"The Journey is the Destination"

Dan Eldon's book, THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION was in my mind as I tried fitting visiting all the people and places I wanted into my two weeks of vacation. This was especially true of Annie, Patti, and my trip to see Margi and Kathryn in Nova Scotia. There was a lot of yellow car time, on highway through scrub pine, with a few distant vistas of water, and a lot of drawing, earnest talk, and good-natured ragging before we got to pick up Kathryn at a Tim Horton with a life-sized dinasaur.

There was quite the discussion between the original Map Girl and the Miss Gormain electronic directions Girl throughout the trip. Miss Gormain almost sent us back out onto the highway right past Kathryn, but I heard that Miss Map Girl bought her own electronic lady after she got home.

Margi and her delightful husband, Brian, hosted us in Halifax. In what other city would the hostess have sufficient raingear to outfit each guest for the short ferry ride to downtown, gallery-hopping in restored waterfront warehouses, and brunch at Sweet Basil's: lobster flan with maple syrup...YUM! The last night in Maine we all had "undressed" lobster swimming in butter.

Nova Scotia brought us up close and personal with that other ocean, the Atlantic, and I was very happy for my tights and two silk shirts for wamth...much like the Olympic Peninsula in November: Rain and wind and chill.

Margi tried on a very stylish had in Halifax, and we went on to Kathryn and Ed's farm in an unpronouncably-named town, where we dined lavishly on one of their former pig tenants and goat's milk ice cream and Ed recited inspirational poetry at the dinner table.













The shopping in the country was more in the way of oatcakes (which I MUST try to perfect in my own kitchen) and used clothing from Frenchie's. I need to post the recipe I perfected for rhubarb/ricotta pudding, too, but that's another post.

Margi and Kathryn in hysterical form, as always, more studios to see. As soon as they get their paper doll show up, Margi will do something for the Linda and Opie O'Brien book I'm working on pieces for.

Tracy, Sue, Arlinka--we missed you SOOOO much! Next year in France, eh? (my new Canadian accent) or Rhode Island?

So hard to say good bye, after such a short visit...and yet more lobster, but the days were scheduled to the moment...no, I savored each minute of time spent with friends, even if I don't have a lot of photos to show for it. I wanted to be more IN the experience than recording it.

Why was I changing my clothes in the back seat of the yellow car? And why was it being documented? I was IN the Experience!!!

We took the car ferry back to Bar Harbor to save time, and Annie kept us going to Belfast, Maine, where I finally saw fireflies--and got my arms totally bitten up by mosquitos--worth every red welt!

There are people on the Olympic Peninsula who have never seen the magical flashing night lights--one of my goals in returning East was to revisit that experience. It's funny the things one misses about a place--or a person. Not enough to try to go back to live that past life, and anyway everything and everyone is changing all the time, so there's never any real Going Back...but the magic is still seductive, maybe the memory even more so than the reality.

The firefly scene the next morning in mist from the Atlantic. It looks like a magical place even in daylight, and yet I know that people travel from all over the world to vacation right in my own home neighborhood, in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe everything seems more wonderous when one is vacationing...and maybe we pay closer attention.

7/27/08 7:21pm I'm going back and forth in email with Annie while I'm posting these photos from our trip. Just came home from watching Mama Mia with Katie and Mike, and hoping I NEVER get too old to boogie with my friends!