July is flying by, as it always does.  Waits for no one. The fastest month of the year in Maine for sure.

July 2nd is Julee’s birthday, and this year was a milestone…60!  I won’t say “60 years young”, because when someone says this about you, it actually means you’re old.  We’ll just say 60 and looking good!  For the big 6-0, we lined up a fun filled day with Julee, Pete, Kaitlyn & myself.  All surprises for Julee.

Starting out early, we headed down Rt. 1 to Belfast.  Strawberry picking is one of Julee’s all time favorite birthday activities.  She was born at the peak of strawberry harvest, perhaps under a strawberry moon, even.  Sadly, our regular haunt for strawberry picking, Silveridge Farm in Bucksport, did not open this year.  We’ll miss picking under the osprey nest in that most beautiful setting and the warm welcome owners Bob & Earlene Chassé always provide.  We wish them the best and hope to have Silveridge open again next year.

A bit less than an hour drive from Ellsworth, we arrived at Daisy Chain Farm.  Daisy Chain is just a couple miles from downtown Belfast, but really feels country.  A younger farm it seems and they have not been collecting any dust.  A recently planted apple orchard, rows of strawberries and a big fat raspberry patch all soaked in the July morning sun.  Under a small tent we were greeted by Daisy Beal herself, who lives on the farm with extended family in a lovely, rambling old farmhouse.  Multi-generational farmers, the Beal family is making a go at it and look to be enjoying themselves all the while.  So, strawberry picking in Maine at a family farm on a sunny July morning sounds great to anyone, but here’s the real kicker…they are MOFGA certified organic strawberries!  In all my strawberry pickin’ years I’ve not stumbled on to an organic “you pick” strawberry operation.  I generally will ask the farmer why so and the common response is “Strawberries are too hard to grow organic.  Too many pests & diseases.”  Well, Daisy Chain Farm seems to have it figured out and offer them up in 3 organic varietals.  Daisy Chain does close shop early on picking days, 11 AM, so don’t dawdle on your way there.  All for the best, as berries pick better in the morning, any true berry pickin’ Mainer knows.  After an hour of picking and sampling and sampling and picking, we reached our threshold with 36 #s of delicious, organic Maine strawberries.  Note: Strawberries are done for this year, but the raspberries are in full stride and will be picking until sometime in early August.

When all weighed in, paid up and subscribed to the Daisy Chain Farm newsletter, it was near high noon under a summer sun and we had a good thirst built up.  Next stop, head into town for a cool off at Marshall Wharf Brewery.  For the countless times we’ve enjoyed Marshall Wharf beers in Belfast, it’s always been at the Three Tides, the restaurant next door to the brewery.  It’s a low key affair at the brewery.  Understatement.  Clearly it’s a place for brewing beer without a significant focus on drinking it there.  That’s probably why Three Tides sells something like 90% of the Marshall Wharf beer brewed, and why we’ve only drank it there while in Belfast.  Small, but waay friendly, we were quickly set up with a round of 1/2 pints, a bag of pretzels and a table outside in the shade.  With the wide variety of MW beers we’ve enjoyed in the past, the selection at the brewery was a bit disappointing that day.  Nevertheless, what was on draft was delicious and reaffirmed my thoughts on MW being one of the better breweries in Maine (bold statement!).  The pour that stole the show was a bit of an adlib….a 1/2 pint of Weisse Grip Hefeweizen with a sidecar of MW homemade ginger beer dumped in.  Whoa!!  So good.  More were ordered.  This ginger-wheat-summer-blesssing was appropriately dubbed a “Julee” in honor of the B-day girl.  Before departing, I traded in my 2 empty growlers for ones full of Deep Purple Rauchbier & Weisse Grip Hefeweizen (regrettably, sans MW ginger beer).

