New Friends, Festivities and Fun

Day 31, Thursday 7-10-14

Another brilliant and thought-provoking forum by Roberto Pace this morning. This time he partially disassembled the Steinway grand piano and had us all leaning into it as he illustrated the concepts of pitch by dampening and plucking the strings down inside the piano. It's amazing the way he can keep 25 to 30 people engaged, when we're all at different levels of knowledge and experience regarding classical music. I'll be sorry when the series ends tomorrow!

Then onto more music lessons. I'm really learning so much here, and I know it will all make me a better player and, more importantly to me, a better teacher.

Curt and I met to have lunch at this wonderful little deli right on the waterfront, the Downeast Coffee Shop (the pink and blue building in the photo). We ate out back overlooking the bay. The day was perfect all day...warm and sunny, with nice cool breezes. 

How's this for a great looking Greek salad? That scoop of hummus at the bottom was the kicker...a wonderful addition!

As we ate, we started chatting with a most interesting and friendly couple at the next table, Enoch and Sharon. They live in Bar Harbor, Maine, a very popular resort area. In the summer they rent their home to vacationers and they come up here to a little cottage they own on Campobello Island, just across the bay in Canada. It's much quieter here, and they enjoy getting out of the hubbub of Bar Harbor. 

Before heading back to my music classes, I had a few minutes to check out Lubec's yarn store, Wags and Wool. What a great shop in such a small town! I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to pick out some yarn for a project, so it definitely merits a return visit.

Then on to ensemble practice and music classes for the afternoon. Here are a few of my fellow students and two of our teachers:

Marilynn Mair, teacher, on the left.

Ralph Costanza, teacher, standing on right.

One of the groups of people we've enjoyed meeting and visiting with at the Inn on the Wharf are a family here for a wedding. This afternoon, Curt caught a shot of the wedding party heading out for the wedding site... In the whale watching boat! They motored over and had the wedding on the boat with the striped lighthouse  I showed you yesterday as the backdrop. What a unique idea!

This evening Curt and I walked back downtown to have dinner at Frank's Seafood Restaurant. We continue to find more and more places to enjoy terrific food. Good thing we can walk all over town to take some of it off!

Then we walked back up the hill to the church, where we enjoyed another marvelous evening concert with Marilynn's mandolin consort called Enigmata, and some mandolin duets with Marilynn and Bob Martel, the Summerkeys classical guitar teacher. VERY inspiring and enjoyable!

Another couple we've met in our wanderings are Sally and Gary, from historic Lexington, Massachusetts. Meeting all these people from so many different places is probably the best part about this trip for us. Here are Sally and Gary at the concert...we may have an opportunity to see them again soon.

As we got back to the Inn after the concert, we ran right into the wedding party, still celebrating. Never ones to miss a party, we joined right in the festivities when invited!

Tomorrow is the last day of my musical adventure here in Lubec, although we're staying until Sunday, when we move across the bridge to Campobello Island. There we plan to camp for at least a week and enjoy the Canadian side of the bay. Can't wait to see what adventures await us there!