It's good to take a break, a time out from regular activities. My husband and I just returned from a vacation at a beautiful island in the Bay of Fundy called Grand Manan. It's adjacent to the eastern-most corner of Maine and on the Canadian side of the border in New Brunswick. We saw the great ocean, open space and fog.
The island is small just 21 miles long by 11 miles at its widest point. The area is known for many things - lobster fishermen, herring, sardines, scallops and dulse, a delicious type of seaweed.
We stayed in a rustic cabin on Ingalls Head with our friends Peter Cunningham and Ara Fitzgerald. Peter's parents used to live in the house. Both are gone now. Peter's father studied fog. The cabin is within walking distance of the bay. Huge tides flowed slowly in and out each day.
When the tide was low, it's possible to walk way out on mudflats, see mounds of brownish yellow rockweed, bright green sea lettuce, and reddish brown dulse. I liked combing the shore with its many colored rocks - reds, blues, yellows, speckled. It was a rockhound's paradise.
I chose five rocks to return with. I rinsed them only in the salty water of the tidal pools. When I got home, I put them straightaway on my desk for the full Grand Manan effect. They emanated a very calm presence, a reminder of a way of being.
On Grand Manan, lobster fishermen work hard like our local fishermen. It's much colder out there than Hawaii though. They were bringing in their traps as the season ended this past Saturday. We had the pleasure of delicious lobster fresh from the sea for a few meals.
I also met a dulser! Eating dulse reminds me of Hawaii and here I was where they harvest it and dry it - very exciting! Adam, the dulser, is an industrious young man. He not only sets lobster traps but goes dulsing. He brings dulse back from the sea in burlap bags. Then he dries it - but no fresh water can touch it or it will go bad. So dulsers must wait for a sunny day - which can be few and far between! We ate fresh dulse in salads, soups and stir fry.
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Fresh dulse
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Grand Manna is also a good place to go if you like fog. There was one sunny warm day during our eight days there. The other days were full of fog, some gentle rain and a little wind. Sleeping to the soft patter of rain at night was wonderful, and when it stopped, I felt like I was enveloped in a thick blanket of silence.
My tooth started to hurt as soon as I arrived, and my body started to relax. The pain was light and intermittent the first couple of days so I hoped that it would heal and stop. It didn't. Throbbing pain in my jaw woke me up the third night. The glands under my chin were swollen, and I could hardly open my mouth. I stayed in bed for three days. I didn't have much energy and slept a lot. I moved slowly and carefully.
Between the one dentist on the island and my dentist whom we called in Oak Park, we stabilized the infection with antibiotics. By the time we left on Sunday, the pain was again manageable. I was starting to eat more normally.
Pain isn't pleasant. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. In Zen we say everyday is a good day. And so it was. I didn't feel that I was missing out on things. It felt okay to be alone at home while the others sometimes went out. In hindsight, I think it was good to have a toothache on Grand Manan. I was surrounded by love. And love is a powerful healer.
Here's a
slideshow I made of our trip to New Brunswick. Enjoy!
