Category: Sailing in Maine

Maine, How Long Do You Need To See It All?

72 hours in Maine, when there is a clock ticking and you want to take a mini vacation in the Pine Tree State.

I have read stories and blog posts that try to sum up seeing the total experience of Maine in just 48 hours. You can’t do it justice in two days if you are planning to sample more than a fraction of what Maine offers.

Go Deeper, Where The Wildlife Live In Rural Maine.

It is like attempting to conquer Disney World with your kids in two hours and suggesting you can see it all in that short a time with all those long waiting lines. Let’s face it. Maine is one big honking state. Not in the Rhode Island or Delaware size weight class. Maine ranks 12th in the nation for water area with 4,523 square miles of recreational H2O. Maine is only 41st in population with 1.328,361 friendly souls and 39th for land size with 30,862 square miles of area.

And Maine is located up here in the upper right hand corner of the country. So far north some argue we should be in Canada because Maine is surrounded by the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick! And just a step from all the Atlantic Maritime provinces like PEI, etc. In Maine it is like a two nation vacation if you can sneak away for more than just a couple days. When you clear the schedule for some unplugging to recharge rest and relaxation.

It’s is similar to hurry up fast food compared to slow cooked relaxed cuisine.

Haste makes wastes and you don’t get the full flavor when you make it a mad dash to Maine. Too little time makes it why bother. It’s vacationing at the same pace of your day to day hectic life chasing the dollar when you don’t allow for enough time to get beyond the usual expensive tourist traps barely into Maine. You can get some retail therapy at the Kittery outlets, maybe venture up as far as LL Bean and the other Freeport Maine shop til your drop commercial venues.

Reading A Book, Not A Care In The World! They Say Life Is A Beach. The Maine Waterfront!

Maine is outdoors, fresh air, clean water and no people when you head further north and up into her interior regions. You just don’t get that experience when you only go a short distance into the state. Maine is six plus miles tall. And to weave in and out around the nooks and crannies of US RT 1 takes time to discover the hidden jewel communities and natural attractions.

The best kept secret is further north, east, west where anyone trying to trot around Maine in 48 hours is going to miss out on so much. Head deeper, get on the less traveled areas to avoid the crowds, the traffic and where the average bear does not that makes it a sprint into Maine and then a flit back out.

Go beyond the sameness of franchises and water parks, go kart courses and just eating junk food in Maine.

Get Exercise While You Capture The Maine Eye Candy! Get Beyond The Southern Shopping Outlets And Franchised Fast Food Deeper Into Maine!

To the mom and pop operations of small business where your are treated like a friend, like family with small community members. That’s where you learn about the lay of the land, the history from a local and not a four color tourist information brochures that leaves so so much out and tries to sum it up in a catchy couple lines of copy.

Head to places like Gulf Hagas. Where you won’t see a Wendy’s, McDonalds or anything marked with a neon sign. Get some exercise hiking the trails around Mt Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain of many others at Baxter State Park. That means driving a little more to get a much richer, deeper experience in the Pine Tree State.

Acadia National Park is one pretty 50 mile network of carriage trails, stone bridges and wildlife, lush natural vegetation. Bar Harbor and other Maine coastal towns get visits from the cruise ships where you get deeper into Maine but only for a couple hours or maybe an overnight while anchored off port.

To avoid the crowds that eat into whatever time you do have in Maine, consider your mini vacation trip around the beginning, the ends of the tourist season can works best.

Lighthouses in Maine are one big attraction any time of the year. Have you started your collection that gets added to for life each trek back to Maine?

When money is an object beyond the time you have to spend any, consider swapping where you live for a spot in Maine. I have a little mini vacation set for Halifax Nova Scotia soon and using Air bnb makes it more space for less money and the feeling what it would be like living in the community. Not at a motel next to a truck stop or airport or wall to wall noisy, busy commercial enterprises.

Take A Train Ride, Get Deeper Into Real Maine! Beyond The Tourist Traps And Shopping Outlets.

You pride yourself at the number of times you have been to the southern coastal regions of Maine. But have you ever been Downeast, to the northern section of our long waterfront along the Atlantic Ocean?

Consider Maine has sixteen counties and you want to see it all in time. Target a new section and don’t just barely make it into Maine. What you see a few miles after crossing the big green bridge on the southern tip of Maine is not the whole story. Maine is the way life should be but so so much is missing when you barely enter the state and call it good.

The travel magazines and blog posts, all the brochures touting where to eat, play and stay across Maine often show a map that cuts off the upper two thirds of the state or more.

The rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, page two for the best times and less expensive memory making experiences happen deeper into the real Maine sadly not everyone gets to enjoy. If you relied on the maps, it would give the reader of the propaganda about Maine that nothing exists, nothing worthwhile is above the dots that only show up close to the state’s southern border. Hope this Maine blog post on vacation tips is helpful!

