Sunday, June 7, 2009

Long Run

Ah! summer in Maine! As someone once said about something 'short, but oh, so sweet'. I was thinking of the summer ahead last week, as I contemplated this serene scene at Peaks. Now, I've always been an 'ocean guy', not a 'lake guy'. I guess you could say I've never understood the allure of lake-life. As a child I often went to places like Forest Lake, Crescent Lake, Long Lake and Tripp Pond with boyhood chums' families for the day. Had fun, but because I was with my friends, not because of the setting. Why? Maybe, it is because the water seldom moves on lakes, just lies flat like a sink filled to the brim with water and who knows what. The ocean on the other hand is constantly in flux, always moving, always changing. Besides, those, sometimes daily, trips in the crowded station wagon to Willard and Crescent Beaches and Mom's sand-tinged egg salad sandwiches made memories that keep pulling me back. Not just on summer days either-- walking at Pine Point on a moonless night with nothing but the gothic roll of white surf in the distance, now that's a pull! Ocean life? Lake life? I guess I'll just say: 'to each his own'. But I know where my heart lies!

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Birdman. I love both, lake and ocean. But you make a very compelling argument for choosing the sea.

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  2. OK OK Birdman...you've made your case! sooo dust off the old camera and let's do Peaks in J- with C and S???
    I remember one trip with J and A didn't we check out the Civil War Museum there say about 15 years back??
    Memories...

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  3. Ha! I had forgotten about that trip. Yup, CW museum is still there with that tattered flag and some original hardtack crackers!

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  4. I'm with you about the ocean. Two things you failed to mention about the ocean and which are my favorites, the smell and the sounds.

    The sound of the surf, tug boats, and seagulls at the ocean. The feel of the North wind on your face and the smell of the ocean is incomparable; lakes and ponds just don't compare.

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