I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the trolls for a long time now- probably since the middle of last winter when there began the murmurings of such creatures coming to our forests. I know, the artist Thomas Dambos, has other trolls in New England – specifically some in Maine I have yet to visit – but if I remember right those were in a botanical garden and required tickets so I never managed to get out there. This was much closer and much cheaper!
I’ve never been to Ninigret and I must say it was an impressive park! There was SO MUCH space for parking and beyond that there were numerous sports fields of all kinds including disc golf?!?! Seriously have never heard of such a thing and was having a real hard time getting my mind around it. There was also a lovely little dog park with two enclosures, I’m guessing one for large dogs and one for small. And on top of all that there were hiking trails through the woods! All this alone was enough to get me going but we came for trolls.
We were not disappointed! Since it’s technically off season no one was really parked in the parking lots, instead there was a string of cars parked aside the road which we took to mean there were trolls there. I managed to parallel park for once and we were on our way. The trolls had only been there a few days at this point and the crowds they were drawing were impressive! We followed said crowd only a few hundred feet until we found the first troll – whose apparently named Erik Rock. People were lining up for selfies. I was shocked to see how big he was! He dwarfs humans! And the very normal size bird house dangling on a necklace around his neck looked TINY.
Erik was beautiful and clearly already well-loved but there was supposed to be two trolls in this park. We were told Erik would give us a clue as to where his lovely wife(?) Greta Granite was but we didn’t really know what that meant. Did the birdhouse mean something? No idea. After playing with him we left and followed the crowd down the path until we hit a road and weren’t quite sure where to go from there. Eventually we’d figure out if we took a left onto the road and wandered down it not too far there was a little path and a little half hazard stick reading “troll” in front of it. So, we crawled into this underbrush and not very far down Greta came into sight. Honestly, I think she delighted me even more than her mate. Her hair was made of local bamboo, she wore lots of jewelry made of seashells, and had the most darling button nose.
People gathered all around her and were taking photos. A woman came by with a baby strapped to her back who babbled, “dada!” when they saw my travel companion. I joked, “Acquiring more children, are you?” “NO, I AM NOT!” You can tell from the lack of contractions in that sentence he was offended but goddamn I found that whole scene hilarious.
But back to the troll – people were being super polite and letting everyone get their chance to check her out. We decided to continue on the trail, which was a short loop, and in doing so found her enormous yet somehow still adorable feet with which she was kneeling on. I was impressed! This was such a lovely sculpture! And it’s made almost completely from reused and recycled materials. Even better these are only the first two of what should eventually be five on The Troll Trail, which will include other parks, all within an easy day’s travel in Rhode Island. I can’t wait. I will absolutely be trying the Troll Trail altogether when they arrive!
Since we were already in Maine I decided to take this last opportunity to check out a different fish shop in the hopes of finding another betta or maybe something else interesting I could keep in a jar for a few days before going home. Alas even though they had the best betta rack I have yet encountered (with each pen containing it’s own plant) it seems they were just about sold out with only two left. No worries I was also here to take a gander at everything else.
The freshwater fish were different than the ones I was used to seeing and all seemed very healthy. I really liked the Diamond Tetras! And they had a lot of plants to choose from. Sadly, I already either had all of them or have killed them. This hobby may be getting a bit out of control… *whistles*
They also had a saltwater section with a wonderful large variety of small and medium coral frags at very reasonable prices as well as some fish – mostly clowns. After poking at these we made our way to the reptile room and had fun trying to find what was in each enclosure as these too were full of plants and hiding nooks. They had some snakes, a gorgeous and healthy-looking chameleon, and some adorable frogs and geckoes. All very healthy and happy looking.
I may not have found what I wanted on this day but I definitely keeping the info for this place for the next time I’m up here! I was impressed!
