"He's got a crab! Drop it!"

After Joe's first week of working and my own week of playing housewife and job hunter (in case you haven't heard...I GOT A JOB!), Joe and I decided to spend the weekend outside, enjoying our surroundings. We started our Saturday of adventures by taking a needed trip out to Ellsworth, the first town you come to on the main-land. I needed an oil change and we had wanted to explore the town. We found an amazing cooking store with shiny gadgets and fancy foods which we'll surely be visiting again. We also stumbled upon this...



At first we thought it was just a waterfall from a dam...but then we got a closer look...and realized that not only was it not so pretty, but it was a hydro-electric plant.



I tried to do a bit of research on the location, but the best I could find is still possibly untrue. I couldn't find anything that definitively stated that it was this particular location, but there's apparently a scandal behind it (or whichever other location). Apparently the government felt like rushing into creating the plant and accompanying dam and wound up flooding a large area of the surrounding town, washing out a few buildings and destroying wildlife. There was also another incident some years later where the water levels rose so high that a bridge was wiped out. To go along with this destruction, I read (I'm not sure if this is true or not...) that the plant actually does not produce any power at all...

After Ellsworth, we decided to stop at "the point" to see what the place looked like during low tide. To our surprise and excitement, there were muscles all over. Our previous trip produced a good amount of muscles, but this time we could be picky. We were able to leave the small guys and only take the big ones home. While wandering through the drizzling rain, I was having a phone conversation with my mom when Joe yelled out "He's got a crab! Drop it!" and went running down the shore. I looked up to see him chasing down a seagull that had found himself a feast: a crab. But the poor thing could barely carry his heavy find and Joe's cry was startling enough to get him to drop his feast and fly away. Joe then proceeded to take off his shoes and wade into the water to scoop up the left-overs. He came out smiling with an unhappy crab at his side. The poor little guy's day when from bad to worse...









We bagged up our little friend and threw him in the truck while we continued down to the other side of the shore. After our big find, we didn't think we would find anything that fun, but we were wrong. The seagulls had found yet another prize...the muscle pit-as I'm choosing to call it.





Can you believe that? Those are all muscles. They form their own floor...tons and tons of the little guys, clinging to the bigger ones and the rocks that are buried waaaaay beneath. I couldn't bring myself to walk across them...but I'll admit that I really wanted to. Walking along the beach and hearing the empty shells crack under my feet is a pretty cool feeling...but this would be like walking on layers and layers of bubble wrap: so gratifying. But that would make me an intentional killer...and with no intentions of making use of my prey, which is just plain mean.

So after our trip to the point, we headed out to the sandbar. The sandbar is what we're conjecturing to be the reason for Bar Harbor's name--I'll have to do some research on whether or not this is true. During low tide, a sand bar appears that connects Mt Dessert Island to another smaller island a short ways off the shore--during high tide. When the sandbar appears you can walk out and dig for clams on your way to the other side, or you can do as we did, and drive your car right out onto the bar. It was pretty crummy out, so we didn't stay long, but it was a definitely a cool thing to do and we'll definitely be repeating the experience on nicer days.

A Tale of Two Lobsters

Yesterday was one of the first days I felt like I was actually a citizen of Bar Harbor. I had a semi job interview/meeting with a woman who owned a local gallery, met her daughter and a local jewelry artist. Then Joe and I went out on an adventure to find some muscles to cook with the lobsters he had bought for dinner. We found ourselves a small local beach and wandered along the shoreline, collecting muscles that had washed up near the shore. It was approaching high tide, so there weren't many, but we found enough to make a meal. I tried to piece together a bit of a panorama of the scenery to share...It was so beautiful and I'm still so surprised that I actually live here.





Upon returning home, Joe and I checked out our lobsters and chose one for our meal...poor guy didn't even see it coming...





We had ourselves a fantastically fresh and seafood filled meal of steamed muscles, grilled shrimp, and boiled lobster. And I have to admit, with a little of bit of garlic butter--homemade by me I might add--it was all pretty tasty. I think I'm actually going to be able to get used to the "island cuisine". Who would have thought? Certainly not me!





After dinner, we attempted a bike ride. Well I suppose I should say that I attempted and Joe went. I have to say that I have never felt so out of shape in my life. Apparently my body is not built for bike riding. I have a lot of training to do in order to master this hilly terrain. Baby steps...

