Travel

The Maine Thing

We went to Maine recently. It was a great mini trip and involved all the things you’d expect out of this coastal region. We basically did three main activities during the three day visit: eat seafood, lounge at the beach and sail in a boat. That should essentially sum up how relaxing it was!

We arrived in Portland and drove a rental car to a nearby town called Ogunquit, which literally translates to, ‘a beautiful place by the sea’. The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at for a couple nights exceeded our expectations. Linda and Dick, the owners of 16 Beach Street, were wonderful innkeepers and made a mean raspberry square.

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More than anything, we wanted to lounge at the beach and we definitely got our fill. Ogunquit was perfect for that reason. It just might be the complete opposite of where we live.

In between trips to the beach, we ate lobster. The Foot Bridge is a little shack by the dock at Perkins cove that specializes in lobster rolls. They make them the original style on a soft white bun, a swipe of butter or mayo with cole slaw on the side.

On our way to Boothbay, we made a pit stop in Freeport to check out the Thos Moser flagship location. In 1972, Tom Moser quit his teaching job and started this wooden furniture company with his wife Mary in Maine. Tom built his original designs based on ideas originating from the Arts and Crafts movement, American Shaker period and combined the wood pieces using traditional Japanese joinery methods. The company’s signature ‘Continuous Arm Chair’ remains a classic Moser design.

The shellfish in Boothbay were so good! The area gets most of their daily deliveries from a family-run oyster farm called, Glidden Point Oyster Farm. They grow their oysters in a natural way, using low impact ecologically friendly culture methods and no machinery. They handpick each oyster themselves and the size and meat density can only come from slow-growth in cold waters. This takes up to four years!

Sailing in a boat moved to the top of our list when Steve saw the ocean and was brought back to his origins as a Canadian Maritimer. There’s something about the countless sailboats that float the waters that become an instant cue you’re on the East Coast.