Last weekend we went to Maine for Luke's cousin's wedding at Sugarloaf. We had a few complicating factors, like the long drive and the fact that I was sick. But we went, and we were both glad we did.
At 10 PM on Friday night, we left for Maine. We got as far as Balmville, NY, where we stayed in a cheap hotel ($55) for about six hours. It was a good spot -- not as far as we'd normally like to get, but not bad.
On Saturday we left the hotel at 7:30 AM. Luckily we didn't hit much traffic on the road, and we didn't have to stop much. Once we got into Maine, it was a pretty drive to Sugarloaf. The wedding was at 4. We changed our clothes in a gas station bathroom at about 3:20. I wasn't thrilled with the way I looked in my basic black dress, but I did wear a necklace that was in with my grandmother's costume jewelry -- sparkly cut glass beads. And I carried a black owl print Vera Bradley bag my friend Shannon had given me, so I looked kind of coordinated. I had to clean my earrings with hand sanitizer in the car, though, because the necklace was so bright that it showed how dirty the earrings were.
So, miraculously, traffic wasn't bad and the drive went smoothly, and we got to the wedding on time. It was in the chapel at the base of the mountain.
The bride's grandmother played the piano and her mother sang. The bride and groom wrote their own vows. My favorite moment was when the minister had the bride and groom turn and look at their families and then at the mountain behind us. With their eyes turned up toward the mountain, they looked hopeful and joyful and I had no doubt that they were perfect for each other.
(I also liked the bridesmaids' black dresses and hot pink high heels, and all the little details like the paper runner printed with the bride and groom's initials, and the packets of tissues in the pews.)
The bride and her family (and probably the groom and his family as well) had put a lot of time into planning this wedding, and as a result it was very well-organized. We went from the chapel to a room with tall tables and an open bar. I assume the wedding party went off to take pictures, but there was no awkwardness involved with that. They were whisked away, and we were entertained.
We all hung out and ate appetizers (bacon-wrapped scallops and shrimp with cocktail sauce) and picked up our table assignments. There were more than 200 guests. After an hour or so, we were led into another room (I think it was Sugarloaf's Widowmaker Lounge, and if not, it was the room next door), which was decorated beautifully. Each table had a different black and white picture of the bride and groom. Everything was black and white, with a few dashes of hot pink. We sat down and the wedding party was announced. Then the bride and groom made the rounds at the tables while salads and delicious bread were served. Between the salads and the main course was a slideshow of pictures of the bride and groom throughout their lives, and then together.
After dinner, our attention was directed to the bride and groom cutting the cake (which the bride's aunt made -- it tasted like a chocolate-covered cherry). And then the dancing started, and it was good dancing. The bride eventually changed into a shorter wedding dress with very high-heeled hot pink shoes. The groom got up and said he'd had enough "liquid courage" to sing -- the story was that their first date was to a Chinese restaurant with a karaoke bar, and the song he'd sung that night was "Jack and Diane". We were ready for a cringey performance, but the groom actually had a great voice. That was my favorite moment of the reception.
(I also appreciated the candy buffet, with buckets and plastic shovels for the M&Ms.)
I think everyone had a great time -- the dancing really didn't stop. Best songs: "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Sexy Back", "Poker Face" (I'm on a Lady Gaga kick lately, and we only heard "Telephone" once in the car), and three Michael Jackson songs (but I was somewhat disappointed that Morgan didn't remember the whole "Thriller" dance). Best dance move: Spike's "ice auger" with Luke setting traps behind him. I dread the dancing pictures that will inevitably be posted on facebook, but I don't regret having a great time.
The open bar didn't close until 10 PM, and we all stayed until about midnight. Some of the family members had rooms at the hotel on the mountain, but we had decided to stay at a campground with Luke's dad and stepmom and his brother and his brother's girlfriend, and her parents.
I changed in the car on the way to the campground -- I was ready to be in comfy clothes again. I had made it through the wedding and reception, but I really wasn't feeling good. My nose and throat were clogged. Travis and Kayla let us crash in their tent while they slept in Kayla's parents' RV that night.