And it is not just summer vacation for your window of opportunity to sample Maine. Be a fall hunter, leaf peaker for the brilliant colors. Bring your snow skis to Maine for cross country or down hill adventures. Hike bike, camp in Maine. Climb in a rubber raft on the Penobscot, Kennebec, Dead Rivers. To navigate through some water rapids and to dine on wild rice and river cooked food that improves the outdoor taste. Don’t just shop for trinkets and waste what time you have being a parking lot shark looking for the best spot and shopping til you drop while in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 18, 2018
Sailboating In Maine | Getting Started Buying A Sail Boat Cheap!

Sailing a boat in Maine capturing the prevailing winds using one or a series of multi shaped and sized sails.

It’s one more method to travel using the waterways of Vacationland. But when someone mentions Maine, sailing. Just two words. What pops into your gray matter behind your eyes, between your ears? Expensive? Elite? A US President or a movie star with huge yachts no one uses but parked like landscape candy ready ad waiting in front of palatial Maine oceanfront estates?

Or no thank you. Just no interest in hoisting the canvas sail, messing with learning rope knots and lowering the keel centerboard. Because your version of boating is the 14 foot aluminum craft kind. With a can of worms, a thermos of hot coffee or cooler of cold barley pop. The electric trolling motor hung off the back doing its back and forth plying the water. Parked next to the 8 horsepower Mercury or Johnson boat motor that pushes you around inland fresh water lakes with more determination. Maybe out into salt water bays and inlets for deep sea fishing for something beyond brook trout and land locked salmon or bass fish. The boat and assorted hardware and safety gear application designed for Maine fishing. Or larger powered boats or personal watercraft jet skis for tubing, for water skiing round and round a Maine lake.

No Man, Woman Is An Island. But For A Time Just Makes Sense. Ever Sailed In A Boat?

But sailing in Maine.

SSssshhhhhh. Listen. Hear that? It’s quiet and you can hear yourself think. Back to the blog post topic and staying on task with today’s hunt and peck exercise. That often is to learn along with the reader about a subject that I am not so knowledgeable about from first hand experiences. Exploring the fun in sailing a sloop with whatever size beam or required amount of water draft. Climb aboard and help me figure out what a roller furling is on the oversized dodger.

Growing up I had a friend Mark McNutt who’s Dad loved boats of all kinds. Tri hull fiberglass pontoon boats that were faster than the typical aluminum ones. Rubber rafts with motors. Paddle boats modified with roof awnings and a four horsepower motor. And O’Day sailing boats. (Just read in researching this Maine blog posts O’Day Boats went out of business in 1989). All used on a Maine lake, not the ocean playground marine setting. The sail boater taught the basics of how to harness the wind in a small waterfront contained setting.

In Uncle Henry’s buy sell swap guide you see lots of small day sailing boats… like a laser or Hobie Cat sail boat. Simple, basic but the way to start out to see if sailing a boat is for you.

Laser sunfish sail boats are the simple one or two person entry level boats to hoist the sail and begin the addiction.

You can buy these small sail boats for little money and kids have fun learning the joy of tapping the breeze to propel the boat. I have seen them offered for free or for a token $400 and that includes the boat, the gear, the trailer to haul it home to your place. But would you use it or dump it in ten years from being tired of looking at it in your space like the last sail boat owner?

Float Your Boat To Maine. Get Here Anyway You Have Available. Cutler Maine Pictured, Downeast.

How to get proficient at jibing and tacking are two basics tasks with say your Hobie cat sailboat to master first when you are a beginner sailor. But if you are doing it with other crew mates especially, the boat locations have to be learned. Port side is the left. Starboard is on the right. The front of the boat is the bow. The rear end is the aft. You learn that quickly on a cruise ship to get around and have your sea leg bearings.

Everyone has to be using the same sail boating terminology to avoid confusion.

Learning the parts of the boat locations makes the instructions on sailing easier to follow. Plus you get a taste of sea life, being the boat captain and a bit of pirate all rolled up into one experience as a land lubber matey.

Nautical terms of sailing, what else comes with the instructions on how to open up or use your sailboat in Maine.

Hopefully, you skipper and all the crew won’t have to use the one about abandon ship. Not sure if there is a plank to walk if the crew does decide to mutiny either. What are the keel, ketch, sloop, cutter and yawl? Parts of the sailboat vessel.

Had a real estate farm for sale owner who bought a yawl that was not in the best of shape but that the couple restored. Making their own hand sewn sails, refinishing the mahogany, updating electrical and restoring the mechanical systems to make it ship shape. Using the yatch to sail back and forth to Halifax Nova Scotia. And taking turns for the night watch. One night the boat almost hitting a floating dead whale. The name of the over 40 long yawl boat was Heart Strings. Because the owner’s sweat, tears, love for it tugged on their heart strings. They sold it to a man who knew nothing about boating but who had a fat wallet. He changed the name on the aft to “Mustang”.

Geocaches in Maine, Have You After Uncovered, Stumbled On To One? Used GPS To Find Them? Can You Read Nautical Marine Charts To Navigate A Sail Boat?

Another couple that bought a property lived on a boat full time for a couple years. It is interesting hearing about adventures many of the real estate buyers and sellers share. The boyfriend pretty mechanically inclined and buying a sail boat / house boat with a very systematic approach. They drew a circle of so many miles around their home in Boston Massachusetts. And began the search for boatyard marinas in that circle.

