Friday, August 1, 2008

8/1/08 Maine Lobster Festival

Yes, it was another rainy, drizzly day in Maine. They say this is an unusual summer, but they said that about winter, too. Here are Ashley and Ann (fellow UMF folks) as we walk in the front gate of the 61st Annual Maine Lobster Festival held in Rockland, Maine.

We chose not to arrive in time to eat breakfast, though it was tempting. They served lobster-shaped blueberry pancakes from 7am to 10am. But it's about a 2 hour drive and we decided that sleeping in on a summer day was more important than blueberry pancakes. After breakfast ends at 10am, the crew sets up the Main Food Tent for the lobster meals. Lobster is served starting at 11am and here's the line waiting to get in:

Check out these great lobster hats! This young man was selling Port Clyde Root Beer. It's a local root beer (Port Clyde is just down the coast from Rockland) and I a) love root beer and b) really like to support local merchants, so I bought a bottle. It was only $2 which was what other merchants were charging for their soft drinks. It turned out to be delicious! (Thanks, Ashley, for the great photo!)

Here's a new feature of the Lobster Festival. So that's how you cook all those lobsters at once to feed all those thousands of people!

If you look closely, those bricks are engraved. It's a fund-raiser to raise money for the cooker. There's a fun story about a man from Oklahoma who proposed to his future wife with one of those bricks.

Here they are at work, serving lobster in a very efficient method. You can tell they've done this more than once. On the other side of the tent, they have other lunch food for sale. But why come to the Lobster Festival if you're not going to eat lobster??!

I got a lobster roll and drank another Port Clyde Root Beer.

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