For Real New England Fans Only

Carly Martin

13 Jun 2025 — 5 min read

Folks, happy Friday to you all. I've had an enormously busy past two weeks and I hope you're seated and ready to listen to me brag.

Question

Before we begin, I'd like everyone to think about their ranking of New England states. This is my list, message me to schedule a time to brawl if you disagree.

June Ins and Outs

With the passage of time comes new ins and new outs:

ins

quitting your job
the cheapest of cheap hair mousse
rehashing Game of Thrones plot-lines with coworkers when you're supposed to be helping customers
the city of Portland, ME
watching Nat be really into their tomato plants
gin cocktails

outs

black fly bites
losing your house key somewhere to the ether
fine dining
goutweed

Last Trail Before the Veil

As mentioned in our last ep, while you all were reading this newsletter I was scooping up all the members of the Juliana Ryan bridal party to head to Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park for the bachelorette trip of the century.

Highlights of the weekend included:

Walking the Jordan Pond loop on Friday afternoon. I've only been to Acadia twice but I've done this trail both times and it was just as gorgeous the second time around.

No filter! Jordan Pond, Acadia, ME 5/30/2025

Going out to the locals bar in Bar Harbor for two nights. We had the best bartender I've literally ever seen in action - she was taking 10 orders at a time and I don't I ever waited like more than 5 minutes after ordering. Also gorgeous, fun cocktails. Also also, gorgeous, fun people to hang out with.

Thunder Hole and Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Two more Acadia attractions I've been to before but would do again in a heartbeat. Thunder Hole is this cavernous rock formation in the coast line that makes a crazy loud thunder sound when the tide is right. When we went it was very moody and grey and misty and we had an excellent time staring out into the Atlantic and being introspective. Bass Harbor is the lighthouse in Acadia. If you've ever seen a picture of a lighthouse in Bar Harbor, it was this one. You have to climb down and kinda look behind you to see it but so worth it.

Fancy dinner at Havana in downtown Bar Harbor. No photos to accompany this outing because we were all too focused on having an amazing time being in each other's company. Delicious dinners were had, nice words were exchanged, a strange server waved the 80-page wine menu around in a way that I've never experienced before and hope to never experience again.

I believe all members of the bridal party are now subscribers to this newsletter so, hi to Jule, Jo, Stef, and Dee - had a spectacular weekend with y'all:)

Museum of Everyday Life

After returning from Bar Harbor violently hungover, Nat and I turned and burned and ran up to their family's house in Newark, Vermont in an area of the state referred to as "The Northeast Kingdom". We were there to help out besties Alex and Jule get the house ready for their August wedding (!!!). While up, we made some strategic outings, one of which was the Museum of Everyday Life.

The Museum is a barn in Glover, Vermont that is operated by a woman named Clare Dolan. The place runs on the honor system, a sign tells visitors to turn on and off the lights and there's a suggested donation instead of admission fees. If you'd like to read more about the Museum, their mission, and its history - here's the wikipedia page that I actually had to create for a writing project during college.

We've been to the Museum many times since I have started coming up to Vermont with Nat in 2018, so the reason we stopped by last week was specifically to check out their newly opened exhibit: "Evidence, Residue, Memory: Stains". You would think this was boring theme or that you could walk through quickly and look at a bunch of stained clothes and get the vibe - but you would be so wrong! This exhibit was carefully curated with beautifully written plaques/artist statements and some of the pieces made me genuinely emotional. The sign at the front of the room described stains as "...involving transformation, both in terms of bio-chemistry and in terms of meaning. What was once a gorgeous dress is now useful dust rag. What was once yellow is orange. What was once clean and pure is now sullied, compromised, guilty." Here are some photos of some of the included pieces: