Another lovely and quaint waterfront town in Maine. Blue Hill is a pretty harbor; small with a lot of mooring balls and very little anchoring space, but protected and full of birds and gorgeous boats and homes.
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| Blue Hill. The actual hill. |
Getting into town can be a little tricky, as there is an Inner and Outer harbor. The inner harbor is spacious, but the end near town is shallow. So shallow that the town dock is high and dry at low tide. It looks deceptive because there appears to be water, until you look more closely and realize the seagulls are standing on the mud. So you’ve got a window about two hours or so on either side of high tide to get into town, get your business done, and get back to your dinghy and get out of Dodge before the tide leaves you sitting there for 6-8 hours. The other alternative is to dock your dinghy at the Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club (try saying that three times fast…over the radio) and making the 1.7 mile trek into town. Not a bad walk and pretty.
Fortunately it’s not that big of a place, though it is on the mainland and you can walk to more normal stores if you are persistent. But the local food co-op and the small grocery and variety store were enough for us. Surprisingly reasonable prices right near the town dock really take your motivation to schlep groceries several miles on a cart. You just have to time it right.
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| Saw some pigs, but they were much bigger than Wilbur |
One of the biggest attractions in Blue Hill during the year is one we lucked into, something that we didn’t even realize was going on until we decided to go. And that as the Blue Hill Fair.
The Blue Hill Fair was the inspiration for the country fair in Charlotte’s Web. E.B. White lived near here, and had some familiarity with it. The Blue Hill Fair is a “Country Fair” in the old style, with livestock and produce judging competitions, horse racing and pulling, horse shows, animal demonstrations and crafts. But it is also blended with a carnival fair, having the foods and smells, musical acts and attractions, and midway rides and games.
Fair food in America these days sometimes borders on the terrifying; quite a few of the vendors have pushed the envelope on just what you can batter and fry. I’d steeled myself to try a deep fried Twinkie, just on general principles so I could blog about it after having been horrified by the concept for so long. But unbelievably I couldn’t find one, though one could get deep fried Oreos, pickles, candy bars and other improbable items they just didn’t have the same reverse appeal.
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| Pulling twice their weight! |
But we did have some decent barbecue, grilled sausages, hot dogs, “French” waffle sundaes, Apple & Bluberry Crisp (not together) and fried dough. Typical Fair fare, without venturing into “Man vs. Food” or “Fear Factor” territory where that Twinkie would have taken us. Avoid the “Texas Style Onion Rings”; after eating little more than one of them I felt like I’d swallowed a water logged softball.
We watched a few heats of the draft horse pulling competition. These HUGE horses are amazing to watch. The competition is pretty straightforward; two pounds of weight per pound of horse is piled on a sled behind the team. They are given five minutes to drag the weight as far as they can. They do it in fits and starts, and it is amazing to see the power in these animals as they bear down and haul this weight. The first team we saw was pulling 6,820 pounds of weight; those horses made the ones in the picture above look positively svelte. I can’t say the horses looked like they were having as much fun as the crowds watching them, but what a spectacular showcase for these incredible powerful animals.
In the “not quite so mighty” demonstration category were the Hot Dog Pig Races. Danielle was tapped as a volunteer to finish the races, and was equipped with a broom, dustpan, and dust mask to handle any “accidents”. The races themselves were silly and a cute show. They were either four baby pigs given silly names and raced around a circular track, or four dachshunds who were given the hilarious indignity of wearing hotdog bun costumes for their first race. The sight of four wiener dogs racing around an obstacle course that included having them go “over under or through” a tire obstacle was pretty cute. Sadly the battery on the one camera we had with us died right before Post Time.
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| Yeah, I had that song stuck in my head the whole time I was watching this. |
Also on the docket was a Maine Lumberjack Show. Demonstrations include an axe throwing contest, a humorous chainsaw carving sketch, underhand chopping and log rolling. There are some serious competitions held every year for some of these, though one gets the impression that the lumber industry in 2012 isn’t quite the same hand-axe-and-flannel-shirt picture that the industry was a century ago. This group performs their demonstrations at fairs and crowds, and use some amusing sketches and gags to liven it up and were quite fun to watch.
We also caught some local bands including a fun blues/rock combo called “The Bad Daddies” who looked to be well, my age. Daddies. There were other bands, a comic circus act, Frisbee catching dogs, animal demonstrations and to cap off the event this year they held a Monster Truck “Night of Destruction”. We watched them lining up wrecked cars for the event, but decided not to stick around for it. The fairgrounds were almost a three mile walk from where we parked the dinghy and everyone was getting tired.
As the day ended we watched some of the animals get packed up and saw the very amusing “Carrot Race” at the end of the horse shows. Billed as a “non scored” fun event, it involved each rider racing their horse as fast as they could up the ring to a barrel on which a carrot was waiting. The rider was then to jump off the horse at the barrel, grab the carrot, and convince the horse to follow them back to the start line of the race with the carrot. Some of them were pretty funny, highlighting both the personalities of the horses (some sneaky little devils trying to get the carrots) to and their riders, who varied from shy young novice girls to confident women that sprinted down the course with the carrot held behind their backs.
Eventually we headed out for the long walk back to the boat. A tired but happy group eventually got back to the boat as the sun was getting ready to set.
Not shockingly, no one wanted any dinner.
