Southern Maine Coast

We had a few beautiful 50 degree days so we hopped into the car and drove up the aesthetic Southern coast of Maine to enjoy the final fall days.

If I wanted to be an artist, I would live in Maine. The views of lighthouses and over seaside cliffs coupled with the cold and isolation of Maine are inspiring. It is no wonder that Henry Longfellow, Edward Hopper, E.B. White, and Stephen King are from this area.






It seems that our travels are brimming with serendipitous discoveries. An abandoned set of swings that allow you to FLY over the ocean - who else could that be for? I couldn't have dreamed up something this lucky!

Halloween in Salem

We finished up our costumes and drove to Salem, MA for Halloween night, along with about 100,000 other people. I was a bug zapper and Adam carved a pumpkin and wore it on his head all night. We had no idea what we were going to do for the evening but from the moment we put on our costumes and hit the streets we didn't have any choice. So many people, many of them foreigners, aimlessly wander the streets awaiting excitement and funny costumes that we spent the night posing for picture after picture feeling as much like movie stars as we ever will. We lost each other several times, but could reconnect by seeking the centerpiece of any large aggregation. I think I laughed for 6 hours straight that night. It was very surreal. The best part was hearing people slowly exclaim as Adam passed "Hey! That guy has a real pumpkin on his head... Pumpkin....head...PUMPKINHEAD! Hey, look! It's Pumpkinhead." As if suddenly they experienced a stroke of genius in figuring out this complex costume.
Some amusing moments:
A cute Japanese tourist petting the pumpkin in mild shock asking several times, "is it true? True pumpkin?"
My hat blew off in the wind and Pumpkinhead was holding it for me while I tried to repair it. Meanwhile a huge group of people crowded around us expecting a performance from Bug Zapper and Pumpkinhead, snapping shot after shot of me retaping the costume.
Later in the evening I wore the pumpkin for a while during the fireworks and when I took it off a lady nearly fell over backwards yelling "It's a GIRL!"
I fed the pumpkinhead cheese pizza through the little mouth slot.

To cap off the bizarre evening when we went back to our van some guy with an australian/scottish accent flung open our big side door and said "Oh! Am I in the wrong place?" Startled, we politely told him that, yes, he was in the wrong place. He unabashedly apologized and closed the door. I wonder where he was going?

The rest are "had to be there" moments as well- so I will spare you all my ramblings, but it was a wonderful night and I wish you were there too.

Rapa Nui

Sumo Family

Scary guy standing alone