After the cryptozoology convention we needed a bite to eat so we ended up at this tiny and adorable noodle bar that seemed more like a hallway than an eatery. Still it was loaded with it’s own quirky charisma with the walls covered in Polaroid snaps of all their customers which was so retro and cute!
Their menu was also unique. I’d never seen half the options here being offered in a bowl of noodles. I took this opportunity to add peanut bits to mine. And it was really good! So good in fact I ate the WHOLE bowl in one sitting. I’ve literally never done that. Noodles bars always give you so much that I end up taking a doggy bag but not today!
I really hadn’t intended to go to any more conventions but when I brought this one up to my usual travel companion he thought it’d be a fun vacation so off we went to the boonies of Maine to see what was up in the big weird world of cryptozoology.
We got the two-day VIP tickets – because if you’re going to make a vacation of it you might as well! We showed up a little early and had to kill some time wandering for a bit while the hosts tried to figure out how to admit people. Some of the vendors were already set up so we tried walking around and looking at their goods first. There was a lovely wire artist at the door with all sorts of really cool pieces. I asked her how long it took to make them and she said about two days on the smaller ones. I wanted to give her encouragement but I knew whatever she was asking for these was too rich for my blood and instead of being insulting I never asked what they were going for. She was the only vendor that I think made no sales because of this and I felt that. I’ve been that table that’s misfitted for the venue and has goods too fine for whatever is going on. It sucks.
Next to her we found a crochet artist with all sorts of cryptid plushies and dear god were they adorable. Ended up with a tiny mothman keychain from this vendor. I figured those would go like hotcakes. Another artist had the center of the room and was doing caricatures – presumably of patrons with their favorite cryptid. The examples he had on display were rather cute, he even included one with a lot of muppets which had Nigel from Farscape hidden on there as well. I had to laugh. The rest of the room contained A LOT of the more usual items – stickers, car decals, DVDs of bigfoot documentaries, and sooo many books. My thing is to be supportive of local authors so I held myself together to say I’d be back tomorrow for some books and whew, did I ever. Came back with a haul! On all sorts of cool topics, some on hauntings and new places to go others on cryptids and weird happenings.
However the most fun was probably the reptile rescue who was letting people pet their animal ambassadors. They had a few decently big snakes, still growing for sure, a grumpy tortoise (who I could really empathize with) a skink, and a tegu. We took turns holding them all. The snakes were CRUISING, the skink was so relaxed he was limp as a ragdoll which kinda freaked me out a little bit, and the tegu, oh my god the tegu… I wanted to steal. She just burrowed into my sweater giving me a huge bear hug and FELL ASLEEP on me. God damn I love giant cuddly lizards. I’ve wanted one since I was a teenager but you know… their enclosure requirements must be enormous! This one was already maybe 1/3rd to half the size she’d be some day and that was plenty big enough! Plus the laws keep changing from state to state. Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see tegus here because of that.
After passing my lizard back to the next person we went on our way. There’d be a pizza dinner with a celebrity in the field at every table. We ended up with a comic book writer. I wish I remembered his name but I guess he did a bunch of Scooby Doos and some other neat things. He seemed very pleasant as did the couple who sat across from us who had come up here all the way from Pennsylvania! They had matching septum piercings which I thought was unique and also bought one of the mothman plushies. So we bonded on that as we ate our pizza. They had ordered 57 boxes and 32 liters of soda. I was accused of counting them but no, I was just eavesdropping when I came across this factoid.
The big event however was a viewing of Big Fur which was a documentary about the creation of the hyper realistic bigfoot sitting in the corner. This is what set the gears off in my head. I had NO IDEA there was a whole subset of taxidermists who are now doing mock mounts of extinct or otherwise undocumented animals like this bigfoot but with real fur from other animals. This particular bigfoot was made with the hair from highland cattle and the artist who created him also did a mock panda bear that looked SO REAL. Like I would think it absolutely was a panda if I didn’t know better. The reason this was inspiring to me is because I have been telling myself for years that I have enough hobbies and I do not need to get into taxidermy and be one of those weirdos lugging off dead raccoons found on the highway…. but the idea of making completely different animals out of those pelts?! You could make a goddamn unicorn! Or a snallygaster…
The rest of the audience seemed more emotionally invested in the surprise romantic aspect of the film which involved a rather messy love… square… Triangle was not the right option. Honestly, I felt that was it’s own thing and felt weird to be included but you know.. you do you. The director talked about it a little bit and we had fun with it.