The mission to locate a sailboat yacht in storage for many years.

With the bill for the storage high enough for the boatyard to want to get rid of it. Or the owners of the boat suddenly elderly or widowed and wanting to dump it for little cash. Because their stash of cash was a small one requiring major league stretching to make this living on a boat dream a reality.
Beginners luck. They found the sailboat the very first call, the beginning of “let your fingers do the walking” through the boat yard search list.

They moved around like floating gypsies on their sailboat house boat.

Taking the required coast guard courses to comply with the rules of the nautical highway life on the high seas. The rules are so so different for boats under 26 feet in length. What licenses, regulations for recreational sailing are required? Well, first and foremost, navigation, nautical charts is pretty important before you raise anchor and remove the dock mooring ropes.

I remember being on a blue fish trip off South Harpswell ME and suddenly a fog wrapped around the boat like pea soup. Our skipper grew up in Ellsworth ME and had lots of experience with the ocean. Something living in Aroostook County does not prepare you for so he calmly dug out the nautical map sealed in plastic laminate. And from our current location using the compass predicted we would be hearing and then seeing a green floating buoy off the starboard side of our modest fishing boat. We did, and then glancing at the chart as he steered the outboard motor from the back corner of the boat reported we should be seeing a red buoy on the port side…. which we heard first and then watched it appear in from out of the blanket of mist.

A Mile Off The Tip Of Southport Maine Is The Cuckholds Lighthouse. Fun To Sail Boat Or Sea Kayak To On Vacation Or Long Weekend.

Our crew arrived back on the shores of Catalina Island and enjoyed a feast of fresh dug mussels steamed, dipped in Houlton Farms Dairy melted butter that was to die for delicious. Catalina Island has lots of World War Two abandoned bunker armaments that were cool to explore. Hurricane Hugo happened during our weekend camping trip to fish for the blues and in a tent, it was an adventure to remember.

Anytime I see a sailboat for sale in my travels or on craigslist or Uncle Henry’s it is dirt cheap.

Probably because the owner had their fun, it is one of many boats hanging around their property unused and neglected. Just get it off my lawn and out of my barn or garage low priced. No motor helps keep the sticker price for the third and fourth time around sail boat affordable too. If you visit Kennebunkport or the Beaches Region of Maine, like say in Wells or Moody Beach that all changes. Along with the higher priced waterfront properties, the cost of the floating toys increases in value and swankiness. Many lakes, ocean front groups have regattas and take their sailing boat races very seriously.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 18, 2018
Portland Stage, Finding Common Connections Within The Community.

Back in an earlier life as a Bangor Maine broadcast news director, I interviewed Eaton Tarbell, a patron of the performing arts.

New At Acting Old. The Potter In This Play Is A Lady Playing The Business Angles Expertly.

He designed lots of buildings around the state. Tarbell was a regular on the airwaves for colorful sound bites. On the show often to check in and update the listening audience with the latest happenings behind the curtain at Lakewood Theatre , Maine’s oldest summer theatre in America. Lakewood Theatre raises the curtain on first rate performances of comedies, dramas, musicals, and children’s shows. The productions at Lakewood run on stage from late-May through mid-September. This year marked the 117th season for Lakewood. Where is Lakewood Theatre? Find the productions, a restaurant to at 76 Theatre Road, Madison, ME 04950 • (207) 474-7176.

Maine, A Fun Place Inside And Out. Drive The Back Roads Outside And Discover Much About Maine, Yourself. Hit A Play Production Inside.

This past weekend, I was fortunate to take in a live show at the Portland Stage.

The live radio broadcast simulated for the holiday play production Of “It’s A Wonderful Life”. In the handout Anita Stewart, the Portland Stage Executive and Artistic Director spells it out simply. The mission to discover the character who you think you know from your introduction during the first scene. But as the play progresses the unexpected side of the character appears. The unexpected happens. It points the process we all do in quick scans, sudden judgements as we filter all we think we need to know to sum it up nice and neatly.

The connective play thread this season at the Portland Stage according to Stewart is to open up the possibility that there is a different way of approaching one another. The play characters help us understand the World is full of complex people if we just open up to take the time to go beyond that initial layer when we size them up maybe just a little too pat. And if you see yourself in the characters, maybe it will help accepting others in the community. Small towns, the handful of cities in Maine and our families, in our lives that are comprised of folks just like you and me. And many others that are not carbon copies. So we learn to embrace those differences that help us grow and learn that benefits us all.

Learning Over The Play Scenes, That It Is A Wonderful Life George Bailey. An Angel Is Finally Going To Get His Wings.

If you can rip yourself away from the holiday carol singing, the mad dash to present shopping ’til you drop.

