... but I kinda like the music.
Well, not really. I've been to Maine twice before, but never Down East Maine. I've been keeping a low profile lately, but I thought I'd update you all on what's gone down since I last posted about my brother's death.
My Mom and took our dogs up to Maine over Columbus Day weekend to find a final resting place for my brother Mike who, you may remember, died a little over a month ago. Mike used to go up to Maine with a friend of his, on a yearly basis, he was younger and before his life fell appart due to mental illness. My Mom has been going through a lot of anguish about where we would scatter his ashes, and thought Maine might be nice, though she'd never been there. I tend to make plans on the spur of the moment, and this was no different, as I'd just put this trip together Thursday night and Friday morning. My mom was enthusiastically looking forward to our trip. I informed my brother Marcus about our plans when I went home for lunch at noon, inviting he or one of his daughters to come along as there would be an extra bed in either of the two rooms I'd booked. Well, he said it wasn't a possibility for him to come along, so I left it at that and went back to work. By the time I got home from work, my mother was an emotional wreck. Turns out my brother had a problem with us making last minute plans like this, and he wants us to wait till everybody in his family could go along, late next summer maybe, and he'd worked my mother over about it while I was at work. Well, needless to say, it wasn't pleasant when I got on the phone with him. Seems I showed him total disrespect by making plans like this regarding my brother's ashes. I guess my mom should just live with my brother's ashes in her living room till it's convenient for everybody to join in the fun? NOT!
My mom and I drove up to Ellsworth, Maine on Saturday and checked into our motel rooms in time for sunset. So, we took the short drive down to Acadia National Park to check things out. Drove the road up Cadillac Mountian see what it was all about, and knew we were on the right track. The sun was down and the near full moon was up.
We hit the road early on Sunday morning for Machias, which is apparently where the cabin my brother used to go to is, though we had no idea where in or about Machias that may be. Got to Machias and found a nice and surprisingly large town, but not a place we would want to leave my brother, so we wandered our way down to the coast to see what we'd find. Ended up at this cove on Birch Point, and got out to look around and walk the dogs. It was about as quaint and picturesque a place as you could ever imagine, with local fishermen and lobstermen coming and going.
The cove was beautiful, but it wasn't the place. It was still early, so we got back on the road and headed for Lubec and West Quoddy Head lighthouse, the eastermost point in the United States, to see what we would see. Well, it was as beautiful a place as any I'd seen in my life, and it was a perfect day. I scouted around, went through a fence and found a likely spot. After some angished moments when my mom wrestled with the notion of bringing Mike back home with us, she finally came to terms with the idea that Mike deserved to have a final wresting place, and that this was as nice a place as were ever likely to find. If you ever make it to the lighthouse, you can say hi to my brother. He's under the pine tree, on the edge of the cliff, just to the left of the lighthouse, where he can look across to Canada, watch the fishermen passing by, and enjoy the sunrise/moonrise before anybody else in America.
Well, not really. I've been to Maine twice before, but never Down East Maine. I've been keeping a low profile lately, but I thought I'd update you all on what's gone down since I last posted about my brother's death.
My Mom and took our dogs up to Maine over Columbus Day weekend to find a final resting place for my brother Mike who, you may remember, died a little over a month ago. Mike used to go up to Maine with a friend of his, on a yearly basis, he was younger and before his life fell appart due to mental illness. My Mom has been going through a lot of anguish about where we would scatter his ashes, and thought Maine might be nice, though she'd never been there. I tend to make plans on the spur of the moment, and this was no different, as I'd just put this trip together Thursday night and Friday morning. My mom was enthusiastically looking forward to our trip. I informed my brother Marcus about our plans when I went home for lunch at noon, inviting he or one of his daughters to come along as there would be an extra bed in either of the two rooms I'd booked. Well, he said it wasn't a possibility for him to come along, so I left it at that and went back to work. By the time I got home from work, my mother was an emotional wreck. Turns out my brother had a problem with us making last minute plans like this, and he wants us to wait till everybody in his family could go along, late next summer maybe, and he'd worked my mother over about it while I was at work. Well, needless to say, it wasn't pleasant when I got on the phone with him. Seems I showed him total disrespect by making plans like this regarding my brother's ashes. I guess my mom should just live with my brother's ashes in her living room till it's convenient for everybody to join in the fun? NOT!
My mom and I drove up to Ellsworth, Maine on Saturday and checked into our motel rooms in time for sunset. So, we took the short drive down to Acadia National Park to check things out. Drove the road up Cadillac Mountian see what it was all about, and knew we were on the right track. The sun was down and the near full moon was up.
We hit the road early on Sunday morning for Machias, which is apparently where the cabin my brother used to go to is, though we had no idea where in or about Machias that may be. Got to Machias and found a nice and surprisingly large town, but not a place we would want to leave my brother, so we wandered our way down to the coast to see what we'd find. Ended up at this cove on Birch Point, and got out to look around and walk the dogs. It was about as quaint and picturesque a place as you could ever imagine, with local fishermen and lobstermen coming and going.
The cove was beautiful, but it wasn't the place. It was still early, so we got back on the road and headed for Lubec and West Quoddy Head lighthouse, the eastermost point in the United States, to see what we would see. Well, it was as beautiful a place as any I'd seen in my life, and it was a perfect day. I scouted around, went through a fence and found a likely spot. After some angished moments when my mom wrestled with the notion of bringing Mike back home with us, she finally came to terms with the idea that Mike deserved to have a final wresting place, and that this was as nice a place as were ever likely to find. If you ever make it to the lighthouse, you can say hi to my brother. He's under the pine tree, on the edge of the cliff, just to the left of the lighthouse, where he can look across to Canada, watch the fishermen passing by, and enjoy the sunrise/moonrise before anybody else in America.
