“I heard, baby. How exciting. You must have been a really good girl for him to find your new house.” I fall into step next to them, following Tommy down to the baggage claim.
“All your stuff is set up for you in your rooms. I hope you don’t mind. You couldn’t come on Christmas day and have to unpack after a redeye. I don’t want to even unpack my toothbrush after the flight.” She laughs as if this is just that simple.
“Thank you, Aggie. Really. I appreciate you guys so much.”
She leans over to kiss my cheek as we stop at carousel C to get our bags.
I squeeze my eyes shut, willing the tears and pure exhaustion to stay away.
January
“Your shop is officially done and ready for online shoppers. These prints are awesome, man.”
“Thanks for your help. I was able to understand the basic site setup but the shop was beyond me,” I say to Kane Pierson.
Kane is a good friend I met in a small fishing town a couple hours north on the coast. He’s a graphic designer and owns a lobster fishing company with his brother. He’s been helping me get my own travel blog up with a shop for people to buy the photos I take while traveling.
“You really want Hemlock Cove to be your first feature? Not like we’re a hot spot of tourism.” He laughs, because it’s true. But it could be a hot spot.
“Hell yeah. You guys are sitting on a hidden gold mine of what people want. Quiet. Quaint. Fishing town with all the freshseafood. A coffee shop that could rival any in Portland. You guys just need the tourists and I think I can help with that.”
“Nolan is going to be pissed as hell with you.”
Yeah, my former boss for sure is going to be pissed off. “Sounds like Nolan should have listened to me then and let me feature the whole town instead of just the fishing and fresh seafood along Route 1 with you guys getting one small paragraph as number nine on the list.”
“That was some bullshit. No way Bob’s Fish Shack was number freaking nine.” He defends his hometown’s claim to fame.
I will say it was the best damn lobster roll I’ve ever had and I rallied hard for it to be number one, but Nolan of course had money coming in from numbers one, two, and three. So there was never a competition.
“Definitely bullshit. But now you get to be featured as number one in everything. I’d love to get out on the boat with you and your brother for some shots too.”
“For sure, man. We don’t do as much in February but we do go out to catch a few hard shells for those Valentine’s Day lobster dinners.” Kane and his brother, Granger, enjoy the off months but they’re good at business and know they can sell around certain holidays.
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll let you know when I hear from Dottie about my booking.”
We hang up and I finish up my website to get it live with my first blog.
Hey! I’m Cooper Keaton, traveler and photographer extraordinaire. Well maybe not extraordinaire, but I sure love sharing the beautiful corners of the world with you.
I have worked for big magazines and visited a lot of popular places, but now it’s my turn to bring you the small, quiet towns off the beaten path.
So if you’re ready for a journey, subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on all the socials, and join the newsletter.
Can’t wait to bring you along for the adventures of your life!
First trip coming in February, just a couple weeks away.
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Just as I shut my laptop a knock sounds on my cabin door.
“Come in!” I yell.
“Hey! I’ve got the last of these damn knobs for you and I’m officially fucking done,” my brother, Hunter, says walking into the open concept cabin.
He started renovating last summer when our sister Emma moved home from college. But with delays, and Emma’s detour to making the barn a priority in the fall, he just finished last month and the kitchen knobs were on backorder. Emma wouldn’t budge on design because they needed to match the rest of the inn. It was a pain in the ass, but I will say I’ve learned a lot about branding from her.
She made a branding board for me with colors, fonts, themes, all things I never would have thought about when it came to my blog. And it came in clutch when I met with Kane for design. Having all my own travel photos that didn’t get sold to my old magazine was also a huge bonus.
