Scenic Maine

Well, we have been in Maine six days. Each of us now has had four lobster and two haddock meals. Enjoy some of the scenes of the Maine coast.

 

The top three pictures were taken in Booth Bay Harbor at a restaurant where we had lunch today. They off loaded about 3,000 lobsters from about eight boats right next to our table. Awesome time.

 

The fourth picture is Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. The fifth picture is an evening scene. The sixth was taken from Shaw's Restaurant at New Harbor (two more lobsters consumed) and the last picture is a group of new boats at the Rockland Boat Show. Love those downeast and lobster boats!

A bit of family history

The Shattuck family tree in America dates back to 1657. Prior to the 20th century most were settled in central and northeast Massachusetts. My great grandparents, Charles Wesley and Nellie Buttrick Shattuck were residents of Prescott, Mass where they were buried in 1918 and 1919. Prescott, Mass no longer exists. It and three other towns were dismantled in 1936 and 1937 to allow the construction of river dams to create the Quabbin Reservoir. The Quabbin provides water to most of Boston and Prescott now lies 90' under water. Three thousand families were relocated and 7000 coffins were reinterred and buried elsewhere. Charles and Nellie are in a cemetary in Hardwick, Mass with several cousins, aunts and uncles by marriage, none with the Shattuck name. I knew several who survived Charles and Nellie from family reunions during Memorial Day weekends when I was in my early teens.

My father was 18 when Charles died but he must have been very fond of Charles as I am named after him. However, it takes two to tango and my mother disliked the name, Charles. They finally came to a compromise. They agreed that my first name would be Charles but that I would be known as Jon, hence Charles Jonathan. Now, the U.S. government knows me as Charles and everyone else uses Jon.

The following are photos of Quabbin Reservoir. Its quite beautiful.

Tanglewood

Its a rainy day today so this will be a catch up edition. Today we are in Boothbay Harbor, Maine which will be our subject about two blogs from now.

Seventy five years ago a group of prominent citizens in the Berkshire Mountains area of Massachusetts held an outdoor concert under a huge tent that attracted 15,000 concertgoers. It was so well received that the Tappin family donated 250 acres of prime real estate to the Boston Symphony Orchestra which was the birth of Tanglewood. Tanglewood now extends to over 550 acres and the main venue is in a so-called shed. They call it the shed because the architect originally commissioned designed a cost prohibitive structure. When the Board advised the architect of their budget, his response was that they would only be able to get a shed. Two photos of the shed follow.

 

 

The topography of the land is such that literally thousands of folks can also experience the show from the lawn. Thats a big event in the Berkshires as families bring lawn furniture and full meals. Its quite a set up. The acoustics are excellent both in the shed and on the lawn. What a great place.

 

 

We went to three concerts in three days featuring Beethoven, Ravel, Strausberg and other lesser known composers. Two of the Beethoven pieces were piano concertos with world renowned pianists. Tanglewood also has 'prelude' concerts featuring up and coming musicians performed before the main event. It was all excellent.Two photos of the main stage follow.

 

 

If you ever have a chance don't miss Tanglewood, a great summer only venue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell surely was the best illustrator of Americana in the mid-twentieth century. It really was like this in the 40s and 50s. His Post magazine covers were coveted by everyone. The Norman Rockwell museum is in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His studio is also on the grounds of the museum. Viewing the originals of his best works was an amazing event. Enjoy the photos of some of his works.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Farewell to Lake Placid

I did this post once before but the wi-fi signal was so weak that when I 'hit' publish, I lost the whole thing. The signal that I now have isn't so hot so here's hoping.
We left Lake Placid August 1st and enjoyed it so much that we have made a six week reservation for 2014. So here are a few pictures.

 

There are four venues in Lake Placid for preparing young girls and boys for the Olympics. One is a school where atheletes from all over the country live and study full time while spending just about all non-school time perfecting their skill. The second is the ski jumping venue which was highlighted in an earlier post. The third venue features bob sledding and cross country skiing. The fourth is figure skating. Kids come from everywhere for summer training and every Saturday evening they put on a figure skating show. The kids range in age from 4 to 20+. Most are excellent skaters. Actual Olympians, national finalists and pros perform during intermission and also for the finale. My I-phone does not take good pictures of fast moving skaters but these two were national figure skaing dancing contenders. They were amazing. Incidently, this skating rink was the actual rink used for the 1932 Winter Olympics. The rink used for the 1980 Olympics is in an attached building. That is the rink where the Americans tokk the gold from the heavily favored Soviets; the "Do you believe in miracles" rink.

