<p>Rockland is a lovely “old Maine” coastal town with a ferry over to the even older Maine lobstering/quarrying island of Vinalhaven (where my in-laws live year round). </p>
<p>Make sure you eat lots and lots of lobster rolls. When we go to Maine, it’s lobster rolls for lunch and dinner. I’d have them for breakfast, too, but most places don’t serve them for breakfast. If you go in August, you can have lobster roll for lunch and blueberry pie for mid-afternoon snack.</p>
<p>…don’t forget the whoopie pies.</p>
<p>Given the agenda I think that your itinerary in post 11 is great. Oqunquit has real beaches; Portland is a wonderful city, and Boothbay is a nice compromise between a working port like Rockland (which still has the Farnsworth Museum with great 18th-19th century American collection and works by the Wyeths) and some more touristy destinations. </p>
<p>Given the mission, you might drive up Routes 9 and 1 once you get north of Ogunquit and explore a little bit–there are some quaint towns and nice views along the way, too.</p>
<p>dmd77 - time for you to discover lobster omelettes and lobster quesadillas ;).
kathiep is right - it is very possible that June in Maine will not feel like summer at all, but more like spring. It’s a luck of the draw thing. Portsmouth is another great idea - sort of a variation on the Old Port section of Portland.</p>
<p>fundingfather - your itinerary is very doable, imo. Does involve lots of in-and-outs of hotels, so think about whether you want to do that. Or pick one hotel and do day trips.</p>
<p>If you want to sell her on the place, my opinion is that July-October 10ish are the best weather months. Fall is spectacular - high color is usually first week of October in this part of Maine.</p>
<p>You can have rocky coast and sandy beaches within spitting distance of each other. Examples: rocky coast-Cliff Walk in Ogunquit, Fort Williams and/or Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth. sandy beach - Crescent Beach State Park, Cape Elizabeth; Scarborough Beach and Ferry Beach in Scarborough (3 minutes down the road from Crescent Beach). For that tee-shirt shop/fried dough/rides on the boardwalk plus sandy beach experience, there is Old Orchard Beach (15 more minutes down the road, not that I’m recommending it;) ).</p>
<p>Have a lobster roll, lobster, fried clams, whoopie pie and/or blueberry pie at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights - it is just that, a paradigmatic lobster shack with picnic tables hanging over said rocky coast.</p>
<p>Possible one-hotel plan: Pick a hotel in the Old Port or Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth.</p>
<p>Option A: spend time in Portsmouth and/or Ogunquit on the way up from Boston if you get an early start. Check into hotel. Spend next day or two exploring Portland, Cape Elizabeth/Scarborough beaches, etc. Make a day trip to Wiscasset (a charming, charming town we have forgotten to mention on the way to Boothbay, with antique shops galore mostly in antique homes) and Boothbay. Back to Portland for the night.</p>
<p>Optioin B: Drive directly from Boston to Portland hotel. Do Ogunquit as a day trip along with Kennebunk/Kennebunkport. Then a day or two in Greater Portland as above. Then a different day trip to Wiscasset/Boothbay.</p>
<p>If you are here in June, I think traffic and tourism is not bad. If you are here in July/August - I personally wouldn’t go to Ogunquit/Kennebunks due to traffic and tourism glut. But that is probably just me, spoiled Mainer who has forgotten what “rush hour” means and hasn’t had to idle at a red light in 20 years here.</p>
<p>How true, a red light in Wiscasset on a Saturday afternoon in August is not something I would wish on a friend.</p>
<p>This is really making me hungry for Maine. Lobster rolls and blueberry pie every day. There’s a great little place–I think it’s called “red’s” on the drive up the coast. I’ll try to find it. Moody’s Diner is fun too. Haven’t been there in years though.</p>
<p>Red’s Eats in Wiskassett, or is there just one t? Anyway, it has to have the best lobster rolls in the world. I, on the other hand, make the best blueberry pie.</p>
<p>Totally agree with Jmmom…Portland is perfect home base for your retirement campaign trip…vibrant city, great restaurants, wonderful events available in the city and nearby at Bowdoin. </p>