The next day there was more vendors and a ton of lectures that ranged from the silly to the serious. I had no idea that loggers were… off their nuts. The amount of bizarre cryptids in logger lore is insane. Now I had loggers in my family back in the day and I feel like a lot of these are drunken big fish kinda stories but still – what the hell were these men on?! And the names of these things! I wish I could remmeber them – they would have put Dr Suess to shame.
Another lecture told us all about cougar sightings in Somerset county and how someone in Connecticut had run one over that had wandered here from thousands of miles away. I have heard stories of big cats my entire life and just thought it was a fact cougars lived here. Apparently not. The state of Maine does not recognize a current breeding population and they are therefore cryptids. The department of wildlife states cougars were functionally extinct from hunting in Maine in the late 1800’s with the last being shot in the 1930’s.
By the time the HP Lovecraft guy came up, who I’d seen before, the heat in the room and my lack of sleep previous was conspiring to land me in a coma. I may have nodded off for most of that one despite trying not to — to the point of going cross eyed.
Luckily there was an intermission where we could go out and eat at a taco truck parked outside. I tried their veggie tacos and they were the bomb. And the people were so sweet. I got a lot of compliments on my hair, pants, and purse, and was tracked down twice to see if I was the owner of the sunglasses left were I was sitting on the grass – but the sunglasses were there before me.
As we went back in we were treated to another lecture from the guy hosting the event who was telling us the cryptozoology museum was moving from its current spot to a new much larger home in Bangor and that this was also the last convention to be held in Portland for the same reason.
One of the last speakers was my favorite, it was the woman who runs a blog called Cryptozoology Facts. She seemed delightfully neaurospicy and informed everyone she was nervous but she did a good job telling us about all the bonkers cryptids she had come across and the fact her favorites were all seen only once and included a winged clam. I had to agree with her the sheer weirdness of that one would make it a favorite for me too. We’d talk to her a little bit afterwards as she offered a gift to anyone who liked and reposted her FaceBook post on the event. It was a bigfoot magnet which will now be going on my fridge…
Anyway, we had an awesome time – learned a ton about local folklore and mythology, got to speculate on what’s actually out there, and met some pretty nifty people. All and all it was a great time to be had by all and I came home with sooo many books it’s a bit ridiculous but at least they’re all signed!
Our last antique store of the day was East Coast Props and Antiques which was a nice way to round out the day. It was much smaller than the other two places but I think it had a lot of charm. It even was selling bundles of sage just in case you were in the market for buying something haunted. It’s the little things that show how much you appreciate your customers.
My companion was happy to have found not just a few straight razors but a sharpening rock and a strap to go with them. Late 1800’s and well loved. I on the other hand was SUPER tempted by a tiny $16 teddy bear who was practically tatters and rags. He was both adorable and potentially cursed. What’s not to love?! Only reason I passed on him is I am still spending most of my free time battling asshole mice who keep eating all my cloth items. Maybe not the best environment for a teddy bear who is already only barely holding on to life.
The rest of the shop wasn’t without charm containing one of the weirdest vases I’ve ever seen adorned with cherubs with weird facial expressions and dubious intentions. There was also a disturbingly buff Saint Peter statue and a distressing little ceramic of a boy sitting on a clown (fireman?) lap that just seemed… off. Mostly because of the expressions on each’s face.
Finally, there was a toddler sized rocking horse on a high shelf pleading people not to sit on it…. WOW. I thought this was a lovely little shop myself even though it was on the smaller side. I felt it had a lot of personality.
Our second antique store of the day was Antiques at Edgerly Farm and it was on the swanker side, although certainly not as steep as the antique stores we have seen in parts of Connecticut! There were a number of cherubs about that I am sure someone would have loved. I however find the idea of a winged toddler a bit terrifying. Just WHY? Of all the things you could give wings to… A TODDLER?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Not to be outdone there was a very expensive looking ceramic clown in the window which was just as jarring on the nerves. I was impressed by their wall of old tools. Something about it made me happy. It was a good display! I also really adored the ornamental wood stove.
As usual the attic had the more affordable and at times bizarre options the most unique of which was a birdhouse made from a stiffened denim glove. I also found a book called The AIDS Hoax from when AIDS was deadly proving that idiots have always existed in every generation. There’s a certain comfort in that.
Anyway, this shop may not have been as impressive as the last but it wasn’t underwhelming by any means. Definitely worth a checking out if you’re in the area or antiquing anyway.
We had decided to go to Maine to attend the Cryptozoology Convention and in the process we decided to take the opportunity to hit a few antique stores during the long drive north. Route 1 Antiques in Hampton Falls NH (not to be confused with Route 1A Relics in Ellesworth Maine) was the first of three we would check out on this day.
This was a shop that was clearly situated in a repurposed old farmhouse and upon walking in I felt it was a place that was a little rich for my blood. All I saw was well maintained display cases. But there was a shop dog working as a door buzzer and being that she was rather cute I settled in. This first part of the store was indeed a little much for me. They even had a super realistic sculpture of a hawk that I thought was taxidermy! The keep was excited to talk to us about it saying it was a rare piece and told us about the artist. I love art and supporting independent artists buuuut I don’t think I’ll ever have the money to pay for proper rich people art! Luckily this place also had a basement and an attic which were easier on the old wallet.
The basement was neat in that it still had this crazy old fireplace in it but otherwise there wasn’t too much interesting down there for us. The attic however was filled with toys for all ages starting with the mandatory Howdie Doody memorabilia which is much beloved by the Silent Generation and scares the ever lovin’ bejesus out of the rest of us. They also had this primo haunted marionette doll that was out for my own heart, a “Ken doll with prosthetics” which I am pretty sure was the Million Dollar Man, some Rock em’ Sock em’ Robots, and even a few things from my generation including a Star Wars ship and an original Optimus Prime with real metal parts! So I’m told by my companion. His excitement was adorable. Sorry to say I wasn’t allowed to watch many cartoons, TV, or movies, growing up, transformers among them. My mother thought I should be spending my time playing in the dirt. This has resulted a reverence for nature and a profound lack of cultural reference points.
This place was cute. I definitely would say it’s worth checking out if you like antiques of all price ranges. Or toys. So many toys.
Right behind the Bass Pro Shop there was another tiny parking lot attached to a cute little half mile trail. We decided to go see what it was and I must say – for being in Boston, a Metropolitain city, I was impressed! Yes, it was short, but it did amble over a little pond guarded by a 40-pound murder duck, er, swan, and then wound us around a sweet little cranberry bog. They’d only planted it a few weeks ago so these were early days. I’d never been to a cranberry bog in spring so this was fun for me.
I took photos with my camera but summarily lost them so these are all cell phone photos. It’s been that kind of a week for me. But anyway… the trail was short, sweet, and had a bunch of informative plaques around it talking about cranberries, their history and harvest. I actually learned quite a bit reading them!
So yeah, if you happen to have kids as your spouse is wandering the shop looking for something shooty or stabby this is definitely a good way to keep everyone entertained! More shops should have random educational trails behind them.
