The O'Gradys

Friends from Santa Cruz Pat and Liz O'Grady have a second home in Maine on one of the peninsulas jutting out into the Atlantic that make northern Maine so ruggedly beautiful, and they invited us to join them.  From our campground in Ellsworth, Maine we drove to their place, the roads long and smooth and almost devoid of traffic and signs of civilization.  They seem so isolated that friends have accused them of being in the witness protection program.

But what a nice house, and what a setting!  Their glassed-in porch looks west over a beautiful bay just off their backyard.  When conditions are right they experience some of the most intense and gorgeous sunsets you'll ever see.  Here's one they photographed a few days before our visit.

For dinner they served one-and-three-quarter-pound lobsters.  Great fun breaking into those beasts and teasing the delicious meat out.  Our lobster-eating skills are slowly improving.

It might be of interest that Pat and Liz have a pet black bear.  They have named their bear Finn.  Finn weighs about 180 pounds.

Nancy has just informed me that I was mistaken - that Finn is actually a very large Newfoundland dog.  I apologize for the confusion.

The O'Gradys spend most summers in Maine and the remainder of the year in Santa Cruz.  Pat is a private pilot and they fly in their own plane between the two homes when they change location.  It's a four-seater and Finn occupies the rear seats.  Finn and the other O'Gradys reportedly handle long-distance flying very comfortably.

Luckily, Finn is one of the sweetest animals you'll ever find and is always the center of attention when they take him out on the leash.  Because of his resemblance to a bear, he wears a reflective orange coat during hunting season.  I'll have better pictures of him in the days to come.

With the O'Gradys we attended an exciting chamber music concert at Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill, Maine, featuring a nationally known clarinetist, Alan Kay, and an outstanding string quartet.  Beautiful tonal colors, and the precision of the musicians on the complicated scores was remarkable.  The area does feature quite a lot of music during the summer months, but the entertainment scene is understandably rather dead during the harsh winters here.

We also drove over a bridge to Bar Harbor, a lovely town on nearby Mount Desert Island.  It's become a cruise ship destination, so it's a bit crowded downtown, but we like it a lot.  We intend to revisit Bar Harbor and find out about real estate opportunities there.