Category: Maine Coast

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
Things To Do For Fun In Maine | Find, Collect Lighthouses.

Maine is largest state of all in New England, lighthouses are not in short supply.

It is over 90 percent wooded, making it the most forested state. And more than half the population lives 25 miles or less from the ocean. So when someone mentions Maine, it is awfully easily to only think of coastal, maritime Maine. Especially if on Maine vacations you just frequent the ocean front tourist traps… er I mean attractions. So things to do for fun in Maine, lighthouses.

Lighthouses In Maine, The Image Is So Different From New Angles, Different Season Visits.

Maine has over 60 lighthouses and bet you can not just visit one, a couple. Oh no, you get the bug with sea air, the isolation, the sense of importance the navigation beam of light and loud fog horn played in early Maine development. And lots of cruise ships visit Maine so your highway to the Pine Tree State is often a GPS guided watery one. Dodging rocks and reefs and seeking another water draw to allow the big floating hotel to glide in and out without scraping the harbor town sea bottom.

A Maine lighthouse experience hits you from different angles when you make the visit other than just in the summer months. Winter settings with cobalt blue sky, crisp air and the sharp contrasts of white, gray, blue shades only. The senses get a work out and without the mix of tourists and their camera shutter’s busily capturing staged photos. Or you are doing the same snipe of the landscape, the lighthouse but don’t want to wait for folks to clear out of the camera view finder. Or hear then tee hee and exchange banter chit chat. There is no distraction when only one or two are sampling the Maine lighthouse. Ever tried one on and walked around it in amazement in the winter months?

Winter fixes everything even if the lighthouse photo session is done wearing mittens, your weather tamer coat zipped as high as it goes. A hood sealing in the ears.

To protect from the sea breeze. No bugs. No humidity. No people or sounds that are man made to irritate. But amazing photos for the help yourself that are so different than others posted in the social media streams. Because they have white new snow, exposed gray rock, dark blue water, no green vegetation in the mix. It is on vacation, in hibernation. Like most of the tourists.

Maine, Whatever Floats Your Boat.

Maine has the runner up largest collection of lighthouses.

Long coast line, like Christmas lights strings, mean you need more sea going luminaries to dot the long coastline. Or to mark island rock reef out post far from the safe harbor inlets of Maine’s many coastal towns. Maine has lots of groups that adopt the lighthouses as the Coast Guard slowly transfers ownership. A private residence where you don’t want foot traffic, public stalkers and gawkers trying to get close enough to see the lighthouse you bought at auction with the residence, companion buildings that tags along side. Thank goodness for telephoto lens but nope, not going use it or one of the two drones out of respect for the lighthouse property owner. The drones are grounded and if lost at sea would be expensive to replace.

Downeast Maine, Lighthouses Are in Big Supply Like Other Areas Of Vacationland.The oldest lighthouse in Maine is the Portland Head Light that is actually in Cape Elizabeth. It seems to me this is the one that makes the most debuts on post cards, magazine covers, blog post imagery. Others will argue that Pemaquid Point gets the mirror mirror fairest of them all pick of the pack vote. The youngest Maine lighthouse is Whitlocks Mill Light which feels more like a river lighthouse than one protecting the ocean front. It is way up in the Downeast Region just south of the town of Calais. More on the Whitlocks Mill Lighthouse.

To me West Quoddy Head Light is the prettiest.

Maybe because she is far far north and takes more effort to see. Because she is less frequented or nestled in the real Maine where the economy is often the have and have nots. And not much of a middle filling in the population that is passionate about their surroundings. But struggle to make ends meet to stay in their home town. That is taking on water and slowly sinking as new revenue sources are sought to bilge pump the loss of labor intensive jobs that have gone overseas.

Some Captain’s homes along the Maine coast have their adaptions that make them look like lighthouse wannabees. Serving the purpose to lift the spy glass, to gaze out over the water for the return of the mortgage holder or grantor deed name on the title to the Victorian residence.

Maine Home Widow Watch From A Seacoast Home Version Of A Lighthouse Observatory.

There are no lighthouses in Aroostook County. Maybe that is why the topic is so interesting to me. Because other than one or two vacations to the coast as a youngster, Maine lighthouse were not a mainstay showing up on vacations.

The smallest lighthouse is Echo Point Light. It is a six foot operating taller than it really is, an over achiever like the “spark plug” type lighthouse. It is located on Great Diamond Island and still registered by the Coast Guard.

I promise to revisit the topic of lighthouses, one of the most sought tourist activity on the long list of what to do for fun in Maine. Dining on lobster, mussels, clams or whatever deep sea delicacy with a Maine lighthouse back drop just intensifies the taste. That creates the addiction to have to have more Maine please.

Which ones have you looked up and tracked down? The visit to a Maine lighthouse like rapids have numbers of difficulty to experience. Some require sea kayaks or hitch hiking on a Maine lobster boat to sneak a peek. Like the lighthouse near Bar Harbor Maine that I floated out, visited not so long ago. Have you started your own collection of Maine lighthouses?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

October 28, 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
Insider Tips For Living, Visiting Maine.

Maine. Everyone wants the inside track when exploring a new unknown area right?

It’s pretty important. To become familiar with the lay of the land whether in Maine or wherever you roam. To avoid time frittered away and for the best experience in Maine to be enjoyed. So a guide to living, visiting Maine, one of those that is not full of ads and more fluff than substance. Who wouldn’t want one of those kind of guides to Maine? To connect the dots. Chart the course.

Sea Food Always Welcome With Hot Coffee, Mirco Local Brews, Whatever You Slurp Fixed The Way You Like It Best!

To develop the guide to living in Maine for the fast track and to avoid wasting time of a precious short vacation would be a popular post or publication.

