Random Thoughts and Images from Newburyport, MA and Portland, ME (Part 1)

We loved Newburyport! Highly educated and politically liberal, we felt very comfortable there.  So much so that we determined to come back to explore the town more thoroughly when we rented a car to drive back home in August.  More on that later; I've already posted several photos from our weekend there.  But in my memories that stop really was all about the people. The wonderful maritime history museum that hosted the ship held a reception our first night. I got into a conversation with a very elegant gentleman who invited any of the crew to come for tea and visit the historic house he and his wife owned in town.  It was only later after he gave me his business card that I learned he was a distinguished professor at MIT.  (Our schedule was too crazy for tea that weekend, but we did catch them on the return trip later in the summer.)  Our awesome photographer friend Joe from Annapolis brought his wife and grandchildren for a tour of the ship, followed by a lovely lunch.  And we met IRL fellow blogger Liesbet and Mark from Roaming About, who I had first connected with during the A to Z challenge in April; Mark's parents live in Newburyport.   She gifted me some real Belgian chocolate hand-carried back from a recent European trip. The taste was so real that a little went a long way; I managed to ration and hoard it to last me the entire 3-month cruise.

A few pix from the town:

Photographer friend Joe made this spectacular candid portrait of Dan during lunch; and we didn't even know it was happening.

On the foredeck, hosting a personal tour 

Spectacular example of knotwork at the Maritime Museum.  

Closeup of the center section of the above art

One night they hosted a flamenco dancer and live music.  The dancer was an inspiring story.  She grew up in Japan and saw her first flamenco dance on television.  She was so fascinated that scarcely two weeks later she moved to Madrid to study, not speaking a word of Spanish. Sixteen years later, she gave as truly passionate performance that evening on our ship.