MAINE

The perfect place to do summer.

While I was enjoying one of the last days of my trip to Maine sitting on a cozy swivel chair looking out to a bay at low tide, Hallie sent me this Substack post all about how another author was missing her own Maine vacation. I laughed out loud because what she wrote in her intro is basically what I planned to write as my own intro to this guide. I even had a tab open on my phone to the LL Bean careers page where I was poking around for creative positions.

Maine was simultaneously everything and nothing I expected it to be. I’ve been twice to Maine before this trip. My first visit brought me to Portland to celebrate my birthday (which tragically falls in the end of February and may be the least ideal month to be in Maine). We had a decent time besides the fact that I was going through a really rough time with an ex lover who was absolutely terrible to me and decided that my birthday vacation was the best time to reveal to me a long term relationship that he had been in for years behind my back. As a consolation we ate duck fat fries and engaged in lots of retail therapy at Judith. My second trip up was a few years later to Ogunquit in the late summer. I went with a couple of friends I volunteered at the USO in NYC with and we got donuts at sunrise and took a cooking class with Molly Yeh at The Stonewall Kitchen. It was loads of fun.

This time, our trip took us on a journey further North up the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. This is very unlike me, but I didn’t do much research leading up to our trip because frankly this summer has been really sticky, and very emotionally draining. So, in the spirit of going with the flow where I can, all I could really do was get in the passenger’s seat day of, and go for the ride. I didn’t fully abandon myself here—I did put out a little call on IG and on Substack to field a few recs, but kind of just threw it all in “want to go” tabs on Google Maps and figured that I’d get to whatever I got to. Every stop was nice in its own right, but when we finally arrived in Acadia, I was fully blown away. I didn’t know that this type of beauty could exist on the East Coast, and I certainly wasn’t prepared for the abundance of ocean crashing up against pine forests that make Acadia so special.

Look, I’m not saying the East Coast in general isn’t beautiful—it totally is—but there’s something really fairytale-like about Acadia. The wildlife, the unrelenting and enchanting scent of pine wood, spruce, beach rose and sea brine, and the inky, star-filled skies that seem to be at every turn. Unlike most of the East Coast, up here, there are a multitude of intimate ways to commune with the sea. Trade the boardwalks of the Mid-Atlantic for hidden coves nestled into painted hills, and un-swimmable reservoirs for lakes with crystal clear water asking you to dive in. Maine has all the parts of a recipe for a perfect summer in my books.

And I fell in love with this version of summer. One evening, Dan and I drove to Northeast Harbor where a group of teens were gathered around a vintage car in chinos and button ups and I wished I could be a part of their social circle for the summer (albeit I’m sure, filled with plenty of drama). I imagined that they must “summer in Maine” every year, ritualistically meeting their friends and family in this spot. I imagined waking up at dawn to sip coffee and watch the changing tide, taking a refreshing walk in the crisp morning air and looking for shells. I’d follow up a lazy morning with a lobster roll or, equally fun—a big homemade lunch where many hands of friends and family gather together to prepare and eat it. Perhaps a quick trip to town for the farmers market or a barefoot walk in the grass to the neighbor’s house to have fresh baked cookies on their patio, and nights spent gazing up into a blanket of stars. And on rainy days, perhaps a stack of board games would be pulled out to play accompanied by a mug of hot chocolate nestled between my palms.

I yearned for more days to live out this fantasy, but in the end we had two blissful weeks where I was lucky enough to mimic many of these yearned for activities. We explored, took gentle hikes, dipped into many drool-worthy bodies of water, and cooked meals together. I even sipped a maple-sweetened hot chocolate on a few cozy nights. Below are some of the highlights of our trip and places I loved/would recommend for the next time you find yourself in Maine.

**If you are not a paid subscriber and would like access to this guide, check out the downloadable version HERE on my website**