It's a glorious night here at the old age home...er...rather...the Tugboat Inn! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind a bit to the early parts of the day.
I'll start off by saying we had NO knock on the wall this morning. I admit I was a little taken aback but it was nice to sleep in, especially as I had woken up at 5:30 to take a picture of the sunrise over the bay and then promptly went back to sleep. After a lovely breakfast up in the coffee room high over the bay (and a great conversation with a Cajun couple from Louisiana about the differences in preparation between Maine seafood verses Louisiana seafood) we repacked the car and headed south toward the town of Rockland. A short drive later we came across the first day of the Lobster Festival. Because the festival was just setting up, admission was free so Dad happily paid the $10 to park without complaint.
We wandered through the tents of arts, crafts and the usual assorted fair stuff. There were games of the usual ilk with lobster twists - like the claw where you usually try to grab a toy or stuffed animal or something? Well here - you grabbed lobsters. No really - LIVE lobsters. Astoundingly cruel when you think about it. The lobsters were huddled in the far corner of them tank pretty well out of the claws reach. You can only hope they were smart enough to stay there all day.
We walked from one end of the fair to the other, and then back again. Dad was doing amazing navigating with his cane over wires and narrow passageways between tables. Mom and I were having a harder time keeping up. At lunchtime Dad found a sausage and pepper stand (leave it to my father to have sausage at a lobster festival) and I of course got on line for a lobster roll. (Had I known they used miracle whip BEFORE I paid the $10 for it I probably would have gone with the sausage and peppers myself). We sat down to eat, and then walked a bit more before deciding it was time to bid Rockland farewell and head on down to Boothbay Harbor.
It was just over an hour down route 1 to Boothbay and a pretty easy shot. We got here at 1:30 and checked into our hotel which is right in the harbor. My room overlooks the harbormasters cabin and Mom and Dad are literally right over the water. As I type I'm sitting on the balcony watching the boats go by over the inky black water. Its a pretty little place with multiple buildings, a restaurant and a lounge. Oh yes...the lounge....I'll get to that though. Let's get back to Boothbay.
After settling into our rooms (I'm in building 2, they're in building 4 so no chance of wall knocking) we made arrangements for a whale watching trip tomorrow and a schooner sail on Friday. After that I figured Dad would want to rest but he was raring to go. I guess the rest yesterday did him well because he had more energy than the rest of us! We walked all along the water, finding the spots where we need to pick up our tickets and meet our boats for the upcoming tours. We marked out some spots where we plan to do a little shopping and find the best ice cream place in town (which we refrained from today I might add) and then headed back to the hotel. Dad decided he wanted a beer so we stopped at the outdoor part of hotel bar and had a drink while watching the boats go by. It was lovely and we were all relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Mom especially as her vodka and soda seemed to go straight to her head and she remarked more than once just how relaxed she was. If you know my Mom at all you know that relaxed usually means some varied state of buzzed. When she proclaimed that she's become such a cheap date lately we knew that she was on the further end of that buzzed spectrum.
After a nap in our rooms and a little downtime we met for dinner. The Inn has a restaurant attached to it that we heard good things about and not feeling very creative we decided to go there. We had a lovely meal (skipped the lobster and we all went for various shrimp dishes this time) and then Dad decided it was time for another walk. Holy hell where is this energy coming from? Before we went out I decided I wanted my fleece as it was getting a bit nippy down by the water. I asked if anyone wanted anything to which the answer was "no". So I ran to my room, grabbed my fleece and headed up. When I got there, Dad remarked that it was cold and asked if I could get his fleece. I should note here that the Inn is down a hill which, while not that steep is a bit harder to navigate on a full belly. As I was going down I asked Mom if she wanted hers. She said no - when I was halfway down she called out that yes - she did want it. Ahhhh.... Now when I get there I can hear Dad telling me that he wants his blue one, not his red one....I yelled back he'll get what he gets and shaddup.... He then reminded me to respect my elders. Sigh.
After our walk through town again, Mom and Dad decide we should go back to the hotel lounge as they heard there was a good piano player there tonight. Sounds good right? Hmm...We walk in and I immediately feel something wrong. Something is strange. The piano player is banging out Sweet Georgia Brown as we wander around trying to find seats. I trip over a cane, a walker and then I realize - the average age in this place is about 68 (without me, the outlier...or the 102 year old guy in the corner huffing on oxygen....). The piano player announces her age at not quite yet 80. The bartender is a woman in her 60's wearing a powder blue button down uniform type shirt - the kind that Alice wore in Mel Diner's in the show Alice. We move on to Leroy Brown and a bunch of other songs that my Dad is singing along with but even Mom has to remark that they're before her time.
The door opens and a crowd walks in....slowly because that's about as fast as they can walk. Oh its a hip happening night at the home. But its ok because I've got a vodka and vodka makes everything better right? Only that's some weak vodka. I found out later that the bartender misheard me and gave me a cranberry and soda instead of a vodka with cranberry and soda. Sigh..I guess its hard to hear over the music, the chatter and all the pacemakers keeping time. Every once in a while Dad would look over at me and get this wicked twinkle in his eye and laugh evilly. I think we stayed longer then he would have mainly because he was enjoying watching me squirm. Finally, after Dad knocked back his rusty nail we paid the check and headed back to the room. When Mom said that the music reminded her of something only she couldn't place it I said it was like visiting my Grandmother at the nursing home during music hour. We had a good laugh over that as we walked back to our rooms and said goodnight.
As I sit here typing now, I'm on the balcony with a real vodka and soda and can hear the music coming through the windows. I will say one thing - those older folks are having a great time. They're singing along and hooting and hollering and causing a fine ruckus. I'll give them another hour or so but then I'm gonna have to go down there and put them all to bed. OOh wait...she's playing Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline...Maybe I'll let them keep going a little longer.
Everyone sing along "SWWEEEEET CAROLINE!!" GOOD TIMES NEVER SEEMED SO GOOD" (Crowd answers: "SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD").
Survival Tip: Wear comfortable shoes for those unexpected bursts of energy and, when in doubt, vodka makes everything better!
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