Time to break out the blueberry pie and march forward to celebrate the Bicentennial of Maine, which became the 23rd state of the United States on March 15, 1820.
This occasion takes me back 20 years ago when my family went on a summer vacation in Maine.
My Mom, who customarily did much of the planning for our vacations when I was growing up, was drawn to the maritime culture along Maine's Atlantic coast, especially the lighthouses, and so much of our time was focused there.
After flying into Manchester, NH, and getting our rental car, we drove to Old Orchard Beach to spend a few days. It was a rather festive place, with a carnival nearby. While there, we visited the iconic Portland Head Light, which I recognized from the computer game Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego?
Our stay in Old Orchard Beach was the only time we had the chance to frolic on a sandy Maine beach, because as we continued in a northeasterly direction following the Atlantic coastline, there were rocky beaches. (Nearby is the Bush family compound at Kennebunkport.)
We spent much time riding along US Route 1, the famed route that travels along the Atlantic Seaboard of the US, and starts way up north in Maine in Fort Kent, right along the US-Canada border.
At one point, we stopped at the Maritime Museum in Bath. I remember playing around in a playground with a ship model.
And we visited York, the oldest-chartered city in the present-day United States.
Following Old Orchard Beach, our next place to stay was in the Bar Harbor area on Mount Desert Island. We spent lots of time in Acadia National Park, a true national natural treasure on the Atlantic coast. We hiked on trails through the woodlands, which is another defining feature of Maine. We also hiked up Mount Cadillac, the highest point of elevation along the Atlantic Coast of North America. We also sailed on a boat, the Margaret Todd.
Our final place of stay was Lubec, a small town almost at the eastern edge of Maine's Atlantic coast, where the coast gives way to New Brunswick, Canada. We stayed at the Peacock House, a Bed and Breakfast, my first time ever staying at such a B&B inn, where we received such wonderful hospitality. From Lubec, we day-tripped into New Brunswick. We also visited the two Quoddy Head Lighthouses. West Quoddy is the easternmost lighthouse in the United States. Its counterpart, Head Harbor Light Station, also known as East Quoddy, is in New Brunswick. We also shopped at the easternmost gift shop in the United States, West Quoddy Gifts, a short distance from the lighthouse named the same.
My Dad woke up early one morning while we stayed in Lubec to view and photograph the sunrise over the Atlantic, the first spot where the sun rises over the United States.
At one point during the trip, while we were driving along a rural road, we saw a moose in the road. We stopped for a photo of Maine's state animal.
That trip was a wonderful time to take in what Maine has to offer in its maritime culture, like the coast, lighthouses, and lobster. (My Dad ordered lobster at a restaurant, which I remember was right along the Atlantic Ocean. He got instructions for how to eat it. He also let me try some, and while I'm not a fan of seafood, I liked my sample of lobster.)
Indeed, it was a great trip going "Down East", an expression used for the coastal area from New England into Canada's Maritime Provinces, especially the Maine coast. It's fitting the term is used from the Amtrak service that runs from Boston's North Station into southwestern Maine, including Portland and Freeport, home of LL Bean.
Maine also has vast stretches of forested area. There in those forests is Mount Katahdin, the highest point of elevation in the state and the northern terminus of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
Those forests also serve to fuel the logging industry, an economic mainstay in the areas inland from the ocean, to add to the wealth of ocean resources that fuel Maine's economy.
Maine is also known for potatoes and blueberries, some of its noted agricultural products. It's fitting that the wild blueberry is the state fruit, and blueberry pie is that state pie.
Notably, Maine is the only state to border only one other state, a border it shares with New Hampshire. It's also the largest of the New England states.
It has had an interesting history, being part of Massachusetts for a while, and then becoming its own state along with Missouri as part of the Missouri Compromise.
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland. Gettysburg hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was from Maine, too, as was President Lincoln's first vice president, Hannibal Hamlin.
As I look at a map of the United States, I see how the state of Maine sticks forward from all the other states. And it leads the USA forward into each new day from its northeast position, following its state motto, "Dirigo", a Latin term meaning "to lead".
Now Maine has completed two centuries of statehood, and with the first US sunrise today directs Maine into a new century.
