Day 5 - Shaker Village

Monday morning was a day to sleep in. The only thing we wanted to accomplish was a tour of Shaker Village. Although neither Paul nor I were able to sleep in much past 7:00 am because of the sun shining through our windows, we lazed around for a few hours watching the news and eating breakfast. Ok, it was more than a few hours. It was more like 3-4 hours. This was the morning that Air France flight went down off the coast of Brazil, so at least there was something exciting news channels were reporting on.

Since we got such a late start to the day, we decided to pick up a few last minute touristy and tax-free items at Wal-Mart and Walgreens before heading out to my Aunt's house for lunch. At noon we were treated to an AMAZING lunch. The meal started off with Salad and rolls and was followed by chicken fettuccine alfredo then topped off with some pineapple upside down cake. We visited for a while before heading out to Shaker Village.

Shaker Village was once a fully-operating town of Shakers (not to be confused with the Amish or the Quakers). This religious sect worshiped God through dancing and lived a life of celibacy so they could be fully devoted to Him. Being celibate meant not producing any children who would grow up in their community. Therefore, the Shakers at Canterbury died off in 1992 when the last NH Shaker sister passed away. Maine, as we were told, is the last state to still have Shakers still living out the Shaker way of life. As a matter of fact, they've had a recent convert: a 19 year old girl became a Shaker 2 years ago and is still practicing today at the age of 21. Go figure.

Me in front of the Shaker school. Amazingly, the 2nd floor was built before the 1st floor. The school used to be 1 story, but when they needed to expand it, they lofted the second floor and inserted the first floor below so they wouldn't have to build another roof!

Paul poses in front of the dwelling house where men and women are housed separately in a manner similar to a dorm. Their only interactions are in pre-planned social times where they're assigned people to talk to about current events.

We have too much fun being together at any time. We definitely don't fit the shaker lifestyle.

When we arrived back home from our short excursion, we broke out the home videos and photo albums. Typically when Paul and I get together, it's too busy to just sit around and look at old pictures of our childhoods. However, now was as good of a time as any, and Paul loved seeing me and my family members years ago when life was much simpler.

Can you believe it? That was the entire day! We headed to bed early that night so we could prepare to leave the next morning - our last day on the East Coast.