Since we were practically right next door to Bass Pro Shop while attending the food show we decided to stop by afterwards. This place was HUGE. Everything you could possibly want for camping, fishing, hunting, and what-have-you. All surrounded on all sides by impressively realistic looking taxidermy. And a life size whale floating down from the ceiling. Why? No idea. I thought whaling was illegal in these parts. Maybe a wink and a nod to local history.
In any event I enjoyed creeping through the cast iron aisle and daydreaming about having a four-wheeler with an attached snowplow. I wonder if they work well… And of course, there was fun to be had looking at the giant tank of edible fish. (I don’t know how else to word that. I’m not big on fishing.) As well as a swarm of delightful turtles, one of which was precariously positioned atop another like Yurtle the Turtle, all four feet just dangling in the air, helplessly stuck, the turtle below it just ignoring the situation, probably trying to teach the other one a lesson. It was an entertaining moment.
Anyway… if you happen to live in or near Boston and need to buy a bunch of camping, fishing, or hunting supplies this place is pretty much it. They also had paint guns for some reason.
It’s not often I am invited to food conventions, in fact this would be the first and likely last time but that’s what life is about – taking opportunities to do new things! And try new foods! This one was technically for restaurant owners and those that work in said restaurants to pick companies to buy large amounts of food off of. I am not said people but luckily I’m lovable and no one asked.
The convention was at Gilette Stadium which I have driven past many times but I don’t believe I have ever visited. Even though it was in a huge stadium I didn’t really think it’d have a lot of people. I was wrong. This place was packed! We were greeted at the door by someone my companion knew and I was asked my name as a customary introduction. In a state of sudden overwhelm I forgot what it was. This was largely how the rest of the afternoon went. I was already a little concerned because I was having a hormonal day where my body thought it’d be hilarious to make random smells I normally like so repulsive I could puke on spot like a pregnant woman. I’m not pregnant, my body just hates me.
That being said it was lovely. First, we saw the produce section full of fruits, greens, and mushrooms of all sorts. Really beautiful. I paused to look at a bushel of apples to see if they were Pink Ladies but they were Honeycrisps, which are also good. I was told to take one. What? They’re samples. How is an apple a sample? I threw one in my free reusable bag that they gave me at the door.
I also tried dragon fruit! That did look like a sample as they were tiny sliver sized pieces impaled on toothpicks. I was disappointed. Tasted like a mild kiwi but without the tingling sensation (which I’m told in adulthood is probably a sign I’m allergic to kiwi.)
We wandered on to the real food. My companion found a bowl of peppermint suckers and gave one to me just in case knowing I am prone to nausea and sucking on peppermints usually really helps. That’s how you know you’re loved. From here we started trying all the samples – some tacos, lemonade, and lobster bisque. I gravitated towards anything bread and or cheese to appease my peasant ancestry. And the seafood! Which I am not normally that keen but my tastes have been changing a lot in the past few years. My favorite though was a bite of duck that tasted exactly like my slow grown roosters back when I was on the farm. I was not expecting that! It gave me an intense pang of nostalgia. Someday. Someday I will be back on a piece of land with some birds.
At this point I decided to really tempt fate by trying some sort of clam and cream cheese spread. That was intense. Funny enough it wasn’t bad but my body was insistent it was poison and swallowing it proved difficult. I probably made some faces. We wandered around some more trying to find some water to drink but all the free water was fresh out. I managed to get a cup at the bar but by this time I was having a hard time drinking it – which was a bad sign. Suggestive of I wasn’t just overheated but actively so and getting worse. I was unable to eat anything after this though I did force the water down.
My companions had eaten their fill after three rounds and I had to pass on what was supposed to be the best ice cream because my stomach was officially turned off from heat exhaustion. I considered taking a time out in the bathroom, but everyone was getting hot and overstuffed, and we were heading back to the car anyway.
All and all we spent more than two hours there, ate until we nearly exploded, and had a lot of fun in the process. Taking photos with no people in the way was near impossible but I did try. All and all, despite getting sick this was a positive experience.
