Acadian Winter

A Winter New England Ramble

Kristen has been working at Acadia Hospital in Bangor for the past month, and after dropping her off at the peak of Autumn (see previous entry), Richard finally came back for a proper visit.


The Cape Neddick "Nubble" Lighthouse

We have many old friends in New England, and a spell of mild weather beckoned us to visit. We arrived Friday afternoon in Ogunquit, a scenic coastal town just south of better-known Kennebunk. After settling in at the Village 2 B&B, an old Victorian perched on a hill overlooking the town and ocean, we explored the Marginal Walk down to Perkins Cove, spotting eider, harlequins and great northern divers along the rocky coast as the day faded into evening.



Footbridge Beach, Ogunquit

 The next morning, after watching the sunrise and strolling the Ogunquit beach (a rarity in Maine), we headed down the coast toward Rye NH, just outside Portsmouth, where we caught up with Laura Hancock, our fellow chief from residency training (10 years ago, already!?).

 On the way, we stopped by Cape Neddick hoping to see one of the snowy owls that had irrupted down from Canada, but without any luck (unless one was hiding against the white lighthouse). We consoled ourselves with a couples massage and dinner at the Clay Hill Farm. Addendum: We found him! See the next post.


Perkins Cove, Ogunquit

The following morning it was off to visit a friend we had made back in New Zealand, Marshall Hatch, who was a gracious host. We not only climbed his maunga, but also met his future and past in-laws, the latter of whom, Barb and Don, shared tales from their West African travels over tea at dusk. I think this makes Marshall whanau now.


Mt. Piper summit

We arrived home, exhausted and happy, at 10 o'clock Sunday evening.


view of Lake Winnipesaukee from the fire tower atop Belknap Mountain

2013 Christmas Tanka

A thread, unspooling,

Then picking up stray stitches

Across place and time.

Together again!

A Down East Christmas carol.

Rendezvous in New York

After the marathon and before Thanksgiving is, in our humble opinion, the best time to be in New York City, and even better still this November, as we got to meet there for a weekend together with Kristen coming from Maine and Richard coming from Minneapolis via a conference in Baltimore.

Kristen took some time while waiting for Richard's train to explore the High Line in Chelsea, which provided this view of the Statue of Liberty.

The Christopher Wool exhibit at the Guggenheim was particularly stunning in the context of the building itself.

The Book of Mormon was quite entertaining in that inimitably Trey Parker / Matt Stone way.

A meal at wd~50, Wylie Dufresne's mad scientist/molecular gastronomy digs on the Lower East Side, capped off our weekend in delicious style.

To Acadia via the Trans-Canadian Highway

 It isn't often that a "work-related" drive covers a thousand miles of peak Fall color, so we jumped at the chance to road trip it to Bangor, where Kristen will start a 2 month locums gig. On the recommendation of our friend, Angela, we stopped in Marquette, Michigan, and were not disappointed in either the views of Lake Superior (above) or the quaint and cool little city.
After stopping a second night and spending an afternoon in Sault St. Marie, we covered the Eastern third of Canada in an epic drive, during which we gawked at the beautiful countryside, but only remembered to pick up the camera and snap a photo through the windscreen once. Luckily, it wasn't a bad shot (below).

 After doing the by-now-standard Spoltorienting pedestrian tour of Bangor (and boy, was it nice to be on foot again!), we headed down to the kitschy but fun Bar Harbor (below), where we enjoyed some lobster rolls, lobster chowder and wild blueberry pie before heading into Acadia National Park.

 Not really sure what to say, other than it was a brilliant day with seemingly endless gorgeous views. Enjoy!

Greeting Autumn at Gunflint

After a year of endless summer we are more than ready to settle into the glorious autumn and winter in Minnesota. What better place than Gunflint? 

The requisite fall mushroom porn:

We ate all of these and lived to tell the tale.

L to R: King Bolete, Sulfur Shelf, Puffballs and Chaga

There is a resident moose at Golden Eagle Lodge and we followed in his footsteps (hoofsteps?) the next day on a 6 hour trek around Flour Lake

A view of Flour Lake

Relaxing on our dock after the hike. 

View from the same dock the next morning at dawn with loons calling to one another across the lake.

A trip to Gunflint wouldn't be complete without a stop in charming Grand Marais, where we caught this schooner leaving the harbor.

Pure Gunflint magic....

London

There are many ways to get from Wellington to Minneapolis, and Richard may have found the most disorienting of them all. Kristen had come back the week prior to feather the kohunga, and accompanied him onward to London for a conference presentation at the Narrative Medicine conference at Guy's Hospital. 

The usual sights were on the touristic menu, and we elected to pursue a "rise at noon" strategy to keep some semblance of U.S. time zone zeitgebbery. Anyway, there's plenty to do in London at 3 A.M.

Some odds and ends: Richard saw a fox in the Guy's/King's College courtyard (in the heart of London, metres from London Bridge!) We saw Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing in Piccadilly as well as Noel Coward's Private Lives in the West End. Also had a fantastic Chinese dinner at the (literally and figuratively) hard to get into Four Seasons.

We also got the chance to head a bit out of the City to see Kew gardens and also visit some friends, Nick and Libby Hipkins, who we first met back in Wellington.



Not bad for a business trip, and we're certainly looking forward to coming back.

Nelson Lakes

Well, the last few entries have been a bit wordy, more random thoughts than travelogue as we wrap up here and prepare to return to MN for a while. But we still do get out, and after Richard crossed from Christchurch to Greymouth on the Tranzalpine railway, we serendipitously ran into friends Barbara, Guido and Linda in St Arnaud and had a fine evening of food, wine and conversation. Although the weather was a bit iffy, we managed to squeeze in a summit of Mt. Roberts (1421m) and a stroll along Lake Rotoroa. Next up, Madame Butterfly in Welly.

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