Our arrival in Maine was met with the first day of its autumn weather: breezy, sunny and mid-sixties. Absolutely spectacular. This state is one of the ones we were looking most forward to exploring and let me tell you, we haven’t been disappointed. Maine is wonderful! The rural landscape is full of rolling hills, lively treescapes and lots of water. And all the lakes and rivers have this way deep blue water. Plus, the people here are the friendliest we’ve encountered—this is the sort of friendly that comes through even when they’re busy with everyday life. I guess the exception would be the salty fisherwoman who yelled “Go home!” at us. We were deep in working-Maine at the time and we had “tourist” written all over us—little did she know… our “home” was parked in central Maine.

When we got here, we decided to settle in at one campsite for the week and set out on daily excursions from there. The location we chose was Two Rivers Campsite in Skowhegan, right on the river bank. Our first road tour took us up to Moosehead Lake, which sits pretty far north. The last 30 miles we saw only two cars, so as you can imagine, it’s pretty rural. The little towns on the way are frontier-like in character. In fact, a lot of this area looks like what I picture summertime Alaska to look like. Much of our route followed the Kennebec River, an energetic, whitecapped river freckled with islands. You can whitewater raft on it, as many people were, but you’d need to don a wetsuit first. The Moosehead Lake area has the highest concentration of moose in the state, but we have yet to see one that isn’t wooden, fiberglass, iron, fabric, plastic or steel. For 40 bucks a person you can hop on a pontoon boat and go to where they guarantee a glimpse, though.

We did several more road tours, one which took us into the Aroostook potato region. The idea was to see the picturesque fields of potato blossoms, but we arrived about a week too late in the season. We stole two potatoes from a field in defiance. Another trip took us through coastal working towns, the area known as Sunrise County. Starting with lunch on the rocky shore at Schoodic Point, we headed north, traveling through Cherryfield (The World’s Wild Blueberry Capitol—go figure), Beals Island and Machias. We saw lobster boats in action and stacks of lobster pots waiting on the shores. Our northernmost destination was the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec. It’s Maine’s most colorful one, with its fat red and white stripes.

At this point, we took a day off to relax and recharge a bit. The day veered wildly off its course when we decided to pull Sunny over to the dump station. As I drove forward off the trailer’s leveling boards, they popped up and bashed the valve on the gray water tank (the one that holds anything washed down the sinks) and all 30 gallons unloaded instantly onto the campsite. We scarcely had time to react when we realized the black tank (sewage) was leaking, too. Phooo, I’m not a fan of these sorts of adventures.

The next day we headed out to Mount Desert Island, which is comprised mostly of Acadia National Park. The only car-accessible area of the park is a 20-mile road that winds around some of the picturesque perimeter. With all its scenic overlooks, this route took a day in itself. To see more you’ve gotta either hike it or bike it. We came back a second day and chose the latter. The carriage roads that provide the bike routes were designed and built by Rockefeller and Roosevelt, hand-picked with care to show off the prettiest areas. It’s fantastic and great fun to explore and it would be easy to spend a whole week just on the island. With plenty of rural Maine under our belts, we headed next to the some of the more traveled areas.

Our first stop into tourist-Maine was Bar Harbor (“Bah Hahbah” here). The downtown area isn’t that impressive, I think it’s that it hardly has any old buildings so it seems to lack character. The water and bar are cool though. After the tide rolled back, we drove onto the bar where the water had just been and did some impromptu beachcombing. You could hear the water seeping out of the shelly bottom which sounds a lot like when sleet falls on snow. Although we passed on the lobstah rolls advertised on McDonald’s marquee, we did hit the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound. Lobster pounds or pools as they call them, generally consist of a shack, some picnic tables and a bunch of pots cooking over a wood stove. You choose your lobsters inside the shack, they throw them into a net bag and then drop it into the boiling sea water. Fifteen minutes later they serve them up on an old enameled tray with some melted butter and a nutcracker. It’s great. I forget what they call the green liver part of them, but that was good, too.

The rest of the touristy towns and beaches we visited were all neat and a lot of fun. We got to them after Labor Day so the crowds had dissipated, which is always nice. The Kennebunks have plenty of pristine old houses and mansions to see; the Bush Compound is among the less remarkable. And it’s a nice area for biking. Boothbay Harbor is beautiful and has a great seafront ambiance. I saw at least two boats that I’d like to have. Ogunquit, Wells and York (voted best by myself) all have great beaches, but because the weather turned semi-chilly and it was windy, we weren’t able to really test them out.

Holly and I spent maybe half a day in Portland, but I think I’m smitten with it. We had low expectations going into it, but we both left impressed. It’s a small city, yet it seems to have a great balance—fashionable downtown shops and restaurants (all non-chain!) tucked into stylish old buildings that sit right next to the busy working harbor. If they could just do something about their cold winters, then we’d be talkin’ next home.