East Coast Adventures - Maine and Vermont

Hello friends and family! Happy May to you all. 

Kimo and I are very excited to see you in August. Several of you have mentioned that you will be doing some east coast traveling on either side of the wedding weekend. With that in mind, we wanted to provide you with some expert ideas on Vermont and Maine. For Vermont ideas, check out "Exploring Vermont." Dianne Griggs, a Maine native, was kind enough to provide some expert ideas. I have included her thoughts below:

Dianne's Coastal Maine Ideas (Thanks Dianne!) 

"Well – coastal Maine:  Portland is a nice small city…the Old Port is fun to walk around and the Portland Museum of Art is small and interesting.  Not far from Portland is Freeport - Outlet shopping at its finest – with LL Bean as the flagship store!  There are many nice towns near Portland – Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Brunswick, Bath, etc.   

Ogunquit and York are south of Portland – closer to Kittery – another outlet mecca.  The beach at Ogunquit is nice, as is York Beach.  Old Orchard Beach, which many people hear about, tends to be more touristy and a bit tacky.  

Farther up the coast…the Boothbay Harbor region is nice.  From there it’s not too far to Pemaquid Point where there’s a picture-postcard light house.  It’s one of the lighthouses people often see on Maine postcards.  It’s beautiful.   

There’s a small Maritime Museum in Searsport. 

Popular places also include Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park (Mt. Desert Island).  Acadia has wonderful walking/biking carriage trails.  You can take horse drawn carriage rides also.  Thunder Hole is exciting to see and it’s wonderful to go to The Jordon Pond House for tea and popovers!  Tasty!  Also – there’s the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse on the island.   On a weekend, Acadia may still be crowded.  

Kelly and I love Camden, Rockport and Rockland:  they are near one another.  Camden has a beautiful harbor with Tall Ships and there are nice shops and restaurants.  Rockport is an artist-colony of sorts.  Rockland has an amazing art museum (our favorite) – The Farnsworth Art Museum.  If anyone likes Andrew, Jamie or NC Wyeth it is the museum to see.  They are featured there and have their own building plus you can take a tour of the farm where Andrew painted “Christina’s World” and many other works.  Also in Rockland, near the Samoset Resort, is the Jameson Point Lighthouse out on a nearly mile-long granite breakwater walk-way which is spectacular.  We had a tour of the light house once and it was really interesting. Can’t imagine living in one!

Not far from Rockland is Owls Head.  There’s a great “Transportation Museum” there with antique cars, motorcycles and planes – Ben and Adam loved to go there as kids and still do.  There’s also a nice lighthouse nearby.

You can take a ferry out to Monhegan Island for a day – from Rockland – and that’s a lovely small island…much bird watching and walking.  

Nice lighthouse in the York Harbor area – Cape Neddick – Nubble Lighthouse

 The coast is so long and full of amazing places. The beaches around the southern part of the state – Portland area – will be long and sandy.  The farther up the coast one goes the beaches stay sandy but there are more rocky outcroppings and the water is wavier.  No matter where you go – it’s cold!  Growing up our favorite beach to go to was Reid State Park or Popham Beach.