How to have a good birthday - Add water, stir gently. Done.

 Popham Beach State Park, to the eyes of someone used to our beaches, is a bit of a moonscape. Or a desert. Or just a another place on the edge of Maine's fascinating geography that, on first sight, beggers belief, stretching out every which way, people dotting hills far off, sand bars near and parallel each other, and people swimming in water cold enough to cringe your teeth, ice cream headstab cold. And they are swimming...frolicking, to put a fine point on it, in the stuff. Mainers are insane. Did I mention that? Very nice, socially kind, feet planted firmly in granite,...but insane. Oh, and the tide was low...about 80 feet of low, or more, leaving all sorts of potential strandings, at least in theory.. As a Birthday Beach on Different Shores...it was Perfect!

First view of Popham Beach

Closeness or solitary, it's all here...kind of

Color on not white sand but nicely solid sand - great for walking

Seriously low tide

Back to the beach, she's painting houses that aren't there 

(see above on Mainers...)

US/Canada flag on 30 foot tree pole

(recognizing two Mainer obsessions - 

use what is available and flags, especially American flags)

Now I'm all for using what is available and I have a few things to learn from Mainers on the subject, even though I'm pretty damn good at it myself. So that's fine and well. But what is with the flags up here, people? They are, and I mean this almost literally, everywhere. They line the roads for miles, they hang from stores and homes and boats and trees, in every size imaginable but huge is considered best. Or extra huge. It's sort of like...well, you know what it's like. Anyway, there is a serious flag thing up here, just sayin'.

This is super cool - beach wheel chairs! We need some of these! 

Yes, they really are wheel chairs.

On the way back to Boothbay (that beach is a bit past Bath, Maine), Phil detoured to show me the Maine Maritime Museum area. There is a VERY cool sculpture next to it, of the six-masted schooner the Wyoming (Phil is a schooner buff, seriously nice when you see a gorgeous ship and he casually makes interesting story about its history and up to the present condition). The sculpture is being done in part and will eventually include the ribs and masts...I get the feeling that might be awhile down the road.

Sort of The Wyoming

Click and learn

 Later, after a good lunch that included a great Bloody Mary (tip o' the hat to Steve and Judy and the Mamacita makers - and Feddy, in a class of his own in the arena of great Bloody Mary makers...this one joined the competition), we went to the Antique Boat Parade. While not making me any more spry, it did make me feel a little less old. The boats were really beautiful, and the Ladies in White Gloves, won my own personal Best Suitable to Show award!

"Oh, the parade again...what I do for you...is that a flag??"

Nice flag, really. Nice. Where's the boat?

After a few hours at the store, it was time for dinner (notice a theme here? do something near water, eat, drink, do something near water, eat drink, repeat). We went to a very watery spot that reminded me of a place in Florida about 40 years ago, except it had a great paint job and lobster buoys all over the place and didn't smell like the river...and there was no Spanish moss hanging from oak trees...well, it did serve excellent food - everything you could possibly want to order by the sea in Maine, up to and including a bottle of champange to accompany your order. Which we did...but not the Dom P.

They had literally just run out of oysters (and I really truly thought about going to the person and laying a birthday guilt trip on them...but even I sometimes have my limits), so I got what Laurie had just ordered, a warm lobster roll and fried garlic artichokes. Yum-o-rama! I just got some extra butter and used the bread as a soft little bed for the warm, perfect, delicious lobster...and couldn't finish the artichokes, perfect though they were...because...

Laurie and Phil surprised me with my first Whoopie Pie, which came out with a sparkler, 

fast gliding me into happy/sad because my Dad would do that exact thing 

when he took me out for my birthday dinner...*sniff* *grin* *eat Whoopie Pie*

Well, I didn't eat the whole thing, it was way too intense for that, but if you haven't ever had a Whoopie Pie, a big thing in Maine (hell if I know), you should absolutely have it at The Lobster Dock. They bake their own cookie thingy outside and make the white oh my god I'm in insulin shock good gooey stuff inside too. It is good, even if it looks sort of...whoopiesh.

All in all, an excellent birthday that would only have been made complete with a round of song at Dinghy Dock, but one must do what one must do...next year!

56 is starting just fine, thank you!