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Congratulations to the Bride and Groom Saturday, June 27, 1998, Professor Allen Dean Drake and Robin Ross Schoen exchanged their wedding vows and became husband and wife. Approximately 250 guests gathered in Wilton, NH to celebrate their wedding. It was especially significant since both Allen and Robin had been widowed. There was a great outpouring of support for this special event in their lives, with just about everything done by people who cared for them and wanted to donate the products of their individual expertises. After the wedding Allen and Robin "bumped along" the Maine coast for a while, visiting such villages as Camden, Searsport, Blue Hill, Castine, and Bar Harbor. From Bar Harbor, they took The Cat (a new catamaran) to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Normally, The Cat takes only 2.5 hours to make the trip, but one of its four engines was down, so the trip took longer (we wonder what they did with the extra time on their hands?). The accumulated delays throughout the day meant that they arrived at their lodgings at midnight instead of eight o'clock, as they had planned. Allen said, "It was risky traveling without reservations, but we wanted a break from very scheduled lives and had no trouble finding places to stay." The honeymooners followed the Lighthouse Trail along the southwestern coast of Nova Scotia and took in the Tattoo in Halifax, a variety program, mostly musical, performed by military and law enforcement groups from all over the world. The groups were celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which robin's father had been a member of many years ago. They then cut across the island and took the ferry to Prince Edward Island, where both enjoyed the red earth, Charlottestown, and Cavendish. Allen said, "Yes, we did visit the Anne of Green Gables site." Next they took the Confederation Bridge from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and visited St John and Hampton, New Brunswick, where robin's grandfather twice pastored a Methodist church near the turn of the century. They were surprised at how much they were able to dig up with a little "sleuthing" through archives there. The church building had been razed, but the parsonage was still standing, which they were able to tour, thanks to the graciousness of a young couple who had recently bought it and were restoring it to its former splendor. Allen and Robin were imagining robin's grandfather trying to ride herd on nine children. On the way back to NH they crossed into the US at Calais and again "Bumped along" the upper Maine coast. Allen said, "we all had a great time, including my daughters, who were waiting out the honeymoon on an island in Boothbay Harbor. Allen and Robin purchased a house in Durham within walking distance of Kingsbury Hall. Our sincere congratulations to Professor Drake and Robin. |