* * *
The next morning, Luke and his dad and Travis got up early to go fishing. I woke up feeling absolutely horrible -- there was so much pollen, all the cars were dusted yellow. I took some Sudafed and went back to sleep for a few hours, and I woke up feeling a little better. Luke's sister Kelly and her boyfriend Bill came over and hung out with us all day. It was great to spend some time with them.
Camping was what it should be -- eating a lot of bacon and sausage and hamburgers and fruit salad and a ham that Kayla's mom slow-cooked on the grill all day. Drinking some wine and some kind of slushy drink. Knitting -- I had started a ribbed hat in the car with a ball of red merino wool, and I worked on that on and off all weekend.
The campground, Cathedral Pines, is beautiful. I loved the way the tops of the tall pines waved in the breeze. It was car camping, and the place was fully booked for Memorial Day weekend, but the other people didn't seem obtrusive. The whole place had a nice, friendly atmosphere.
Here's the Green Monster under the pines:
In the afternoon we drove to a nearby mountain to see a row of windmills that had recently been built there. It was spooky to stand under one of the windmills. When you look up at it, it looks like it's falling toward you -- some trick of the eye. You can see the shadow of the blades moving over the trees behind it, and hear the whirring along with the wind.
It was a nice, relaxed day that went too quickly. After dinner, we walked down to the water, where there was a view of the mountains. Kelly instructed us on the best way to make s'mores (hint: it's a two-person job), and then she and Bill had to head home.
Later that night we drove to a salt shed and saw a moose, which was good, because seeing a moose was high on my list of things to do this weekend. It got down on its front knees like a camel to drink from a puddle. We watched for a while, then checked a couple of other places, but that was the only moose we saw, so we went back to the campsite. We hated to end the day, but everyone was tired.
* * *
The next morning we had more bacon and sausage and pancakes. Luke and I walked back over to the waterfront to take some pictures.
I would recommend the campground to anyone -- we discovered rec rooms for adults and kids (I thought it was funny that the bookshelves are divided into Ladies' and Men's), and there are canoes and paddleboats to rent, as well as free showers and flushable toilets. I could comfortably spend a week or even a month there.
Luke and I got on the road around 11, but quickly detoured -- I really wanted to walk around at Sugarloaf in the daytime. I like inactive ski lifts the same way I like inactive fair rides -- there's something kind of cool and spooky about them that I can't quite pinpoint.
Our next stop was in Farmington. There's a hippie store there called Liquid Sunshine that I've always loved. I first went there in college when I visited friends who went to UMaine Farmington, and then always tried to stop on my way down Route 2 to Goddard. I bought a skirt and a string of beads and bells and a couple of purple "creativity" candles that smell good, whether they promote creativity or not. We also got some good Dunkin (it's always better in New England) and looked for fiddleheads at the local market. We had to try three more places, but we finally managed to get a couple of pounds of fiddleheads at a Hannaford store. We also bought Humpty Dumpty BBQ chips and a twelve-pack of Gritty's beer.
A friend had told us about a place called Roy's that had good hamburgers and batting cages. We stopped there for lunch, and I had a lobster roll on a toasted hamburger bun. The food was cheap and the place reminded us of Jordan's Snack Bar (a very good thing). Luke went through a couple of rounds of pitches in the batting cage.
By then we were really pushing it for time, and we had to get in the car and make some progress. Our last stop was at the New Hampshire liquor store, where we stocked up on almost a case of wine. It's always fun to go there. I could smell the ocean from the parking lot, and Luke kept insisting that he smelled smoke. Later we heard that there were wildfires burning in Canada.
The drive home was long, of course, but we were lucky not to run into too much traffic. We couldn't find the Flyers game on the radio, but we did listen to an interesting Mets/Padres blowout. I like the Mets announcers.
We could smell jasmine as we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania. I never noticed that before, but we could definitely smell it, dark and mysterious in the warm woods.
As we pulled into our street at 2AM, "Jack and Diane" was playing. A fitting end to a good weekend.
