reading a trivia question. (What woman took over representation of this rock musician in the 1980's after he was fired by his band and later married him?) From uproarious, the room went to dead silence listening to the question. It was somewhat unnerving until Drake leaned across to me and said, "That's Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, right?" I said, "Hell, I don't know, but it's a good guess." After a couple of minutes, the table across from us, looked up in frustration, and one of occupants said, "Do you know the answer?" We shrugged and gave them Drake's guess. Well, we were right, and we became instant consultants at the local Friday night trivia game.
It was a good start in Vinalhaven. I confess all we did was reorg and cooking today - I made chilli as well as chocolate chip cookies while we regrouped. Drake did all the laundry, and we messed around with our stuff consolidating and repacking. I admit graduation from Yale was glorious, but exhausting. Plus, we arrived in New Haven a day early breaking our rule about not driving more than 350 miles a day. Instead, we drove 1100 miles in two days to spend a few more hours with THE SMARTEST WOMAN AT YALE UNIVERSITY who now officially has two Masters' Degrees. We win the sweepstakes. Our daughter has more education than we do, and a better job at age 29 than we ever had... Every parents' dream.