On foot with thirsts quenched and appetites in gear, we headed up to Main St. to extend Julee’s birthday celebration into the eating realm at Chase’s Daily.  Like MW beer at Three Tides, we’d eaten at Chase’s Daily countless times, but only for their Friday dinners (now Wed., Thur. & Fri. dinners).  Let me tell you, lunch is every bit as awesome as dinner at Chase’s.  It’s a different serving style for lunch: you order at the counter after perusing the day’s food offerings splayed out on a long counter, and then grab a seat pretty much anywhere in the restaurant, often with friends you don’t know yet when busy.  If heated, your food comes to you soon. If cold, you take with from the counter.   Pizza al taglio, torta sandwiches and savory lunch tarts (my name…must be called something better in reality) are the standard lunch fare for the taking, along with a blend of eye pleasing seasonal salads.  OK, so as a vegetation family, Chase’s Daily’s entirely vegetarian menu scores high marks.  But, even if you were visiting Belfast from Planet Porkchop, it would be hard to argue with the care, thought and ridiculously fresh ingredients that makes eating at Chase’s such a pleasure every time.  Best restaurant in Maine in my very biased dining book.  These guys are doing it right!

Even with the cooler we brought for the berries, the mid-day summer sun beating on our red car had to be pushing the berry’s limits.  We piled in and drove back to Trenton, just in time to meet the bus from Camp Beech Cliff and pick up my visiting nephew visiting (also named Trenton!) from another rock star camp day at CBC.  Kaitlyn & I parted ways with Julee, Pete & Trenton, to continue our plotting & planning of Julee’s epic day.  Julee was to take a nap, but I don’t think the 11 year old whirlwind of energy allows for that…so maybe she got to sit down for a few minutes.  Maybe.

Our 6:30 PM meet up at Thompson’s Island came quickly and soon we were together again and heading to the grand finale of the day: seaside sunset dinner at Suminsby Park (neat blog post about the park) with just a little ol’ surprise in store.  A quick note about Suminsby Park: it’s one of the more beautiful locations on MDI.  Also one of the least known.  It has a “you’ll see it only if you’re looking for it” location off of Sargent Drive in Mount Desert.  Volleyball court, open grass area, installed grills, picnic tables and easy carry-to access for kayaking, all along a sublime stretch of Somes Sound.  Too good not to share.

Just a few people were enjoying the park when we arrived.  After unloading our gear, we staked out the best picnic table in the park, sited on the edge of a rocky bluff overlooking Somes Sound & Acadia Mountain with a firepit right next to it.  Perfect!  Camp chairs were unfolded, appetizers set on the table and MW growlers poured, all in the late day sun slowly sinking below the far side of the Sound.  Around sunset we started to break out dinner supplies and set up our grill.  Terror struck when I realized we had left behind our favorite Field Roast veggie dogs from the Belfast Co-op, intended to be the main course!  There was just enough time before the final surprise for me to buzz down to Pine Tree Market in Northeast Harbor, where a pack of frozen Annie’s veggie burgers filled the dinner void.  Birthday disaster averted.

Earlier in the week we had been tipped off that another birthday was being celebrated on Julee’s birthday, and this birthday was to be accompanied by a professional fireworks display off of Sargent Point on Somes Sound.  The barge for this display was somewhat close by….say, about 400′ across the Sound from us!  Julee didn’t know it, but she was staring directly at the fireworks barge the whole evening.  Around 9:10 PM, the combined birthday celebration came to climax with a loud thunder from the sky and a beautiful shimmer of colors reflecting on the Sound.  For the next 15 minutes or so we were treated to an incredible fireworks display over Somes Sound in our direct view.  The colors in the sky, repeated by the ocean’s reflection still flash in my memory.  The whole display is captured in the accompanying time lapse video.  Keep an eye out for the unique fireworks that are designed to be shot onto the water, then shoot up from the water into the sky and explode with color.  Epic!  Never seen such pyrotechnic wonders like that before.  As each “boom” was sounded, it would bounce off of Acadia Mountain and then off of Norumbega Mountain and then roll out into Great Harbor, about 3 booms for each 1.  Incredible!  To take all of this in at the park, it was only our family, our good buddies Ed & Sherri that had arrived impeccably moments before the first boom, and about 6 other lucky, well informed folks.  A true grand finale to 60 years of the best mother and real estate partner a guy could ever ask for.  Happy Birthday Julee!  We’ll have to dig deep to match on 61.  😉

Ryan