So, I'm on the second day of my Solo Zombie Weekend (the exciting sequel, coming to a drive-in theater near you!)... one of the things about the Sunday of these weekends is that, besides the fact that I'm really tired, and will be trying to switch back to a normal schedule that evening... is that Allison will go out with me, and I drowsily hand her the keys to van and sit back and enjoy the ride.
But not this day. And of course, I decide to schedule a full rich day in Portland, 75 minutes away. 75 minutes of twisty, bending, shaded two-lane roads that is.... But there are things I want to do, places to go, stuff to see! And on this day, that destination consists of a sports bar to watch the Euro 2012 soccer final, a tall ship to sail, and a star to steer her by...
[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignleft" width="225"]
My passage for the evening sunset cruise.. "Bagheera"[/caption]
I've always loved sailing. Back in Texas, I get to taste of it every so often because of my good friends the Havens, who have a nice boat on Lake Grapevine. So, I decided the cornerstone of my Zombie weekend would be taking a 2-hour cruise on a wooden schooner that sails around Casco Bay. 2 mainsails and 2 foresails... lots of wooden decking... salt water spraying in my face? I'm in!
I've also fallen in love with soccer since my sons Matthew and Logan began playing it, and now I'm a devoted fan... I watched quite a bit of the Euro 2012 tournament before we left, but have missed most of the single elimination matches while at camp. But I wanted to watch the final between Spain and Italy, and I needed a place to do exactly that!
(In case you haven't figured out a pattern here... I'm filling my second Solo Zombie day with things that Allison can be a bit ambivalent about... neither of these activities would be her first choice for day-off recreation, so I've got some nice syzygy going on..)
[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignright" width="300"]
The Rí Rá Irish Pub in the Portland harbor district.[/caption]
The original plan was to go to a sports bar located down near the harbor area... but after a driving reconnoiter of the area, and parking at a mid-way point, I walked over to pier where the Portland Schooner Company makes berth, and on the way I noticed this establishment:
<Captain Jack Sparrow voice> And I says to myself... "Self! Me thinks this place might be showing said match, and I won't be watching all by me lonesome either" </CJS voice>
Indeed. There may have been a soccer crowd at the sports bar I had originally chosen, and maybe, just maybe it wouldn't have gotten relegated to the smaller televisions... but here I knew it would have primacy, and would draw a rabid crowd.
I was cheering for Spain... I love how they play, they have a couple of players on my favorite team (Liverpool), and I just have a soft spot in my heart for Spain, its language and its people. And oh, did the supports of La Roja come to the bar! I got a primo seat by dint of showing up 90 minutes early (what else was I gonna do? I was dead on my feet), and in the alcove where I was seated in front of the main TV, there was one table in the corner where an Italian man and his girl sat, surrounded by a sea of Spanish supporters. I kind of felt sorry for him as La Roja utterly dismantled the Azzurri. He even pounded on the table in fine Italian style after one of the Spanish goals.
In addition to the show up on the flat-screen, I was keeping one eye on a different show coming through a side window... the look of a storm rolling in... which could affect my other activity for the day. After the soccer match, I exited the pub into a nice, steady rain, and the rumble of thunder in the distance. Once I made it to the shelter of the Ferry Terminal Authority, I called the schooner company and was assured that the storms were going to blow through quickly, and the 6:00pm cruise would go out on schedule.
And it did. And the storms didn't. Blow through that is. On a two-hour tour.
The rains kept coming back. And stopping. And coming back. Nevertheless, we boarded the schooner, wiped spots for our fannies as dry as possible, and off we sailed into Casco Bay. And the rain let up for a bit... it was looking kind of nice. Views such as this..
[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="300"]
"Wendameen" (sister ship to the one I was on), being towed away from the dock prior to sailing.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignright" width="300"]
Casco Bay and Portland, from the decks of "Bagheera"[/caption]
But it was not to last...
Before too long, lightening began to strike in earnest over the city of Portland, and our captain was mulling over ending the cruise early. Finally he did decide to do so, but despite motorsailing back toward the harbor, we ended up actually staying out and running in front of the main cell to get away from the lightening, so we ended up sailing for all of our allotted two hours.
Great, right! Well.... if you know anything about weather.. if we are running out in front of the storm system, what are we running through? Rain. And a goodly portion thereof....
And here is the part where my Zombie-fied brain comes into play. I didn't bring anything for the eventuality of rain. No umbrella... no poncho, no "foulies"... nada. (and that's not like me) So I and my backpack were getting soaked as we slid through the front edge of the rain showers and back through it again when the captain did decide to take us back.
And I loved it. :) It's part of sailing.... you spend enough time on a boat, you'll learn that weather reports are often wrong (they were this day), and nature rears its ugly head on a regular basis.... you either deal with it, or you go home and watch TV. But if you do that... you miss lots of magic like this:
[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Storm system over Portland[/caption]
And so when Bagheera tied up again, and I hauled my drenched self up the gangplank to the pier... I decided I wouldn't have changed a thing... I think it was perfectly appropriate that I sailed in a rainstorm in the North Atlantic... and the day ended with this:
[caption id="attachment_159" align="alignleft" width="225"]
One end of a double-ended rainbow that stretched over the whole bay[/caption]
Well, it didn't exactly end there.... There was this little matter of the 75 minute drive back home... with fatigue really starting to set in....
But I made it back to Fryeburg safely. Called Leo's Fryeburg House of Pizza on the way to order a small pizza and a garlic bread to take back to my cabin. Late Night Leo's is rapidly becoming a Sunday tradition for the Welch Zombies. All in all, I had a wonderful day of fútbol and sailing. But this Zombie is looking forward to having his Human Partner along next weekend!