<p>Maine lakes are also microcosisms for summer retirements… Moose Pond in Bridgeton has a lot of development, with summer and winter retirees. I have seen a group of seniors who ski at Shawnee Peak every day, mid-day… and they are happy, happy people. </p>
<p>The islands off Portland are great also, Peaks, Great Diamond, Little Diamond. So close to civilization and yet so far…</p>
<p>To me, Ogunquit, Kennebunkport and Boothbay are focused on attracting summer tourists. Nice to visit, wouldn’t want to live there…I have a good friend with a marina on the Saco River and there are wonderful, beautiful homes there with incredible vistas…the ocean is a short cruise away… </p>
<p>Lobster gets anyone and everyone’s attention…but there are MANY foods that are native that merit attention. Additionally, there is an organic foods community in this state that is one of the best in the country. </p>
<p>I know that I love to spend a day on a beautiful beach, but I also want a great bakery, big bookstores, fun shops for unique gifts, easy access to good wine or large movie theaters so we can see a movie when we decide LAST minute to dash out the door, strolls on a Friday nite Art Walk…one can do all of this from the Greater Portland area. </p>
<p>I work all over New England…Maine may be “colder” than Rhode Island, BUT in Maine we know how to dress for the weather (hint, hint LL Bean) and we budget for winter…there is a lot more ICE in MA and RI…and my peer in NH loses power a lot more often than we do. I also have Maine friends who recently committed to their Maine home for 3/4 of the year…with a FL site for “winter” … they sold their Cape Code summer home instead of their Maine home. Of course, it is easy for me to be so positive as I look out the kitchen windows at the sun twinkling off the beautiful blue ocean… on a glorious mother’s day…wish you were here today…gotta run now to roam the yard and identify all the improvements “WE” want to do this year! Tuition bills mean “WE” get to have all the fun!!</p>
<p>Jmmom: since I don’t eat eggs and lobster quesadillas seems like diluting a good thing… what I have done is lobster crepes–a light tarragon cream sauce is wonderful with lobster and it makes a nice crepe filling. But to be honest, I consider lobster rolls one of the world’s perfect foods. As for the “best” lobster roll, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad one in Maine. (And I’ve even eaten the lobster rolls McDonald’s in Portland (ME) sells.)</p>
<p>(For those of you who like historical trivia: Portland, OR is named after Portland, ME. <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon</a>)</p>
<p>Moose Pond! When I was 16 I had a summer job working for the owners of a camp on Moose Pond. It was utterly undeveloped then.</p>
<p>I’ll have a lobster crepe right now, dmd. Thank you very much ;). Bartender, pour me a crisp white wine to accompany it. Oh, wait. I’m not in Sinners Alley? I’ll head over. Hope dmd77 gets there before me and gets that lobster crepe up on the Specials board.</p>
<p>Lobster crepes go best with riesling.</p>
<p>Update</p>
<p>Well, the June trip to Boston/Maine didn’t work out, but we just got back from our trip. It was great (even though we had to deal with more tourists than had we gone in June)! While we couldn’t do all of the suggested things on such a short trip, we did take many recommendations. Here’s my report:</p>
<p>Boston area - we took a ride up the north coast to Rockport and Gloucester. Rockport is a nice touristy area and Gloucester has some amazing homes along the water. It was a great side trip to see an area that I have not been to before. If we win the lottery, one of the ocean-front homes will definitely be candidates for retirement. However, based on the looks of the inland homes that we drove by, I’m not sure if it is right for us.</p>
