7/1/08 Crestholm Ice Cream in Oxford, ME AND a petting zoo

My dad is the world's greatest ice cream-aholic. You may think it's your dad or maybe you even think it's you, but I'm telling you, it's my dad. In his honor, I'm already planning next year's Ice Cream Tour of Maine. I figure there's no better way to see Maine than to go to as many ice cream shoppes (usually only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day) as I possibly can. I'm going to gather the names of suggested places from students during the school year and then map 'em all out (maybe I'll make a Googlemap) and then GO! But it can't hurt to do some trial runs this year. According to Rodney, this is THE BEST ice cream in the state. It's in Oxford, ME. I must admit, the ice cream was quite delicious. He had the Maine staple: Grape Nut ice cream, I got Maine Tracks which is vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cups and a fudge swirl. Yummmmy.

Next to the farm stand (they also sold fresh vegetables and fruit in season and plants) was a petting zoo. Free entertainment while eating delicious ice cream is a tough combination to beat.

I love this sign:

It says: About spitting: Well behaved llamas will not spit at well-behaved humans. Spittting is rude, no matter who does it. Llamas only spit as a last means of communication with their herdmates. By the way, llamas rarely, if ever, bite or kick. Spitting usually of saliva or some food, indicates a) their place at feeding time, b) their displeasure with another llama's behavior, or c) their pregnancy status (Yes I am, mister, so bug off). No llama was ever harmed by spit -- just offended. Please DO NOT spit at, or harass, the llamas. Spitting is rude. unless you are another llama with a specific 'message', your attempt to get these two ladies to spit is useless, rude, and potentially harmful. Spitting spreads germs into their living space. Pleas respect their health, home, and dignity. Well-behaved llamas will not spit at well-behaved humans.

7/1/08 Smiling Moose

The day started in Paris Hill, the first County Seat of Oxford County, so how appropriate to have dinner in South Paris, the current County Seat. Rodney had been to this fun restaurant before. Good food, good drinks, and free wi-fi . . . you can't beat it!

I ordered a local beer from a local brewery. Those blueberries bounced up and down in that beer like raisins dancing in club soda. And they added great flavor to the beverage as well!

7/1/08 Photographer at Work

Rodney may have been without his iPhone camera, but he was not without camera all together. It was fun as well as fascinating to watch him at work.

7/1/08 Sunday River . . . the river

Patti who sings in the choir with me is a geologist. I've got to ask her to explain to me how so many different rocks can all be in the same river bed. I was fascinated. These pictures don't do them justice.

7/1/08 Sunday River Covered Bridge

Wow. Just outside of Bethel is this wonderful covered bridge that goes over the Sunday River. I took this photograph of it, then the photographer on his Celebration Tour of Maine took me down a path through the woods that led to the river bank and an even better view of this amazing structure. I'll let you guess yet again which photos he took and which ones I took. ;-)

7/1/08 Wildflowers in Bethel

In the same field as Olympia SnowWoman, we saw these beautiful wild flowers, as well as spittle bugs, lady bugs, and rain clouds. Mother Nature was putting on quite a show!

7/1/08 Olympia Snow

Back on February 29, 2008, Bethel unveiled Olympia, the World's Tallest SnowWoman (named for Olympia Snowe, Maine's beloved U.S. senator). As you can see from this photo from USA Today, she was BIG! If Texas had snow, they would build her, but Texas doesn't, so Maine built the biggest snowperson ever (they broke their own record set in 1999).
Today, we went to the site of that amazing accomplishment and even though 5 months have passed and it's now summer (hello! July 1!), there are still remnants of that great snowperson.

Yes, that is actually a big pile of snow. Obviously not as big as the original snowwoman but still a giant pile of snow. Amazing.

7/1/08 More at Snow Falls

I'm loving being on this Celebration Tour with Rodney, not just because it's fun and he's fun but also because he's a great photographer and I'm learning all kinds of cool things from him. He has an iPhone as well and takes a lot of photos with the camera that comes in the iPhone, but today his iPhone is on its way to Fort Worth to be repaired, so he's borrowing mine! Look at all the cool shots I get to have on my iPhone. I'm not telling which ones he took and which ones I took. :-) Okay, one of them is obvious, but on the others you'll never know.

7/1/08 Snow Falls

As we left Paris Hill (headed for I wasn't sure where, but Rodney had an idea), we stopped at this rest area with a water fall. Not unlike Smalls Falls on the way to Rangeley, it's just sitting at the side of the road, waiting to be explored--no admission fee, no gift shop, just a pathway, a parking lot, and a bridge.

7/1/08 Hannibal Hamlin's birthplace

Hannibal Hamlin, vice-president to Abraham Lincoln in his first term, was born in Paris Hill, Maine. His birthplace is a private residence, so you can't tour it, but it's very well kept and quite an impressive place:

The town of Paris Hill was the original county seat for Oxford County, then everything moved to South Paris to be near the train station. This is the original county jail and it is now the Hamlin Memorial Library with the library on the first floor and a museum on the second floor. If it looks tiny in this photo that's because it's tiny in real life. Maybe 15 feet x 30 feet? Tiny.

We had a nice visit with the head librarian who is now curator of the museum (she was originally hired as the children's librarian). Though they're proud of Mr. Hamlin and will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth next year (2009), their real claim to fame is Harry Lyon, navigator on the Southern Cross plane when it made the first-ever trans-Pacific flight from the US to Australia.

7/1/08 They're both great photos

As you can see, the drizzle cleared up. It was actually on-again, off-again. But here in Paris Hill, it was off-again. Many years ago, Paris was the original county seat of Oxford County and all the lawyers and doctors lived here on Paris Hill. Now there's Paris, East Paris, South Paris, and Paris Hill--none of which are the county seat. But Paris Hill is still the place with all the really big, nice, old houses.

I stepped out of the car and saw this old church framed by the tree. I took the shot . . .

...and then the photographer suggested I take it portrait instead of landscape. I think I like both of them. :-)

7/1/08 Foreshadowing of today's adventures?

Today I get to join Rodney in another day of his Celebration Tour. My job was to meet him at his brother's house in Buckfield (home of the Mentos and Diet Coke folks) where he is dogsitting. I won't say that I got lost, but there were two U-turns (are you counting, Lindsay?) and a lot of uncertainties. Seeing a sign for the "Where In the Heck R We" Campground did not instill any extra confidence. But I did make it. We had to skip the kayaking portion of the day due to more drizzling rain, but we had plenty of great adventures.

7/1/08 Strawberry Picking

There are three pick your own strawberry patches near Farmington. I had directions to Stevenson's based on a recommendation from Kristin but MRM called Monday night and asked if I wanted to go with her. You betcha! I met her at her house at 7am (the early bird may get the worm but the early strawberry picker not only gets better strawberries but beats the heat) and we drove to Rome, only to find that that particular strawberry patch wasn't open today. You really should call ahead (we learned that with blueberry picking, too). So then we went to Pike's which is practically across the street from Wal-Mart, right in town. It was very fun and the strawberries were yummy. Locals (including MRM and her mom) knew that strawberries could be bigger, darker, and sweeter compared to other years but to this city girl, they were wonderful. Here we are picking our strawberries. They provide the cardboard flat to put them in.

At checkout, you put your flat on the scale and weighs your pickings (7.67 pounds for me), the clerk uses a calculator to subtract the weight of the carton and then multiply by the price per pound ($1.75), then rings up your total on this great old cash register and gives you change from the wooden drawer.