Take the time to squeeze in a play performance at the Portland Stage for “It’s A Wonderful Life; A Live Radio Play.” An adaptation by Joe Landry to help you celebrate the Holiday Season with a beloved classic. The show bill teaser promises “This heartwarming story of renewal is retold as a 1940’s radio broadcast. Complete with sound effects performed live on stage. With the help of an ensemble and angle called Clarence who has been waiting around 200 years to get a set of wings. George Bailey discovers the million ways we are tied to those around us.”

The play runs from November 24 through December 24, 2017. There’s even a Christmas carol or two that the audience gets invited to sing. To warm up the audience because they are part of the radio theatre broadcast. You feel part of the production because the audience is relied on to put their hands together when the applause light shines.

Looking Into Their Lives Played Live Before You At The Portland Stage Play House In Maine’s Largest City.

When the hand held signs instruct to “hiss” or “ahhh” or a variety of other commands right on cue. To help the at home audience fill in what they can not witness first hand watching the stage production. That radio land audience that only has their ears to guide the vivid imagination parked behind their unused eyes.

Amidst AM static with the reception degree of crackling tied to the weather, the type and height of antennae. Or the distance away from the transmitted filled with tubes and causing cancer to the majority of first class engineers keeping the signal pumping, the radio station on air.

The audience of thousands tuned into the broadcast signal beamed into each and every living rooms. Where families crowd around the wooden early radio cabinet using the all there was medium for family entertainment. The same device connecting them to the outside World. Used to collect most of their important news from stock market crashes to Pearl Harbor Sunday morning bombings. To follow the radio serial shows, the baseball games and to catch musical performances. Along with the nightly news, crop reports, local weather forecasts and political race results.

The Theatre Production “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play”. The Portland Stage Curtain Raises.

The play production intermission means tasty cookies, fresh moist cakes and other delicacies with a variety of refreshments all calling you in unison from your theatre rows and rows of seats. As the house lights come on you rise to saunter to the lobby. To stretch your legs between play production scenes for a little snack.

The chatter is loud after being silent so long. Knowing whispering is really talking. While all attention is eyes forward to follow the unfolding story line. Watching the play line by recited line develop the characters carefully from out in the audience.

Talking between scenes now about the play characters, comparing notes on how the performance is hitting each of those sitting around you. Studying the large black and whites on the wall. Peeking at upcoming play productions and cursing yourselves for past ones missed and still talked about because they were that

Making A Point, To Help The Plot, Develop The Play. Taking Turns Reciting Lines. It’s Show Time For The Portland Stage’s “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

good. Milling around and exposed to new people you get to know that love the same performing arts. Performed under hot spot lights,bathing your favorite characters in colorful pools, inside the shadows of the gels. The audience that follows the actors, the series of season play productions through out the year once the bug bites you. To challenge, inspire, to reflect. That is what the Portland Stage acting troupe strives to do and puts the mission in writing so they never forget either.

Have you been in community theatre as a character, playing in a cast? Do you make it a habit to attend plays, to follow the productions of a acting group? Break a leg. Maine has lots of folks dedicated to small town community theatre. This blogging channel on Maine has featured community theatre before and will again. The play production live audience makes the stage characters soar, stay flat or flop badly. That audience is the reflections, is the indicator of just how are we doing behind the footlights. Maine, so many sides to this jewel. Her facets are many and life is so short.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

December 10, 2017
Travel From Maine To Prince Edward Island Canada

When you live in Maine, sampling the Canadian provinces are low hanging fruit.

Handy, so sweet of a connection to our families and traditional vacations is our Canadian neighbor because we are related on both sides of the International border. Tourism works best when promotion of what is around your burg is incorporated into the vacation message right? More to offer when you join forces with what is around you for attractions for new to the area visitors.

Vacations built around more than one stop like a cruise ship hop to three or more islands, a travel buffet never fail to excite in my opinion.

Prince Edward Island Flags, You See Many Waving To Show The Island Pride And Patriotism.

So when you are vacationing, off the clock and heading up into Maine.

To Houlton to connect from the Interstate 95 to the Trans Canada travel corridor or boarding a ferry to cross the Atlantic from a Maine seaport harbor, Prince Edward Island could be the province of choice. And be sure to hit the duty free stores near the border entries to save on taxes.

There are lots of taxes on top of taxes layered and attached to whatever you purchase for goods or services in Prince Edward Island, in all of Canada.

Prince Edward Island, originally named St John’s Island divvied up into 67 sections by the Crown of England.

More on the tug of war for Prince Edward Island and where the heavy duty fighting happened. When the English took the island from the French and Acadians were driven from their home.

Surrounded by sapphire blue water, a level to rolling landscape of lush emerald green vegetation, the trademark fertile red ruby soil, Anne of Green Gables helped open the tourism door wide on Prince Edward Island. Writer Lucy Maud Montgomery had five publisher rejections before literary success. Her heart was broken when she left her home of Prince Edward Island and went to interior Canada.

Map Of Ship Wrecks Around Prince Edward Island Canada. Lots Of Lighthouses Too Help Sailors Deliver Their Goods And Passengers.

Lots Of National And Provincial Parks. Celebrating 150 Years Of Independence And Free Access In Many Cases.

