Ralph And Dolly

If you live on an island, most likely you will know your neighbors.  It's a pretty tight knit community here and I was fortunate enough to meet my neighbors for the moment, Dolly and Ralph.  Today, Ralph came over to sit down and chat with me a while.  Once I told him that I've been taking pictures, he told me all about his days as a photographer.  I asked if I could come over to his home in a few hours to take his photograph and he smiled and said, "sure!"

When he was working, Ralph was the official photographer for the state of Maine, among other jobs as a photographer in his career.  He took photographs that were displayed on the state map at the time.  He photographed the governor and his family for each map as well as the local sights, activities, and food of Maine.

It was a pleasure listening to his stories on what equipment he used at the time, how he got his shots and all of the places he went being the official photographer of the state.  I couldn't help but have a smile on my face as I listened to his tales.  He and his wife, Dolly have lived in the same house on this island for forty years. They've been through all different weather conditions and couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

You can't help but fall in love with the people and sights of this town.  It will be hard to leave.

The Sights of Maine

I love Maine.  The past day, I drove around and took photographs of what I came across.  I have yet to have a lobster roll, but it's on my list of things to do while I am here.

This afternoon, I decided to take a dip in the water and was able to get in the ocean half way until Max decided to run off.  I am soaking up the time I have on this island and am doing a lot of nothing, which is a nice change of pace.

A Maine Pizza Party

There is something about the state of Maine.  From the moment you arrive, you know you're somewhere special.  The houses, the fresh air, the ocean, the people...all of it.

I was invited by Adam and Susan (more on them in an upcoming blog) to go to the annual pizza party hosted by Jane and Paul (shown here cooking) on an island in Maine.  The moment I arrived, I felt as if I walked into the pages of a magazine.  They live the Maine lifestyle as you see in the pages of Martha Stewart Living, Sunset, or any other fine entertaining, food or design magazine.  I was smitten.

They built a pizza oven in their yard from scratch and it got plenty of use over the course of the evening when Jane hand made over 50 pizzas while Paul cooked them in their perfect pizza oven.  I have to say that these pizza's were the best I've ever had.  The crust was thin and crispy and each pie was a masterpiece!  I couldn't name all that came out but some of my favorites were the shrimp pizza, pear, caramelized onion and to top it all off, it ended with the best s'more dessert pizza.

As I am writing this, the flavors are coming back to me and I want more!  I was in awe of how seemingly easy they made it look.  From the setting, people, food and drinks...I took a trip and lived the Maine lifestyle, if only for a moment.

Thank you to Paul and Jane for hosting such a lovely party and for all of the people I met throughout the course of the night.  I tried to put my camera down every now and then to socialize, but the setting was to die for so I couldn't help but snap away at what I saw.  Because of this evening, pizza will never be the same for me again.