When I finally parked the car, I thought I heard a long sigh from the engine, exhausted from the long journey that began in Boston, traveling north on 95 to the tip of Maine, then back again south, finding its way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the most redundant route possible. I stepped out of my vehicle and inhaled, savoring the water that I heard, milliseconds later, pounding against the assortment of wooden piers I had spotted from the highway. Seeing these piers from the steel bridge peering over the edge of town had me taking the next immediate exit, which, in turn, led me to where I was. “It's windy today,” one local told me, referring to the weather, with a fascination I hadn't encountered since leaving the Midwest. I nodded, though perhaps more in approval than agreement, because who was I to know what was and wasn't normal in this foreign city? I looked over the blue hood of my tired car, and it was as if I had stepped into a modified world where tattoos and a Zen attitude were a requirement for living. As I began my walk toward the watery smell, I encountered bright cartoonish illustrations, bold tribals, various names in written script, and all manner of crosses adorning shirtless arms and shoulders and backs. The earring holes were no longer a standard fourteen gauge, but rather two quarter gauges with black studs or hollow tubes filling the open space. I passed a group of twenty-somethings wearing identical blue T-shirts and handing out free ice cream to advertise a bank, a smile painted on each of their laughing faces because today they were the ice cream vendors they had loved as children. A group of adults were lined up on a church lawn engaged in what appeared to be a yoga class, their arms positioned above their heads (palms together) with the sole of their right sole located on the inside of their left knee, each set of Eyes closed. Despite my inkless torso and appendages and my wide-eyed, curious face, I felt like I was at home, and I had a feeling that everyone else in the world would too, if they were so lucky. to enter this city. In the park that was in front of me just a block away there was a scene from a movie with perfectly placed extras scattered around.