Tasty seafood to be savored

This year's 32nd annual Eastport Salmon and Seafood Festival will be held on Saturday, August 31, and Sunday, September 1, and organizers are promising that it will be "better than ever" this year.
"We're adding a house tour on Saturday and open house for real estate agents," says Mary Repole of the sponsoring organization, the Eastport Area Chamber of Commerce. "We are going to have crabmeat from both the Christ Church women and Eastport Senior Center and plenty of seafood chowder."
The 21st annual Paint Eastport Day from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be the first event on the August 31 schedule, and a pirates' invasion of Lubec will depart the Eastport Chowder House at 9:30 a.m. The farmers' market will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on Water St., and a fine group of vendors selling crafts, books and local food will be in downtown Eastport from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The "Mapping the Edge" exhibition by Sebastian Collett and Cathleen Faubert will be held at the Tides Institute from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The house and garden tour will take place in 10 Eastport homes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and tickets are $20.
Under the tent by the fisherman statue, there will be tastings of Shantytown Rum, live music by local musicians and ticket sales for the Chinese raffle from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Crab rolls, seafood chowder and oysters on the half shell will be sold from 11:30 a.m. until the food runs out; and local craft beers on tap and wines will be sold from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. A craft activity for children begins at 1 p.m. at the library; and the Barracks Museum will be open from 1 to 4 p.m.
A tour of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art campus will take place from 2 to 4 p.m; the Paint Eastport Day silent auction and reception will begin at 5 p.m. at the Eastport Arts Center followed by the Moonlight Movie North by Northwest at dusk at the Sutherland Amphitheater.
Events on September 1 will begin at 10 a.m. with a lobster pound tour at the end of County Road in South End; the George S. Harris Memorial Fishing Derby for Youth will be held on the breakwater from 10 a.m. to 12 noon; and the "Mapping the Edge" exhibition at the Tides Institute will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is the same time that the vendors will be open. Live music will be performed from 10:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jim Blankman will be giving tours in his 12-passenger Woodie on the hour from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tours of the U.S. Coast Guard Station will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tastings of Shantytown Rum and this year's salmon dinner will be sold from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the tent by the fisherman's statue. An educational boat tour to the salmon pens is included in the cost for dinner. Oysters on the half shell and local craft beers and wines will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is also the same time as the realtors/FSBO city-wide open house will be held and Chinese raffle tickets will be on sale. The Chinese raffle drawing will take place at 4 p.m. under the tent.