Trip Factoid #6: I always over-estimate the amount of leisure reading I will accomplish while on vacation.

Relaxing Day

At 9 a.m. sharp this morning I started trying to phone for Springsteen tickets for the N.J. concert dates in July. I kept hitting the redial button, but only got a busy signal. I gave up after forty minutes, figuring that the tickets would have probably sold out by that time. Tab tried calling from our house, too, but was equally unsuccessful.

After giving up on the tickets, Mom, Jake, and I went to breakfast at Charrier's, one of the local Skowhegan restaurants. Charrier's serves the best French toast I've ever had.

I finished Commonwealth Avenue, one of the novels I brought with me. The story was about a present-day descendent of a Boston Brahmin family and her great grandmother, whose diary she found. I was much more interested in the parts of the book set in the early twentieth century that featured the great grandmother, and I ended up skimming much of the book.

In the afternoon, Mom and I went to visit Lori at her camp (New England term for a summer house) on Lake Wesserunset, near Skowhegan. We saw a pair of loons on the lake and heard their haunting calls. This is the time of year when the loons are establishing their territory, and they tend to be quite vocal. Lori and Rich's camp is adorable. I'm looking forward to bringing the boys there when we take our family trip to Maine in August.

This evening, Dad, Jake, and I went to see The Matrix, which was playing at the Skowhegan Cinema. Mom and Bunny, Dad's wife, are not science fiction fans and they both opted out. The Skowhegan Cinema is a wonderful example of the old-style Art Deco movie palaces. It was built in the 1920s, I believe, and has a huge screen and a balcony still open for seating. The cinema shows second-run movies and is owned by an older couple: the wife sells the tickets and concessions (real butter on the popcorn!) and the husband operates the projector.

We all liked the movie. It was good escapist entertainment. The effects were stunning, and the martial arts sequences were well choreographed. For once, Keanu Reaves' vacant expression and general cluelessness were perfect for the role. I just loved the villain's voice. He sounded like one of those soothing, "beautiful music" radio station announcers, which made a great contrast to his malevolence.

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