<p>Boothbay Harbor - we drove here from Boston and stayed at a motel right on the harbor. Once we got here (and after having the obligatory lobster roll for lunch) we went for a drive to Camden which is another very beautiful New England town with a picturesque harbor - including a sailboat that would probably consume much of this week’s Mega-Millions jackpot. We drove to Mt. Battie which overlooks the town and harbor. I had seen pictures taken from there, but they do not do it justice - the view was jaw-dropping incredible. We got back to Boothbay Harbor in time for the sunset over the harbor. I’d have to say that this was the highlight of the trip for me. I don’t recall such a beautiful sunset. The next morning we casually ate breakfast on the balcony overlooking a marina and watched how the other half (actually, the other .01 percent) live as they prepared their yachts for the day’s cruise. One yacht had a paid crew of four plus, I presume, a paid captain. It was not flying an American flag so they probably were not beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts for the rich ;)</p>
<p>We then drove through Freeport on our way to Portland. We managed to turn a half-hour stop at LL Bean into a two-hour shopping trip. (I could see myself working there in retirement.) Then it was on to Portland for two nights. We had dinner in Old Port which was exactly as described - a good mix of locals and tourists with good restaurants and a not too-gentrified port area.</p>
<p>The next day we went to Portland Light which was even nicer than in the photos. Then we meandered down the coast, seeing a mix of rocky coastline as well as sandy beaches. We saw:
-Old Orchard Beach -not our taste at all,
-Kennebunkport - very nice touristy town; saw the amazing Bush compound (definitely took advantage of the tax cuts for the rich); watched Jeb take the boat out for a cruise; imagined that the Secret Service agents that pull that duty must feel pretty good about not having to be in Chappequa
<p>That night, we finished our trip with a sunset cruise on a schooner out in Casco Bay. It was a great way to end the trip.</p>
<p>My bottom line - I would like to retire to Maine more than ever. Unfortunately, my wife’s view was it’s a great place to visit, but she wouldn’t want to live there. I think more trips are going to be required.</p>
<p>My in-laws have retired to Maine… and the catch is that you have to go to Portland or Boston for good medical care. And, in their experience, it almost always requires an overnight stay or two. (My FIL had to be helicoptered off Vinalhaven in a storm, in fact. That’s scary.)</p>
<p>Mightly cold in Maine during the winter! Mighty long winter!!!</p>
<p>Retirement to Maine is best done in 4-month chunks (July-October). So maybe you can negotiate a two-home retirement. You get a cheap one up here and call it a “camp.” You’ll fit right in.</p>
<p>Sounds like you did great. I guess we forgot to mention that we never go near Ogunquit or the Kennebunks in the summer, for the reasons you mentioned (tourist overrun). But the Bush compound at Walker Point is worth a look, I agree.</p>
<p>Y’all come back now :).</p>
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<p>That’s my thinking as well; but just July through October? Are May and June not that great? </p>
<p>I’m no tax expert, but by living most of the year out of the state, I assume that that is a way to avoid Maine’s fairly stiff income tax rate. I don’t see how Maine can have high income taxes and sales taxes while neighboring NH has neither. I’m sure they pay a bit more in real estate taxes, but I can’t imagine the difference in real estate taxes offsetting the income and sales tax.</p>
<p>You’re on the right track, ff. May and June = “not that great.” Some folks come back as early as May*; most do actually come in June (but it’s not my fave month). Some stay through Thanksgiving/maybe even Christmas/Chanukkah, depending on what type of holiday atmosphere they want.</p>
<p>“6 months + 1 day” is the mantra of the 2-state resident. Florida is the state of choice, of course (no income tax, there). Taxes in Maine are NOT friendly (I’ve lost real estate clients who didn’t figure that out until they got here to start the hunt for their dream place). But there are some compensating factors in cost of living (depending on where you hail from) and quite a few in quality of life. </p>
<p>You probably noticed the sign at the border: “Maine. The Way Life Should Be.”</p>
<p>*actually, I think it’s pretty uniformly agreed that, if you have the choice, February and March are the months to avoid. All the rest = matter of personal preference and the luck of the weather gods</p>