The first trip was made because I'd read the novels of Elisabeth Ogilvie and was so stricken by her description of the people and the life that I felt a great longing to see it for myself. I was not disappointed. While she may have taken a little literary license, as all novelists do, she seemed, to me, to have had her finger on the pulse of life on the Maine coast. I had the pleasure of corresponding with her for a year or so, and think I understand why she made her books such a reader's delight. If you like romance, drama, family history, and real characters, I recommend her Bennett's Island books. (Try to read them in order.) Be warned, though - she does not hesitate to make you see a character vividly and become attached to him - then have Real Life smack him in the face. =)
The first visit was also something of an adventure for me because, born and raised in the West, I had never before traveled farther east than Nebraska, and I had never made all my own arrangements for accomodations, transport, and so forth. If you are a seasoned traveler, you may sneer at this, but just think back to the very first time you went somewhere completely foreign, where you knew no one and no one knew you.... Dang, it was fun!
On the second trip, I pried my parents out of their rut of never taking a vacation except to mix it with business or visit relatives, and dragged them with me. They very much enjoyed it, an?d I loved showing them my favorite places..
The first two visits were made in June. The last was made in the fall, when the colors of New England are amazingly spectacular. If you've ever seen a calendar with a picture of a New England autumn and doubted its authenticiy, I can tell you that it is very real, indeed.
Oh, and did I mention the FOOD? Fresh blueberries or Maine MacIntosh apples... peppermint-stick ice cream at Barnacle Billy's, blueberry-cheesecake ice cream just outside of Blue Hill, one of the best burgers I've ever had at Cappy's Chowder House... and wonderful bed-&-breakfast-houses and inns, where the meals were prepared by downhome cooks or professional chefs -- it made no difference whether it was grilled salmon with dill sauce for supper, or slow-cooked oatmeal for breakfast. I never had a poor meal.
I hope to return to Maine, some day. It's one of the few places I've ever been where I felt instantly as if I had come home.
