Three Months, Three Winter Vacations in Maine

If you like a combination of indoor coziness, foodie delights and outdoor sports, a Maine winter vacation is actually quite ideal. It's also a nice way for us Mainers to break up the winter monotony while saving money and staying closer to home.

What's there to do in my home state of Maine during the winter? Here are three ideas, one for each remaining winter month:

January in MILLINOCKET, MAINE
Millinocket Lake and New England Outdoor Center

A cozy winter vacation with all the amenities and access to almost every outdoor winter activity right on your doorstep-- that's the way to explore Maine in the winter!

The New England Outdoor Center (NEOC) has everything you need. It features beautiful guest houses with gas fireplaces, private bedrooms, living room, kitchen and private baths. 

Nearby is the River Driver's Restaurant, open year round, if you prefer to dine out.

NEOC's guest houses are the ideal base for a Maine snowmobiling vacation. You can rent a snowmobile (and warm winter clothes, if needed!) and have a blast on groomed, well-marked trails. 

Or try cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or hiking.


Dogs are welcome for a small fee (includes bed, bowl and treat!) See NEOC's Website for more information.






February in CAMDEN, MAINE
Camden, Camden Snow Bowl and the Toboggan Nationals

While many seaside towns in Maine shutter many of their shops and restaurants for the winter, Camden stays open. 

A quaint storybook New England town, it's festive all winter. Award-winning restaurants dot the streets, which are decked out in twinkling lights. 

For winter outdoor recreation, the Camden Snow Bowl offers downhill skiing, snowboarding and tubing. Eight marked trails are ideal for beginner and intermediate skiers and boarders. You can rent equipment if needed.

Camden is also home to the Jack Williams Toboggan Chute, a 400-foot toboggan run, and to the National Toboggan Championships, held February 9. Stalwart toboggan teams don crazy costumes and load into sleds for descents reaching up to 45 mph.

Nearby you will find the Camden Hills State Park, with 30 miles of hiking and snowshoeing trails, and the 66-acre Merryspring Nature Center, with trails open year round. 

March in PORTLAND & YORK COUNTY, MAINE
Portland, Maple Sugar Sunday, and Biddeford Pool

Portland, Maine, is full of things to do all year round, but a visit to Maine's biggest city is an especially good pick-me-up in March, when the winter is feeling too long.

Try an ice skating lesson at The Portland Ice Arena, go shopping in the Old Port, and visit one of the city's excellent restaurants (Portland has loads-- check out this dining guide to help narrow your selection.)

Thirty minutes outside of Portland is the small town of Lyman, where you can find Brookridge Boilers. They'll be celebrating Maple Syrup Sunday on March 24 with an all you can eat pancake breakfast at 8 am.

Self guided sugarbush tours, syrup making demonstrations, free syrup samples, maple products for sale will comprise the rest of the festivities, lasting until mid-afternoon. For more celebration of Maple Syrup Sunday, check out the Maine Maple Sugar Association's map.

❉

Suzanne Anderson is the creator of YIKES! Studio Jewelry. Suzanne has been busy creating for most of her life. After graduating with a BA from Maine College of Art, she worked as a graphic designer and a painter. Suzanne works to ensure that YIKES! Studio creates work that is fun, beautiful, always interesting, and adorns the wearer with joy. Catch up with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Etsy, or her website at www.yikesstudio.com.

Starfish, Shells and Beachcombing Tips

This summer I began working on a series of multi-hued, sparkly starfish cuffs. The starfish, adorned with Swarovski crystal, wraps around the wrist in a fun, modern design. These unique pieces of "arm candy" can go anywhere, but they're just begging to be worn to the beach!

The starfish (the non-jewelry kind, of course) is a pretty amazing animal. They come in a dazzling array of colors, shapes and textures. Some are smooth, some nubbly, some even spiky.  Red, orange, pink and yellow are popular colors for the sea star. And speaking of the name "sea star," that's the correct name for this cool echinoderm, which is related not to fish but to urchins and sand dollars. We think of a typical sea star as having five arms, but did you know that some have as many as 40?  Starfish have no blood (they pump seawater through their bodies instead) and no brain. Instead of a brain, they have nerves throughout their bodies that give them information about their environment, including the location of prey (like clams and oysters) and approaching predators, like king crabs.

Starfish are one resident of the intertidal pools on  the beaches and coasts of Maine. But there are plenty of other interesting tenants, as well as non-living treasures, like polished seaglass, fascinating shells, and driftwood. At the end of August, the summers will start to cool in Maine, but there's no better time to try beachcombing. 

Beachcombing is a longstanding tradition of searching the shores for objects beautiful or useful. While people have probably always looked to the beaches for unique adornments and trinkets, the term beachcombing was first used to describe the activities of wayward sailors, who stopped off on warm tropical islands and conveniently forgot to re-board their ships. They often made a living for a while by combing the shores for useful items which could be sold to whomever would pay. When they became tired of this vagabondish lifestyle, they would find another ship passing through that needed a crewmember to replace some other who'd run off to scour some warm beach for valuables.

