First Impressions

While driving into our little town for the first time, Songbird declared, "This looks just like Athens.  Maine is just like Athens...the same freeway, the same trees beside the freeway, the same Target and Home Depot.  Maine is just the same as Georgia." More than anything, I think Songbird was trying to reassure herself that this Maine, this new home, would be OK.

And it is the same in many ways.  The Target, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Goodwill are pretty much the same wherever you go (with a few regional differences).  The house is full of the same furniture and toys; the same blue swing is hanging from the tree out back.  There is just enough "sameness" to make things seem homey and soften the transition.

But it hasn't taken long for the differences to show themselves more clearly.  Our first trip to a local beach (second if you include our first week here when we wanted to show GranJan and Auntie Char-Char the beach but ended up getting there after 7:00 pm) was a bit rocky.  Thomas Point Beach is a cross between Sandy Creek in Athens and Rock City in Chattanooga.  There's a beach, but also a playground and fairy walk through the forest.  Since our ambition was swimming, we headed straight to the beach, only to attacked by the black flies.  Songbird was the most frustrated by it all because the water was a lot colder than expected and buzzing with crabs and other aquatic life, but exploring the shore was made difficult by the constant swarming flies. Although there is a lovely view of the river spilling into the ocean (or ocean spilling into the river - sometimes it's hard to tell which body of water is winning the battle), it was no time at all before the kids started turning purple and we called it quits and headed over to the playground (where the flies weren't nearly as bad).

The episode did not make us give up, but instead fueled our eagerness to find some nice local beaches.  Our second trip to Pine Point beach presented another great difference between Southern beach going and Northern beach going - we were beginning to realize that people don't actually go to the beach in Maine to go swimming.   They do wear their swimsuits and bring their towels, but they don't "swim."  There's a lot of wading, and even an occasional "dip," but swimming seems to be very rare.  In fact, most of the locals looked at Hubry like he was totally out of his mind when he ran and dove into the ocean to take a swim.  It was a very. short. swim.  They were even more shocked (and so was I) to see Songbird and Bro follow suit.  The water was so cold that the short swim necessitated drying off and cuddling up pretty much immediately.  We found out later that we hadn't made it to Pine Point beach afterall.  We had stopped about 1/2 mile short of the actual beach (which was cozily nestled on the other side of a jetty), and were playing instead at the local fishing co-op.


After our second trip we were more eager than ever to figure out this Northern beach thing.  We did a lot of research and decided to go back to Popham beach (the place we had tried to go but didn't arrive until after 7:00) and stay for at least 5 hours.  We brought a picnic, buckets for collecting shells, paints and paintbrushes, the stroller, ergo, baby bjorn, etc.  We were ready and committed to exploring and adventuring all afternoon and into the evening.  This time, instead of driving straight to the State Park, we decided to go past the park and explore the fortress which was about 1 mile up the road.  We were surprised that it was free to park and explore the ruins, and even more surprised that there was beach access directly adjacent.  This was the kind of beach I had pictured when I thought about the Maine coast.  Rocky inlets, little coves, lots of driftwood awash...and, the best thing of all was the the water was crystal clear where it gathered into sandy pools.



 

 They say that the third time is a charm, and that was definitely the case.  We felt like we had found a jewel, and some of the locals we met along the way called it a jewel too.  The water was still freezing (though Hubry and the kids still went for some short swims), but their were no flies around, the air was crisp, the horizon long and beautiful, and the light bright.  As soon as little Raindrop started showing signs of afternoon sleepiness, we got out the stroller and decided to walk along the shore to the State Park.  We had read that at 5:00 the tide would be just so that we'd be able to walk out to some of the nearby islands.  Pushing the stroller over the sand was quite the workout (even though it's an off-road BOB and even though we stayed close to the water), but it was totally worth it.  After about 30 - 45 minutes of walking, we finally made it to the Park, and indeed the ocean had receded just enough to carve out this little path to one of the small islands.  It felt so magical - especially since we had seen the beach before when all the land was covered with ocean.  It is truly amazing how the tide can change the beach.

We walked the mile back to the car on the road and enjoyed some ice cream at a nearby shop (along with half of the town).