Not much else to chat about at the moment. I'm playing housewife for the day and trying to clean up the homestead. Mostly I've got boxes and boxes of art supplies that need to be unpacked and I've been putting it off for far too long. Well today is the day!

At Last...A Real Fire!

I don't have any new pictures yet since I just woke up a few hours ago and my last post was pretty close to my last activity for the evening, but I do have this picture of my fireplace in action! I have to admit that having a fireplace was one of the things that I was most excited for in having a real home. I say real home because in Ann Arbor, the homes aren't quite "real". You rent them, and along with that renting comes certain rules and restrictions...one of which is always: no fires in the fireplace! Coming from a family that always utilized their fireplace to the max, I find it a cruel punishment to sit across from an empty fireplace on a cold evening. But now that I've entered the real world, I'm able to have a fire! And we've already had about three! It's the beginning of spring here so it's still a bit chilly from time to time and the nights can be kinda cold as well. And luckily, this area is not without a surplus of firewood. So last night this is what I got to lounge to...


Living on the northern end of the east coast comes with a few changes I've noticed over the past week. First and foremost, we get the first morning light before anyone else in the United States. Sounds kinda cool. However, since it's the first light, that means it occurs at about 4:30/4:45 in the morning. So while I wish I could be awake to experience this early morning sunrise, I have yet to roll myself out of bed at that time. I'm still allowing myself to treat this period as a sort of vacation...a break from the hectic schedule I kept for my few months of college-or even my entire college career I suppose. But one day I will manage to get up at that time and enjoy the first light of our nation.

I'm also not used the ocean breeze. Not only am I living on the coast, but I'm living on an island...and a small one at that. So the coastal breeze is pretty much inescapable. You can experience its effects just about anywhere you go on the island. So when the day appears warm and sunny, there's still that crisp breeze that forces you to bring a jacket, just in case. I'm typically sensitive to the cold, and this is going to take a bit of getting used to. I think my nose is going to have the most difficult time. It seems to be cold all the time here unless I'm basking in the direct sunlight. But it will adapt, as will the rest of my body to any other changes I notice.

I suppose the last big difference I want to mention is the seafood. As one could imagine, Maine is chop full of lobster and muscles and clams and all sorts of other fish and creatures. I live right down the street from Parson's lobster pound which actually has the cheapest lobster on all the island: 6.50 per pound. Not bad if you ask me. Now if only I was a seafood nut. Yep, I'm not. It's been growing on me in recent years, but I'm still not crazy about it. I sometimes think this location is wasted on me, but I'm determined to grow to love the local cuisine. Joe and I will be boiling up a fresh lobster this evening for a bit of a "mother's day feast". Should be interesting...A r

New Beginnings in New Places

I have officially graduated and moved away from home...far away from home. I am now sitting in my armchair in front of a fire, with a slightly cold nose, in a small house on a hill, in the small little island town of Bar Harbor, Maine. I have no job and no plans. And although I'm slightly nervous about the first of those two facts, I am extremely content with the second. I moved out here with my boyfriend, who got a job at the local research lab: Jackson Laboratory. I had wanted some time off, and a year or two on an island in Maine sounded like a fantastic way to take some time off.

So here I am. Our house is slowly beginning to look like that of a real person, and I've managed to drop off my resume at a number of businesses and have already gotten a response back from one of the local galleries that could use some help. Things seem to be falling into place. Apart from some snags with broken washing machines and a bad cable connection, things seem to be going pretty well. I have to go take care of a few odds and ends, but I'll leave you with a few pictures of the house (the clean rooms anyway) and the water line near a lighthouse we visited on the other side of the island this afternoon. It was a little gloomy out, but the scenery is still gorgeous. Enjoy!

More pictures!

I took some more images in the warehouse yesterday...thought I'd share them. Our closing reception is tonight and then sunday it's all coming down...

A slice of success!

So my thesis is finally done! Yay!
16 seniors-myself included- renovated a 19,000sq ft warehouse into a gallery space for our exhibition. It looked amazing! and our opening was FANTASTIC!!! We had over 600 people! That's far more than your typical exhibition opening here. Everyone was really thrilled to see what we had done and we received a lot of positive feedback.
and on another side note...i finally have a website up and running! And I even went through the trouble of becoming a real person and buying a domain name!!! so now you can check out all my work if you like... mkpanars.com

Here's some overdue pictures of the work I had in the show...This set is from the installations in the warehouse.









These next ones are simply documentation from before the opening...







i'll add some more pictures of the actual space soon...but that's it for now!