So Prince Edward Island Canada, what about a crash course to consider, what to expect with a vacation visit to the surrounded-by water Atlantic Canadian Province?

So here goes, the simple history, the highlights of what to expect if you hop from Maine across New Brunswick.

To travel across the Confederation Bridge, that’s eight miles long, spans Norththumberland Strait, and completed in May of 1997.

The bridge called by locals the “fixed link”, this engineering marvel cost a billion dollars. Removing the cumbersome and expensive ferry delivery of tourists and goods from the sea. The bridge is easier for the to and from the Canadian island that a tad bigger than Delaware. Population roughly 146,455 the last head count.

Chasing The White Dimpled Ball On The Golf Links Of PEI. Fore!

The concrete Confederation Bridge takes roughly twelve minutes to cross unless weather interferes with the traverse.

Ferry service still happens to PEI. How about a ferry trip from Bar Harbor Maine to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island so the kids remember the water highway vacation delivery roll on and off process. I remember it as a little shaver, as a small grasshopper.

Prince Edward Island has several smaller islands. Is one of a trio of three Maritime Provinces.

The smallest in land acreage or hectares when a head count is taken or everyone in PEI asked to raise their hands.

An acre is about 0.4047 hectare and a single hectare contains about 2.47 acres. More coastline for building castles, reading a book or napping. For shoreline walks, a setting of red dunes, soft sand as far as you can see. Being a big island, with all this water, talk about beaches in PEI.

PEI has lots of nicknames, “Garden of the Gulf,” “Birthplace of Confederation” or “Cradle of Confederation”, the latter label referring to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, although PEI did not join the Confederation until 1873.Which happened because the United States was crowding PEI to come on board in Uncle Sam’s Imperialism efforts.

In 1872 PEI became the seventh Canadian province. Taking on railroad debt, paying off absentee landlord expenses both helped push PEI into the Canadian provincial collection.

Life Is A Beach, Prince Edward Island Has One Long Continuous Beach With It’s Delaware Sized Island Design.

The big contributor to the PEI economy is farming; the island produces over a quarter of Canada’s potatoes.

Lots of strawberry fields too! Historically, PEI is one of Canada’s elder settlements and demographically still reflects older immigration to the country. With Scottish, Irish, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and French topping the population mix. Tourism, fishing, farming all pour money into the local Prince Edward Island economy.

Lobsters and mussels in the deep around Prince Edward Island are pretty tasty. You have to have the waitress slide the plate order of heaping fresh caught fish and chips in front of you during your visit. The black and white cows create stellar dairy products. PEI tales the Holstein cows pretty serious.

The green pastures with red soil, cows grazing next door to cottage settings overlooking the dark blue water.

It creates the perfect surf and turf setting. Plenty of corn fields, strawberry patches too. With the latter providing the options of boxes filled to the brim or you pick the succulent fruit yourself.

There are roughly 231 islands around Prince Edward Island. Deep sea fishing is big when you are surrounded by water water water everywhere and lighthouses. The fresh sea air and visiting new places on your vacation to Prince Edward Island improves the appetite. The fiddle music helps your mood because I was brought up with half of the few TV channels available off air were beamed in from Canada.

Everything from Stompin’ Tom, Don Messer, Time For Juniors and all the new toe tapping musical talent.

Time it right and you get to hit a music festival in Prince Edward Island featuring local artists. More on PEI music and the link to see traveler photos. Which always makes the presentation authentic and so much more genuine. Maine has it’s own version of fiddle music.

The Inside Home Of Anne Of Green Gable Setting You Can Tour At Prince Edward Island.

After you take in a show, enjoy a sit down or take out meal, even buying a pack of gum or wire cart full of groceries.

The local service providers everywhere in Prince Edward Island are extremely friendly. They often say “enjoy your stay”. You do get the feeling they are glad you came to their Atlantic Canadian Island. That they enjoy, love it so much and sincerely hope you will too.

How do you get here questions, what should I do tomorrow suggestions are always provided as if you know the person. With the connection maybe because as a local Mainer, spending lots of time in Canada with two hockey playing boys, it feels like old home week. Familiar, maybe because our relatives did the same decades before and the traditional visit to Canada continue just as our red maple leaf neighbors come over to Maine through out the year.

The places to stay are many in PEI. The days of just camp grounds, tents before the abundance of cottages rental options are over. The cute cabins in a row down a hill with ocean view or near amusement parks like the Sandpit are many.

The view at dusk driving down Route 6 in the town of Cavendish and the feeling of being on top of the world, with a panoramic water enclosure around you is one you don’t forget.

The Value Of Sea Glass, Never Thought Of What Is Most Rare, What Is Common In Colors, Shapes Of Sea Rubbed Jewels.

Some places you travel in the World have amazing water views on a vacation down along the limited, over marketed beach sections. But it’s not like in PEI, should come as a surprise. When you consider it is endless beaches being one big farming island here is in PEI.

The views never let you forget, constantly remind you where you are. On the ocean front any angle you slowly pivot. Views not limited in PEI because of the center elevation. Added together with all the open level to rolling working cleared farm ground. Not just wooded land, endless forestry trees that can hide the water views if an area is lucky enough to have them to brag up.