If you follow the Me In Maine blog you will see in a scan of the posts that being grateful living here and why is part of the hunt and peck. But also, saving time and being a resource for new to the many moving parts of Maine is an ongoing approach. To be part of what is fed and added to the post channel of this living in Maine blog series.

But to post the ABC’s to new visitors to Maine means in what topic, covering what subject? The needs are wide and topics to cover are vast. Because only an insider, a local living in Maine could share what a stranger would want. And in the particular region of Maine that you are needing the information that is custom coded to that section of Vacationland. For example, Downeast Maine, what you would enjoy knowing early on before you arrive at the town limits could set expectations, would save time too.

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

But simple things first when considering heading to great state of Maine.

If you moved to Maine, when do you have to get a license from the Pine Tree State. Thirty days to get your new Maine driver’s license. To convert the out of state one you have for the one you as a resident of Maine need to be carrying.

A travel guide to Maine. But not just for vacation in Maine use. If you are retired, the income follows you over the state line. If not you need employment, a page explaining jobs in Houlton Maine and where to look could save time and money. A different area of the state of Maine would need another portal post to update current employment options and listings. Maine is a big state remember? And most of it is small rural communities scattered around the Maine country side. And not all with fully stocked chamber of commerce local information portals that are constantly fed or updated.

No Motel 6, No Howard Johnson Or Day’s Inn Back When In Small Maine Towns. Lots Of Local, No Franchise Chain Hotels To Stay in Northern Maine Towns. Or Lake, River Cabins. Inns, B&B’s To Sample The Flavor Best Away From The Interstate 95 Corridor.

Travel guides for Maine would be the start to the hit or miss visits that could develop into longer more permanent stays. The local posts on blogs written by native and transplanted Mainers are much more helpful than the paid for, four color glossing flyers. That’s publication size depends on the number of advertisements that the copy flows around.

Looking for helpful information takes time. So many websites and blog posts but fluff. It means lots of time spent searching to get what you are after and coming up empty handed on travel guides that hit the spot quickly.

Visit Maine is a good starting point. The Maine.gov site is pretty helpful too for drilling down to get a good basis to your Maine 101 knowledge base. But helpful advice, tips from an insider to Maine happy to share what the locals know and the outsider misses.

I have had my fill of the commercial sites that preach the top ten this, the pick of the pack of Maine locations for that.

Most don’t get inland from the southern coastal regions of Maine. Or above Waterville or August Maine up the pike in the dots on the map that outline the best this or that. You have to travel further north, you have to head to deeper sections of the inland of Maine. To sample her natural richness, the genuine real Maine without the commercial spin.

Maine. To see first hand, up close and personal the cream of the crop, best of the bunch list you draw up yourself. For what you like best, for what you seek out over and over in Maine favorite spots you vote for… that you uncover on your own over time. Not the list some advertising editor who has never set foot in Maine . But makes the claims as if he or she has been all over Maine all their life. Like they trying to play off as a local Mainer chummy. Just a little too slick, a lot out of kilter to what being in Maine is really like.

Maine Is Real, Peaceful, Not Crowded. One Of The Lowest Crime States.

The travel guide to Maine. It better be the local perspective, the spin on any question posed about anything Maine from the insider who lives, works, plays here.

Wouldn’t that be the most helpful? Low key and conversational. Easy to digest. When nothing slick or paid for opens up the communication back and forth. And you get the raw truth on any matter that is on your mind needing attention for questions that should be answered better sooner than later.

The View At Your Picnic In Maine. It Adds To The Home Made Taste Of Whatever Is Packed Away In The Handled Basket.

Welcome to Maine. Learn about Maine history. I live in Northern Maine. But try to venture out to other sections in Maine for my own curiosity and to share what I discover. In say Kennbunkport Maine to sample some summer sea air and beach sand.

Or over to Sugarloaf USA to winter snow ski. Or take a spin to Bar Harbor Maine to see what you are missing. That will make you return again and again once the heartstrings are tugged on sufficiently, consistently. I know many families who pick Old Orchard or Wells Beach as their life long venue for vacations in Maine.

And this just in. Didn’t you get the memo? Don’t forget we border Canada here in Maine and are related to the over homers eh? Ever been to Atlantic Canada traveling through Maine for the two nation vacation? Or to Quebec. “new France” traveling via Maine? Heading to the red soil, the beaches of Prince Edward Island Canada in a week and will snap capture the images. Will be sure to post the local information about PEI! Right next door to Maine.

Welcome to Maine.

The people are down to Earth, hardworking, friendly. Explore Maine. I pledge to continue to add to the online knowledge to glean whatever you can to prepare for your next maybe your first trip to Maine. I love where I live and the state that is big, beautiful called Maine is my home. No secrets kept. Where I grew up and raised my four kids is an open book. This blog post series hopefully serves as a travel guide for Maine vacations, maybe more. Get to Maine as often as you can. That’s how you get to know her best. Spend time here.

Maine is known for her vast wide open farming operations, her immense wooded lumbering tracks that cover 91 percent of the land mass.

No one can forget the Maine rugged, rocky bound coastlines and her lighthouse collection. All these lakes, ponds, twisting and winding rivers. All that tasty seafood from the deep along the islands and harbor towns that put Maine on the map. Sample some. Visit the Old Port section, the only a handful of cities that offer more urban settings. To contrast her mostly rural ones in this great state of Maine. Stay tuned for more on living, getting around Maine easier. With an insider tip or two, with advice and posts from a native of Maine who likes to blog about life here. I promise to share the tourist information the publications don’t have space for and leave out that is critical for the deepest experience. To set your realistic expectations about your next visit to whatever region of Maine beyond the popular tourist trap haunts.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

July 16, 2017