Creative Retreat North: The Pics

I spent the weekend in Waterville, Maine for Creative Retreat North. This is a somewhat-annual event that illustrator Brad Fitzpatrick holds at his home; it's basically an excuse for friends to come up and hang out. This year it was Brad, Duncan and me. We all used to work at ActiveEdge, so it was great to see everyone together again.

Of course, what was even more important was getting to eat this:

Anyway, the idea of the Creativabe Retreat is to catch up on what we've been doing. We're all in the same general industry, plotting our plots and scheming schemes, so it's good to get together and share what we've learned over the past year. CRN 2006 did not disappoint; I came away with tons of great ideas and a renewed sense of mission.

I'll write about the ideas later; first I'll just get the pictures out of the way.

The Host: Brad Fitzpatrick, illustrator! Not the guy who founded LiveJournal.

I was going to kick his ass at Quake 3, but we never got around to setting up.

The Facility: Brad's wife runs a day-care center in the basement of their house. It seemed very fitting...we don't really feel too adult to begin with.

Brad's custom sign kicks ass. I totally want a sign! But what would I put on it? And where would I put it?

Big G's serves really big portions at really reasonable prices, and is an area institution, part of Brad's childhood. Brad even made the sign that you see at the top of the counter, and it's quite attractively laid out. You can tell that he had "the mojo" even then, when he was but a callow signmaking youth...

I had "Egg's Benedict with Hash". The photo you saw earlier in this post showed HALF the portion. It was enormous. Oh, and that piece of toast, just so you know, was approximately one square foot.

They do everything big at Big G's. Duncan got one of them whoopie pies. Normally, whoopie pies are demure little snacks that nestle comfortably in the palm of your hand. But that's just what the flatlanders do! Note the one-dollar bill in the picture, added for scale.

Here's a closer shot. Up in Maine, Whoopie Pies apparently have to be the size of your head to be worth eating. I heartily approve.

When we left the restaurant, we noticed this dog staring at us from behind the glass. Eerie.

» We had several ideas regarding business and kicking ass too; check them out!

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