Great Wass Idyll, Part 2

    The food we had has been extraordinary. For one, the bread has included bread with dried cherries and other combinations. Jecca also made homemade bagels one morning. We have had 

pumpkin cake and blondies. We have had homemade empanadas (with homemade dough), an amazing fish chowder with smoked cod, crab and shrimp. We had crab cakes made after an expedition by Willy, Jecca and Mark to a fish market. And, I am sure I am forgetting one or two. It was a gourmet extravaganza which is quite amazing considering it is a pandemic and the shopping is limited. 

    One day we all went to Sandy River Beach outside of Jonesport. We all went swimming, even though we were not in wetsuits. Mark totally immersed himself, but Barbara did not. We had a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the homemade bread and it was like we were dining at gourmet restaurant they tasted so good. 

    One of the most special expeditions was a ride in their Lund boat to Roque Island, owned by the Isabella Stuart Gardner family. We put in at Jonesport and drove about 8 miles to the island. Hank was left home as 6 is too many people for the boat. En route, we saw a flock of razorbills with a lot of fledglings. They look a bit like penguins with bills a bit like a puffin's. 

    The sandy beach at Roque Island is huge and quite rare as Maine has mostly rocky beaches. The family allows visitors to land there. We had it almost to ourselves. Everyone went swimming. (Mark and Barbara in wetsuits.) It was a day to remember, for sure.

    We got to see a fair amount of Jake Hunkler who is now teaching in Maryland. (after teaching at a Quaker school in Ohio and then in American Samoa). He is such a personable guy. He and Hank flew a kite (in the tree!) and swam together. One night all the Hutchesons went over to their house for a family campfire, but we opted not to go.

    One morning, Otis got up to the news that the largest airplane in the world was at the airport in Bangor. (An Antonov) So, he took their truck and drove there and back, staying a good deal of the day. It is strange to think of Otis being old enough to be able to do that.

    We saw several movies while there. We saw Ford vs Ferrari which we had already seen, but enjoyed. We also saw another with Christian Bale where he played Dick Cheney in Vice. It was a strangely made movie and we were mixed about it. And, we saw a dreadful movie called Pacific Rim. One day, Otis tackled a new set up for the A.V. and made a tower for the projector, computer and speaker. It had to be altered to accommodate the disk player and he added another level to raise up the computer which solved that problem. (He has such an engineer's perspective.)

   

    Other observations:

     There have been very few cases (under 10) in the entire Washington county, so the attitude about Covid is quite relaxed. Nevertheless, there were a fair amount of masks in evidence. 

    The plans that Middlesex has for Covid seem inadequate to us all as they are planning to have the dorms full and have hybrid classes.

    Jecca has spent a lot of her vacation interviewing for new jobs in the English department.

    Having a full week off the grid has been good for us. We have not read the Times or followed politics much. We did have NPR on the radio, but listened very little. It brings home how much stress we are all dealing with and we are hoping to focus less on the news than we have been throughout this.