Most people were surprised when they learned we were going to Maine for ten days.  Why Maine they asked.  What are you going to do there?  Well, it turned out there is a lot to do in Maine.  And I noticed lots of people doing lots of things.

Want to see?  Click on any photo to see more details.

They capture the beauty.

They play in water.

They go fishing.

The make sand castles.

They read.

They share the moment.

They put toes in the ocean.

They look for whales.

They search for beach treasure.

They enjoy the view.

They explore mountains.

They watch waves.

They lean into the wind.

And sometimes they text.

I can’t show you everything we saw in Maine.  As I’ve said frequently, you need to go there yourself and explore.  But here’s just a few more instances of things unique and/or fun that we ran across in our travels.

Did you know that Maine is the biggest exporter of wild blueberries?  You would if you visited Blueberry World and talked to the owner for a bit.  We noticed her shop as we were heading somewhere else.

Blueberry Land!

It’s kind of hard to miss, or to resist!  Inside were all things blueberry.  We bought a few things and talked to her for a bit.  She and her husband have a few hundred acres of wild blueberries.  They used to be university professors, but they’ve ‘retired’ to become blueberry farmers.

She’s concerned that they can’t do it forever, that help to ‘rake’ the blueberries in the field is getting harder to find.  She’s worried about foreign investors buying up all the farms.  She’s wondering if she should develop her land, turn it into a subdivision.  But she’d lose the wild blueberries, the view, her lifestyle.  She says the only way they make it is through sales direct to tourists, that the blueberries going to processing plants don’t have enough profit margin.

Buy a pie!

We wished her and her 80 year old husband good luck.

Later in our trip, as we were driving through a small coastal town we saw this:

What’s going on over there?

We learned a long time ago on our travels that if you see a crowd headed somewhere you should just fall in and see where it goes.  So we turned around, parked the car and wandered up onto the bridge as well.  Turns out the crowd was watching lobster boats race.

Who’s going to win?

Now I ask you, where else but Maine could you see such an event?

And all along the way we saw pretty things, interesting things that just didn’t fit into any particular blog.  But I thought you’d enjoy a few more shots.  Wouldn’t you?

We saw lots of fishing shacks.  Some looked like they were being used.

Anyone home?

And some didn’t.

Long abandoned.

We saw lots and lots of boats on trailers in yards.  Some had some pretty neat names.

Resting on land.

I wonder how people are making a living if their boat is in the yard.

We saw beautiful buildings too, a school sitting in a field of clover….

Summer break.

…and a church along a river in a tiny town.

Church bells rang.

And finally, these birds just made us laugh.

Linear birds.

I hope you chuckle too.

Soon I hope to give you an idea of what people do while in Maine.  There’s really too much to share.

But I’ll try.

Chainsaw man.

Pretty lake along the way.

Just a short post to show you Moxie falls, another aspect of Maine.  We drove two hour north of where we’re staying near Lisbon (I think we were only a couple of hours from Quebec!) where the country  begins to roll with small mountains, and there is a beautiful 30 foot waterfall.  It was way back in the woods, so after we applied the usual sunscreen we layered on bug spray.  It’s a lovely combination.

Walking in the woods.

The woods was cool and green and beautiful.  But nothing compared to the falls.

Moxie falls

The upper part of the river was beautiful too.

Pretty cool.

We had a very good day.

Woodsy.