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Aug. 4 - Rockland, ME

Broad Cove - Anchorage

We woke to sunshine streaming in our windows...what a beautiful day. We enjoyed a relaxed morning catching up on emails and the news, by Internet; we haven't had any TV reception in quite awhile.

We spent the day at the Maine Lobster Festival. It's held in Harbor Park, just steps from the dinghy dock. The festival had all your normal activities...carnival rides, arts & craft booths, commercial information, contests, parade, entertainment and FOOD. The big difference in this festival over others we've been to is the food...it included all your regular fair food, but the main attractions were the seafood dishes. Thousands of pounds of steamed lobsters, lobster rolls, chowdah, clams, shrimp and fish...just about anything you could want.

The main event today was the International Lobster Crate Races. Fifty wooden lobster crates are tied together and stretched across a section of the harbor. Contestants take turns running along the crates to see how many they can cross before falling in. Several people made it look easy, but the majority could only cross 5-10 before hitting the cold water. Contestants ranged in age from 5-50, but the 10-12 year old kids seemed to do the best. A new record was set last year, 6000 crates…that’s 120 times across. Luckily when you’re doing that well they let you take a break every 500 crates…that gives other people a chance to take their turn. While we were watching we saw a boy cross 500…we didn’t stay for all 93 contestants, so we don’t know how many he did, but I’m sure he was the winner.

What a fun way to spend a beautiful day. We even meet other people from Texas. We just happened to be standing by two different groups when they announced a contestant from Texas and we all cheered. What a small world we actually live in!

A look at Rockland and the festival from the water
Rocky...the mascot of the Maine Lobster Festival
Lots of activity going on here today
Chopping lobster for the lobster rolls
Lunch...a lobster roll and seafood chowdah. Yum...very good.
Part of the entertainment...is he the tallest pirate or the shortest? 
Lobster eating contest
Looking out at the crate race course...can you imagine running it 120 times!
The girl in this video did pretty well, she made it across three times. She made it look easy.

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