march, marCH, MARCH!!!

At first I wasn’t sure how to feel about this Equality March in DC. I’ve done quite of few protests for various causes including Gay Rights, Women’s Rights, Lesbian Rights, Reproductive Rights, AIDS/HIV Health, blah, blah, blah… I’ve gotten a little apathetic, a little cynical, a little out of shape. My Marching muscles (both physical and mental) needed a boot camp or at least a pep rally.

Walking through DuPont Circle district on Saturday was it. Not because we walked for about a gazillion miles nor because the streets were strewn with rainbow flags or because my gaydar was beeping non-stop. The shot in my arm was that is was none of this. The shot in the arm was the normalness of the scene. The streets were filled with tourist, window shoppers, and friends laughing at cafe tables. You had to look closer to see that it was a predominantly gay crowd. This is what normal life looks like for all of us, gay or straight. We have come so far…

The next day at the March it was very much the same. Oh there were signs, and chants, and cheers for all the colorful queers… but for the most part gone were the Drag Queens, gone were Chap clad boy toys, and the radical spike dykes beating drums from previous Marches. We didn’t need those to get noticed. We are not just a fringe community with a few that feel brave enough to show our faces… we are mainstream! We are your neighbors, your bank teller, your grocer’, your pharmacist, and postal workers, all marching without the fear. We are the baby boomer survivors refusing to give up struggle… and we are the students that have picked up the torch and assumed the struggle.

One neo-nuclear family mom pushing a stroller said to me that she was marching in hopes that “her daughter would not inherit the struggle.”

The signs over head say it many ways but the message was singular. EQUALITY… EQUALITY… EQUALITY…!

And if a picture is worth a thousand words… here are a whole bunch for you. click here for my slideshow or click here for individual photos

Peace, Luv, and Equality for All, barbie

Drive By Fall

Fall arrives early in New England. As we readied for our departure from Mt Desert Isle, fall showed up. It’s like the curtain went up for the third act and the scenery change was a shock. It should not have been… if the soggy first act “Spring”had not been foreboding enough, then surely the every so brief appearance of Summer in the second should have been all the warning we needed. But not us, our oblivion we complete as we were too swept up with the story to notice the back drop. So here we are, with (for now) the best seat in the house/country and the pictures to prove it… albeit from the rig and its balcony view.

Enjoy.

PS. The encore of pictures is Portland, Maine which we found to be an amusing town as well as the home of Longfellow.

Peace, Luv, and Crimson Colors, barbie

Photo link: http://my.inbox.com/photos/brv?CAID=jmoofKTU3eXcxVQhPr9H8&_=1

Who's Who on the Rock

There have been a few famous people that have lived or I should say “summered” on the island over the years. Rockefellers, Fords, JP Morgan, the Vanderbilts, Astor’s, President Taft, L.L.Bean, John Travolta, E.B White, Dan Folgelberg, and currently the reigning queen of all “Good Things, Martha Stewart. She is the topic of much fodder here on the island… that is… fonder among the not so rich and not so famous DownEast locals.

• But only when pressed, most often they would prefer to ignore her existence all together, just as they have other celebrities throughout the centuries. (Mainers as I may have mentioned before are quite tight lipped.)

• It amazes me that Mainers think nothing of strolling through one of the premier National Parks created by their land donations without once letting a notable name pass their lips. Unless perhaps, if a helicopter should fly a wee bit low over a certain seal swimming harbor in route to the jetport. Then perhaps you might hear, “Mable said her ankle bracelet keeps her limited to the old cottage”

• Translation: At least Martha keeps her ass on the estate and doesn’t wonder through the park anymore.

• Mainer’s will also staunchly defend tradition... even when it makes no sense.

• For example: Mable’s family has been employed at the “cottage” and its adjoining acreage for generations. Once owned by the Fords, each fall Uncle Cliff shovels the pink granite gravel from the carriage way and stores it in the garage for the winter. This may sound ludicrous or at least a typical sample of Martha’s vulgar opulence. Not so says Mable, storing the driveway in garage has been done forever… not shoveling it would be ludicrous.

• But that’s not what I intended to talk about in this blog. It was the architecture… more specifically the architecture of the afore mentioned rich and famous. We took a tour of the Lighthouses surrounding the island but I was way more interested in the cottages... a euphemism for mansions. I loved how each home is strategically hidden from view from anywhere on the island. Rockefeller started this tradition when he built his home and the horse carriage trails… as to not spoil what nature had perfected.

• But on our boat tour all/each is revealed… uniquely styled to take advantage of its uniquely gorgeous granite perch. I would love to give you a narration along with the pictorial tour but truthfully I can’t remember which is which. Suffice to say there are a couple Rockefeller’s, an Astor, a few Ford’s and Martha’s etc, etc, etc…

• Enjoy!
• Oh yeah, a few lighthouses too.
• Here's the link to the photos http://picasaweb.google.com/wanda.climbs.the.shenandoah/RichUp2?feat=directlink

Peace, Luv, and Little Pink Pebbles,

barbie

Sister, Sister! My fun loving sister Mary has just left and I am sad… and exhausted. Note to self: I am working and can’t keep up with the vacation club. There is a fine line between keeping your guest entertained and losing yourself in tourist Never, Neverland…

…because Bar Harbor Neverland is whama jamma full of fun!

with hikes, bikes, and karaoke mikes.

Buses, boats, and blueberry floats

Lobsters, puffins, and popover muffins

Canoes, kayaks, and my aching back

Carriage rides, high tides, and t-shirts that are tie-dyed

Seals, Whales, and endless Trails

Fishing, fountains, and Cadillac Mountain

Lighthouses, Lumberjacks, overstuffed backpacks

Campfires and cribbage… and we haven’t even golfed yet!

Alliteration and rhyming aside, we had a grand time and we loved having her… and all our family and friends that came to visit this year.

Of course we didn’t do All the things while she was here but a few of our favorites we enjoyed were watching the meteor showers from the top of Cadillac Mountain, the Acadian Island boat tour: We saw a fledgling eagle take her first flight, 2+ lb Lobsters at the Down East “Pound” for dinner, and golfing at Lucerne.

So now we have returned to our normal routine of campfires and cribbage with a hike and a little golf thrown in there occasionally. That is until Heather arrives in two week!

Peace, Luv, and Lobster Claws, Barbie

PS. I almost forgot the Lobster Pound question… which at this point is a little anti-climatic. The real meaning behind calling it a “pound” is much less entertaining than the “Wait, wait, don’t tell me” versions and the subsequent submissions from the peanut gallery. But a promise is a promise, so the boring but yummy truth of which you may have guessed is that the roadside Lobster Pound restaurants

“Sells Lobster By the Lb.”

PSS. Sign/Saying of the day: “While golfing I spent so much time in the trees that I figured I be oughta take up hunting”

More Pictures: http://my.inbox.com/photos/brv?CAID=7y9jClF-1ztTkBY46l8oq&_=1