the Maine Event

My dear friend Laura was gracious enough to invite us up to her family’s home in Maine to celebrate her 30th birthday. So after Chicago, off we jetted to Maine. No big deal. Repatriation Summer Tour 2012, we are hardly joking.

Damariscotta River, Maine

Maine is incredible. Filled with beautiful sights and the most delicious food everywhere. Gosh, I know I say I eat delicious food a lot, but in Maine, it’s different. Their tap water tastes sweeter, their berries are bluer, their milk is creamier, and their greens seem like they’re healthier, even! The Foodist knows what I’m talking about.

Lobster Bake_Clam

Flower crown

More on the good food (including my FIRST LOBSTER BAKE!) later. So fun. In the meantime, here are a few more idyllic shots of the woodsy-watery-rugged-sweet-backcountry that is the epitome of Maine.

 

Maine_On the River

Maine_On the River_2

Maine_General Store

Maine_Lobster Cages

Sunset at Ba Dou Zi

A week and a half ago, I took a day trip with some family members to a northern point of Taiwan, where we stopped at a harbour called Ba Dou Zi. What we first thought was an overcrowded dock due to the recent Typhoon that had passed through town, it turned out that many of the boats were waiting for the sun to set before venturing out to sea.

Many of these who were waiting for their night time sail had a string of Christmas lights on steroids. And although they do make a very pretty picture, these light bulbs (which must need a pretty powerful generator to keep going) do actually serve a function.

That function is to fool squid. Poor squid! Yes, surprisingly, these boats are exclusively for squid fisherman, with lights to lure squid near the surface of the water. I imagine something akin to the likes of something I’ve seen on the “deadliest catch”, although you wouldn’t think it from the pretty sunset pictures above…