Back to Reality

Our vacation in Maine has all but come to an end. We travel home today, an all-day event in itself, and we’re all feeling a little bummed. Vacations are like that. They’re an escape from reality, from the business of life, the stress of the day-to-day, from responsibilities, phone calls, bills, alarm clocks . . . from life. But they always end and then it’s back to the real world and the big adjustment.

We love Maine. It’s motto is so right on: The way life should be. Laid back, simple, rural, slow-paced, Maine is the anti-northeast state. Along the coast are small fishing villages, lobster pounds, rocky shorelines, lighthouses, and cool temperatures. Further inland there are small villages, lakes, farms, and pine trees. The air is crisp and clean, the nights dark and quiet, and the landscape breathtaking.

We love Maine.

Here are ten things I learned while here:

1) The state tree of Maine is–no surprise here–a white pine; the state flower is–no surprise–the white pine cone. Huh? Who knew a pine cone was a flower?

2) 90% of Maine is forested. In Maine, people are the intruders and driving the back roads confirms it. You can travel for miles and not see a single home, nothing but trees and most of them pine trees.

3) Even though a schooner heels (tips to one side) dramatically, it won’t capsize. There are many forces of physics working to keep the boat on top of the water.

4) It is possible for a night to be so dark that you can see more stars than just the main constellations.

5) It is possible for a night to be so quiet that I can’t sleep.

6) Mainers generally don’t like to be called Mainiacs. It’s Mainer, thank you.

7) Mainers take great pride in their state, something all of us “from away” could learn.

8 ) There is a place in Maine where an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Thunder Hole is located in Acadia National Park and is a 10 foot by 50 foot corridor carved into the rocky coastline where water rushes in at tremendous speed and collides with the granite base producing a sound like thunder. It is an incredible sight to see this relentless, unstoppable force butt heads with a truly immovable object over and over again.

9) There are still places left in this country where not everyone worries about keeping up with the Joneses or the latest fashions or winning the unwinnable rat race.

10) Maine suits my family just fine.