The pride in the PEI landscape, around the neighborhoods makes everything appear ship shape tidy too.

You don’t see housing blight or messed up yards with trash and treasure littering it. There is bottle bill like Maine.

The average income coming in around $62,000. Low crime in PEI and the third highest standing for home ownership in Canada. Lots of construction housing and commercial building starts dot the island as you travel look around driving PEI.

The Circle Of Water That Showcases, Frames Your Visit To Prince Edward Island. Get The Picture?

The big new Confederation Bridge was a kick in the pants to crank up the economy several notches.

The bridge removed the standing around kink in the travel hose. The wait your turn on the ferry to get to the land of trademark red dirt. You see wind generators standing tall and straight just like in Maine but in Prince Edward Island, most of the power juice comes in from a submarine cable plugged in securely back in New Brunswick.

Anne Of Green Gables Home, Where The Red Pig Tailed Eleven Year Old Grew Up On A PEI Farm.

After seeing and touring the inspiration for all the Anne of Green Gables literary contributions, you can’t help but wonder if Lucy Maude Montgomery would have lived longer than 67 years if she had never left Prince Edward Island.

I think her heart was broken after writing about the place she loved so much, described so well.
Stroll through the haunted woods, silver lakes, study the black and white family images along with the farmstead setting that sticks in your head. Along with her original typewriter under glass as you meet the freckled character of Anne herself with her strawberry red hair in braids under her trademark hat pushed back on her head.

Lots Of Beaches, Plenty Of Red Sand Surrounds The Coastline Of Prince Edward Island.

I asked her trolling the barnyard before going into the media room of the cedar shingled barn to watch the video of her creator’s life how her day was going.

In character she quickly retorted “I imagine as well as anyone’s day, I suppose”. And then adding a zing question of her own. Firing back about how my day was going as if to say how do you like being interviewed by an eleven year old. Turning the tables. While on vacation on a hot summer day near the end of the calendar month of July.

The Anne Of Green Gables books set in 1908 were considered a children’s novel series but are loved by all ages around the World long after the death of Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1942.

And marketing of everything from golf courses to raspberry cordial around the Anne of Green Gable theme.

Anne Of Green Gables, Prince Edward Island’s Champion Created By Lucy Maud Montgomery.

More on Basin Head Provincial Park in Prince Edward Island. I was told at the lighthouse in Souris the town’s name is French, meaning mouse. The town had a heck of a rodent problem when first settled and the name stuck that described it best at the time. The kitchen crew and gift shop staff at both lighthouses were very informative and friendly. The locals share their home very graciously, in a low key no pressure way.

Help on planning your travel to PEI. Have an PEI blueberry ice cream or whatever black and white bovine themed multi scooped from Cows Creameries many locations around Prince Edward Island.

The head of government of PEI has its HQ set up in Charlottetown.

During our time vacationing in Prince Edward Island we stayed in Rusticoville, PEI. The location on the water in Prince Edward Island which was really New Glascow, PEI. Like small towns in Maine, many are packaged under the umbrella of one size fits all zip coding. Lower population small rural town areas rattle and hum like that.

There Is No Bad Time For Ice Cream. Moo Delicious When Fresh And Local PEI Cows Create It.

Deep sea fishing, taking in local musical and theatre productions.

All the national / provincial parks with hiking, biking, kayaking. Plenty of these red sand beaches protected by dunes with sea grass holding the terrain together.

Something for everyone and it’s your vacation to let go and rewind right? To unplug and recharge from the work work work.

Prince Edward Island, in the Atlantic Canadian Province surrounded by water, in the Gulf Stream, the St Lawrence. One extended stop to add to your travel channel if you dial up the Atlantic Ocean. When you make Maine a two for one nation vacation. Ask any Mainer if there have Canadian blood in their lineage and don’t be surprised test positive eh? And no, it is not dangerous being this close to Canada living in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 25, 2017
Kennebunkport Maine, One Of The Coastline Jewels.

Mention the word “Maine”, and here come the seacoast towns and beach regions that cause much of the audience excitement.

But ask for the show of hands to figure out the favorite section of sand or craggy rocked bound coastline of Maine and the results vary greatly. Because people are so different.

Your Maine Vacation, Does It Involve Salt Air, The Sound Of Surf And Ocean Water?

The sound of the crashing surf, the smell of salt air and visuals when you are lucky enough to be on the ocean in Maine casts it’s lifelong spell.

And wherever you begin the time spent on the Maine coast, will probably be a spot on the map to revisit often through out the course of your life time. To check in with Andre the seal. Whatever the Kodak moment attraction.

Lots of fond memories with loved ones and the Maine beaches, lighthouses, sand and rock in the back drop is the main reason why.

The friendly, down to Earth folks that live in these areas and serve the tourists well is another for the come on back any time you can.

Maine is blessed with 228 miles of the ocean frontage.

Other states along the Atlantic coast line did not far so well. New Hampshire weighs in with 13, Massachusetts that Maine broke free from in 1820 has 192 miles worth.

