#21 MAINE

Maine is known as Down East (makes sense in an odd geographical sense), the Pine Tree State or as the license plates proclaim: Vacationland

Lobstering is a long-standing and delicious Maine tradition. More than 60 lighthouses line the rocky coast and picturesque coastal cities are what I conjure when I think of Maine but more than 90 percent of Maine’s land area is forested. Vast areas of virtually uninhabited (aside from moose, that is!) woodland justify the “Pine Tree State” moniker.

50 States of Literature’s, Melanie Jones of the Columbia Spectator and new find Book Club Classics!; 50 States 50 Books have not yet designated a Maine book but it must be something by Stephen King, right? Many authors have found inspiration in Maine such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edna St. Vincent Millay and E.B. White. I suspect the long, severe winters contribute to the Maine creativity. A favorite book from recent years is Linda Greenlaw’s The Lobster Chronicles; Life on a very small island. Her memoir of Maine island life is about “life, luck and lobsters” but it’s really about community and commitment. Great stuff!

Then, of course, there’s L.L. Bean. The Freeport flagship store is one of my must stops! An addition to my “to read” list is the 1990 Paul Rudnick novel, I‘ll Take It was a humorous tale of a Long Island mother taking some of her children on a fall shopping trip through New England with L.L. Bean being the final destination. As the plot unfolds, the mother divulges to her son that she is actually planning to rob L.L. Bean in order to update her and her husband’s furniture in their retirement.

Leon Leonwood Bean, an avid hunter and fisherman, started the mail order business in 1912. The Freeport outlet is a goldmine of preppy gear at unbelievably low prices. There were canoes filled with the ubiquitous boat bags that had been returned or incorrectly monogrammed. Every gift recipient on my list came very, very close to receiving a mystery monogram bag this year. I regret my restraint – isn’t that the way it always goes!

Our first dinner in Maine had to be lobster! Of all the world’s lobsters, be they spiny, hairy, hunchbacked, shovel-headed or clawless, none is so much revered as the wily American Lobster, from the North Atlantic Ocean’s icy waters off the coast of Maine. Today you can get Maine Lobster anywhere in the world but they are most succulent direct from local waters sans the frequent flier miles.

We got our lobster at the Harbor View Restaurant in Thomaston. How perfect!

The busy harbor town of Rockland is known for its bountiful lobster harvest and also claims the state’s largest windjammer fleet. We visited the Maine Lighthouse Museum to view the best collection of lights that I’ve seen. They recommended that we walk the 7/8 mile granite breakwater across Penobscot Bay to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. (that makes lighthouse #50!) It was advice we were glad we followed on such a sunny day. I wouldn’t be so keen to venture out on the breakwater in inclement conditions, however.

The Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center in downtown Rockland was amazing. I marveled at the use of space in the converted church before my eye was drawn to the exhibit of works by the Wyeth’s. The main museum was no less impressive featuring American art with an emphasis on Maine artists.

We worked our way up the coast stopping in for lobster rolls at Young’s Lobster Pound and Seafood Restaurant, in East Belfast, the quintessential outpost for the classic feast. Walk into the huge barnlike building by the Passagassawakeag River (even a 10 year old boy couldn’t make up a name like that) where it flows into the Belfast Bay, and you know you’re in seafood heaven. Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling shelves await the summer season’s trove of black-green lobsters up to a capacity of 30,000! One amply stocked big, open tank was available from which you could pluck your own lobster to buy by the pound. Because cut-up lobster stored in the refrigerator hardens and loses it’s flavor we forced to impatiently wait for our freshly cooked, just cut meat to fill hot dog buns for our lobster rolls. The wait was well worth it.

We all know about Maine’s famous lobsters but I forgot about the fiddleheads, the immature sprouts of the ostrich fern. We passed many road side tables sporting handwritten FiddLeheaD signs. Oh, what torture to not be able to buy! But we had to continue our tour and drove west to northern New Hampshire. I kept my eyes pealed for a moose but was disappointed. Maybe next time…