Modern beachcombing is often a recreational activity, although there are some who have made a lifestyle out of the practice. Usually a metal detector and a dedicated attitude accompany the serious commercial beachcomber. For the rest of us, the beaches are simply places of wonder. The sea yields up it's leftovers and long-kept secrets, in the form of polished fragments of pottery and bottles, discarded marine refuse, weathered wood and empty, perfect urchin shells.

Many websites give tips for the recreational beachcomber. If you prefer to just meander along and find what catches your eye, there's still a good chance you'll find something beautiful. If you prefer to enhance your luck, try out these beachcombing tips!

Beachcombing Tips

1. The first tip for beachcombing is to dress appropriately. Wear good shoes-- perhaps even water shoes that will keep your feet cozy and grippy even on slick tidal rocks. And remember how much cooler it can be at the seashore, and pack a sweatshirt and jacket for your comfort.1

2. Bring a camera! Not everything you spot at the beach can come home with you, so you may want to "collect" some things with pictures only. Of course, any living creature should stay at the beach. It's also fun to document your finds, and take some pictures of the beautiful shoreline as the day passes.2

3. Bring a few bags! And bring an extra bag for picking up trash that you find so that you can drop it in a trash container on the way out. You can also line a nice canvas bag with a plastic bag and use it for your treasures. It will be both strong and more waterproof. Check out these beautiful recycled bags by the Green Bag Lady.

4. A low tide is a beachcomber's best friend. You can always check tidal times for your area online. If you arrive when the tide is receding, you'll have plenty of time to get into your groove and explore the farthest reaches of the low tide area.

5. Check the beach after a storm! Of course, be careful if the ocean is still turbulent, but after-storm beachcombing can be very exciting and rewarding. Likewise, the early morning hours may offer more treasures, as the day's visitors have not yet arrived to pick through what has washed up during the night.3

6. Extra ideas: Try bringing along a few ziplock bags to store and protect individual items. Grab some hand sanitizer. If you want to do a bit of trekking along the beach, you may wish to use a backpack to carry your beachcombing gear more easily. And above all, remember to enjoy your adventure. Not every beachcombing trip results in amazing finds, but every day on the beach can be wonderful. Bring a lunch, bring a friend, and bring your joy of discovery and silly grins! Maybe you'll even find a starfish. ❉


Suzanne Anderson is the creator of YIKES! Studio Jewelry. Suzanne has been busy creating for most of her life. After graduating with a BA from Maine College of Art, she worked as a graphic designer and a painter. Suzanne works to ensure that YIKES! Studio creates work that is fun, beautiful, always interesting, and adorns the wearer with joy. Catch up with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Etsy, or her website at www.yikesstudio.com.

Summer Adventures in Rockland, Maine: Archipelago, The Farnsworth, Gelato and more!

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It's summer, and a wonderful time for a drive through gorgeous Maine towns-- Boothbay, Camden, Belfast and many more.

I'm privileged to be able to show my work in several wonderful galleries and shops throughout Maine. I'd like to share with you a few of my favorite towns on Maine's coast  and spotlight the shops that carry my work. I hope you'll stop in!

This week the focus is Rockland, Maine, located in the Midcoast region between Belfast and Brunswick. Rockland, with its lively and vibrant art scene, is a must-visit town whether you live in Maine or visit for the summer.

Here's why you should visit Rockland!

Rockland, Maine

Things to do: Visit the nationally recognized Farnsworth Art Museum; get a gelato at Lulu's Ice Cream and Gelato shack; take a morning walk around the historic Rockland Breakwater Light, attend a lively First Friday Artwalk.
 
Find my work at: Archipelago

Rockland is really fun in the summertime. It's a big art town, with the famous Farnsworth Museum, showing generations of Wyeths, and galleries lining the main street. It has a number of fun, affordable eateries, so you're never more than a few steps away from a relaxed, fun place to get a bite to eat. And it was recently named one of the two "coolest small towns in America" by Budget Travel!

Rockland also has some of the liveliest artwalks in Maine! Participating galleries of Arts in Rockland (AIR) hold receptions on each first Friday, May through December. Twenty-three galleries, in addition to the Farnsworth, participate each month. Friday, July 5 is the date for the next Walk.

I recommend Lulu's Ice Cream and Gelato shack for a fun late-night treat (look for the colorful gelato shack on Oak Street, between Main and Union.) The ice cream is made is Maine and it's out of this world!


In Rockland, you can find my work at Archipelago, located centrally at 386 Main Street in Rockland. The establishment, which is part gallery, part store, carries a beautifully curated selection of artwork and fine crafts--from housewares to clothing to paper goods-- from Maine. ❉