The Wedding Cake House In Kennebunk Maine, One Of The Most Photographed Homes.

Rhode Island treasures it’s 40 miles of coast line. Connecticut did not get any. New York promotes it’s 127, New Jersey next door pushes it’s 130 miles many ways. Delaware and Maryland are nip and tuck for waterfront bragging rights on ocean frontage with 28 and 31 respectively.

So back to Maine vacations, the where to go for a first time visit?

How much time do you have? How much do you want to spend for moolah if lodging at other than a state park or high tailing it inland to get the motel rates down to Earth?

For economical motel lodging along the Maine coast, in Kennebunport Maine you might look into Rhumb Line Resort.

If you got a big fat tax return or attended someone’s wedding, or your own, check in at The Colony in Kennebunkport Maine.

The Property Values A Tad Higher, The Tax Assessments Approaching Nose Bleed In Kennebunkport Maine.

We have blogged about destination weddings in Maine used for the nuptial knot tying.

WARNING: The more expensive the wedding spread, the less smaller or any children at all get the invitation to pull up a chair around the linen topped, crystal and silver settings for multi course meal table.

(Hope you get your “plus one wedding invitation” added rider clause box to check off. Along with the surf, turf, veggie or spam, cereal or other menu food fare selections.)

In Kennebunkport Maine Walker’s Point Compound on Ocean Avenue is a popular tourist query location that get’s “Googled” a lot.

Besides US Presidents #41 and #43, Jeb Bush is getting a new Maine home away from home of his own. Built at the Bush family compound on Walker’s Point.

You do feel the Secret Service scans, from a far pat downs as you just point the camera toward the home of two of the highest pay grades of them all in public service sector. God bless America.

Walker’s Point, The Bush Family Compound On Ocean Avenue, Kennebunkport Maine.

The lighted red, white and blue flag on the point gives you the same feeling as after someone sings that song before the “play ball” shouted.

Lots of background selfies happen with this high taxed town chunk of Maine in the back ground.

For a budget stretching place to stay at Wells Beach a few miles to the south of Kennebunkport Maine, consider tapping out the phone numbers or emailing the N’er Beach Motel for an ocean vacation fun.

Plenty of food options, a trolley like the other Maine coastal tourist traps that you want to get pulled into willingly happens in Wells, Moody Beach that is not far from Old Orchard Beach too.

One Beach Is Not Exactly Like The Next. This One In Maine In Kennebunkport At Dusk.

In Bar Harbor Maine, Robbins Motel is pretty darn affordable.

To explore Acadia National Park, see Thunder Hole, check out a couple lighthouses like Egg Light with it’s seals basking in the sun on an island, or Bass Harbor with its red lens and zip for parking.

So consider parking and biking in and out. And all along the 50 miles of Acadia carriage trails. With some very intricate granite bridges and stone work. Consider using your bike to roll on. To take the ferry from Portland to Peakes Island for bike ride. A quick easy spin with peddle power.

Like what you order off the menu at your favorite restaurant, often you know you should be adventuresome and try a new beach in Maine.

To sample another coastal Maine town and all it offers in a new and distinctive way. But it is hard when the temptation wanes and you order up the same beach in Maine to visit year after year. And each season is a variation on the same theme kinda sorta.

The Big Boats, Not Powered By Small Horsepower Motors Hanging Off The Aft Ends.

Say if you like Maine lighthouses, consider the hide and seek and joy of finding another. To add to your collection at Squirrel Point lighthouse in the Boothbay Harbor region as an example.

Maine has a lot of coast, more than most. And life is short if you plan to practice your take off, landing skills. To touch down barely and lift up quickly. To again, again. To sample the 228 miles coastline for a Maine vacation.

The coast of Maine, letting go and pulling the plug to recharge naturally, off grid. To reflect on life, the how’s it going for you weigh in to get your bearings. Find magnetic north. All that sea shore and what life is like along the coast is pretty special but only one facet of the vast Maine jewel.

The coastline gets more interesting, less commercial though while we are on the subject. As you venture north along Rt 1. Get off the Interstate 95 corridor. Check out Milbridge, Maine. Go further north to Lubec, Eastport Maine, West Quoddy Lighthouse, the local eateries.

Maine Ocean Front Small Protected Harbors. You See Lots Of Big Watercraft, Clever Boat Names. Mine Would Be “Liquid Asset”.

Hang on pirates, to go ashore at President FDR’s vacation cottage. Get your sea legs for the short boat ride to Campobello Island. To experience real, raw, all pure and natural Downeast Maine. Without the vacations in Maine four color glossy hype.

Yes, in some regions of Maine to play it up for the tourists with the “you can’t get there from here-uh Chummy” there is some commercial posturing.

To play for the cameras, an open microphone. Anyone holding a tall, top ringed reporter’s notebook. To create a few catchy soundbites, grab some free press with full color 8×10’s, lots of black ink about lob-STAH that is some kinda wicked good Bub.

Fueling Up In A Maine Harbor. Anchoring For The Night To Come Ashore. Sample Whatever The Small Maine Coastal Town Serves Up.

