So far this year, knock on wood, we have had some wonderful guests. One day we had a couple from Israel, a couple from Madrid, a couple from Spain, and a couple from Germany all at one time in the dining room. No one could talk to each other. I told Jesse it was like being at the Tower of Babel. It was funny they all ordered the pancakes. Must be an international like of pancakes (Jesse makes exceptional pancakes, blueberry and orange yogurt). In addition to all the international guests, one day we had the Mayor of a town in England. It was a pleasure to speak to him. Today at the Inn we have our first guest from Singapore.

We do get guests from the US and some even from right here in Maine. The state of Maine is launching an ad campaign for Mainers to vacation in Maine (stay cations they call it). One interesting thing I learned from one of our guests last week, they were from New Jersey not Maine, I learned what the brass knob in the middle of the dining room floor was. Let me give you a little background information on the brass knob first. When Jes and I bought the house 3 years ago, there was lots of furniture and rugs that I just did not like. We did not have enough money to refurnish the house, and as Jes says "if its not broke - don't fix it". Well I have lived with alot of stuff, slowly changing things, making the Inn more the way we like it, more our style and reflecting us. There was an old rug in the dining room, covering a beautiful maple strip hardwood floor. I couldn't understand why anyone would cover up a beautiful wood floor. I finally took up the rug and reveled the floor. The floor is in good shape and there is a brass knob in the middle of the room. I could not for the life of me figure out what that knob was for, until the man from NJ, leaned over and said, hey I have one of those in my summer cottage out on LBI. I said, "well, what is it?" I was expecting him to say it was a historic reminant of a slave door that the nice family in the house hid the slaves from the slave hunters and saved them and helped them to freedom. But his story was not as fantastic as the one I conceived in my head. He said there is a key to it and it is where you can turn on and off a gas valve that is under the floor. SO I said to him , so this is not a 1854 historic find, but probably a 1960 thinga ma gig. He said yes, it is not a historic feature. Oh well, I was hoping to have some interesting thing to talk about in the dining room during breakfast. I guess I could still fabricate some little story about my little brass knob, most of guests don't speak English and its all babel anyway.