But not this day. And of course, I decide to schedule a full rich day in Portland, 75 minutes away. 75 minutes of twisty, bending, shaded two-lane roads that is.... But there are things I want to do, places to go, stuff to see! And on this day, that destination consists of a sports bar to watch the Euro 2012 soccer final, a tall ship to sail, and a star to steer her by...
[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignleft" width="225"]
My passage for the evening sunset cruise.. "Bagheera"[/caption]I've always loved sailing. Back in Texas, I get to taste of it every so often because of my good friends the Havens, who have a nice boat on Lake Grapevine. So, I decided the cornerstone of my Zombie weekend would be taking a 2-hour cruise on a wooden schooner that sails around Casco Bay. 2 mainsails and 2 foresails... lots of wooden decking... salt water spraying in my face? I'm in!
I've also fallen in love with soccer since my sons Matthew and Logan began playing it, and now I'm a devoted fan... I watched quite a bit of the Euro 2012 tournament before we left, but have missed most of the single elimination matches while at camp. But I wanted to watch the final between Spain and Italy, and I needed a place to do exactly that!
(In case you haven't figured out a pattern here... I'm filling my second Solo Zombie day with things that Allison can be a bit ambivalent about... neither of these activities would be her first choice for day-off recreation, so I've got some nice syzygy going on..)
[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignright" width="300"]
The Rí Rá Irish Pub in the Portland harbor district.[/caption]The original plan was to go to a sports bar located down near the harbor area... but after a driving reconnoiter of the area, and parking at a mid-way point, I walked over to pier where the Portland Schooner Company makes berth, and on the way I noticed this establishment:
<Captain Jack Sparrow voice> And I says to myself... "Self! Me thinks this place might be showing said match, and I won't be watching all by me lonesome either" </CJS voice>
Indeed. There may have been a soccer crowd at the sports bar I had originally chosen, and maybe, just maybe it wouldn't have gotten relegated to the smaller televisions... but here I knew it would have primacy, and would draw a rabid crowd.
I was cheering for Spain... I love how they play, they have a couple of players on my favorite team (Liverpool), and I just have a soft spot in my heart for Spain, its language and its people. And oh, did the supports of La Roja come to the bar! I got a primo seat by dint of showing up 90 minutes early (what else was I gonna do? I was dead on my feet), and in the alcove where I was seated in front of the main TV, there was one table in the corner where an Italian man and his girl sat, surrounded by a sea of Spanish supporters. I kind of felt sorry for him as La Roja utterly dismantled the Azzurri. He even pounded on the table in fine Italian style after one of the Spanish goals.
In addition to the show up on the flat-screen, I was keeping one eye on a different show coming through a side window... the look of a storm rolling in... which could affect my other activity for the day. After the soccer match, I exited the pub into a nice, steady rain, and the rumble of thunder in the distance. Once I made it to the shelter of the Ferry Terminal Authority, I called the schooner company and was assured that the storms were going to blow through quickly, and the 6:00pm cruise would go out on schedule.
And it did. And the storms didn't. Blow through that is. On a two-hour tour.
The rains kept coming back. And stopping. And coming back. Nevertheless, we boarded the schooner, wiped spots for our fannies as dry as possible, and off we sailed into Casco Bay. And the rain let up for a bit... it was looking kind of nice. Views such as this..
[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="300"]
"Wendameen" (sister ship to the one I was on), being towed away from the dock prior to sailing.[/caption][caption id="attachment_156" align="alignright" width="300"]
Casco Bay and Portland, from the decks of "Bagheera"[/caption]But it was not to last...
Before too long, lightening began to strike in earnest over the city of Portland, and our captain was mulling over ending the cruise early. Finally he did decide to do so, but despite motorsailing back toward the harbor, we ended up actually staying out and running in front of the main cell to get away from the lightening, so we ended up sailing for all of our allotted two hours.
Great, right! Well.... if you know anything about weather.. if we are running out in front of the storm system, what are we running through? Rain. And a goodly portion thereof....
And here is the part where my Zombie-fied brain comes into play. I didn't bring anything for the eventuality of rain. No umbrella... no poncho, no "foulies"... nada. (and that's not like me) So I and my backpack were getting soaked as we slid through the front edge of the rain showers and back through it again when the captain did decide to take us back.
And I loved it. :) It's part of sailing.... you spend enough time on a boat, you'll learn that weather reports are often wrong (they were this day), and nature rears its ugly head on a regular basis.... you either deal with it, or you go home and watch TV. But if you do that... you miss lots of magic like this:
[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Storm system over Portland[/caption]
And so when Bagheera tied up again, and I hauled my drenched self up the gangplank to the pier... I decided I wouldn't have changed a thing... I think it was perfectly appropriate that I sailed in a rainstorm in the North Atlantic... and the day ended with this:
[caption id="attachment_159" align="alignleft" width="225"]
One end of a double-ended rainbow that stretched over the whole bay[/caption]Well, it didn't exactly end there.... There was this little matter of the 75 minute drive back home... with fatigue really starting to set in....
But I made it back to Fryeburg safely. Called Leo's Fryeburg House of Pizza on the way to order a small pizza and a garlic bread to take back to my cabin. Late Night Leo's is rapidly becoming a Sunday tradition for the Welch Zombies. All in all, I had a wonderful day of fútbol and sailing. But this Zombie is looking forward to having his Human Partner along next weekend!
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment
If you feel moved to comment, I welcome your input. I do moderate all comments due to the Internet Troll Contradiction Act of 2015, so it may be a bit before the comments appears on the page....