Beyond the South End

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Maine Bucket List for a Maine Native

 

February is fast disappearing and it won’t be long before this winter’s snow is just a memory. Although there are many things to enjoy outdoors in Maine during the winter, at this point everyone up in New England is yearning for warmer days.

As a native Maineiac, as we call ourselves, I have my own special list of favorite places to visit and enjoy in my own home state. However, there are many places I have never visited and therefore I now add them to my future to-do bucket list of things to do and visit in Maine.

Before I do that however, let me introduce you to the bucket list I have already enjoyed during the years I lived in Maine. It’s hard to believe that I have lived away from my beloved State of Maine longer than I lived there.

I don’t know as you can really call this a bucket list, as I enjoyed these places and activities and food long before anyone ever came up with the idea of a “bucket list.” I mention them here as places you might like to visit when you come up to Maine on your vacation. If you have never been to Maine, you will be amazed at the raw beauty of the scenes around you. Here goes.

1.    Visit Arcadia. Although I have visited that area as a child, it has been a long time between visits.  I would like to revisit that area. Thunder hole in Bar Harbor is fantastic. Check it out.

2.    Fishing. In lakes and ocean alike. The most fun times was when I rowed out a ways with my father in Spruce Head to catch a mackerel if we could. One time we put our lines in the water over the end of a wharf and only caught crabs. We caught so many we decided to collect them and have a crab bake later, which we did.

3.    Camping. I’ve camped in sites on lakes and ponds along the Maine coast. It was a lot of fun, especially the quiet times when all you could hear was the song of the loons out on a lake. My years at Camp Mechuwana or the Methodist Church Camp in Winthrop are some of my fondest memories also.

4.    Lobster and fried clams, my two favorite Maine foods. The best lobster rolls can be found at the Keag Store in South Thomaston, a place I head to every time I come home. We local people like to keep this place a secret so we can have it all to ourselves; however, it is becoming increasingly popular with the summer crowd. There are many places where you can find good fried clams along the coast.

5.    The Lobster Festival in August. A fun time for all.

6.    Visiting museums like the Farnsworth and the Andrew Wyeth Museum and places like Montpelier, the home of General Knox, over in Thomaston. There are also many antique stores to enjoy in every nook and cranny of Maine.

7.    Eating again. The diner in Waldoboro, Moody’s, which is a must to visit, is now very well known. Stop in to their gift shop while you are there too.

8.    Pemaquid. I always take new people to Maine over to see the ledges at Pemaquid. I could watch the surf break on those rocks all day long. It is a great example of “the rockbound coast of Maine.” It is especially fun just after a big storm has hit the area. They have a gift shop there and sell a good ice cream cone too.

These are just a few of the sights and sounds and foods I love in Maine. Cousin Linda recently posted a list of 50 things to do in Maine. I have edited that list and included some of the things I’d like to put on my bucket list for my future time in Maine. I have already enjoyed some of them.

1.    Visit one of the many county fairs such as Union Fair and the Fryeburg Fair. You will find the real Maineiac at these venues and they have a lot of local charm.

2.    Leaf viewing. Do come on a trip to Maine in the fall to view the beautiful foliage. Just about anywhere you go you will find a beautiful vista of gold and red and deep purple.

3.    Go see a farm team game such as the Sea Dogs down Portland way. When the League was on strike, many locals fell in love with their own teams in Maine.

4.    Watch a lobster boat race or the lobster crate racing event which is held during the Lobster Festival. You have to be light on your feet to run over 50 lobster crates strung between two floats down in the harbor.

5.    Visit the Rangeley Lakes area on the western side of Maine.

6.    Visit Baxter State Park up in Aroostook County. Maybe you are brave enough to paddle a canoe down the Allagash. Also check out Moosehead Lake and Mt. Katahdin.

7.    Find a field of wild blueberries and get permission to pick some for yourself.

8.    Go to a clambake which includes lobsters too.

9.    Take a trip on a day sailer from one of the wharfs on the coast. If you can, go on a week-long trip on a Windjammer like the Victory Chimes, which I did many years ago. I was the only Maineiac on board.

10.  Visit Hussey’s in Windsor, the largest general store in Maine. You can buy everything from paint to wedding gowns to fishing and hunting licenses here. You have to see it to believe it.



 

1.    There is still a drive-in theater in Saco, Maine, if you want to have that kind of experience.

2.    Hike part of the Appalachian Trail which ends in Maine, if you are hiking North that is.

3.    By all means visit LL Bean down in Freeport. Once a small store alongside the road near Waldoboro which I remember, it is now an international business. You will find more than one LL Bean store, each dedicated to different products they have for sale, such as the hunting and fishing and outdoors store; and the store which sells good sturdy outdoor clothes and footwear. There are also many other stores of well known brand names in a mall area in town. It’s an all day shopping experience. Be sure to stop by the street cart for some good seafood for lunch.

4.    Visit the eastern most point in the country, Quoddy Head, an area which has had over 90 inches of snow this winter.

5.    Visit one of Maine’s state parks besides Baxter and Arcadia. Take a nice picnic lunch to Camden State Park, just up the road from my home town of Rockland.

6.    Visit one of Maine’s beaches in Southern, Maine, such as Ogunquit, one of my favorites.

7.    Besides the sailing excursions I mentioned, take a ferry ride to one of our beautiful islands or just a motorboat on one of the lakes or along the ocean shore. I would like to spend a day on a working lobster boat, maybe be a stern man for the day. Smelly, but fun.

I leave you with a wonderful video I have shared before which shows the beauty of Megunticook Lake. My second cousin has a home on this lake. The narrator was a well-loved warden on the lake, Ken Bailey. Enjoy, and think about coming to Maine soon.

 

Thanks for listening.