For those of you who are sister travelers,
you know that half the thrill of traveling
is the planning and anticipation before you ever leave your house!
My friend and I poured over multiple travel guides,
looked at maps
and spoke to friends who had been to Maine
within the past 2 years.
We then made lists of places we thought we'd want to see,
narrowed it down to coastal Maine,
threw a map in our luggage,
hopped on the plane,
rented a car
and winged it.
By the end of our 10 days,
I think we'd both agree that
we saw everything
we said we wanted to
while allowing ourselves to be surprised along the way
by things we didn't even know existed.
The sand beaches I'm used to
from childhoods spent 'down the shore' in New Jersey
were south of Portland,
while the rockier, granite beaches
and land 'fingers' with coves and harbors
typically associated with Maine
were north of Portland.
After a full day of airports and cramped quarters,
a sand beach was the first order of the day.
The minute we made landfall and got in our rental car,
we headed south.
(I'll be 76 next month
and there's literally no place I breathe better
or feel more like myself
than on a sand beach
by the Atlantic Ocean!)
Walking along the beach was JUST the curative I needed.
BTW -the only reservation we made beforehand
was for our first night in Maine;
an inn in Ogunguit.
The rest of the time, we found someplace to stay
whenever and wherever we decided we were done for the day.
We never had a problem finding someplace -
although keep in mind we deliberately went after Labor Day,
so many families with kids were back home
and it wasn't the height of tourist season,
although not totally 'off season' either.
and drove from Washington State
down to California along the Oregon coast
and back.
It was spectacular and gorgeous and if you haven't done that road trip,
do it soon.
The trip along 101 in the west is the polar opposite
of Hwy 1 in the East.
Maine makes you work harder;
there's just as much beauty, but its quieter,
not as showy and not as straightforward.
To drive a distance of 10 miles along the coast of Maine
can take 1 - 1.5 hours;
down small country roads,
with no sight of the coast or sea in view at all.
If any of you are familiar with Door County (in WI),
it's very similar to that drive.
You go for what seems like hours
through cornfields and you know there's
a huge body of water out there somewhere
(in WI, its Lake Michigan)
but you can't really be sure.
In Maine, I rarely had the sense of being near 'the ocean'
since the fingers and coves jut out so far
that the sea feels MILES away.
It surprised me.
And all those country roads, taking you to small towns and light houses?
Yeah, you have to drive over them the same way to get back out.
Which is fine, since there are roadside stands
and interesting stores to explore along the way.
Did you know that decorating with buoys is an actual 'thing' in Maine?
I didn't -
but I do now!
I'll be hitting some of the highlights:
next up -
lighthouses.
Did you know Maine has 64?
No, we didn't see them all,
but we saw all we needed to.
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