It’s hard tellin’ without knowing don’t ya know. Unless someone speaks up and spreads the word about Maine, the way life should be.

Have you been to Maine and to other places besides just the coast?

Consider the ski areas, the fall foliage tours inland and to see wide open farms, vast timbered northern sections of Maine. Not just the Maine beaches. The coastal tourist attractions where some have cruise ships parked out in the harbor.

Maine beaches, coastal towns for vacations. Those are only one Maine tourist trap you don’t really mind falling into and go willingly. But there is more.Maine, so much to explore, but only a short life time to do it.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton ME 04730

October 2, 2016
Opening Up The Maine Lake Camp, Cottage, Summer Home.

The place in Maine on the water, whether it is a river camp, a woods cabin on a stream or a lake vacation home.

Opening it up is a tradition. Sometimes a production. One that reminds the owner of the others in the family before them that did the same routine. Or that this is too much work for one person to shoulder the burden. That sometimes seems to be like batting clean up long after the game ended.

What Happens Under The Sun Another Day In Maine. It Depends On You. Being Here In Vacationland.

To pick up after other far traveling family members who are not so tidy. And steal the joy of using the place that has a job jar before that can be accomplished in the too little time, so much to do.

The opening up of a Maine vacation retreat. Sometimes in the spring or often times in the fall for hunting, leaf peeking. Maybe for winter ice fishing, snow sledding only. But no matter what the season, places on the water in Maine are a sacred investment. Sometimes on leased land in the middle of no where in places “T” this, “R” that.

Many waterfront properties in Maine just idle, waiting, sitting.

Some folks collect second, third and more homes that they don’t get to enjoy but hope to someday. Paying the property tax bills but not darkening their doorways. With no dock out, no boat parked on either side of it.

Time carved out of a busy schedule to make sure the place on the water is enjoyed is a healthy habit. As life ticks by whether you do or don’t.

Big meals, cribbage games, outdoor horseshoe competitions, time napping on a porch swing or dooryard hammock. Family discussions, talking about the fish that got away. The wildlife that sauntered by while enjoying hot coffee or a cold adult beverage.

Wave, Be Friendly, Everyone Is In Maine.

Take your pick, select your poison for fire water. While cooking your food outdoors with a sizzle happens. As kayaks ply the like a bottle smooth, polished lake surfaces.

Or as rain peppers the metal roof that may leak or not depending this opening day season. On what that blow down tree did that let loose over, struck the structure sometime over the winter months.

At least it produces some firewood in the clean up. When processed and cut up in bite size pieces for the parlor stove or end heater.

Everything reduced down to turning up the volume on the greater awareness of what is truly important in life.

You can hear yourself think in Maine. So much of the layers of living in a city are reduced one by one the more reflectorized mile markers that click off on the way up the I-95 pike. When you point whatever you drive north.

And often what is found is missing where the property owner spends most of their time chasing the dollar the bulk of the year. It all shows up right on time. Traveling the many miles that separate the two of you. Many moons distant, down the road from the state of Maine where the property owner chases the dollar where all the people collect.

Come Up For Air To Spy On Lake Campers With Bread Morsels.

The smell of the familiar place on the Maine waterfront is the most powerful.

The sense of smell the oldest of the senses a person uses to navigate in life. Follow your nose like Toucan Sam.

A mixture of damp, moist wood, earth underneath the settling camp structure. Lack of heat and a proper foundation makes a place shift, settle.

The dust, collection of house flies and any other rodent who used the place as the winter home all add to the what you find, what you notice in the beak. Moth balls to protect clothes, wool blankets might be noticed too as you unlock and enter the place in Maine on the waterfront.

The quick throw everything mad dash. From lawn chairs to lawn mowers inside on the screened or glass porch if lucky enough to have one. Underneath a camp if elevated enough or equipped with a hatch door. Maybe into a storage shed for the outdoor toys, cooking and sporting gear.

Or all escorted in to the living area in one big last call type hurry as the bright house lights come on, the music stops. Is what greets you after a long drive north to open up for another six month’s later or more season. Who did this… you did this. Oh yeah.

There is a lot of work involved with a second home in Maine.

Storm damage, regular maintenance, or renter fatigue. Waiting on professionals that don’t want to really fiddle with the little pain in the neck jobs that are piddly. Don’t pay a lot.

Maine. We Stick Together, Like Momma Duck, The Kids In Tow.

Not so much on the to do list, the depth and width of the job jar with a simple woods or Maine lake place that has just bare bone comforts though. When it is not a two or more star lodging.

Maybe that still uses an outhouse and the bath on Saturday night is a ritual out front carrying a bar of Ivory soap, with a towel on shore to dry off after the dip that refreshes. Helps you sleep on a hot summer night at a Maine lake, waterfront place.

Where crickets, loons, honking Canadian geese provide the back ground music that Maine is famous for if you are lucky enough to be parked next to the waterfront.

Do you vacation in Maine on the water?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | mailto:info@mooersrealty.com|

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

May 24, 2016