Friday, August 1, 2008

8/1/08 Theresa and the Lobsters at The Maine Lobster Festival

What's a Lobster Festival without some lobsters? We definitely had plenty to choose from. This giant lobster was "acquired" by the Lobster Festival this year (according to the sign) and they were having a contest to name it. I imagine we will see it at all future Lobster festivals but I bet it will make a couple of parade appearances, too. We found this early on and since I seem to have a knack for having my photo taken with larger-than-life lobsters, I decided to go on a quest for lobster photo opportunities.

Ann took the photo above on my iPhone. Ashley took the one below. You just can't have enough photos of yourself with a giant lobster.

How easy was this one?! The festival provided this photo op and even labeled it for me. That's a Port Clyde Root Beer in one pincher.

I don't know why I smiled in this photo. I should look very frightened as that is a very frightening lobster. This was the bigger-than-life, hang-it-over-your-fireplace-sized version. Further inside the artisans' tent, we found other various sizes AND we learned that the name of the piece is "Predetor" [sic]. Very scary.

Can you imagine having this job? Walk around in stilts wearing a raincoat with lobsters hanging all over you? Oh! But wait! And you get to shoot bubbles out of a bubble gun. It was the lobsters hanging on the raincoat that made this worthy of a photo to be included in the quest.

Here's Ashley's photo of the same moment. Is there any way to stand next to a man on stilts in a photograph and not look odd?

I love this one! Here's my best mermaid imitation. Behind me you can see a mermaid being carved out of clay. The ones to my right are statues (sorry . . . I don't know my mediums). The same artist that made the blueberry coffee mug made these. Here's the fun. Think of "Where's Waldo" except in this version, it's "Where's the lobster?"

An artist that painted pictures of lighthouses on tiny wooden lobster buoys that could be used as Christmas ornaments had a unique pen and brush holder. That's me, shaking claws with the lobster.

8/1/08 Free Food at the Maine Lobster Festival

It began to feel like we were at Costco on a Saturday afternoon. There were free samples of food and beverage all over the place. When we first walked in the gate, there was a booth of Vermont-based Cabot Cheese samples. I got to try some new flavors without having to buy a whole package. Here, Ann and Ashley are drinking free Starbucks. To the left, under the yellow tent, is free Lay's potato chips.

Fried dough! Not just fried dough, but FREE fried dough! I've only ever had the choice of powdered sugar or cinnamon & sugar. Here we had sauces and fruit as well. This very nice lady (we chatted with her for quite a while) told us her favorite was maple syrup sauce and powdered sugar. She then made up a batch of that and put it out for us to try. Mmmmmm. She was right. That was quite delicious.

"Try it before you buy it" beef jerky:

Kettle Corn is Ashley's favorite part of any fair or festival. She bought a whole bag and shared, but we took some free samples anyway:

Fruit sauces and chutneys:


Samples of homemade fudge:



This booth was run by a husband wife team. She sells blueberry jam and he sells pottery decorated in a blueberry theme. I actually bought one of his coffee cups for my apartment. Ashley asked why a woman who doesn't drink coffee would want a coffee cup, especially since I'm also a woman who doesn't cook and she knows I don't know how to make coffee. But I'm creative and use coffee cups for multiple things. And if I ever have a guest who wants tea, I can use a coffee cup to serve tea. (I do know how to serve tea . . . boil water and hand the guest a box of tea bags and a cup.)

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.