 

The world famouis Saratoga Race Track is a 1 1/2 hour drive from Lake Placid. This horse and jockey just entered the winners circle. We didn't bet on that one either.

For the past 13 years, Lake Placid has hosted an Ironman competition. The Ironman is probably the gutsiest competition in today's world. The race starts at 6:20AM with a 2.4 mile swim in Mirror Lake. As the swimmers emerge from the lake, they run to a nearby field, remove their swim gear, don biking wear, find their bikes and then bike 112 miles through Adirondack hilly roads. At the end of the bike ride another dress change prepares them for a full 26.2 mile marathon run. The winner finished just before 3:30PM. About a third of these Ironmen are women. The finish line shuts down at midnight. If you don't finish by midnight, you are not an Ironman. 2700 men and women finished!  The top finishers are eligible to race in the world competition which will take place later in the year in Kona, Hawaii. Last year, four of the top 10 world finishers came from lake Placid. The picture is taken on a part of the bike course right next to our RV site. We spent most of the day cheering the bikers on.

 

This is Mirror Lake in downtown Lake Placid. It's beautiful. When we run out of things to do, we grab a couple of seats on the shoreline, bask in the sun and play with Sadie and our I-phones. The bandstand where the Sinfonettia plays Wednesday nights is just behind this location. In fact, the backs of our seats are touching the bandstand. See ya all next year!

 

 

 

More Lake Placid #2

The Sinfonietta that was mentioned in our last blog plays on, both at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on Sundays and lakeside on Wednesday evenings. I was able to get a couple of photos. The first was during last Sunday's warm up before the performance and the second lakeside.

We also enjoy a variety of outdoor activities; golfing in the mountains, hiking and boating. You know us. Wherever there is water, you will find us in a boat.

 

This is one of Lake Placid's modest homes. This one is on Buck Island and is accessible only by boat.

 

This is a cute little boat house with guest quarters above. What you can't see here is the immense main house hidden in the woods.

 

There are dozens of hiking trails in the Adirondacks; six are labeled 'easy'. They may as well call them, 'For Shattuck's only'. This one is reached by driving six miles into the woods on a dirt road. Sadie walks fives miles for every one we walk. It's quiet, serene and beautiful here.

 

 

We don't play a lot of golf. When we do play it's mostly on mountain courses. This is a section of the Tupper Lake Country Club course. Back in the mid-70s, we had a weekend log cabin just off the first tee. This was also a super place for cross country skiing. Don Nolen just told me that while playing with the Thorndycrafts last week, he fell one shot short of golfing his age. I guess my day will come when I'm 115.

 

 

More Lake Placid

There is so much to do here. Tonight we will be attending a one man play, Defending the Caveman, at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts; tomorrow night a figure skating show and Sunday night its back to the Center for the Arts for the Lake Placid Sinfonietta otherwise known as the Orchestra of the Adirondacks. This is an amazing group of musicians. Lake Placid attracts some of the country's finest musicians who spend their summers here. It is all classical music. They perform twice a week and we just don't miss any of their performances. The Sinfonietta is one of our top attractions to the Adirondacks that keeps us coming back here. Unfortunately I cannot send you photos so I'll continue with other attractions.

Lake Placid not only has summer Nordic ski jumping they also have summer extreme ski jumping. This guy is the National Champion of Russia. He is about 72' in the air and has just started a jump with three loops and a couple of twists. These extreme jumpers land in a huge 750,000 gallon pool. Now water makes for an extremely hard landing but this pool is heavily bubbled making for a soft landing. These guys put on shows every Wednesday and Saturday. During the rest of the week several skiers are on a rigid schedule hoping to make the US Olympic team.

With the rain driven high waters, cars are now driving in Lake Champalin to get on the Lake Champlain ferry. The lake is about as high as it can get without flooding homes and shutting down waterfront businesses. Only a couple of inches of the breakwater at Burlington, VT is above water. I would hate to try navigating into that harbor at night. I doubt if radar would pick it up.

Today is the first day of 0% chance of rain in a long time. So, it's up to the top of Whiteface Mountain this morning. That is Lake Placid from the top of Whiteface. Some of you contemporaries will recall Kate Smith's singing, When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. She was singing about the view of the moonrise over Whiteface from her Lake Placid home.

Our spacious, woodsy, private campsite. You can't get much better than this.

Front view. We will be here until August 1. We have very poor cell phone service here so if you want to get in touch with us either, leave a message on our phone, or a comment on this blog or e-mail us. More on Lake Placid in future editions.