Posted on 08/23/2022 5:39:13 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
Welcome to Vacationland Wondering where this column was last week? Sorry. I forgot to say I’m taking two days off. My computer’s exhausted. I went to Maine. Why? I’m a world traveler. Done Cambodia, Indonesia, most of South America, Fiji, Kabul, Kathmandu, Beirut, Siberia, India, Outback, Galapagos, Iran, Iraq, Laos, the whole Caribbean, all Europe, Fiji, Samoa, New Guinea, China, Japan, Taipei, Alaska, Hawaii, Himalayas, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Guam, etc — but Maine? Not. I’ve also not seen Oklahoma — but who cares? Longtime friends whose ancestors founded the state of Maine in the 1800s and are in its museums and histories invited me. It’s north. Eight hours as the crow and a BMW flies. Borders Canada, so it’s cool. Clean. Airy. Fresh. Ocean. Shoreline. Beaches. Open sky. Green. Trees. Lighthouses. Boats. Harbors. Coastlines. No litter. No trash. It’s polite. Friendly. Inexpensive. Seafood. Lobsters the size of Radio City. Locals whose behinds overlap the state of Texas all stuffed into shorts. Realtors could establish an entire campsite on the average ass.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The article would be more amusing if it wasn’t dripping with contempt and condescension.
Portland is a lefty liberal city.
The islands just off shore in Casco Bay are great.
The ferry to Peaks Island and several others leaves from the Portland harbor.
There is one island in Casco Bay that does not have electricity and the only vehicle on the island is the propane delivery truck. All cottages have propane lights and fridges.
It is like taking a trip back into the 19th century.
The author is a rich snooty liberal NYer who lives on Park Ave in Manhattan. She probably subscribes to Atlantic magazine. What do you expect?
Yes, I am in NH. Where until about ten years ago Hispanics(5%) finally beat out Asians(3%) for NH largest minority. Blacks are 1%.
FYI, the Asians here in NH are almost all rich. People like my dentist who went to Boston University. The majority of the Asian population own businesses. Lots of restaurants here are owned by Asians. Also, many Asians go to college in Boston at Harvard, MIT, etc. end up eventually moving to NH.
I used to attend an all island end of the season lobster bake on a small island of lobstermen. Great time, great people, treated me like family. Late August early September is the time to go. Bugs are down, weather is nice, and the “shedders” are just starting to firm up and are at the sweetest. Winter and spring in Maine, not so much.
There’s a high corolation between the best (low crime) and worst (least diverse) attributes.
I live right in the middle of the tri-state area (ME-NH-VT), where permitless CCW is the rule, lack of diversity is normal, and friendliness is the order of the day.
Lots of diversity champions of European (and occasionally middle Eastern) heritage come here in the summer, always remarking on how orderly, polite, friendly, and peaceful it is.
Do they ever wonder why?
And, let me inbefore the Vermont haters. Yes, Vermont is overrun with crazy socialist whackjobs. BUT. The lesson is, without diversity, people with different ideas about things like the economy can get along perfectly well.
Cold ass water
Aloof people
Very pretty though and forests like incredible
I camped there very remotely once in the northwest sector near an uninhabited lake
My girlfriend and I were on a blanket (yep) mid afternoon we were young
We heard this roar and a squadron of B52s appeared at very low level formation flying over
She stopped and froze looking up in awe
Definitely interruptus
That’s my take as well. I would put both in the plus column.
Depends on where you go and on market price. Roughly $25 Canadian around me.
I go to the beach or Rockies from Santa Fe to Whitefish
And LA for biz
Everything else is kinfolks in Mississippi or business or my son in savannah area
Hinesville to be precise
I've had it and enjoyed it but Alexander Keith remains my beer of choice.
“FYI, the Asians here in NH are almost all rich.”
That’s true all over the country. I wonder why?
I paid $40 in Portsmouth NH 2 weeks ago and around the same at Billy's Chowder House in Wells ME.
A 92-year-old wrinkled, haggard gossip queen is humorous? What would be humorous is if her traveling companions wrote the article instead, and detailed how the restaurant had to purée the lobster so Cindy could gum it down, and only after she sent back the purée twice. Or how they had to change her Depends afterward in the Orchard Beach t-shirt shop.
Back in 1991 I started dating Mrs Woodbutcher. Her parents had a 32’ Freedom Sloop(sailboat) they kept at Little Harbor in Portsmouth, NH. Every year they would take the last two weeks of August off and take the boat up to ME.
I was invited along with my future wife to come up to Camden, ME for a long weekend. We were anchored off of Vinyl Haven island when another yacht invited us over for a cocktail party. The retired couple had a 45’ cabin cruiser. They had left Long Island in June. Went up the coast as far north as Bar Harbor and were now working their way back down the coast. I decided, this is what I want to do when I grow up.
My father in law is now 85. His boat is long gone. You get a whole different perspective of the New England coast from a boat than you do from the land. The gulf of Maine in late August, early September is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
In Maine, I am “relative’d” up the wazoo. All of my aunt, uncle, and cousins and their spouses are very friendly, very nice , and all except for one of them, are very patriotic Americans.
(The one has a PhD and is a professor at a very small, very liberal college on the Maine coast. She’s still a friendly person, though.)
The toothbrush was invented in Maine.
We know that because if it was invented anywhere else, it would be called the “teethbrush”.
I do like my whole belly fried clams and you only get the real thing at clam shacks from the seacoast of Maine down to the North Shore of Boston (Kelly's Roast Beef in Revere). Everywhere else they serve "fried clams" is a poor imitation.
Growing up in the 1970s, I could get a full clam plate at Kelly's for $4.95. That was wicked expensive at the time (but well worth it). These days, that same clam plate will run you $26.95 and you get way more fries and onion rings and way less clams.
I also like a good pail of steamers, another New England thing. These are steamed clams. I would have a cardboard box to dump the empty shells and a bowl of melted butter. You peel the black sleeve off the foot of the clam and then dip the entire clam in the butter and eat it whole. After you are done, you dump the leftover broth from the pail into a big paper cup and drink it. Don't waste the broth! So good. Wash it all down with copious amounts of beer. Preferably a nice pilsner.
Anyway, I have vacationed up in Old Orchard Beach in Maine many times. The water is ice cold, even at the end of August. Best time to go actually is after Labor Day as the crowds are way down and the water is a little warmer still, at least until October.
Hampton Beach, NH is down to the south and you get a much different class of people down there. Most of them nice, so long as you mind your own business. Way more crowded and dirtier. Parking and traffic is a terrible nightmare. Other than that, it's a nice beach.
Mosquitoes aren't really a problem right at the coast. What is a problem is horseflies and deerflies. They buzz around your head and take a nice big chuck out of you. I actually would prefer the mosquitoes to these biting flies.
“The one has a PhD and is a professor at a very small, very liberal college on the Maine coast. She’s still a friendly person, though”
Got a neighbor like that....he’s friendly on the surface but there is a smoldering anger that borders on rage just under the surface....more than once he’s stated he’d like to shoot DJT and our governor in the head......they have a mental disorder.
The next time he does it my wife and I are seriously considering contacting the FDLE.
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